David Coats, Associate Director at The Work Foundation, Comments on the MacLeod Review of Employee Engagement

LONDON - “David MacLeod’s review of employee engagement is a welcome intervention in the national conversation about work. It is a useful, thorough and up-to-date review of the evidence and a thoughtful call-to-arms for senior leaders to pay serious attention to the importance of effective people management. From reading his report, it is painfully apparent just how much change is demanded of British employers and managers (with some honourable exceptions) before the majority of organisations can achieve the engagement ambition.

“But it would be a shame if this report merely led to more evangelism for employee engagement. It is to be hoped instead that it acts as a trigger for a profound debate about how to manage people fairly and effectively. Engagement, valuable as it is, cannot be a panacea for all the problems found in British workplaces. Work intensification, widespread perceptions of unfair treatment, widening income gaps and poor relationships between employers and employees are beyond the reach of even the best engagement strategy. Moreover, we could say that the very notion of engagement fails to take account of the fundamental imbalance of power in the relationship between workers and their employers. These unavoidable realities must be part of the national debate that David McLeod has said he wishes to promote. And government must give much higher priority to the quality as well as the quantity of jobs as the economy recovers from recession.”

Note to Editors:

1. David Coats is available for interviews or briefings.

2. The Work Foundation is the leading independent authority on work and its future. It aims to improve the quality of working life and the effectiveness of organisations by equipping leaders, policymakers and opinion-formers with evidence, advice, new thinking and networks.

Source: The Work Foundation

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