Research on Employee Engagement Degree in IT Industry

2017 2 nd International Conference on Education, Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE 2017) ISBN: 978-1-60595-466-0 Research on Employee Engagement Degree in IT Industry Jian-dong ZHANG, Ya-ru GUAN * and Xiao-yu QU School of Management, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China *Corresponding author Keyword: Employee engagement, Business performance, IT industry. Abstract. Employee engagement which all current business enterprises concern is the core main factor that the business achieves success. Engagement degree is closely related to business performance, which contribute to increase organizational productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction, and reduce employee turnover and accidents. This paper conducts a preliminary study on employee engagement in the IT industry through literature review, interview and questionnaire survey, and provides some theoretical basis and practical guidance for enterprises to improve employee engagement and improve business performance. Introduction With the rapid development of economy, many enterprises have realized the core position of human resources in the development of enterprises. How to better play the role of human being is a major problem that the current managers care about. The knowledge and experience of employees and their potential to the development of enterprises is essential. In the knowledge-intensive work context, the work content and working methods have undergone great changes. Managers only by way of control is difficult to play the greatest role of human resources. In this context, sociologists gradually rise to the study of psychology. Researchers began to turn their research into human emotions, qualities, and so on, hoping to reduce people's burnout or other negative factors through these studies. Gallup Hewitt and other consulting firm found that employee engagement impact on the performance of the organization even greater than organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction and others. If a company's employees have a high degree of engagement, then the staff must be highly recognized with the company's core values, and can spontaneously agree with the company's management system and strategic development goals, and they will be more proactive to realize their value. Therefore, employee engagement has become a new research direction in the field of enterprise management. Literature Review The Definition of Employee Engagement Knhn first proposed the concept of employee engagement, that engagement is the extent to which members of the organization put their physical strength, cognition, and emotion into the work role[1]. Schaufeli and other scholars believe that employee engagement is a work state. Employees with this attitude are energetic and dedicated, committed, and able to maintain this status for a long period of time [2]. Harter and other scholars believed that employee engagement is the degree of staff investment, enthusiasm and satisfaction in the work [3]. Cha Songcheng believed that employee engagement is a state, which the employee actively engaged in work, resulting in a satisfactory physiology, cognition and emotion, including three dimensions: work input, organizational identity and job well-being [4]. Based on the above research, Mao Renjie defines employee engagement as a kind of cognitive and emotional attitude variables, which is reflected in two aspects: First, employees really like and agree with where the organization and their work; second, employees with high engagement can 211

devote themselves to their own work and can experience happiness from work. They are willing to pay extra effort to complete the task of organization more efficiently [5]. The Related Research on Employee Engagement Lu Jihua and other scholars found that organizational support and organizational commitment are significantly positively correlated with knowledge - based employee engagement [6]. Wang Mo Fan study found that employee engagement on job performance has a direct and indirect positive effect [7]. Liu Hui study found that organizational trust and its dimensions have a positive impact on employee engagement role [8]. Although there are some discussions about the influential factors of engagement in academic circles, there are few studies on the influencing factors of employee engagement in a certain type of enterprises [9]. Therefore, this paper try to find ways to improve employee engagement for enterprise training and developing staff to learn from, and ultimately improve the overall performance of enterprises through the IT industry employee engagement survey. Research Methods Taking into account the number of samples needed, the feasibility of the collection and the extent of the sample description, so the sample of this study mainly from Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Shenyang, Guangzhou and other relatively developed cities. Finally, 257 questionnaires were sent out and 225 questionnaires were retrieved. The recovery rate was 87.55%. the effective rate was 95.11%. The distribution characteristics of the study samples are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Sample information of formal survey. Variable Number of People The Proportion Gender Male 177 78.7% Female 48 21.3% Age 25 years old and below 28 12.4% 26-35 years old 130 57.8% 36 years old and above 67 29.8% Marital status Unmarried 121 53.8% Married 104 46.2% Educational level College and below 36 16% Bachelor 108 48% Master 23 23.1% Ph.D. 29 12.9% Based on the existing questionnaire on employee engagement, this paper compiled the employee engagement questionnaire. The results were analyzed by SPSS 14.0 software. Result Analysis Based on the research of Cha Songcheng (2007), this paper divides employee engagement into three dimensions: work input, organizational identity and job well-being [4]. The Effect of Gender on Dedication Index Employee engagement and its dimensions were tested for significance using the independent sample t-test method. The results are shown in Table 2. In the organizational identity dimension, male employees have higher scores than female employees, which is mainly due to differences in physical condition and social family roles of men and women. Men require recognition in society, which requires high organizational identity as a prerequisite. In addition, the IT industry is generally relatively young employees, the pressure of future life makes the men have to have a higher recognition of the organization. 212

Table 2. Significant difference of employee Engagement to gender. Variable Gender Mean SD t Male 2.6087 1.02475 Female 2.3397.79760-0.253 Male 3.3619.90404 Female 3.3116.59780 2.084** Male 3.1833.69965 Female 3.1413.83850 0.358 The Effect of Age on Dedication Index There are significant differences in the dimensions of work input among employees of different ages. It can be seen from Table 3 that the employees who have just entered the company under the age of 25 belong to the new recruits. Their work enthusiasm is higher and they work harder, so the work input index is also higher. The 26-35-year-old group of employees, most of them work for 10 years or so, due to factors such as the impact of life stress, resulting in a sense of job burnout, so their enthusiasm for work decreased and the amount of work is also reduced. 36 years of age and older employees, most of them have achieved their social status. They treat work as a pleasure, not just a means of subsistence, so they can keep a high investment in their work. There is no significant difference between the different age groups in terms of organizational identity. In the dimension of job well-being, it is basically the same trend of change with the staff's work input. Employees feel happy at work, it is possible to increase investment in work, and thus promote employee engagement to enhance. Table 3. Significant difference of employee engagement to age. Variable Age Mean SD t 25 2.8928.66754 26-35 2.7863.57913 2.378** 36 2.6715.54938 26-35 2.8131.93205 26-35 2.7932.90823 1.104 36 2.6577.84614 25 3.3896.79106 26-35 3.5649.79765 1.188 36 3.2423.79913 The Effect of Marital Status on Dedication Index As shown in Table 4, there are significant differences in the impact of different marital status on employee engagement and its three dimensions. This shows that the married and unmarried employees have different degrees of engagement. Compared to unmarried employees, married employees pay more attention to work input and organizational identity, so the work of happiness is relatively high. The unmarried employees are generally younger, just out of school, and their future position is not clear, so it is vulnerable to the outside world and the impact of various aspects of the enterprise. They tend to frequent job-hopping to find their ideal company and even career, so this part of the staff often have a very low work happiness. Table 4. Significant difference of employee engagement to marital status/ Variable Marital Status Mean SD t Married 2.9256.58331 Unmarried 2.3986.53708 6.040*** Married 2.8970.86304 Unmarried 2.5002.75641 5.109*** Married 3.4375.73994 Unmarried 2.5159.70233 4.097*** 213

The Effect of Educational Level on Dedication Index As shown in Table 5, education is a measure of an employee's level of knowledge, but it is not a measure of employee engagement. In a business, employees with different degrees are usually placed in different jobs. In the fierce social competition, low-educated employees may pay more attention to and cherish their current jobs. They deeply feel that their current hard-won work, so they work will show more investment. But they have significant differences in job well-being. The reason for this discrepancy may be that, they are not as clear as the highly educated employees about the company's aspirations, as well as the corporate culture, incentives, and pay and benefits systems that are affected by their positions and cultural heritage. And they are not as highly educated employees are very concerned about the company's future and future. Table 5. Significant difference of employee engagement to educational level. Variable educational level Mean SD t College and below 2.9856.72829 Bachelor 2.2076.76230 Master 2.3986.75292 3.208** Ph.D. 2.5910.77297 College and below 3.2293.86304 Bachelor 3.2998.73920 Master 3.3462.72083 2.873 Ph.D. 3.6272.69332 College and below 2.0372.43820 Bachelor 2.2209.49204 Master 2.0332.50334 1.830* Ph.D. 2.3044.48205 The Effect of On-the-job Time on Dedication Index For the purposes of statistical analysis, this paper refers to less than three years of service as shortterm and more than three years (including three years) of working time as long working hours. The differences in the scores of different factors were compared between different employees' working time. As shown in Table 6. On-the-job time can measure a certain level of employee loyalty, but not a measure of employee engagement. The scores of employees with different working time show significant difference in each dimension. Employees with long working hours score less on work input and organizational identity than employees with shorter working hours. The study found that the first three years after the work is often an important transition period of career development. During this period, employees are more concerned about career development and career planning issues. They are either more engaged in their work, or are looking for new career opportunities. Therefore, this time the staff engagement will face challenges. Table 6. Significant difference of employee engagement to On-the-job time. Variable On-the-job Time Mean SD t short 3.2193.80327 long 2.5336.86414 5.037*** short 3.7939.72906 long 3.1155.73126 5.764*** short 3.4912.46523 long 2.9895.82621 5.139*** Research Results and Enlightenment Research Results (1)There are significant differences in the dimensions of job input among different types of employees. (2)There are significant differences in the dimensions of work input and organizational identity among employees with different working years. On the whole, the scores of employees 214

in the dimensions of engagement increased with the growth of working years. Employees who work for three years or so have lower scores on job engagement and organizational identity than employees who have been on the job for 1-2 years. The third year after the work is often an important transition period of career development of employees, this period of staff engagement will face challenges and challenges, do a good job of talent retention to become the top priority of long-term development of enterprises; (3)There are significant differences in the dimensions of work input among employees of different ages. 36 years of age and below employees, who mostly born after 1980.Their childhood living and education conditions are superior, only child, and self-consciousness is very strong, leading to social, organizational, family responsibility decreased, which is one of the reasons for their low score on work engagement; (4)There are significant differences in the dimensions of job commitment and job wellbeing among employees of different gender. On the dimensions of work input and work happiness, the scores of male employees were higher than those of female employees, which was mainly caused by differences in physical condition and social family roles of men and women. Enlightenment (1)Design a reasonable work content. Reasonable work content generally includes five aspects: breadth and depth of work, work autonomy, the integrity of the work and work feedback. In IT industry, staff work is more complex, technical and strong. Therefore, in the work design, as far as possible the work of specific, and has a certain integrity, so that employees can work in their most familiar areas to improve work efficiency, but also allow employees to see their work results, feel the meaning of their work. (2)Improve employee's sense of organizational justice. First, the organization should establish a scientific performance appraisal system and pay system. For the organization, an internal fairness and external competitiveness of the remuneration system will help improve employee sense of fairness and stimulate employee initiative. In the IT industry, due to the work of flexibility and innovation, in addition to guarantee the salary, but also in the pay policy reflects the multi-angle, multi-style and multi-content characteristics. Second, the organization should implement two-way communication feedback mode. The comparison of communication patterns among different types of enterprises shows that different types of enterprises will adopt the internal communication mode suitable for their development according to their scale and characteristics. In contrast, foreignfunded enterprises can better reflect the smooth flow of this communication. (3)To help staff develop a scientific career planning. The ability of employees to work with practice and continuous learning and continuous improvement, a higher level of development will need to have a variety of professional knowledge and skills of learning opportunities. Each employee is expected to be a higher level of development, so the enterprise should plan for each employee career, to provide staff with a continuous learning and growth environment and help employees in every stage of growth can have a clear pursuit and goals, so that they can see their growth direction and space, which is the best way to improve employee engagement. References [1]William A. Kahn. Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work[J].Academy of Management Journal, 1990, 33(4):692-724. Schaufeli.W B, M Salanoya,V Gonzulez Roma.the measurement of engagement and burnout: A confirmative analytic approach[j]. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2002, 3:71-92. [2]Harter J K, Schmidt F L, Hayes T L. Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and busineee outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2002. 215

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