The Relationship Between Employee Engagement and Organisational Outcomes in the English National Health Service

There have been concerns around low productivity, poor health and wellbeing and staff engagement for well over a decade in the English National Health Service (NHS). Our analysis of survey data in 28 healthcare organisations builds an understanding of what drives employee engagement and how it impacts organisations. Our findings are that: better staff engagement in a healthcare organisation is associated with better financial and care outcomes; some professional groups in healthcare organisations (e.g. healthcare assistants) have substantially worse employee engagement than others; and employee participation in wellbeing programmes, effective leadership and line manager training are associated with better staff engagement. The key message for those involved in healthcare delivery is that there is a strong business case for improving employee engagement as it likely improves a range of organisational outcomes. The analysis also points to some specific initiatives that organisations focused on improving employee engagement may wish to consider.