A Case Study examination into the important role and influence Managers have on Employee Engagement, in a Public Sector Organisation, Dublin City Council, Housing Maintenance Section.

“Engaged employees feel inspired by their work they are customer focused in their approach, they care about the future of the company and are prepared to invest their own effort to see that organisation succeed. ” (Cook 2008, p.3) With the rewards for strong engagement being equally shared between the employer and employee, it is not surprising that so many organisations are now focused on raising the engagement levels o f their workforce. Employee engagement has been seen as a ‘soft and fluffy’ Human Resource issue that is not a concern for the rest of the organisation. However, this is not the case. Employee engagement is not simply something that Human Resources Department of a organisation can do by themselves. For an organisation to be successful it needs employee buy in at all levels; this commitment can be achieved through engagement.(Employee engagement is a hard-nosed proposition that not only shows results but can be measured in costs of recruitment and employee output ” (Johnson 2004, p .l) Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study 2007 - 2008 (p.2) identified that “Only one out of every five workers (today) is giving full discretionary effort on the job, and this (engagement gap ’poses serious risks for employers because o f the strong connection between employee engagement and company financial performance. ” Therefore, employees need to understand how the jobs they do help contribute to the organisation achieving its organisational goals and objectives. There needs to be a clear line of sight between employee input and the organisational output. Employee engagement will only exist if there is two-way interaction between the employer and the employee.