In the human capital management (HCM) space, employee engagement is everywhere— in marketing efforts, as a feature on new products—and most HCM or HR technology companies offer promises to increase it. There are so many tools out there to help you improve employee engagement, but what is it exactly? Is it just another buzzword? The latest HR craze? Or maybe it’s something that, if focused on, creates true business value. 

Let’s set the record straight about what employee engagement truly means, and then we’ll examine what to do about it. But first, let’s talk about what employee engagement is not. There are many employee engagement myths and misconceptions out there which only add to the confusion.

The most common misconception is that engagement is purely about employee happiness. Another misconception is that engagement is only about job satisfaction. Sure, job satisfaction plays a tiny role in determining employee engagement, but there’s much more to it than that. 

Employee engagement is when employees have deep emotional commitments to both the company and its goals.”

Think about psychological ownership, not just being an employee at a company, but feeling emotionally connected to the company, the mission, the vision, the strategy, the people, and the customers. Let that sink in. When employees feel a deep emotional commitment and connection to their company, we see something called discretionary effort.