The emotional connection between a staff member and an organisation, which employee engagement represents in its essence, is often conflicted with other notions that share several characteristics with it yet, in essence, embody entirely different concepts. For example, organisational commitment is usually viewed as equivalent to employee engagement, which is slightly inaccurate. While organisational commitment is an important part and factor of employee engagement, it incorporates a different idea. According to the definition provided by Eldor and Vigoda-Gadot, employee engagement is an “active, fulfilling and work-related state of mind that includes a strong identification with the organisation and self-expression.” Therefore, the principle of building an emotional connection between an individual and a company lies essentially at the core of the concept. By placing the emphasis on an individual in defining employee engagement, one plants the basis for creating a people-oriented HRM approach and the introduction of a talent management framework into the HRM context.
Organisational commitment, in turn, is an “employee’s feelings of obligation to stay with the organisation: feelings resulting from the internalisation of normative pressures exerted on an individual prior to entry or following entry.” Instead of focusing on the specific needs of an individual and the methods of attaining them in the organisational environment, the notion of organisational commitment circles primarily around the identification of a staff member within the confinement of their organisation. The described approach toward viewing the relationships between a staff member and the company in which they work should not be seen as devaluing the individual characteristics of a person but, instead, be deemed as another constituent of building a workplace environment that will be most comfortable for its members. While employee engagement centres around an individual, organisational commitment places the said individual in the context of a specific company, thus assisting an HR manager in developing the strategy that will maximise the efficacy of staff’s performance and meet the demands of every employee.
Often regarded as a complementary aspect of employee engagement, employer involvement facilitates the setting in which the levels of staff’s enthusiasm can increase and where staff members’ demands are treated as important concerns. The phenomenon of employer engagement suggests that company leaders and their managers should view their staff members as valuable assets and seek to build long-term relationships with them. The official definition of the subject matter implies that employer engagement is “the active involvement of employers in addressing the societal challenge of promoting the labour market participation of vulnerable groups.” One might argue that the link between the notions of employee engagement, organisational commitment, and employer engagement is quite vague, yet, on further scrutiny, one will notice that the latter defines the existence of the former two. As long as an employer maintains an interest in their workforce and the needs thereof, opportunities for increasing commitment and loyalty to the company among staff members will remain stable. Similarly, the rates of organisational commitment are expected to rise as long as an employer engages actively in the dialogue with staff members and ensures that the needs of each employee are met fully.