An investigation into the success factors of employee engagement in Zimbabwe’s mining sector

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the success factors of employee engagement in Zimbabwe’s Mining Sector. The study was motivated by the high turnover of skilled and technical staff at the rate of 60%. Management attention was required due to costs associated with the rehiring, training, placement and motivation of the employees. The research focused on establishing the correlation between employee participation and involvement and employee engagement, determining the extent to which leadership is associated with employee engagement, identifying the degree to which incentives and rewards are correlated with employee engagement, to ascertaining the association between job designing and employee engagement, examining how career development is correlated with employee engagement. A quantitative survey was carried with 200 staff and managers of four mining companies in Zimbabwe. A simple random technique was used to select 200 staff and managers. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire. A total of 150 questionnaires were returned for analysis achieving a response rate of 75%. A questionnaire was reliable at 0.946 Cronbach alpha value. With the aid of SPSS, mean scores and correlations analysis were used to determine the relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. The research found that there is positive and significant relationship between the independent variables (employee participation and involvement, leadership, compensation and rewards, job designing, career development and employee engagement. Employees in the four mines in the mining industry of Zimbabwe were comfortable to share their ideas and employee ideas are incorporated. Leadership is a success factor affecting engagement levels, employees in the mining sector are more engaged when they are rewarded and recognized. Employees prefer jobs that are interesting and challenging, attractive and meaningful. The mining industry provides training and career development for its employees. In order to improve employee engagement in the mining sector government must regulate mining companies to reinforce safety issues for employees to work without fear of any harm. The industry may introduce performance related pay based when meeting targets, surpassing targets or exceptional performance. The study was purely quantitative, other studies can employ qualitative research on the same topic to improve the results of the research. Further research can be carried out to identify other success factors that contribute to engagement levels.