Improving Employee Retention in the Public Sector by Increasing Employee Engagement

Abstract

A poor reputation and low salaries has made retaining a talented workforce in the public sector more difficult over the past several decades, resulting in some to declare that the public sector is in the midst of a “human capital crisis.” However, in order to improve public’s image of government, it is vital for public agencies to retain talented and experienced employees. It is our position that to improve retention, public agencies must increase levels of employee engagement in their work, which in turn will increase employee commitment and satisfaction. We posit that to create an engaged workforce, public managers must recruit individuals with high levels of public service motivation, link their employees with the meaningfulness of the organization’s mission to the community, and utilize social marketing, reputation management, and branding initiatives to foster a better image and reputation for their organization. The present research will test these assumptions in public service organizations.

Keywords: Construed Image, engagement, job satisfaction, meaningfulness, reputation, organizational commitment, organizational identification, and public service motivation