What’s the difference between engagement and commitment?

At Effectory International, we’re often asked to explain the difference between employee engagement and commitment. Engagement is an intrinsic attitude that denotes an employee’s enthusiasm for his or her job. Commitment, on the other hand, denotes an employee’s enthusiasm for the company he or she works for.

To provide insight into the level of engagement and commitment within an organisation, we categorise employees into four types: engaged and committed, engaged, committed and neither engaged nor committed. The four types differ in the following way:

• Engaged and committed employees are both engaged in their work and committed to the organisation. Employees love their work and the company they work for.

• Engaged employees are engaged in their work, but not committed to the organisation.

• Committed employees are committed to the organisation, but not engaged in their work.

• Employees that are neither engaged nor committed are neither engaged in their work, nor committed to the organisation.

We believe that the best case scenario is when an employee is engaged in the job and committed to the organisation. If an employee is only engaged, there is the distinct risk that they are not committed to the organisation, and vice versa.

The top five

The following ranking is calculated from our recent European-wide employee survey and is based on the percentage of employees in each country that are engaged and committed.

1. Austria: 35.4 %

At nearly 2% higher than Bulgaria in second place, Austria has the highest percentage of engaged and committed employees in Europe. Alongside this, Austria also has the lowest percentage of employees that are neither engaged nor committed.

2. Bulgaria: 33.6%

In second place, Bulgaria is one of only two countries in Europe that has more than one third of its employees engaged and committed. Similarly to Austria, Bulgaria also has one of the lowest percentages of employees that are neither engaged nor committed.

3. Denmark: 31.6%

One of two Scandinavian countries in the top five, Denmark has both the highest percentage in Scandinavia and third highest percentage in Europe. Despite the high percentage, Denmark has over one in four employees that are neither engaged nor committed.

4. Romania: 30.9%

A neighbouring country of Bulgaria, Romania occupies fourth spot in the top five. In addition to having the fourth highest percentage, Romania also has the second lowest percentage of employees that are neither engaged nor committed.

5. Norway: 30.7 %

Completing the top five and only 0.2% behind Romania, Norway is Scandinavia’s second representative in the top five. In contrast to Denmark, Norway has Scandinavia’s lowest percentage of employees that are neither engaged nor committed.