Empirical evidence of employee engagement on productivity in a selected industrial packaging organisation in South Africa

The decline in labour productivity in the South African manufacturing industry is a course for concern. The majority of South Africans expect greater prosperity that can be achieved through greater employment and high productivity. Thus, the industrial sector turns to employees for innovative productivity improvement initiatives. This sentiment underpins the concept of employee engagement. Hence, this study examines the effectiveness of employee engagement for productivity improvement in the selected industrial packaging organisation in South Africa. Employee engagement is the degree of dedication and involvement an employee has towards his/her organisation. The study was quantitative in design and examined production and the related experiences of the industrial packaging organisation that have adopted an employee engagement strategy for productivity improvement. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The company operates in the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The study was achieved by collecting pre- and post-quarterly data for the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), spoilage rate and labour productivity. The results establish that employee engagement philosophy does not have a relationship with OEE and labour productivity. However, it has an influence on the rate of spoilage. The original value of this paper is its approach in uncovering strengths and weaknesses of employee engagement for productivity improvement in South Africa. This includes leadership engagement and the alignment of employee incentives with productivity goals. Key Words:Employee Engagement, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, Productivity, South Africa; Spoilage