Employees around the world are more engaged with their workplace than they have been for years, a study finds.
Of the 9.7m employees analysed by Aon Hewitt in 2011, 58% were found to be engaged - emotionally and intellectually involved - with the workplace, up from 56% in 2010.
The increase reverses a trend in which employee engagement levels had been on the decline.
Aon Hewitt co-president of global compensation and talent Pete Sanborn, commented: "Business leadership as well as HR programmes that meet the needs of specific employee segments contributed to the upward shift in engagement levels.
However, with one out of every four people still not engaged worldwide, he added that more needed to be done: "As the economy improves, retaining top talent is going to be difficult."
Employees perceived the leadership of their immediate bosses, HR efforts and relationships with customers in a more positive light than they had two years earlier.
However, they perceived communication, innovation and workplace security less favourably than in 2010.
The report also identified three main drivers of improved employee engagement - career opportunities, recognition of employees' hard work and organisational reputation.
This last factor was particularly valued by European employees, who were more concerned about their employer's public reputation and values than personal recognition.
It found that employment engagement levels varied by region.
Engagement rose most in the Asia Pacific region, from 55% to 58% and also slightly increased in Europe.
By contrast, the rate of engagement remained the same in North America and declined slightly in Latin America.
Aon Hewitt's findings appear to contradict a report by Mercer earlier this year which found that over a third of UK employees were seriously considering leaving their current workplace and a comparable portion of the workforce were dissatisfied in similar countries such as Ireland and Italy.
