| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Human Resources |
| Level | Manager |
| Reports to | HR Head |
| Direct reports | Employee Engagement Executive |
| Experience | 6 to 10 years in HR, with 3 or more years running engagement or internal communication programs |
Employee Engagement Manager job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Employee Engagement Manager
Department: Human Resources
Reports to: HR Head
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
An Employee Engagement Manager helps a company keep people motivated, connected and likely to stay. The role runs engagement surveys and acts on the results, designs recognition and wellbeing programs, plans internal communication and events, and gives managers practical ways to improve team climate. It usually reports to the HR Head. A good engagement manager is measured by movement in survey scores, early attrition and participation, not by the number of events held.
Key responsibilities
- Run the annual engagement survey and quarterly pulse checks, analyse results by team and share the findings with each department head.
- Agree action plans with managers whose teams score low, and follow up until the agreed actions are complete.
- Design the recognition program, including spot awards, long service awards and peer recognition, with published criteria.
- Plan the yearly calendar of festivals, family days, sports and volunteering activities across all locations.
- Manage internal communication through town halls, leadership messages, newsletters and announcements, using an editorial calendar.
- Run wellbeing initiatives such as health camps, counselling support and financial awareness sessions with partner vendors.
- Build engagement touchpoints for a new joiner's first 90 days, and hold stay interviews with high performers.
- Review exit interview themes with the HR team and turn them into engagement priorities for the next quarter.
- Manage the engagement budget and vendor contracts for events, gifts and survey tools.
- Lead the engagement executives and location coordinators who run activities on the ground.
Requirements
- MBA or PGDM in HR, or a master's in psychology or mass communication
- Graduate in any discipline
- Certification in survey analytics or counselling is an advantage
- 6 to 10 years in HR, with 3 or more years running engagement or internal communication programs
KRAs and KPIs for a Employee Engagement Manager
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Engagement score | Engagement survey score up by at least 3 points on the previous year |
| Action plan closure | At least 80 percent of team action plans completed within 6 months of the survey |
| Early attrition | Attrition within 6 months of joining below the target agreed with the HR Head |
| Recognition reach | At least 60 percent of employees recognised at least once in the year |
| Participation | Average participation of 70 percent or more in company-wide activities |
| Budget use | Engagement spend within budget, with cost per employee reported each quarter |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Engagement survey tool, MS Excel, Canva, MS PowerPoint, Company intranet, Google Forms.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Head of People Operations, Senior HR Business Partner, HR Head
Interview questions for a Employee Engagement Manager
- Survey scores for one department are low, and its manager disputes them. What do you do?
- How would you design a recognition program on a small budget?
- Which engagement activity have you stopped running, and why?
- How would you engage shift workers who cannot attend daytime events?
- What would you build into a new joiner's first 90 days?
- How do you show leadership that engagement work has an effect on attrition?
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What does an employee engagement manager do?
An employee engagement manager runs engagement surveys, helps managers act on the results, designs recognition and wellbeing programs, manages internal communication and plans company events. The purpose is to improve how committed people feel to their work and the company, which shows up in lower attrition and better participation.
How do you measure employee engagement?
The usual method is an annual engagement survey with a few quarterly pulse checks, scored by team. Companies also watch early attrition, regretted attrition, absenteeism, participation in activities and how many employees receive recognition. Trends by team matter more than one company-wide number.
What skills does an employee engagement manager need?
The role needs survey analysis, program design, internal communication and event planning, plus budget control. Just as important are the ability to persuade managers to act on survey results, empathy for employees at every level and the discipline to follow up on action plans for months after the survey closes.