Huntsville, Ala. is the best city for employee engagement, according to the 2014 Employee Engagement Trends Report by Quantum Workplace.
Using data from the 2013 Best Places to Work, the 400,000 respondents from almost 5,000 companies provided insight into their organization’s engagement levels.
More than 77% of employees in Huntsville, Ala. reported feeling engaged at work, making it the top city on the list. It was also the most improved city on the list, increasing engagement by almost 18% from last year.
The Miami-Dade area of Florida is the No. 2 city on the list with 74.7% of engaged employees. Nashville, Tenn. is close behind, ranking No. 3 with 74.4% of engaged employees.
Texas had the fourth and fifth best cities for employee engagement with Austin (74.2% of engaged employees) and San Antonio (73.5% of engaged employees) rounding out the top five. San Antonio was also the only city to rank in the top five this year and last year.
Employee engagement in the top five cities averaged 74.9%, an increase from last year’s 70.3% average. The top cities were almost 7% more engaged than the average in the rest of the country.
Even in the least engaged cities, overall employee engagement is on the rise. Last year the bottom five cities for engagement were 11% under the national average, but this year the bottom cities are about 8% lower than the national average.
Data also showed that engagement level increased by education level. About 75% of employees with a doctoral degree reported being engaged at work, followed by 74% of employees with a professional degree, 71% of employees with a master’s degree and 70% with a bachelor’s degree.
The major themes that emerged among the highest engaged employees were a positive future outlook, confidence in leadership and commitment to valuing employees, according to the report.
Teamwork, manager effectiveness and trust in senior leaders were the top three factors driving positive employee engagement.
