A new study of college graduates in the workforce suggests that certain college experiences correlate with different levels of employee engagement later on. Some of the findings seem intuitive and therefore not surprising. But there are a few surprises as well as implied hints at strategies employers might consider in vetting potential new hires.

Employee engagement is one of those phenomena that is far easier to recognize than it is to understand. Ours is an age when business leaders nearly universally acknowledge that people, not products or technology or systems, are what differentiates winning organizations from losing ones. In such a time, nothing would seem to be more important than learning the secrets of employee engagement—what  causes it, what sustains it, and what destroys it.

Gallup and Purdue University  researchers have produced a new study that identifies the levels of engagement of college graduates and the elements of their college experience that correlate with those levels of engagement. In addition to standard demographic factors, the study covers such other factors as membership in a fraternity or sorority, relationships with college professors, extracurricular involvement, internships and academic majors.

The researchers are careful  to point out that the study only reveals correlation—the different college experiences that seem to go with different levels of self-reported engagement—not causation. However the hints are fairly clear—employers might use the findings to screen for certain kinds of college experiences that should be easily identifiable and may go with higher future levels of engagement.

The study is Great Jobs Great Lives: the 2014 Gallup-Purdue Index Report. Researchers gathered data via the Web from over 31,000 employed college graduates, more than 1,500 of whom held Associate’s degrees and about 29,500 who held Bachelor’s degrees. All data was self-reported and included information about the respondent’s college experiences and his or her self-perceived level of engagement on the job.

Here are some of the more interesting findings:

• A little under four out of 10 (39%) of all respondents report feeling engaged in their jobs.
• More than three out of five (61%) are either not engaged (49%) or actively disengaged (12%).
• More female graduates (42%) than male graduates (36%) report feeling engaged.
• Race or ethnicity made no difference in feelings of engagement at work.
• Among the different academic majors:
  
  -Social Science/Education majors are the most engaged (47%)
  -STEM majors and Arts and Humanities majors are the next most engaged (both at 43%)
  -Business graduates are the least engaged (37%)
   
• For each of the academic majors, recent graduates (i.e., since 2000) are less engaged than their respective groups as a whole (Social Science/Ed 40%, STEM 38%, Business 34%)
• Where the respondent went to college (public or private, small or large, very selective or not selective) makes little or no difference in level of engagement in the workplace. However, levels of engagement for graduates of for-profit colleges were significantly lower (29%) than for not-for-profit colleges whether public (38%) or private (40%).
• Graduates of smaller schools are less likely to be engaged than those of larger schools (10,000 or more full-time undergraduates)
• From the report: “If an employed graduate had a professor who cared about them as a person, one who made them excited about learning, and had a mentor who encouraged them to pursue their dreams, the graduate’s odds of being engaged at work more than doubled. Only 14% of graduates have had all three.”
• Also from the report: “If graduates had an internship or job where they were able to apply what they were learning in the classroom, were actively involved in extracurricular activities and organizations and worked on projects that took a semester or more to complete, their odds of being engaged at work doubled also.”
• Four in ten (40%) graduates who got their degrees in four or fewer years felt engaged in their work, but only 34% of those who took 5½ years or longer to graduate felt engaged.

No one would argue that there is a real science of employee engagement. Trying to pinpoint a formula for it is an imprecise endeavor at best and plain guesswork at worst. Still, it is not unreasonable to suppose that there may be behavioral hints in a worker’s school experiences to his or her future degree of engagement at work. Given that many of those experiences can be uncovered through traditional screening methods (effective behavioral interviewing and thorough background checking), they would seem to be worthwhile strategies to pursue.

ASE offers a training classes in Behavior-Based Interviewing (next session October 28) as well as a professional, affordable background checking service. For information about the training class, contact the Learning and Advancement Group at 248-223-8014. For information about background checking services, contact the Preemployment Services Group at 248-223-8058.

Additional source: The Wall Street Journal 10/2/14