JOB RELATED FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL BANKS IN COLOMBO DISTRICT IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

This research is an attempt to identify the impact of job related factors on employee engagement in the Banking Industry in Sri Lanka. The design of the research was hypothesis testing, as it explains the nature of certain relationships and to explain the variance in the dependent variable. The target population consists of all employees in the private sector commercial Banking institutions in Sri Lanka. For the purpose of the study the researcher selected only three leading commercial banks. The study population was the executive level employees in these three commercial banks in the Colombo district, convenience sampling technique has been used as only 03 banks have been surveyed for limitation of time and resources. The main objective of the study was to find out the impact of job related factors, Rewards, Growth & Development opportunities and Job Characteristics on Employee engagement in the private sector commercial banks in Sri Lanka. Derived from this main objective, there were three specific objectives in this study and those are to find out the correlation between Rewards and Employee Engagement, correlation between Growth & Development opportunities and Employee Engagement, and finally to find out the correlation between job characteristics and Employee Engagement. And also, there is an additional sub objective to find out whether the demographic factors of employees (Age, Gender and Experience) make any significant difference in the employee engagement in the private sector commercial banks in Sri Lanka. In order to achieve the above objectives, several hypotheses were used based on the previous literature. The first hypothesis was there is a positive relationship between rewards and employee engagement in private sector commercial banks in Sri Lanka. The second hypothesis was there is a positive relationship between growth and development opportunities and employee engagement in private sector commercial banks in Sri Lanka and the third hypothesis was there is a positive relationship between the job characteristics and employee engagement in private sector commercial banks in Sri Lanka. These hypotheses were tested using correlations analytical tool and according to the results of the analysis it has been noted that all three hypotheses associated with rewards, growth and development opportunities and job characteristics were accepted. The results and findings of this study can use to bridge the gap between identifying the “right” way/s to increase the level of engagement in commercial sector banks in Sri Lanka.