Employee engagement is an outcome generated by an organisation and represents the degree to which an employee feels connected and valued by the organisation and its mission, values, and strategy, and the degree to which they will contribute productively to the success of the organisation.

Corporations, industry associations and government entities seek to secure high employee engagement as an input to high productivity and effective and profitable operations.

Contemporary management practice suggests that employee engagement is the outcome of decisions and the behaviour of management, culture, performance of teams, performance, corporate responsibility, leadership communication, and advocacy within the entity as well as externally.

The corporate public affairs function and its execution of strategy can have a marked impact on corporate responsibility, leadership communication, internal and external communication, and internal and external advocacy.

For these reasons, good corporate public affairs practice is seen frequently as one of the co-producers of employee engagement with other management functions in the organisation.

The role of the internal communications discipline in the employee engagement equation is especially influential, especially leadership communications.

In most organisations the internal communications discipline works closely with the CEO and her/his leadership team and the human resources management function to influence employee engagement, especially engagement with organisational purpose and values, strategy, corporate responsibility, and corporate community investment.

It is not uncommon in Asia Pacific and Europe for (measured) employee engagement to be a key performance indicator for practitioners working in the internal communications discipline.