Strength in Numbers: How Social Resources Travel Together to Increase Employee Engagement

Based on a 2021 survey of 273 Australian workers across a range of occupations and industries, our structural equation modelling showed that workplace inclusion is a key driver of social resources for building employee engagement within the organisation. Relative to conservation of resources theory, we discovered that social support, social capital and workplace inclusion travel as ‘resource caravans’ in which a series of inter-relationships are activated that optimises their effectiveness in building employee engagement. Specifically, employees’ experiences of social support has a direct effect on employee engagement while social capital needs to be mediated by experiences of workplace inclusion in order for social capital to influence employees’ engaged state. In addition to the direct effect, social capital and social support reciprocally interact as concurrent resources that influence employee engagement through workplace inclusion. Meanwhile, social support increases its impact on employee engagement when mediated by workplace inclusion. We discuss HR practice implications for cultivating social support and social capital via workplace inclusion initiatives, that as a package of job resources, offer clear efficiency improvements in building employee engagement.