Read on to learn who really drives employee engagement, and what you can do to keep employees motivated.

Most people think of Oracle as just a software firm. It does much more than that, though. The company offers consulting services, including in the field of human capital management.

In September 2015, Oracle released the results of a study it conducted in Western Europe about employee engagement. Researchers surveyed 1,511 employees at large European businesses. They asked respondents about who has the biggest impact on employee engagement in the workplace.

The results came as a surprise. Forty-two percent of employees surveyed said that their coworkers played the largest role in how engaged they felt at the office. How did line managers and business unit managers rank? They came in at 21% and 7%, respectively.

“Wait,” you ask. “What about HR? Surely, the human resources department has some role to play in employee engagement.” Not according to the employees surveyed by Oracle – only 3% believed HR had the biggest positive impact on employee engagement.

While it’s great to work with other people who make you want to come into the office, it’s the job of managers and the human resources department to keep workers engaged.

So, how can HR and managers change this situation? Oracle’s researchers have some answers. Fifty-three percent of respondents say there’s a simple fix: recognize when employees do their job right (or even amazingly). Thirty-five percent of employees surveyed feel that managers and HR must help workers understand their contribution to the company so they feel valued. Another 34% of respondents say that having the opportunity to work on exciting projects would increase employee engagement.

Oracle’s president for EMEA and Asia Pacific, Loic Le Guisquet, believes that managers and HR staffers can make this change. In a press release about the survey, he remarked, “HR can deliver this through technologies that provide managers with a more up-to-the-minute view of their employees, which in turn encourages a more personalized, rewarding dynamic between them.”

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