Abstract
The paper discussed on the relationship between employer branding and employee engagement among employees in selected furniture retailers in Malaysia. This study also looks into the state of employees’ engagement and gender differences in their engagement towards their organization. Furniture retailing falls under the retail trade industry that contributed about RM35.7 billion to Malaysia GDP in 2017 with expected growth of 8.7 percent. However, the industry suffers an average yearly employee turnover rate of 13 percent. Amid this high turnover, the raising question is can popularity of employers’ branding can result in employee engagement leading to their retention in the organisation. 350 respondents were chosen randomly and 120 (30%) respondents had given feedback on the personally administered questionnaires. The result revealed that there is significant relationship between employer branding and employee engagement. The study also indicated that work challenging is the most important variable which led to drive the employee engagement. Consequently, there is significant difference between male and female in terms of engagement. Organisation, hence may consider leveraging employee engagement which may lead to retaining their employees. Future research may consider researchers to pursue a longitudinal method of research design across a variety of firm-sizes and industries that would be more significant in making generalizations.
Highlights
The retailing industry in Malaysia is one of the biggest contributors towards Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) providing employment opportunities for its citizens
The structured questionnaire for employee engagement was adapted based on Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) by Schaufeli and Bakker (2003)
With reference to working department most of the respondents were from operations department (45%) and the rest are from marketing department, human resource department, finance department, being operations department formed the largest department (60%) of all total manpower of the target retail outlets
Summary
The retailing industry in Malaysia is one of the biggest contributors towards Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) providing employment opportunities for its citizens. Like any other retailing business it was reported that in 2016, the average yearly employee turnover rate was 13 percent [21]. Past studies have indicated that in order to retain employees, employee engagement plays an important role which helps to improve commitment, raising productivity, performance and increase customer satisfaction [39],[32] Truss, Delbridge, Alfes, Shantz and Soane, (2006) conjured that engaged employees generally feel involved, loyal, enthusiastic, and empowered, and will exhibit those feelings in their work behaviour. Rasheed et al (2013) found that engaging employees is very important as they will bring substantial benefits to an organisation such as lowering employee turnover, improving organisational commitment, raising productivity and performance, and increase customer satisfaction. Recent study by Hewitt (2016b) reported in most organisation about 65percent employees are engaged with their organisation while 35 percent are passive or actively disengaged
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
