Enhancing employee engagement through HRM practices: A study of the education sector in Jordan

Type of the article: Research Article AbstractThe study aims to investigate the influence of particular human resource management (HRM) practices on employee engagement in the Jordanian education sector, including recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, and performance appraisal. Employee engagement in this case is the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral involvement of the personnel within their institutions. Data were collected through structured questionnaires distributed to academic staff, administrative personnel, and HR professionals across three educational institutions in Jordan. A total of 391 completed responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings indicate that each of the four HRM practices had positive impact on employee engagement where performance appraisal (beta = 0.41, p < 0.001) was found to have the most influence followed by other three in the following order: compensation (beta = 0.34), recruitment and selection (beta = 0.32), and training and development (beta = 0.28). All these variables accounted for 68% of the variance in employee engagement. Although the results have been combined across employee categories in the present study, comparing responses based on their type of role would provide insight into future studies. The results demonstrate the business essence of HRM’s organizational systems in developing engagement and institutional performance in the field of education.