Happy and Engaged Workforce in Industry 4.0: A New Concept of Digital Tool for HR Based on Theoretical and Practical Trends

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is moving towards Industry 5.0 and now has the challenge of placing the human factor at the center of technological innovation, in order to promote sustainable human resource management. For this, encouraging a happy and engaged employee within the organization is essential. It is known that tools that promote happier and more engaged people are enablers of more productive practices and more innovative actions, leading to more competitive companies. In line with these concerns, this study proposes a concept of a technological tool, named BoosToRaise, to promote and monitor workforce engagement. To achieve this goal, a mix-method that includes a systematic literature review and applications benchmarking was used. Thus, the concept of the tool emerged with a set of features in line with the engagement predictors found in the literature—Employee Role, Employee Skills and Career Management, Supervision Support, and Social Relationships—complemented with some use-cases already present in applications currently on the market. Furthermore, this concept presents itself as a differentiating Industry 5.0 accelerator that brings together functionalities that integrate Coaching and Gamification. Thus, in terms of contributions, this paper expands the existing discussion on people in Industry 4.0, not only by providing a systematization of the findings present in the literature and practical applications on this topic, but also by creating a new concept that will culminate in an applicational and practical tool to boost human resources through engagement and happiness at work.

1. Introduction

Industry 4.0, the most current phenomenon of technological innovation, is impacting the way employees are seen by management. Current progress is towards a more sustained management of human resources (HR) to build Industry 5.0 [1]. According to the European Commission (EC), Industry 5.0 aims to make production respect the boundaries of our planet and to place the well-being of the industry worker at the center of the production process [2]. For this, it is essential to humanize technological processes, something that Industry 4.0 does not consider, as its focus is on the creation of cyber-physical systems and not in the sustainability of human resources [2].

The globalization that now regulates the markets is also reaching HR in organizations seen in the increasing levels of turnover, a phenomenon known as the Great Resignation [3]. To counter this phenomenon, which impacts organizations through loss of knowledge, it is important to increase employee satisfaction and engagement levels to make people more committed to the organization, more involved and more predisposed to stay, which determines the consequent preservation of organizational knowledge [4,5].

Technological implementation, rather than just focusing on increasing productivity, can also help promote happy and engaged employees [6]. Gamification is a studied technological procedure that determines the increase in work engagement [7]. Although, for the entire digitalization process to happen positively, it is essential to promote an adequate leadership style, adopt telecommuting opportunities, and create a good organizational climate, with employee participation in strategic decision making [8].

This paper aims to present the concept of a digital tool to promote workforce engagement and job satisfaction. To achieve this goal, it was essential to understand the state of the art in the literature and, based on this, identify the main predictors of engagement. In addition, it was also crucial to identify and analyze the solutions that exist in practices, i.e., the applications that target work engagement to complement previous knowledge. Thus, the methodology followed focused on a mixed approach—theoretical (systematic literature review (SLR)) and practical (comparative evaluation of engagement applications). In the theoretical approach and considering the systematic literature review, a bibliometric analysis will be applied to the relevant articles on the subject, and then a content analysis bringing focus to the predictors of a happy and engaged employee. As for the practical approach, benchmarking will be carried out, where the main functionalities of several relevant applications in the area will be analyzed in light of the predictors found in the literature. In the scope of this study, it is expected to contribute with a concept of a digital tool that promotes engagement based on the predictors obtained by the literature and that, complements the functionalities of the already existing platforms (recognized through the empirical benchmarking study)

The remainder of this work is structured in the following way. Section 2 refers to the materials and methods used, specifying the two main approaches to data collection, i.e., SLR and benchmarking to practical applications. In Section 3, the results are presented and divided into three subchapters. The first is directed to the main findings from the SLR, the second, to the engagement applications benchmarking, and the third is the BoosToRaise concept presentation. In Section 4, all results are discussed, bringing together the theoretical perspective with the practical one, and Section 5 summarizes the most important conclusions and future work.

2. Materials and Methods

The purpose of this paper is to explore the state of the art concerning Workforce Engagement in a business context characterized by Industry 4.0 and, based on the results found, propose a concept of a technological tool to promote and monitor work engagement, denominated as BoosToRaise. For this purpose, a methodology with three essential phases was carried out (see Figure 1). In the first step, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, looking for studies crossing the themes of ‘Happy and Engaged Employee’ and ‘Industry 4.0′. The objectives of this SLR are to understand the reasons why engagement and organizational commitment present themselves as challenges of the digital paradigm, in order to discern the predictors of both work engagement and job satisfaction. In a second step, and to complement the findings from the literature with a more practical view of the application of these concepts, an empirical study, based on a benchmarking of digital tools that promise to promote and, in some cases, monitor work engagement was carried out. The outputs of the first phase, in terms of predictors of engagement and job satisfaction, were used to compare the characteristics of the digital applications analyzed. After the two previous phases, it was possible to build the concept of a digital tool to promote and monitor work engagement. The techniques and methods adopted at each stage of the methodology will be detailed below.

2.1. SLR Methodology

In the SLT, to find the most relevant scientific documents according to the proposed objectives, the scientific database Scopus was used in January 2023, following the search formula described in

Table 1. Strings used in the search formula.

Themes	String
Happy and Engaged Employee	(“Employee Engagement” OR “Employee Motivation” OR “Work Engagement” OR “Employee Involvement” OR “Organizational Commitment” OR “Workforce Retention” OR “Job Satisfaction”)
Industry 4.0	(“Industry 4.0” OR “Fourth Industrial Revolution” OR “Digitalization” OR “Digital Transformation” OR “Operator 4.0” OR “Industry 5.0”)

.

PRISMA is a process that determines a minimum set of evidence-based items for use in reports, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses [9]. This method (see Figure 2) was used in this research and after identifying 205 articles (using the previously identified search formula), a screening of this set was carried out. First, the articles were filtered according to language, with Portuguese and English as the chosen ones. This choice was based on their ease of use for the authors, which determined 195 articles. Next, the filter was for the source type, where only Journals, Conference Proceedings, and Book Series were considered, leaving 184 articles. Because some articles did not have authors and it was not possible to reach them, this filter was also introduced, eliminating 30 references. Finally, the title and abstract of 154 articles were read in order to retain only those that made the link between engagement or organizational commitment with Industry 4.0 and that focused on the Manufacturing Industry, which resulted in 80 articles for final analysis (see Appendix A).

2.2. Benchmarking Methodology

To carry out the benchmarking portrayed, the research was essentially done in two ways. First, white papers of large IT companies, namely, IBM and Microsoft were consulted. Next, various websites were analyzed where applications, applied for workforce engagement and job satisfaction, were portrayed. After the perception of the ideal set of 14 applications for more specific analysis, the respective websites were consulted, and content analysis was done to identify the main groups of functionalities.

3. Results

3.1. Theoretical Perspective of a Happy and Engaged Employee: Systematic Literature Review

The systematic review presented here presents two major sections. The first is a bibliometric analysis aimed at demonstrating the relevance of the topic within the literature. The second section is a content analysis that contextualizes engagement and job satisfaction as challenges in Industry 4.0 and analyzes the predictors of these two concepts that are currently the focus of attention.

3.1.1. Bibliometric Analysis

According to Figure 3, it was between 2019 and 2022 where there was the highest production of articles in this field, which refers to about 94% (75 out of 80) of the articles considered in this review. This data shows the current relevance of the topic and a growing concern about workforce issues in Industry 4.0. It is well known that the higher the level of technology in the processes and automation, the greater the conditions for worker turnover. This last fact has worried organizations, leading them to search for solutions to retain workers, and this effort is also noted in the new demand, portrayed in the increasing number of scientific articles that address these issues in recent years.

According to Figure 4, journal articles are in majority relative to conference articles (more than 50%) and, in addition, the journals in quartiles 1 and 2 show a great interest in the topic, since they invest a lot in publishing it. It is, therefore, a current, pertinent, and scientifically relevant topic.

Given the scattering of articles on this topic around the world, Germany emerges as the country where the most attention has been paid (see Figure 5). This may be related to the fact that the Industry 4.0 concept first emerged in that country, following the concerns with human capital in organizations within the scope of digital transformation.

3.1.2. Content Analysis

People’s Challenges in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, or commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, is based on the application of various technologies that generate new digital production systems, where real-time data collection, sharing, and analysis take place [10,11,12,13]. Companies are focused on implementing technology and improving their productivity, yet they forget the human dimension. There is, therefore, currently a need to involve employees and align them in this strategy, making room for the concept of Industry 5.0 to develop [1,14,15,16,17]. The entire digital context determines an era in which individuals must, actively adapt to external environmental changes, and take responsibility for their professional development [18].

In the study performed by [19], the authors concluded that the top management leadership, middle management involvement, employee education, and corporate social responsibility focal factors are presented as being positively influenced factors in the digital transformation process. When the focus falls on employee behavior, the positively related variables are innovation, knowledge sharing, work–family balance, psychological capital, job satisfaction, and career commitment [19,20]. On the other hand, there are negatively influenced factors, namely, employee training (more investment is needed) and, as negatively influenced behaviors to arise, factors such as creativity, discretionary effort, turnover intention, and proactivity [19].

Digitalization (according to Frenzel et al. [21] digitalization’s definition is settled in a socio-technical phenomenon, in which digital technologies are used and their influence on societies, companies and personal lives is monitored. On the other hand, Digitization, a process commonly equated with Digitalization, is referred to as the technical process of converting, generating, storing, or processing data) increases work productivity and, in addition, makes work more interesting, while promoting interactions with co-workers and supervisors [22]. Digitalization positively impacts job satisfaction as it increases workers’ autonomy and creates more flexible ways of working [23,24,25,26,27]. A happy employee is a productive employee, which translates into the idea that employees who are satisfied with their jobs and feel happy in their jobs will then be more engaged, more productive, and less likely to quit [10,28,29]. According to the literature, job satisfaction has both a cognitive and affective aspect and is noticed as a positive emotional state resulting from the evaluation of one’s professional experiences [30,31]. Job satisfaction contributes to the implementation of the concept of sustainable social development, a term that is particularly important regarding the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the context of changes occurring in socio-economic processes [10].

Related to the concept of job satisfaction is the concept of employee engagement, which has the power to create a ripple effect in teams, making employees more supportive and cooperative [32,33]. Engagement is an affective-motivational tool, which determines a positive attitude toward the work of employees and results in lower absenteeism and turnover [4,5,34]. This, consequently, fosters dedication and commitment to organizational goals [32,35]. It should be noted that employee engagement is seen as the level of psychological investment an employee has in their organization, and cannot be confused with satisfaction or happiness, although one leads to the other [36]. Even though work engagement provides greater job satisfaction, not only with the work itself but also with the organization, it is important to understand that this does not determine organizational commitment. A professional with a high level of engagement tends to be constantly evaluating opportunities for development, learning, and career growth (in which the demands of the job and the organizational and personal resources are in balance), considering not only the different aspects of the current organization but also evaluating opportunities elsewhere if they prove to be better [29].

The concept of employee engagement is a new one, and talent management and leadership are taking on new importance as the competition to attract and keep strong employees becomes increasingly fierce. Thus, the employee experience becomes as important as the customer experience, and within the digital paradigm (where all companies have access to the same technology), companies are beginning to understand that differentiation and consequent competitive advantage are related to their ability to attract and retain quality human capital [37].

Employee involvement (EI) is another emerging concept within Industry 4.0, but it should not be confused with engagement. An involved employee is usually an engaged employee; however, the opposite is not always the case. An involved employee can act to achieve the organization’s goals. Thus, the authors of [38,39] prove in their works that managers who reinforce EI practices during continuous improvement activities can achieve a higher level of operational performance when they decide to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies, rather than those who neglect the importance of EI.

In addition to the concepts discussed above, it is important to understand that with the vigorous integration of technologies into production processes, there is a growing amount of data about employees that has changed the way work is done. On the one hand, data enables managers to cheaply observe employees’ work in real-time, which can easily steer toward an autocratic and controlled leadership style [40,41]. On the other hand, this type of data can be used to empower employees, leading to an employee-centric leadership style. Thus, the demonstrated benefits of transparency may collide with the perceived risk of lack of privacy [40,41].

The figure below (Figure 6) intends to summarize, in a very general way, the influence of digitalization in two major areas: Machines and Processes and People. In terms of machines and processes, it promotes automation, which contributes to an increase in work productivity. In terms of people, the concepts of Job Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, and Employee Involvement are related (as explained above) and determine greater corporate innovation as well as a reduction in the risk of turnover, promoting the retention of the best workforce. It should also be noted that increased work productivity, the best workforce retention, and increased corporate innovation intrinsically influence each other, which all together determine a higher competitive advantage.

• The Impact of COVID-19 on the Workforce

Related to the pandemic time, and to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, there were many measures to be implemented within the industry, which consequently had significant impacts on how and where employees work [42,43,44,45]. To try to reduce contact between people, there have been governments calling for the implementation of actions such as encouraging working from home. Since that time, remote working (also called telecommuting and working from home) has grown as a new way of working [43,46,47,48,49].

In [46], the authors used the job satisfaction survey for a population sample in the Czech Republic and concluded that Czech workers’ job satisfaction has been steadily increasing since 2013 and that during the pandemic, the level of job satisfaction increased even more. These higher levels of job satisfaction in the Czech Republic occurred in supportive organizational cultures. Ref. [44] investigated the relationship between work quality and well-being concerning the permanent or exclusive use of telework. The advice is to use telework occasionally, but not exclusively.

Based on their research, Battisti et al. [43] presented two major conclusions. The first reveals that, for most workers (55% of the sample, a sample with a population from Italy), teleworking has a negative and significant economic and financial impact due to the additional costs incurred for technology and digital platforms and utilities, as well as for the non-payment of overtime and meal vouchers. In the end, these costs turn out to be higher than the savings in travel costs and out-of-pocket expenses. The second conclusion is based on the idea that factors such as job satisfaction and technostress, are essential in the choice of remote work post COVID-19. The authors find that salary is not strongly related to job satisfaction, which means that a good salary cannot enhance job satisfaction. Moreover, high levels of technology use can, in the long run, boost workload, pace, multitasking, and interruptions, leading to stress (technostress) [43,50,51,52,53]. In [54], the authors prove that techno-stressors have negative effects in terms of health and even work; however, in engagement, the effect is positive.

According to [28,48,55,56], remote working enables employees to have more autonomy, something that is required to cope with the demands of this new way of working. In [48], the authors showed the importance of autonomy for job satisfaction and, in parallel, they have evidenced flexible work arrangements (working from home and hybrid work models, as well as a certain degree of technical flexibility) can empower workers in crises and possibly protect their health. Many government responses to the pandemic are known to have ultimately promoted more sustainable practices [46]. Hence, telecommuting is currently used by organizations as a talent attraction and retention strategy as it promotes work–life balance [45]. It is now necessary to build a better understanding of the resources and other factors that drive work–life balance and job satisfaction while working permanently from home, to design policies for effective telework within organizations [45,57].

Predictors of an Engaged and Happy Worker in Industry 4.0

The introduction of robots relieves employees of repetitive work; however, there is a decrease in the feeling of significant work [58,59]. Therefore, more and greater workplace challenges are important to improve employees’ self-confidence. The digital paradigm should promote the combination of the strength and efficiency of industrial robotics with human imagination and innovation to drive the economy of industrial factories [32,59].

The current adaptation of new technologies makes it urgent to update employees’ curricula, as it places new demands on them and transforms their daily working lives [31,60,61]. The successful implementation of such technologies at work requires that workers need to acquire adequate skills to cope with the new emerging work demands, and therefore the mismatch between the skills and demands of workers at work is known to be a major determinant of job change and job dissatisfaction [31,62,63,64]. Therefore, it is essential to promote on-the-job training, through involvement in workshops on Industry 4.0 and technological transformations, not only to develop skills but also to make employees more aware and open to change [7,65,66,67,68].

Related to the above, job insecurity, technology anxiety, and learning anxiety are the possible adverse effects portrayed in the literature by the introduction of technology. In Eickemeyer et al. [69], the authors state that soft skills training or education in the workplace can be considered as a countermeasure to the possible symptoms identified. These skills may include managing financial and material resources, managing individuals, time management, decision making, communication, and leadership skills. In addition, training and implementation of coaching in the workplace can be very effective in increasing organizational results. Coaching, primarily, promotes formally defined agreements in setting personal development goals, fulfilling the agreement through development, concentrating on interpersonal and intrapersonal issues, and using the provision of tools and reinforcements for chances that the coachee needs for development and growth.

A new concept called Protean Career Attitude (PCA) emerges from a business point of view, in which an individual develops a career based on his or her own values. That is, the individual, based on his values, takes responsibility for his career plan and management himself, and manages his career [18]. In Ref. [18], the authors prove that PCA improves an individual’s job satisfaction, and, in addition, improves career commitment and psychological well-being (PWB). Further results reveal that career performance had a positive effect on employees’ PWB in the workplace. Consequently, the authors recommend that companies should support their employees to become self-directed through education and training programs, such as various lectures and special seminars so that they can develop their careers autonomously. It should be noted that these results suggest the importance of PCA in individual career management and further place them as a basis for sustainable business management by improving employees’ mental health in the workplace.

In Schultz’s [70] work, the author predicted that self-leadership is the future of human resource management (HRM) and that it promotes engagement at work. Boskovic [71] confirms that autonomy in the workplace is an important factor in employee engagement. Giving employees the discretionary right to decide how, where, and when to perform tasks increases their perception of the meaning of their work. At the same time, if an individual believes that he/she has control over the work that he/she performs, the responsibility for the results increases, as well as his/her motivation.

In [72], leadership type was also studied to establish a correlation between leadership and innovative work behavior. There is a positive effect between exercising authentic leadership and promoting a proactive personality in employees, as well as between positive leadership and promoting innovative behavior in the worker. In addition, the research determines the direct effect of a proactive personality on work commitment and the mediating effect of a work commitment on the relationship between proactive personality and innovative work behavior. To cope with the volatility of the digital paradigm, a behavior such as innovation at work is essential [72,73]. Thus, organizations should retain individuals with proactive personalities or boost their personalities while training [72]. Employee engagement at work is directly related to innovation and new ideas can be used for superior individual and organizational performance [73,74]. The suggestion is that authentic leadership actions are established, where leaders stimulate motivational behaviors that determine that employees feel treated honestly and consistently based on ethical and moral standards to improve innovative behavior at work [73]. According to Hahm [75], it is concluded that leadership through delegation and participative leadership are crucial for the development of the fourth industrial revolution. These types of leadership are oriented toward employees, who, instead of having leaders command and control their followers, have leaders who support, engage, and delegate.

Still related to leadership, the authors in [76] conclude that the type of charismatic leadership adopted by leaders enables them to present their vision clearly and succinctly, to provide employees with the necessary information, reassuring them, confident for less uncertainty in the process (factor which encourages a negative effect on work engagement). Goals are also known to serve as standards of self-satisfaction, in which harder goals require more accomplishment to achieve self-satisfaction, than easy goals. Management by objectives (MBO) is the concept that admits converting overall organizational goals into specific (S), measurable (M), attainable (A), realistic (R), and time-bound (T) objectives (SMART) for both organizational units and individual members. From this perspective, objectives are then intrinsic motivators, as they make work meaningful and challenging, and furthermore, following the MBO subordinates are involved in objective setting, which in doing so; enables them to achieve their own objectives [77].

According to research conducted in [10], four job characteristics (tasks, knowledge, social and contextual characteristics) were tested to see if they increased job satisfaction. The research resulted in three combinations that lead to high job satisfaction under conditions of digital transformation. The first is the combination of task characteristics and knowledge characteristics. The second combination indicates that knowledge characteristics, social characteristics, and contextual characteristics are sufficient to achieve high job satisfaction. On the other hand, the last combination requires the presence of task characteristics, knowledge characteristics, and contextual characteristics in the absence of social characteristics for high job satisfaction. Of note, the first group of task characteristics includes job planning autonomy, decision-making autonomy, work method autonomy, task variety, task meaning, task identity, and job feedback. The second group, knowledge characteristics refer to the knowledge, skills, and abilities required. The third group, social characteristics, is related to the level as well as the type of personal interactions employees have in their work. The last group is contextual characteristics and includes ergonomics, physical demands, working conditions, and equipment use.

At the core is communication, which becomes essential within the digital paradigm and is a predictor of work engagement, as it enables the sharing of information between one or more elements or groups to reach a common understanding about a certain topic. Hence, communication is an important factor for maintaining social relationships in the company, as such, the lack of social information can limit social relationships in the company. Thus, it is common to use technologies to make conversations more informal and to strengthen relationships [78]. This interaction is also crucial to make known the mission, vision, culture, and goals of organizations, while at the same time giving employees room to have a participatory attitude in decision making at various levels [79,80]. It should be noted that face-to-face communication is a key mechanism for effective employee engagement, and therefore video conferencing tools in a teamwork space allow employees to interact with supervisors, colleagues, and others throughout the organization, sharing ideas and contributing to common goals [80]. Furthermore, expression through visual media plays an important role in employee engagement, since if a relevant image is paired with information, it enables people to retain 65% of the information three days later [80].

Based on the findings found in the literature on this topic and described above, four major areas emerge for promoting an engaged and happy employee within Industry 4.0: (i) Employee role; (ii) Employee skills and career management; (iii) Supervision support; and (iv) Social relationships (see Figure 7). All of them are based on a common base, which is Communication.

To increase engagement with new technologies it is essential to promote two major responses, the first being supervisor support, and clarity of the work to be done (with the introduction of these new tools). Role clarity is especially important, where employees can receive clear instructions on how their role will change and how it will be affected by the introduction of technology. Understanding the change and its effects on job functions and activities is a necessary condition for accepting the change itself [41]. A positive attitude towards technology not only promotes its effective and positive use, but also plays a role in the motivational dynamics that make workers more positive, willing to invest effort, and persistent in the face of challenges or problems [65].

In [36], the authors prove the following, related to internal social networks:

(a)

Internal social networks enhance work engagement.

(b)

This type of corporate social network is a tool in which managers and leaders can communicate with their employees in a direct and uncomplicated way and, eventually, become more engaged with them. This happens, as in this type of tool there is direct communication without delays (which avoids disappointment on the part of employees), less formal criteria, as well as the chance to communicate at different hierarchical levels.

(c)

Internal social networks facilitate the flow of communication and collaborative work (employees who have just joined the company tend to agree more with the statement than employees who have worked for the same company for several years).

(d)

To establish internal social networks, the company must have a flat hierarchy and open interaction.

(e)

There is an interdependence between trust because of employee engagement and the successful use of internal social media. For an internal social network to be well received, there must already be trust in management, employees, and the tools themselves.

Therefore, social networks help in building greater employee engagement, but they also require a minimum of employee involvement and a corporate culture based on trust to be successfully implemented in the first place.

• Gamification as a Way for Achieving Engaged and Happy Workers in Industry 4.0

The concept of gamification presents itself as a far-reaching global phenomenon that relies on the process of integrating the game mechanic into something that already exists (and has nothing to do with a game environment) to motivate participation, engagement, and loyalty [81,82]. The development aims to integrate points, rules, achievements, feedback systems, badges, rewards, competition, status, self-expression, scoreboards, progress tracking, and video-game-based interfaces to make activities motivational, fair, and potentially fun, and to encourage further action through positive feedback [81,83]. Within Gamification, the most applied theory is the Self-Determination Theory, which finds that every human needs a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness to achieve self-determined motivation, well-being, and growth [84]. To implement gamification structures in the corporate environment, these structures must be closely linked to company processes [82]. In conservative companies, this can cause problems, and poor or inadequate implementation can negatively affect employee morale. It should be noted that not all processes can necessarily be played with, with a special focus, for example, on creative processes [82]. Therefore, a careful analysis of company structures is always needed to find out whether hierarchies are flexible enough to use gamification [82].

In [7], the authors demonstrated that job satisfaction and engagement can be leveraged by implementing basic elements of gamification, including feedback. Their work concludes that employees want to be recognized and receive some sort of reciprocal benefit from this new method of communication. Thus, organizations should orient their HRM systems so that employees can create added value for themselves through recognition from peers and colleagues, but also by ensuring that employees enjoy the tasks they are performing. When they get “likes” or badges for the activities/interactions with the tools, employees express higher levels of job satisfaction and engagement, effects which in the long run do not seem to diminish or fade.

3.2. Practical Perspective of a Happy and Engaged Employee: Benchmarking of Practical Applications

To carry out the application benchmarking, in the first phase, four products from two IT organizations were analyzed: IBM Kenexa Talent Suites, IBM Watson Talent Suite, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Viva. Next, and considering the guidelines for engagement applications made by [85,86,87,88,89], 10 more applications were chosen for analysis. It should be noted that the choice was based on the number of features, so those with the most features were included in the Top 10. Thus, it was intended to present a brief description of each of the 14 applications found, as well as a summary table for the functionalities. The functionalities of the tools were analyzed according to the main areas of engagement and job satisfaction (see

Table 2. Characterization of tools based on engagement and job satisfaction drivers—Summary of benchmarking.

	Engagement and Job Satisfaction Drivers
Tools	Employee Role	Employee Skills and Career Management	Supervision Support	Social Relationships	Gamification	Analytics
IBM Kenexa Talent Suites [90]	-	-	-	-	-	-
IBM Watson Talent Suite [90]	Watson Candidate Assistant	Watson Career Coach	-	-	Badging Leaderboards	-
Microsoft Teams [91]	-	-	-	Communities creation; Conversations channels; Online video calling	-	-
Microsoft Viva [92]	Viva Insights; Viva Topics	Viva Learning	Viva Insights	Viva Connections	Badging; Leaderboards	-
Leapsome [93]	Performance review	Skills Map; Learning paths; Learning Track; Learning content	Goals and OKR management; Meetings support (agenda and summary)	Public praise; Private feedback	-	Pulse surveys; Data dashboards
Lattice [94]	Create, launch and track assessments	Skills Map; Individual Development Plans; Career Track	Goals and OKR management	Public praise	Badging; Leaderboards	Pulse surveys; Data Dashboards
Blink [95]	Knowledge hub (with policies, procedures and guides)	-	-	News feed with updates; Chat with groups or individually (1:1); Public Praise	-	Creation and distribution of forms
Bitrix24 [96]	Built-in online time clock	-	Project monitoring and management (work reports, Gantt charts, customizable kanban boards)	Conferences Private and group chats	Badging	-
Factorial [97]	Notification of defined or modified shifts for employees; Customization of performance evaluations	Training management system	Goals and OKR management	-	-	-
15Five [98]	Performance reviews	Coaching hub	Goals and OKR management	Public praise	Badging	Pulse surveys
BetterUp [99]		Coaching hub; Learning paths	-	-	Microlearning	-
Motivosity [100]	-	-	Weekly collaboration processes with preparedness prompt (between supervisor and employee); Meeting notes; Goals and OKR management	Public praise	Badging; Leaderboards	Pulse surveys
PeopleHum [101]	Suggestion system	Learning recommendations; Skills map and potential	Goals and OKR management; Collecting and creating ideas in real time	News feed with updates; Public Praise	-	Pulse surveys
DeskAlerts [102]	Alerts	-	-		-	-

), as described in the RSL: Employee Role, Employee skills and career management, Supervision support, Social relationships (where recognition will be included), and adding Gamification.

Below, a brief characterization and reflection of each tool will be presented.

• IBM Kenexa Talent Suite:

IBM Kenexa Talent [90] consists of the Kenexa Acquisition Suite, the Kenexa Talent Optimization Suite, and the Kenexa Talent Insights. The Kenexa Acquisition Suite combines recruiting, onboarding, and social collaboration capabilities so an organization can hire the best talent. Its functionalities are as follows: IBM Kenexa Lead Manager—candidate relationship management software; IBM Kenexa BrassRing—presents itself as a global candidate tracking system to help find and hire the best talent; IBM Kenexa Onboard—a tool that automates the onboarding processes of new candidates, eliminating paper errors, cycle time and data entry. The IBM Kenexa Talent Optimization Suite includes performance management, succession management, and social collaboration applications. Its functionalities include: a performance management module that simplifies the entire performance planning and review process; succession planning that helps identify internal candidates with the skills, competency ratings, and performance histories needed to fill potential vacancies; and an optional compensation planning module that supports budgeting, allocation, and administration of various payment types. IBM Kenexa Talent Insights is a cloud-based talent analytics solution that allows managers to easily analyze their talent data to support fact-based decisions.

In a nutshell, it should be noted that the IBM Kenexa Talent Suites is a software more oriented towards the management of HR and does not focus so much on the employee himself. Thus, its functionalities were not seen as an integral part of the areas that enhance engagement portrayed in the literature.

• IBM Watson Talent Suite:

The IBM Watson Talent Suite [90] consists of the following: Watson Recruitment—this module analyzes an organization’s hiring history, as well as external data sources (using AI) to present the most qualified candidates, without bias, that is, without any kind of human judgment; Watson Candidate Assistant—analyzes resumes’ employment and educational history, understands skills and matches a candidate with the most suitable jobs; Watson Career Coach—a virtual assistant that, by analyzing the skills and interests of employees, provides personalized advice to trace paths to career opportunities; Watson Talent Frameworks—defines the competencies needed to prepare organizations to deal with the workforce of the future; Adverse Impact Analysis—leverages all AI processing to analyze and identify possible unconscious biases related to gender, race, age, and education through an organization’s work history.

• Microsoft Teams:

Microsoft TEAMS [91] is a software widely used for creating channels within organizational teams, as well as video calls. Thus, it is more oriented toward promoting organizational collaboration. Its features include: conversations within channels and teams; a chat function for teams, groups and individuals; document storage in SharePoint (all files shared in all conversations will be automatically saved in this folder); and online video calling and screen sharing (includes a scheduling aid, a note-taking app, file uploads, and in-meeting chat messages).

• Microsoft Viva:

Microsoft Viva [92] is equipped with four major modules: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics. Viva Connections gives personalized access to employees’ digital workspace, where they can use internal communications and resources, such as policies and benefits, and can also participate in communities. Its features include: a feed where employees can explore news and participate in conversations across the organization, and a personalized resources area that allows employees to access websites, communities, video playlists, and other content. Viva Insights delivers personalized, actionable information at the employee and leader levels. Its functionalities include: personal insights that insert information about how the employee currently works and recommendations on how he can improve; mindfulness strategies to set aside time during the day for regular breaks, focused work, and learning to help increase productivity; and creating plans for healthy work habits that increase productivity and protect well-being (meeting-free plans and shared concentration). Viva Learning aggregates all learning resources in one place. Its features include: connecting learning management systems to view and access learning content; the possibility to add learning courses to the calendar; receiving weekly summary email suggestions to reserve learning time; and receiving suggestions generated by the system based on personal interests and trending content in the organization. Viva Topics helps deliver information to users when they need it. When new employees need to learn on entering the company, in the sense of knowing more, they may need to step away from what they are doing. Viva Topics uses AI to automatically search and identify topics across the organization, compiling information about them. It works as an organizational knowledge platform and users can choose to select the topic to learn more about it through the topic details.

• Leapsome:

Leapsome [93] is an HR platform that adds several features ranging from performance management to employee engagement, and promotes collaboration between workers and supervisors. Its functionalities include: performance reviews that can go up to 360°; a skills map to monitor skills not only individually but also by a team; learning paths that guide employees through a customizable curriculum; learning content for employee education; public and private peer recognition; pulse surveys (Engagement and Employee Net promoter score (eNPS)); Management By Objectives (with the establishment and the monitoring of objectives and OKRs), where people can receive progress updates and tracking reminders; meetings support and functionalities that support their management, namely, collaboration in the creation of the agenda and the summary of conversations.

• Lattice:

Lattice [94] is an application that brings together several features that aim to monitor the performance of the employee, such as the progress of his career within the organization, and also offers solutions that involve the organizational community in review processes. Its features include: ability to create, launch, and track assessments; public recognition; Management By Objectives, in which individual, team, and department goals fit together; Pulse surveys, in which insights are given and make it possible to take action to drive the business (among them is the eNPS); access to a skills map (where skills and their level can be viewed); and creating and tracking easy-to-launch individual development plans that help employees achieve meaningful, ongoing development from day one.

• Blink:

Blink [95] is a mobile-friendly application focused on collaboration. Its functionalities include: a news feed with updates (videos, announcements, priority alerts, and post pinning), where it is easy for everyone to keep abreast of what is happening in the organization; a hub that allows employees to quickly access policies, procedures, and guides; chat with groups or individually (1:1); creation and distribution of forms, which enables the collection of data, automating the main processes; and instant, personalized recognition through colleague recognition (aka kudos).

Bitrix24

:

Bitrix24 [96] is a desktop application more focused on organizational management processes and not so much on the workforce. Its functionalities include: the creation of conferences, with the possibility of recording calls; private and group chats, where it is possible, in addition to discussing ideas, to share files; built-in online time clock that can start/pause/end the working day; project monitoring and management by receiving work reports, distributing the workload more evenly, automating recurring tasks, creating Gantt charts, customizable Kanban boards and many other visual representations; and management of employee attendance.

• Factorial:

Factorial [97] is a desktop software that also supports mobile that focuses, like Bitrix24, on converting manual and complicated processes into centralized, useful and effective processes. Its functionalities include: management of vacations and absences (with a calendar to easily consult team casualties); control of work attendance (with a time clock and the management around it); planning and monitoring of shifts with notification of defined or modified shifts for employees and the possibility to choose between the most used shifts in the last four weeks; customization of performance evaluations; support for recruitment and selection processes with job portals; implementation of an organized and simplified system for Onboarding and Offboarding (obtaining valuable testimonials from employees who leave) in a personalized way; creation of a training management system; and creating goals and OKRs and monitoring them.

• 15Five:

15Five [98] is desktop software that combines pulse surveys with individual and leader development. Its features include: science-backed engagement assessment supported by an insights dashboard that easily collects employee feedback; a collection of performance reviews and ratings (through reports), and decision making regarding compensation; establishment of objectives throughout the organization, with feedback, with the possibility of receiving recognition and inclusion in the agenda (tasks to achieve OKRs); and coaching hub, with the possibility to book sessions.

• BetterUp:

BetterUp [99] is a platform that provides personalized coaching and learning using individual and group experiences aligned with personal and business goals. In this system, the algorithm used finds the right population to coach and recommends the most effective growth path for each person, who returns to the team with new skills capable of promoting a culture of collaboration and growth.

• Motivosity:

Motivosity [100] intends to be a desktop or mobile software that promotes an organizational culture of greater collaboration and recognition. Its functionalities include: a public appreciation tool (with dollars attached to allow employees, managers and peers to recognize each other), where you can link the company’s values; customizable pulse surveys that integrate the eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score), as well as variables to understand team satisfaction across the organization; company turnover information from reports generated with information from exit interviews and company trends to see where your organization can improve; dashboards ranging from eNPS to turnover reports, in which it is possible to schedule information in the right place, with the right people, and at the right time; creation of personalized awards and badges, whether it be for employees of the month, book club, or even the team’s hot dog eating competition; weekly collaboration processes with preparedness prompts so both employee and supervisor come prepared and have intentional conversations (meeting notes can be shared or kept private if needed); and management by objectives with a collaborative priority organizer, with easy visualization of the tasks your employees are currently working on.

• PeopleHum:

PeopleHum [101] is a web or mobile tool that brings together several employee engagement methodologies ranging from connecting, collaborating, and measuring engagement to achieving a superior employee experience. Its functionalities include: “create a stir with announcements” through the feed style; a recognition wall, where everyone recognizes each other; a suggestion system that gives the employee a voice by posting improvements where the rest of the community can vote and add comments; collecting and creating ideas with employees in real-time (where they can be organized and planned for action); learning recommendations; course assessments; creating goals and OKRs and monitoring them; definition and measurement of competences at an individual or group level and calculation of potential; and pulse surveys (for engagement and daily mood).

• DeskAlerts:

DeskAlerts Alerting Software [102] was created to transmit information to a vast number of people effectively, ensuring the recipients’ attention without disturbing them. Its features include: alerting software to communicate in the workplace about current or planned tasks (in which messages are sent to appear in pop-up windows on employees’ monitors or even via SMS alert); instant visualization of who has seen and read messages; a collection of statistics to demonstrate communication efforts; display target-oriented content (on screens within the organization); send questions directly to screens and get results in real time; and coordinate participation in corporate events by sending and managing invitations.

3.3. BoosToRaise: An Engagement Platform Concept

According to the major areas found in the literature for predictors of engagement and job satisfaction (Employee Role, Employee skills and career management, supervision support, and social relationships), the different functionalities of the presented tool concept fit as shown in Figure 8.

Based on the previous results, a tool was designed to impact each of the groups identified as predictors of work engagement and satisfaction. The concept to be proposed, denominated as BoosToRaise, has three major modules, called Collaboration, Digital Passport, and Challenges.

The collaboration module focuses on enabling the various members of the organization to help each other, recognize their successes, and share information. Thus, this module, like the previous one, comprises several submodules, one suggestion system, a discussion forum, an individual and team recognition structure, a buddy allocation system and an events feature that allows the creation of recreational events. In the suggestion system sub-module, the employee can introduce a suggestion, which will follow a Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) strategy called Disney, widely used in Coaching for the creative process. This strategy comprises three roles, the Dreamer, who has the idea; the Realist, who has the task of analyzing how this dream will “come true” and, finally, the Critic, who has the role of analyzing what could go wrong (the defects of the idea). It is intended that a committee, composed of specialists, evaluates the submitted suggestions, which will be visible to the entire organization. The integration of the Disney strategy brings a process of maturity to the idea before it is submitted. In this submodule and within the scope of the Employee Role, the employee can suggest improvements (with the integration of the coaching and NLP strategy) not only for the organization but also for his job. Employees can also collaborate in sharing ideas and enhancing them, impacting the social relationships predictor group. The second sub-module corresponds to the discussion forum that enables knowledge sharing. As said, the main objective of this sub-module is the exchange of questions and answers, so the worker has two ways of doing this: consulting experts in specific tasks and directly questioning these people or asking questions through the selection of the area of specialization. Whoever receives the question must be notified to respond within a certain period. This submodule has an impact on the employee role, since employees can take advantage to clarify doubts about their work with experts, but also has an impact on social relationships since it contributes to knowledge sharing and collaborative culture. A recognition sub-module for colleagues is foreseen, linked to the collaboration module, using pre-defined GIFs. Employees can endorse (at the competencies level) and recognize (good attitudes, for example). In this sub-module, the influence on the predictor group of social relationships is clear, as cross-sectional recognition intensifies organizational relationships. Additionally, an easy-to-use and traceable system for applying and assigning mentors will be explored. Here, collaborators can have guidance (being a mentee) from people near their function and guide other colleagues who enter the organization (being a mentor). This sub-module directs its influence more towards the predictor group of supportive supervision that determines support for the employee’s growth and well-being within the company. To complete the module, a system for creating recreational events will be incorporated, in which employees will be able to vote on the ones that most interest them and they will also be able to register for the ones they find most appropriate. The social relationships group is impacted by this sub-module as it allows employees to decide on teambuilding or socializing topics without the organization imposing them.

In the Digital Passport module, there are two main objectives, being the creation and monitoring of individual profiles (Skills management), where employees can visualize the information of their real status of competencies, and the development of competencies (Individual Development Plans). Its functionalities include: (a) Skills map—where it will be possible to have access to the current level of each competence assigned by the supervisor; (b) Skills use/development preference demonstration—the employee will be able to communicate to the supervisor the preference for the use of certain skills and the preference for the development of others; (c) Skills self-assessment; (d) Cross-referencing skills across functions (using radar charts) for the creation of learning paths; (e) Visualization of the potential in the function (four-level scale—potential achieved, can take on more responsibilities at the same hierarchical level, potential to move up one level, and potential to move up two levels); (f) Competency matrix for the supervisor to see which employees are best suited for each position; (g) Talent Review—a chart that contemplates the performance and potential values of the employees for each position; (h) Creation of learning paths using coaching techniques, namely, the GROW model and the ACCM matrix. The GROW model comprises four main stages (Objective, Reality, Options, and Will), in which the Objective refers to the definition of objectives; Reality is that in which the real state of the situation is perceived; Options refer to what people can commit themselves to, who will carry it out, and when it will be fulfilled; and Will is the will to determine the proposals for achieving the objective. Associated with the ACCM matrix, the SWOT matrix will also be used to help establish the development objectives and make them easier to examine. The SWOT matrix is a business strategy tool for assessing how a company compares with its competitors. “Strengths” and “weaknesses” are viewed internally. “Opportunity” refers to facts that can be used to benefit the entity in the external environment. “Threats”, on the other hand, are external facts that can pose problems for the company. The objective of ACCM is to help in decision making by improving the perception of what is gained and lost in the two alternative scenarios for action, to do or not to do; (i) Monitoring of learning paths, through a tracker, using the same reasoning as the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and Kanban logic, extensively used to improve operations; (j) Instant feedback from the supervisor for the progression and completion of objectives (through an equally PDCA system); and (k) Learning paths also associated to the teams, where it is possible to follow up the objectives (with PDCA and kanban logic). This module impacts mainly on the area of Employee Skills and Career Management as it enables autonomous skills management and brings with it tools that integrate coaching methods that help in developing learning paths. Within the scope of the development of these learning paths, Supervision Support comes in, as it is intended that within the scope of this paradigm, the leader functions as a leadership coach and is, therefore, an empowerer of its employees. Thus, it is intended that all objectives are discussed with the supervisor in a logic of performance review and, when progressing and concluding, the supervisor should give immediate feedback.

The Challenges module has the goal to evaluate some indicators of employees from scales previously validated, using pulse surveys. Besides the questionnaires, this module comprises a mood evaluation. These two types of surveys combined help managers in the monitoring of team members.

It is intended that any interaction with the platform determines the attribution or subtraction of points, according to rules that will be established. In this way, it will be possible to build a gamification system capable of being visualized in leaderboards. For any of the modules, it is intended to create a support dashboard with statistical analysis.

4. Discussion

The organizational and technological context currently demonstrates great volatility. While the focus of companies remains on the introduction of technology, there is already an organic force for the focus to be directed towards people, placing them at the center of this innovation, thus constituting the phenomenon of Industry 5.0 and Sustainable HRM [2,16,17]. Promoting a happy, engaged, and involved employee leads to greater productivity, greater innovation, and a lower risk of turnover [4,34].

According to the findings from the systematic literature review, four major groups emerge as predictors of a happy and engaged employee, namely, Employee Role, Employee Skills and Career Management, Supervision Support, and Social Relationships. As observed by the investigation, all these groups have a common core, which is Communication. The Employee Role focuses a lot on the tasks carried out by the employee, namely, the meaning, variety, autonomy, equipment, and physical demand that they require and, very importantly, the possibility of having a participatory decision within the organization. Employee Skills and Career Management is today very much oriented towards the concept of Protean Career Attitude, which is based on proper career management and attitude towards it. Here, the opportunities that arise in the company to increase skills are important and Coaching is a predominant topic here, proving to be a philosophy that enhances the achievement of objectives [69]. Within the scope of Supervision Support, management by objectives, and more democratic leadership styles capable of the delegation are what currently make the difference. Considering Social Relationships, anything that determines greater collaboration and knowledge sharing is welcome (communication is the primary factor).

When introducing technology to promote these areas, it is essential to allocate gamification systems, as these are capable of, by themselves, fostering organizational engagement [7]. Internal social networks are mechanisms already determined by the literature as enhancers of work engagement [36] and can effectively support the development of some of the predictors, since their core is to facilitate communication. As far as supervisor support and social relationships are concerned, this type of platform can improve the communication flow, making it more fluid and creating conditions for the improvement of collaborative work.

Among the analyzed applications, the ones that were most complete given the predictive areas of engagement highlighted in the literature were Microsoft Viva, Leapsome, Lattice, and PeopleHum, as they presented functionalities capable of fitting in with the majority.

In general, there are still many apps and software created for general HR management, taking the spotlight away from the employee himself. It is, therefore, essential to create a structure that also serves the rights and interests of workers and not just the strategic management of HR.

Another highlight that emerges is that most apps still do not recognize the integration of Coaching, which is seen as essential in the creation and promotion of transversal and social skills, capable of support the sustainability of the digital paradigm [69,103,104]. However, there are already apps dedicated to showing themselves to be hubs of people capable of providing this type of service, as is the case of 15Five and BetterUp.

Taking these gaps into account, the authors propose a concept of a platform that enhances a happy and engaged employee, which is made up of features capable of sustaining the areas highlighted in the literature as predictors. In this tool, the Digital Passport module serves both the Employee Skills and Career Management and Supervision Support areas. With this module, the employee has access to a repository of his skills and mechanisms to adopt a Protean Career Attitude, namely, through self-assessment and the creation of learning paths (where the worker can cross his/her skills with those of other functions requires and thus rethink its development). Within the scope of individual development plans, a career by objectives is encouraged and coaching tools are integrated. Here, the supervisor must follow and monitor the development of each person on his team and offer instant feedback on the progress made.

The other module integrating the tool is the Collaboration module, which serves three areas. Within the scope of the Employee Role, the discussion forum sub-module encourages knowledge sharing (where employees can ask experts about their tasks), and the suggestion system sub-module activates participatory decision making by employees (using a strategy from NLP applied in Coaching). In Supervision Support, it is possible to apply for a network of mentors, which brings support both personally and professionally. In Social Relationships, workers can enhance suggestions for improvement through brainstorming, they also can create discussion communities (within the forum), recreational events (and vote for them to happen), and they can even recognize each other’s accomplishments.

Finally, the third module, named Challenges, is intended to be the “drone” of the application where pulse surveys are sent to employees to determine and evaluate different organizational vectors, namely, engagement. The entire application intends to emerge from a gamified structure with an analytics system (for dashboards), where any interaction determines a system action to add or subtract points. Thus, this tool, called BoosToRaise, aims to do just that, boost the industry to sustainably grow the workforce, focusing on the worker and creating a promising ecosystem for Industry 5.0.

5. Final Remarks and Contributions

5.1. Conclusions and Main Contributions

In the Industry 5.0 world, not only greater productivity is possible, but also greater innovation, retention of the best human capital, and, consequently, increased competitive advantage. For this to be possible, it is essential to create mechanisms within organizations that adapt to the current context, which is heavily lined with Lean, and that promote engagement and empowerment of the workforce. With more engaged and empowered employees, it is possible to have a more innovative workforce that is more willing to stay. It is also essential that the mechanisms created support the capture of tacit knowledge in order to preserve organizational knowledge.

In nutshell, from the theoretical perspective, this article systematizes a set of theories and concepts from the literature that help to understand the importance of working the human capital in organizations, in an era characterized by Industry 4.0. With these findings in mind, an overview of how HRM should be directed toward work engagement in the digital context was given. People demand more from the tasks they perform (to make them more meaningful); they demand more participation in decision making, more skills and career development, more supervisory support, and a superior collaborative context.

From a practical perspective, this study contributes practical knowledge of a set of tools used in work engagement, through a benchmarking approach followed by a content analysis of their respective applications. Thus, with this part of the study, it is possible to have an overview of the main tools on the market that can help, even partially, in the management of HR in the context of the needs of Industry 4.0.

It is determined that there are still few apps that truly focus on the human being and not so much on strategic management. The Coaching area is starting to appear in some apps, but few adopt it, while gamification appears with greater integration. As a result, a concept of an app called BoosToRaise is presented, confronting the previously revealed theoretical and practical perspectives. This is a solution that focuses on all the areas highlighted in the literature as predictors of work engagement, integrates the Coaching area into the feature processes, and is based on a gamification and analytics system. Hence, the concept presented here intends to show itself as an accelerator for Industry 5.0, integrating a sustainable HRM.

5.2. Limitations and Future Work

Although this was a study that collected information from the literature and at the same time from practice (analyzing the most complete applications), there are other applications with other functionalities and, therefore, this is a limitation found that may determine future work.

The authors of this paper are already working on future research that arises from this paper and, because of that, the following lines of action emerge:

• Validation in a real industrial context of the created concept.
• Modeling and prototyping of the digital tool modules and testing in practical and industrial context.
• Auscultation and validation of the application of the engagement predictors highlighted in this paper in a real industrial context.
• Creation of a framework for sustainable human resource management 4.0, with theoretical and practical evidence.