57% of UK employees want their companies to contribute more in the field of CSR and to support more charities, and 63% believe that paid time off during working hours to be spent on charitable initiatives would significantly improve engagement in their business.

These are the headline figures of a new survey that suggests the UK’s economy could gain £17 billion in value by increasing employee engagement.

Research in the past decade has found strong correlation between employee engagement and profitability, and these links have lead LeapCR, which commissioned the survey, to suggest that companies should improve employee engagement in order to increase productivity and profitability.

“CSR is all about companies aligning their values and behaviour with the expectations of their employees and customers. This research shows that employers are out of touch with those expectations,” says Malcolm Scovil, CEO of LeapCR. “The answer to increasing profits is engaging employees in a purpose beyond simply profit.”

A 1% rise in productivity across the UK services sector would add the aforementioned £17 billion to the UK’s GDP.