What cities have the most enthusiastic employees?

Omaha, Neb.--Across the country, employee engagement--having workers who are dedicated to their jobs and want to see the company succeed--is the highest it’s been since 2009, according to a recent study by Quantum Workplace.

The results are based on a survey that included 400,000 employees at nearly 5,000 organizations in 41 cities conducted between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2013.

The 2014 Employee Engagement Trends Report measures the level of engagement based on 37 items that fall into 10 areas of engagement: teamwork, manager effectiveness, trust in senior leaders, trust with coworkers, retention, alignment with goals, feeling valued, individual contribution, job satisfaction and benefits.

Employee engagement has been on a slow rise since 2011, as companies recover from the recession. Of the total number of employees surveyed in 2013, 68 percent ranked as engaged.

According to the survey, the cities with most engaged employees, followed by percentage of employees engaged at the workplace, are as follows.

1. Huntsville, Ala.--77.6 percent
2. Miami-Dade, Fla.--74.7 percent
3. Nashville, Tenn.--74.4 percent
4. Austin, Texas--74.2 percent
5. San Antonio, Texas--73.5 percent

The study also found that Huntsville experienced the greatest increase in engagement with a nearly 18 percent increase when compared with all other participating cities, followed by Cincinnati (up 12.5 percent), Omaha, Neb. (up 8.5 percent), St. Louis (up 7.3 percent) and South Florida (up 6.5 percent).

The report also identified the bottom five cities for employee engagement.

1. Lincoln, Neb.--57.1 percent
2. Kansas City, Kan.--59.6 percent
3. Minneapolis/St. Paul--60.7 percent
4. Albuquerque, N.M.--61.2 percent
5. Las Vegas--61.3 percent

Quantum Workplace said that the same three survey items over the past seven years have been at the top of driving engagement: having leaders that are committed to making it a great place to work, trust that the leaders of the organization will set the right course, and a belief that the organization will be successful in the future.

Engagement of employees is important not only to keep them happy and increase retention and productivity but also because the companies with higher engagement also reported higher profits and sales, according to the report.

The firm found that 91 percent of executives were engaged compared with 60 percent of hourly employees, and that employees working in human resources, sales and marketing were more engaged than any other departments.

Additionally, women were slightly less engaged than men and were more driven by