The study investigated employee engagement and performance of lecturers in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions. It employed descriptive and correlation research designs. Stratified random sampling was used to select three tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the sample size of 314 lecturers was obtained through Taro Yamane. Questionnaires were distributed to 314 lecturers but only 290 of them positively responded by returning the filled questionnaires. This represents 92.36% response rate and 7.64% non response rate. The reliability of the instrument was measured with Spearman Brown's Split Half method which yielded the reliability coefficient of 0.835 which is deemed adequate for the study. The hypothesis was tested using Pearson Product Moment Coefficient. Result revealed that there is a positive relationship between employer reciprocity and lectures' research output with a coefficient of correlation (r) value of 0.710 and from the finding; it recommended that management of tertiary institutions in Nigeria need to develop and nurture engagement by providing adequate training opportunities for academic staff to increase organizational visibility and ranking.