Employee Engagement - The Need Of The Hour

By

Ms. Vaishali Trivedi
Lecturer
SEMCOM College
Vallabh Vidyanagar
 

Intoduction

For several years now, 'employee engagement' has been a hot topic in corporate circles. It's a buzz phrase that has captured the attention of workplace observers and HR managers, as well as the executive suite. And it's a topic that employers and employees alike think they understand, yet can't articulate very easily.

While interest in employee engagement has grown steadily during the last few years, adoption of employee engagement principles and practices seems to have skyrocketed as the recession drags on. This makes sense as true employee engagement can help overcome the negative impacts of the recession as seen in lower employee morale, productivity and focus.

Concept

Employee engagement is a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its values.An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization.The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.

Features of employee engagement:

* Understanding of business context and the 'bigger picture'
* Respectful of, and helpful to, colleagues
* Willingness to 'go the extra mile'
* Belief in the organization
* Desire to work to make things better
* Keeping up to date with developments in the field.

Employee commitment and engagement is measured by three primary behaviours - Say, Stay and Strive. 'Say' is evidently achieved if the employee consistently speaks positively about the organisation to co-workers and refers potential employees and customers. 'Stay' refers to the employee's intensive desire to be a member of the organisation, despite opportunities to work elsewhere. 'Strive' indicates an extra effort and behaviours that contribute to business success. A red flag in either of the three behaviours engenders greater employee concerns.

Why Employee engagement?

Conditions that prevent employee engagement seldom alleviate themselves. They should be assessed and addressed as soon as possible. Left to multiply, negative employee satisfaction issues can result in:

* Higher employee turnover - Employees leave, taking their reservoir of knowledge and experience to another workplace.
* Diminished performance - Competency of the workforce is reduced, at least for  short term, until new employees are trained .
* Lost training investment - Time and money invested in training and development programs for departing workers is wasted.
* Lower morale - Remaining employees can be overburdened with new duties, in addition the unresolved issues that already prevent their full engagement.

To counter the above problems, the firm must take relevant steps to engage their employees in the work.

Engagement Drivers

Organizations that believe in increasing employee engagement levels focus on

1. Culture: It consists of a foundation of leadership, vision, values, effective communication, a strategic plan, and HR policies that are focused on the employee.

2. Continuous Reinforcement of People-Focused Policies: Continuous reinforcement exists when senior management provides staff with budgets and resources to accomplish their work, and empowers them.

3. Meaningful Metrics: They measure the factors that are essential to the organization's performance. Because so much of the organization's performance is dependent on people, such metrics will naturally drive the people-focus of the organization and lead to beneficial change.

4. Organizational Performance: It ultimately leads to high levels of trust, pride, satisfaction, success, and believe it or not, fun.

Managers may take up following steps for creating and sustaining employee engagement:

1) Let go off any negative opinions you may have about your employees
Approach each of them as a source of unique knowledge with something valuable to contribute to the company. Remember that you are co-creating the achievement of a vision with them.

2) Make sure employees have everything they need to do their jobs.
Why not build just such an opportunity into your department simply by asking each staff member, or the team as a whole, "Do you have everything you need to be as competent as you can be?" Remember, just as marketplace and customer needs change at daily, so do your employees' needs change.

3) Clearly communicate what's expected of employees - What the company values and vision are, and how the company defines success. Employees can't perform well or be productive if they don't clearly know what it is they're there to do – and the part they play in the overall success of the company. Be sure to communicate your expectations - and to do it often.

4) Get to know your employees - Especially their goals, their stressors, what excites them and how they each define 'success. Show an interest in their well being and that, when appropriate, you do what it takes to enable them to feel more fulfilled .

5) Make sure they are trained - and retrained - in problem solving and conflict resolution skills.
These critical skills will help them interact better with you, their teammates, customers and suppliers. It's common sense - better communication reduces stress and increase positive outcomes.

6) Constantly ask how you are doing in your employees' eyes.
Although it can be difficult for managers to request employee feedback - and it can be equally if not more challenging for an employee to give the person who evaluates them an honest response. To get strong at this skill and to model it for employees, begin dialogues with employees using conversation starters such as, "It's one of my goals to constantly improve myself as a manager. What would you like to see me do differently? What could I be doing to make your job easier?" Be sure to accept feedback graciously and to express appreciation.

7) Pay attention to company stories and rituals.
Are people laughing at each other or with each other? Do they repeat stories of success of moments of shame? Stay away from participating in discussions that are destructive to people or the organization, and keep success stories alive.

8) Reward and recognize employees in ways that are meaningful to them

That's why getting to know your employees is so important. And remember to celebrate both accomplishments and efforts to give employees working on long-term goals a boost.

9) Be consistent for the long haul.
If you start an 'engagement initiative' and then drop it , your efforts will backfire, creating employee estrangement. People are exhausted and exasperated from 'program du jour' initiatives that engage their passion and then fizzle out when the manager gets bored, fired or moved to another department. There's a connection between an employee's commitment to an initiative and a manager's commitment to supporting it. A manager's ongoing commitment to keeping people engaged, involved in and excited about the work they do and the challenges they face must be a daily priority.

Conclusion

People are a key component of any company's ability to execute its strategies and achieve its goals. Companies who are better able to engage their people also deliver better business performance and return to shareholders. Thus, employee engagement at all levels must not only be encouraged but also rewarded.

One must keep in mind that employees are a company's greatest assets. Their collective ideas, feedback and enthusiasm for what they do can help the business grow and succeed. Some people are naturally wired to give their all and do their best no matter where they work. But the majority of people require the guidance of skilled managers who welcome their ideas, ask for feedback and generate enthusiasm in order to have a sense of purpose and energy about what they do.

References

Ashok Mukherjee – Engagement for the mind body, and soul – Human Capital, Aug. 2005.

Christoffer Ellehuus,Piers Hudson-Driving Performance and Retention Through Employee Engagement – Corporate leadership Council 2004,Employee Enagegement Survey

Douglas R. May, Richard L Gilson – The Psychological conditions of meaningfulness safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work – Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology (2004).

Gretcher Hoover – Maintaining employee engagement when communicating difficult issues – Communication World, Nov / Dec 2005

Heskett, Jame  L – Putting the service profit chain to work – Harvard Business Review, Mar / Apr 94 Vol. 72 Issue 1
 

Ms. Vaishali Trivedi
Lecturer
SEMCOM College
Vallabh Vidyanagar
 

Source: E-mail September 30, 2009

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