subject: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – A TOOL TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY [print this page] EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT A TOOL TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
Introduction
In a highly competitive market for both customers and talented staff, employee engagement is the current Holy Grail. Many companies realize that maximum productivity doesn't come from just a "satisfied" or "happy" employee. They know that the most productive and loyal employee is known as an engaged employee.
Employees are engaged when many different levels of employees are feeling fully involved and enthusiastic about their jobs and their organizations. Engagement is the willingness and ability to contribute to company success the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work, in the form of extra time, brainpower and energy" according to a Towers Perrin study.
Engagement at work was conceptualized by Kahn, (1990) as the harnessing of organizational members' selves to their work roles. In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. The second related construct to engagement in organizational behavior is the notion of flow advanced by Csikszentmihalyi (1975, 1990). Csikzentmihalyi (1975) defines flow as the holistic sensation' that, people feel when they act with total involvement. Flow is the state in which there is little distinction between the self and environment. When individuals are in Flow State little conscious control is necessary for their actions.
An organization's productivity is not only measured in terms of profit, new products, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction, but also in terms of employee engagement. Employees are said to be engaged, when there is a positive attitude towards the work and also a high degree of commitment. An organization's capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to achieve high performance levels and superior business results.
Employee engagement is the thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their 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.' Thus Employee engagement is a barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization.
Engagement is most closely associated with the existing construction of job involvement (Brown 1996) and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Job involvement is defined as the degree to which the job situation is central to the person and his or her identity (Lawler & Hall, 1970). Kanungo (1982) maintained that job involvement is a Cognitive or belief state of Psychological identification. Job involvement is thought to depend on both need saliency and the potential of a job to satisfy these needs. Thus job involvement results form a cognitive judgment about the needs satisfying abilities of the job. Jobs in this view are tied to one's self image. Engagement differs from job in as it is concerned more with how the individual employees his/her self during the performance of his / her job. Furthermore engagement entails the active use of emotions. Finally engagement may be thought of as an antecedent to job involvement in that individuals who experience deep engagement in their roles should come to identify with their jobs.
When Kahn talked about employee engagement he has given important to all three aspects physically, cognitively and emotionally. Whereas in job satisfaction importance has been more given to cognitive side.
HR practitioners believe that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels about the about work experience and how he or she is treated in the organization. It has a lot to do with emotions which are fundamentally related to drive bottom line success in a company. There will always be people who never give their best efforts no matter how hard HR and line managers try to engage them. "But for the most part employees want to commit to companies because doing so satisfies a powerful and a basic need in connect with and contribute to something significant".
Definition:
Employee Engagement
"The state of emotional and intellectual commitment of a person,
group or organization to the entity with whom they are employed."
Source: Hewitt
"Engagement is not about "WHAT" our people do.
It is the driver of "HOW" they do it and "WHO" they do it for."
Source: Hewitt
A positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its values. An engaged employee 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.
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.
Four dimentions of employees engagement:
What do I get?
When employee's needs are met, the positive emotions that result encourage employees to look beyond the work in front of them and to care about the overall welfare of the business. More importantly, it's hard to create passionate, engaged customers without passionate, engaged employees.
What do I give?
Managers can influence employees' most basic needs by setting clear expectations and providing needed resources.
Personally, managers can create meaningful relationships within workgroups and position employees so that they can do what they do best.
Professionally, managers can provide challenging work and opportunities to learn, grow, and make significant contributions.
Do I belong?
Primarily it is important that the employees have to recognize their contribution towards the growth of the organization which leads to the growth of the employees in the organization. They must know about the objectives, vision and mission of the enterprise.
How can we grow?
Work units that follow these dimensions of engagement perform at a much higher level than work units that fail to meet them. Everyone in the organization should ready to accept the opportunities and challenge the threats faced by the organization. And it is important to know about the strength and weakness of the organization.
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.
Measuring the Impact of Employee Engagement:
Career Development- Opportunities for Personal Development
Organizations with high levels of engagement provide employees with opportunities to develop their abilities, learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and realize their potential. When companies plan for the career paths of their employees and invest in them in this way their people invest in them. Career development influences engagement for employees and retaining the most talented employees and providing opportunities for personal development.
Immediate management:
Employees want to be involved in decisions that affect their work. The leaders of high engagement workplaces create a trustful and challenging environment, in which employees are encouraged to dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy and to input and innovate to move the organization forward.
Performance appraisal:
Fair evaluation of an employee's performance is an important criterion for determining the level of employee engagement. The company which follows an appropriate performance appraisal technique (which is transparent and not biased) will have high levels of employee engagement.
Communication:
The company should follow the open door policy. There should be both upward and downward communication with the use of appropriate communication channels in the organization. If the employee is given a say in the decision making and has the right to be heard by his boss than the engagement levels are likely to be high.
Equal Opportunities and Fair Treatment:
The employee engagement levels would be high if their bosses (superiors) provide equal opportunities for growth and advancement to all the employees.
Pay and Benefits:
The company should have a proper pay system so that the employees are motivated to work in the organization. In order to boost his engagement levels the employees should also be provided with certain benefits and compensations.
Health and Safety:
Research indicates that the engagement levels are low if the employee does not feel secure while working. Therefore every organization should adopt appropriate methods and systems for the health and safety of their employees.
Co-operation:
If the entire organization works together by helping each other i.e. all the employees as well as the supervisors co-ordinate well than the employees will be engaged.
Family Friendliness:
A person's family life influences his wok life. When an employee realizes that the organization is considering his family's benefits also, he will have an emotional attachment with the organization which leads to engagement
Job Satisfaction:
Only a satisfied employee can become an engaged employee. Therefore it is very essential for an organization to see to it that the job given to the employee matches his career goals which will make him enjoy his work and he would ultimately be satisfied with his job.
Benefits of Engaged employees to the organization:
Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success.
They will normally perform better and are more motivated.
There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability and productivity.
They form an emotional connection with the company. This impacts their attitude towards the company's clients, and thereby improves customer satisfaction and service levels.
It builds passion, commitment and alignment with the organization's strategies
and goals.
Increases employees' trust in the organization.
Increases productivity and improves morale.
Improve overall organizational effectiveness.
Lower attrition rate.
Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment
Provides a high-energy working environment
Boosts business growth
Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company.
Strategies t o improve Employee engagement
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) 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.
8) 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
SPECIAL BENEFITS (3S BENEFITS) THROUGH EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
Organization are facing hard times towards employees retention and it is tough to get things from them and moreover the word "loyal employees" get degrading in this current scenario. To be excel in this competitive environment organization are in need of the above said, these things can be achieved only through employee engagement.
If the employee are engaged the organization will get special benefits (3S Benefits) which definitely improve productivity and profitability of the organization.
3S BENEFITS PYRAMID OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
v SPIRIT TO SAY:
As if the employee gets engaged they have the positive attitude towards the organization. 'Spirit to Say' is evidently achieved if the employee consistently speaks positively about the organization to co-workers and refers potential employees and customers. The spirit of employees lies mainly on the speech. The business activity needs an employee with effective speaking skill. Employee symbolizes the power of confidences. They provide a best capsule of changing negative attitude to positive attitude. And they also refer to other to join in the organization.
v SPIRIT TO STAY:
It is not enough to say that your symbol confidence but it must also be revealed in action. The spirit to say is not full filed unless it is combined with spirit to stay. 'Spirit to Stay' refers to the employee's intensive desire to be a member of the organization, despite opportunities to work elsewhere.
v SPIRIT TO STRIVE:
After 2's strategy, the employee has to strive for the opportunities. True employee has to strive to tab the potential business opportunities. When opportunities area tab it is necessary to utilize the resource effectively. 'Spirit to Strive' indicates an extra effort and behaviors that contribute to business success, which in turn improve productivity and profitability of the organization.
As if the employee get engaged the organization enjoy the 3S Benefits and also confident enough to face the competitors with competitive advantage.
CONCLUSION
Employee Engagement resolves around what it takes to get employees to give their best, emotionally and physically, and go that extra mile for the organization. Over a period of time, striking similarities have been found in the factors that drive engagement and the personal investment that employees make to the organization.
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
The productivity seems to be in the direct proportion to the Employee engagement. With all the positive measures offered to the workers with quality and quantity production as the chief aim, it may be of much more good factor for increasing the productivity and performing the organization in a better manner by improving Employee engagement.
"Right or smart talent" is a necessity for every organization to thrive and grow. The war for talent is seeing organization going full length to woo, engage and nurture the "right talent". It starts with the attraction stage. While the initial impact is important, how well we manage all the life stages of the employee is critical too. Good work culture makes commitment towards the organization.
Hence we conclude that organization should raise and maintain Employee Engagement towards employees which require a perfect blend of time, effort, commitment and investment to craft a successful endeavor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ritu Arora/2008/Employee Engagement: A tool to Reduce Attrition/Raj management journal/October 2008 Vol.VI Issue II/Page No. 96-105.
Frank Sunil Justus T/2009/Employee Engagement Towards Retention Insights from the Real World/HRM Review/March 2009//Page No.49-53.
Prabhi/2009/Employee Engagement A Mantra For HR Managers/HRM Review/August 2009/Page No. 49-53
Ms.Vaishali Trivedi/2009/Employee Engagement - The Need Of The Hour/September 30, 2009
John H. Fleming/2007/Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter/November 2007
NR Aravamuthan/2009/Storytelling- New tool for Employee Engagement/HRM Review/December 2009/Page no. 13-18 Human Resource Development and Management Biswanath Ghosh, Vikas Publishing house Pvt. Ltd.,
Human Resource & personnel management, K. Aswathappa Sulthan Chand and Son, 1999.
Personal Management, Mamoria & Mamoria, Himalaya Publishing House, 1997.
A Study on Employee Engagement-A Tool to Improve Productivity With Reference To Executives in Wheels India Limited- Padi, Chennai-50. Mr. D. Rajesh, annauniversity project work
