Employee Engagement: Way forward for a successful Organization

Evolution of employee engagement This concept evolved from industrial relations (unitarism) to employee relations (Pluralism). In unitarist approach the employer considered their employees to share the same concerns and interests (collective orientation) which lead to formation of trade unions and industrial revelation in the past. With that the employers realized that individualized relationship with employees is important for the success of a business (Millmore et al, 2007) . The short Film -  Engage for Success explains how employee engagement help organisations to be successful business entities List of References Engage for success – Short Film accessed on line on 08/12/2018 by Chartered Management Institute. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4YcgVIKneaq9di4afoLYw Millmore, M., Lewis P., Sanders M., Thornhill A., Morrow T. Strategic Human Resource Management - Contemporary issue 2007. Published by Pearson Education Limited.

Effective Communication and feedback Effective communication plays a significant role in  employee   engagement (Osborne et al, 2017).  A two-way communication between the employer and employee is important ( IQN, 2017).  Employer should clearly communicate their expectations, organizational goals and targets to their employees and employees in return should be given a chance to report their grievances and concerns. This employee voice to be heard by the management and this makes the organization  “an employer of choice” (Armstrong, 2010).  O rganizations should look for leaders that can both communicate the organization’s vision and secure employees’ support in achieving organizational goals (Osborne et al, 2017) and employees to be given a chance to open up without any repercussions. The best way to gain employee views are the anonymous surveys in which people feel completely safe to speak their minds.  Its proven that majority o f people ope...

Engagement at the time of recruitment Ideally Engagement must start at the time of recruitment, when calling for candidates for a particular job, the advertisements must outline the attractive features such as challenging work assignments, highly skilled team environment, and minimal supervision. Applicants will be motivated by these features and act in response. At the interview the management should communicate the role and the expectations clearly and not keep space for ambiguities. The candidate should be encouraged to communicate their concerns and raise queries and management in return to be flexible in order to suite each and every requirement of the employee. A women candidate could be single parent etc, where flexible working hours, family health benefits and onsite day care center to be introduced and encourage work life balance for a sustainable and a long lasting relationship. Further in selecting the right individual for the right job with few performance problems (Vanc...

Training and Development  Management further needs to spend on Training and Development to their recruited employees, in order to understand the job, acquire knowledge and development of skills which will benefit the employee to perform the job with minimum supervision and without mistakes. An employee with adequate knowledge, skill, and experience become experts in their field and enhance the self esteem and increases the engagement level (Armstrong & Taylor ,  2014 )  However, “Organizations should not embark on an attempt to raise engagement levels unless they are prepared to invest sufficiently into it — time, effort and money.”  (Robinson et al, 2004)  The training to be extended to line managers as well, they should be fully equipped to engage the employees for a mutually beneficial relationship for organization and the employee. The line managers must provide positive response to employees, improving relationship between leaders and employees and ...

Reward Structure Reward &   Compensation plays a major role in employee engagement. It could be either financial reward such as salary, bonus, incentives and travel allowance and non-financial benefits such as on-site day care, employee assistance programs, subsidized cafeteria, company picnics, company gymnasium facilities & promotions. As pointed out by Millmore et al, (2007) “The rewards from employment can be economic, social and psychological”. A performance management system could be utilized for rewarding high performing employees with higher salary increments and bonuses to encourage them to be more engaged (Vance 2006). The management must include in the appraisal the training requirements of the employees and line managers to indicate that they truly care to sit down and discuss about employee’s future aspirations and their further development needs. Further, as per Osborne et al, 2017 “Leaders of organizations that fully support employees, promote continuous ...

Employment security                                                                                                        Employment security is another factor which enhances employee engagement levels. Healthy and a safe working environment will improve quality of life enhancing employee engagement.  Work places should provide infrastructure to maintain healthy and a fully engaged workforce. They could provide health insurance, wellness programs, gym & yoga facilities to address the increasing health issues faced by the employees. As Scott, 2017 states “today’s active workforce has become increasingly affected by “lifestyle diseases,” such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and these types of diseases forci...