Employee Engagement: Way forward for a successful Organization ; Definition of Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement: Way forward for a successful Organization
Definition of Employee Engagement
Employee engagement or employee relation is a two-way process where the employer and employee are responsible for the success of the organization. Employee engagement could be defined as an emotional attachment towards the organization, highly involved in the work with enthusiasm for the success of the Organization (Kompaso & Sridevi, 2010). In engagement an employee, “is going extra mile beyond the employment contractual agreement” to fulfill the assigned job, which is discretionary behaviour and part of psychological contract (Purcell et al, 2003).
Ingredients of job engagement as per Armstrong (2010) are motivation, commitment & organizational citizenship behaviour. Therefore, employee engagement is a blend of all three ingredients.
An engaged employee will be loyal in attitude, will go beyond their minimum expectations to complete an assignment and will be a promoter of their company to the clients. The result of the above will be lower accident rate, higher output, fewer misunderstandings, and more creativity, less staff turnover & reduced health issues (Vorina, 2017)
Employee engagement is an element of Human Resource Management “creating opportunities for employees to connect with their colleagues, managers and wider organization” (Armstrong, 2010). Both parties have their own expectations, legal rights and responsibilities. The employees will perform their duties and task in a satisfactory manner as per organizational policies and procedures & employers in return treat them reasonably, fairly and consistently. MacLeod and Clarke (2009) describe this as mutual respect between employee and management.
As pointed out by MacLeod and Clarke (2009) engagement is like two sides of a coin where management should lay foundation to capture the heart and soul of the employee and employee in return should fulfil the organizations goals. As explained by O’Riordan (2017) HR is important to “Create a positive employment relationship between management and employees. Employees’ will give their best when they are given autonomy & empowerment(Stewart, 2012) to carry out their work independently to achieve the set KPI’s of the organization.
The importance of engagement is elaborated in IES (2003)and states that people should be treated as stake holders of an organization, ownership and empowerment plays a major role in engagement and improve company performance. Importance of engagement was explained in service profit chain by Robinson et al (2004) as “from People to Profit” starting from the committed line manager coupled with fair and rewarding company culture, the level of employee’s engagement increases which enhances customer satisfaction leading to higher customer spending and increased sales & profitability of the organization.
Passionate employees who are engaged are focused on achieving company’s goals at any cost, which is a key competitive advantage in the modern world (Vorina et al, 2017). Further, improved employee productivity had a positive effect on organizational financial performance (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). The bond between leaders and employees is an essential element for engaging employees, which in turn increased organizational profitability (Osborne et al, 2017).
As per Richard Branson of Virginia Group, the employers should put “purpose and passion at the heart of their plans” further he states that employer and employee should do what they love and love what they do, which leads to self satisfaction and contributes to satisfactory business performance.
A survey was conducted by Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) among 12000 employees of IT, apparel sector & BPO/KPO sector in Sri Lanka. It was revealed during the survey that “Meaningfulness and the awareness of the job, supportive senior management and supportive co-worker relationship are the factors that drive employee engagement”(Daily FT, 2017)
List of References
Employee engagement or employee relation is a two-way process where the employer and employee are responsible for the success of the organization. Employee engagement could be defined as an emotional attachment towards the organization, highly involved in the work with enthusiasm for the success of the Organization (Kompaso & Sridevi, 2010). In engagement an employee, “is going extra mile beyond the employment contractual agreement” to fulfill the assigned job, which is discretionary behaviour and part of psychological contract (Purcell et al, 2003).
Ingredients of job engagement as per Armstrong (2010) are motivation, commitment & organizational citizenship behaviour. Therefore, employee engagement is a blend of all three ingredients.
The importance of engagement is elaborated in IES (2003)and states that people should be treated as stake holders of an organization, ownership and empowerment plays a major role in engagement and improve company performance. Importance of engagement was explained in service profit chain by Robinson et al (2004) as “from People to Profit” starting from the committed line manager coupled with fair and rewarding company culture, the level of employee’s engagement increases which enhances customer satisfaction leading to higher customer spending and increased sales & profitability of the organization.
Passionate employees who are engaged are focused on achieving company’s goals at any cost, which is a key competitive advantage in the modern world (Vorina et al, 2017). Further, improved employee productivity had a positive effect on organizational financial performance (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). The bond between leaders and employees is an essential element for engaging employees, which in turn increased organizational profitability (Osborne et al, 2017).
As per Richard Branson of Virginia Group, the employers should put “purpose and passion at the heart of their plans” further he states that employer and employee should do what they love and love what they do, which leads to self satisfaction and contributes to satisfactory business performance.
A survey was conducted by Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) among 12000 employees of IT, apparel sector & BPO/KPO sector in Sri Lanka. It was revealed during the survey that “Meaningfulness and the awareness of the job, supportive senior management and supportive co-worker relationship are the factors that drive employee engagement”(Daily FT, 2017)
List of References
List of References
Armstrong, M (2010) Armstrong's Essential Human Resource Practice: A Guide to People Management.
Branson, R. The best way to engage employees (Accessed online on 08/12/2018) https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-branson-best-way-engage-employees
Dharmasiri, A. (Daily FT, 02/10/2017) Engaging Employees for Enterprise Effectiveness: Emerging evidence from Sri Lanka. http://www.ft.lk/columns/Engaging-employees-for-enterprise-effectiveness--Emerging-evidence-from-Sri-Lanka/4-640687. (Accessed on line on 05/12/2018).
MacLeod, D and Clarke, N (2009) Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, London.
Osborne, S. & Hammoud M., S. ( 2017)Effective Employee Engagement in the Workplace , International Journal of Applied Management and Technology 2017, Volume 16, Issue 1, Pages 50–67.
Robinson, D., Perryman, S., Hayday, S. (2004) The Drivers of Employee Engagement. Institute of Employee Studies. IES report 408.
Vorina, A., Simonic, M., Vlasova, M. (2017) Economic Themes – An Analysis of the relationship between Job Satisfaction & employee engagement (p. 245).
Stewart, H. (2012) The Happy Manifesto – Make Your Organization a Great Place to Work-Now (Foreword by professor Julion Birkshaw of London Business School).
Armstrong, M (2010) Armstrong's Essential Human Resource Practice: A Guide to People Management.
Branson, R. The best way to engage employees (Accessed online on 08/12/2018) https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-branson-best-way-engage-employees
Dharmasiri, A. (Daily FT, 02/10/2017) Engaging Employees for Enterprise Effectiveness: Emerging evidence from Sri Lanka. http://www.ft.lk/columns/Engaging-employees-for-enterprise-effectiveness--Emerging-evidence-from-Sri-Lanka/4-640687. (Accessed on line on 05/12/2018).
MacLeod, D and Clarke, N (2009) Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, London.
Osborne, S. & Hammoud M., S. ( 2017)Effective Employee Engagement in the Workplace , International Journal of Applied Management and Technology 2017, Volume 16, Issue 1, Pages 50–67.
Robinson, D., Perryman, S., Hayday, S. (2004) The Drivers of Employee Engagement. Institute of Employee Studies. IES report 408.
Vorina, A., Simonic, M., Vlasova, M. (2017) Economic Themes – An Analysis of the relationship between Job Satisfaction & employee engagement (p. 245).
Stewart, H. (2012) The Happy Manifesto – Make Your Organization a Great Place to Work-Now (Foreword by professor Julion Birkshaw of London Business School).
Employee engagement is a key element for the success of any organization. An employee can work but if he is not psychologically connected with the job, the result is least. There are many org globally where their employees just perform their duties… but certain selected organization ( Eg Google) where the employees are happy and engaged and the organization performances are astonishing. According to Bakkar and Scheufeli, (2008), the term of employee engagement that “it is a psychological state where employees feel a vested interest in the organization’s success and perform to a high standard that may exceed the stated requirements of the job.
ReplyDeleteAn engaged employee is one who produces results, does not change job frequently and more importantly is the ambassador of the company at all times (Chandani et al., 2016)
DeleteMotivated employees can lead to increased productivity and empower an organization to achieve higher levels of production ( Thompson, 2016).
ReplyDeleteEmployees who are positively engaged at work perform better and are more productive. Similarly, organisations with high engagement outperform those with low engagement. A study carried out by the Gallup Organisation in 2012 confirms this. It found that business units with engagement scores in the top quartile averaged 12 per cent higher profitability than those with engagement scores in the bottom quartile. Organisations where employees showed high levels of engagement demonstrated a greater capacity for innovation, experienced higher retention rates, less absenteeism and fewer work-related accidents (Chartered Management Institute, 2015)
DeleteHi Lakshmi,
ReplyDeleteTo add on further to your blog, Engagement is about creating opportunities for employees to connect with their peers, colleagues, Management and organization. It is also about creating an environment where employees are motivated with need to connect with their work and maintaining the quality of job (Truss et al 2006).
Thanks Ashanthi.
DeleteHow does an engaged workforce generate valuable business results for an organization?
The process starts with employer practices such as job and task design, recruitment,
selection, training, compensation, performance management and career development.
Such practices affect employees’ level of engagement as well as job performance (Vance, 2006)
Engagement is a positive, two-way, relationship between an employee and their organization.Both parties are aware of their own and the other’s needs, and the way they support each other to fulfil those needs. Engaged employees and organizations will go the extra mile for each other because they see the mutual benefit of investing in their relationship (Chiumento (2004).
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Employees show more engagement towards the organisation when they see themselves getting praised by their immediate managers, they have the leadership’s attention (for example, one-on-one conversations) Leadership dimensions that are found to be most influential are making up a good mentor or manager and articulation of the vision (Chandani, 2016)
ReplyDelete