Employee engagement

When you hear the word engagement, you might think of long-term commitment, marriage, diamonds, family, and celebration; however, today the word is associated with one of the hottest topics in management. Everyone seems to be on the path to getting their employees engaged.

Engagement Management perspective

From a management perspective, engagement is the process of leading people by enabling them to want to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continuous high performance and success of the business. From the employees perspective, engagement is their attitudinal and emotional state developed from experiences perceived to be controlled by management.

What is Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work".

An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. It is a positive attitude held by the employees towards the organization and its values. 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. 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.

Evolution
Employee engagement is derived from studies of morale or a group's willingness to accomplish organizational objectives which began in the 1920s. The value of morale to organizations was matured by US Army researchers during WWII to predict unity of effort and attitudinal battle-readiness before combat. With the advent of the knowledge worker and emphasis on individual talent management (stars), a term was needed to describe an individual's emotional attachment to the organization, fellow associates and the job. Thus the birth of the term "employee engagement" which is an individual emotional phenomenon whereas morale is a group emotional phenomenon of similar characteristics. Employee engagement was described in the academic literature by Schmidt et al. (1993). An

enhanced version of job satisfaction, Schmidt et al.'s influential definition of engagement was "an employee's involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with work".

People deliver their best work when they are fully engaged with the purpose of their work and organizational goals but on the other hand there are few employees who are not so active and upbeat about the same. Therefore, the employees in an organization are divided into three categories.

Types of employee :: Engaged

Employees work with a zeal and feels a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward. They are the real drivers behind a efficient working organization.

Not engaged
Employees are essentially checked out. They are at work physically but mentally they are not passionate about their work.

Actively disengaged

Employees are unhappy with their work and their organization and voice out their grouses to other engaged workers as well. They are the negative carriers in the organization.

Gallup Management Journal surveyed U.S. employees to discover what effect employee engagement may have on team-level innovation and customer service delivery. Gallup researchers studied employee responses to several items about innovation in the workplace to see which factors differed most strongly among engaged employees (29% of respondents) and those who were not engaged (56%) or actively disengaged (15%).(cited from GMJ 120ct, 2006)

Drivers of engagement
Research shows that committed employees perform better and contribute heavily in an efficient running of an organization. Therefore its quite vital for an organization to understand the drivers of employee engagement.

The 10 Cs of employee engagement Connect Career Clarity Convey Congratulate

Contribute Control Collaborate Credibility Confidence

Connect

Leaders must show that they value their employees which helps in bolstering the relationship between them. However, if employees relationship with their managers is fractured, then no amount of perks will persuade employees to perform at top levels.

Career

Throw the challenges at the employees, train them, enhance their skills but at the same time instil confidence in them. Almost every employee wants to move ahead professionally.

Clarity

What do you want to achieve? This question is as important as How it is to be done? . Employees should have a clear vision regarding the clarity in terms of goal set up by the leaders. Obscure vision leads to unidentified goals.

Convey -

Employees should be given a clear identified goals and after it has been achieved, leaders have to make sure they provide feedback to the employees.

Congratulate -

Negatives are identified much prior to positives. Exceptional leaders should always acknowledge, praise and appreciate the efforts of the employee which will provide a push to employees and will come up with better returns. Contribute Employees should be realized as to how much their input matters to the working of an organisation and how their contribution is immense. It helps to develop a bridge between the work and strategic objectives of the company. Collaborate Work together, achieve more. If individuals work together in a team and have trust and cooperation, they come out with new ideas and better productivity. It fosters the relationship building which helps in the longer run to an organization. Credibility Be proud of what you do, how you do and why you do?. Leaders strive to maintain a reputation by disposing higher ethical standards. Every employee wants to be proud of their job, performance and their organization.

Control - In order to create a level of employee engagement, giving employees control over their job and priorities can create a sense of trust and value. Engaging employees in decisions and involving them in various activities helps employees feel valued. Confidence Leaders should inseminate the trust and confidence in the employees which will give them the confidence of performing better and thus giving better outputs.

Clarity

convey

contribute

collaborate

confidence

control

Feeling valued and involved

Credibility

connect

career

congratulate

E N G A G E M E N T

Benefits and importance

When employees are engaged, they believe are doing something valuable for their organizations and that their efforts will make a difference. The positive feelings that employees have about their jobs and employers influence the level of service they give to customers. These positive experiences spill over to

customers, who become advocates for the companys products and services. Engaged employees contribute to the bottom line. As their engagement is reflected in their service to customers, they are helping to create more loyal customers. Highly engaged customers buy more products, refer potential customers to a company, stay longer and give more feedback, which, in turn, gives companies the opportunity to address issues and concerns and preserve potentially lost revenue.

Better performance. Engaged employees work smarter, not harder. They keep looking for ways to improve performance and they keep finding them. This means more sales, lower costs, better quality and innovative products. Better communication. Engaged employees communicate they share information with colleagues, they pass on ideas, suggestions and advice and they speak up for the organisation. This leads to better performance, greater innovation and happier customers. Greater customer satisfaction. Engaged employees go out of their way to meet customers needs. Customers arent slow to notice and this leads to higher levels of repeat business, at a lower cost to the business than that of acquiring a new customer. Better team-working. Employee engagement is about increasing the employees connection with the principles, strategies, processes, culture and purpose

of the organisation. It is a matter of commitment and encouragement. It is a matter of focusing on business results, and the employees having a clear sense of responsibility for delivering on the business agenda. Greater commitment and team working. Engaged employees really care about the future of the organisation they work for, they feel proud to work for the company and they get on better with their colleagues. Lower employee turnover and greater ability to recruit great people. Engaged employees dont leave, despite offers to work elsewhere and they actively seek out new people who they believe can help the company get even better.
Measure Employee Engagement?

Gallup research confirms that engaged work places compared with least engaged are much more likely to have lower employee turnover, higher than average customer loyalty, above average productivity and earnings. These are all good things that prove that engaging and involving employees make good business sense and building shareholder value. Negative workplace relationships may be a big part of why so many employees are not engaged with their jobs. Listen The employer must listen to his employees and remember that this is a continuous process. The information employees supply will provide direction . This is the only way to identify their specific concerns. When leaders listen, employees respond by becoming

more engaged. This results in increased productivity and employee retention. Engaged employees are much more likely to be satisfied in their positions, remain with the company, be promoted, and strive for higher levels of performance. Step II: Measure current level of employee engagement Employee engagement needs to be measured at regular intervals in order to track its contribution to the success of the organisation. But measuring the engagement (feedback through surveys) without planning how to handle the result can lead employees to disengage. It is therefore not enough to feel the pulsethe action plan is just as essential. Knowing the Degree in which Employees Are Engaged? A well-administered satisfaction survey will let us know at what level of engagement the employees are operating. Customizable employee surveys will provide with a starting point towards the efforts to optimize employee engagement. The key to successful employee satisfaction surveys is to pay close attention to the feedback from the staff. Employee engagement should be a continuous process of measuring, analyzing, defining and implementing. The employee survey is a diagnostic tool of choice in the battle for the hearts of employees. Studies of Gallup, Mercer, Hewitt and Watson Wyatt (consulting companies) asked workers number of questions relating to their job satisfaction. Gallup being one of

oldest the consulting organisation {in conducting engagement survey} creates a feedback system for employers that would identify and measure elements of worker engagement most tide to the bottom line. Things such as sales, growth, productivity and customer loyalty are all accessed. After Hundreds of focus group and thousands of interviews with employees in a variety of industries, Gallup came up with Q. 12, a twelve-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement. They have identified 12 questions that most effectively measure the links (the Gallup Q12). 1. Do you know what is expected of you at work? 2. Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right? 3. At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? 4. In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work? 5. Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about you as a person? 6. Is there someone at work who encourages your development? 7. At work, do your opinions seem to count? 8. Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important? 9. Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work? 10. Do you have a best friend at work? 11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?

12. In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

How to improve Employee engagement?? Focus on employee engagement to boost work output, says study
WASHINGTON: A study has indicated that the performance management process should evaluate and focus on employee engagement in addition to job performance. Engagement involves high levels of identification with one's work in terms of attention, absorption and feeling integrated in the performance of one's tasks and roles, according to a paper published from the University of Toronto and University of Guelph. The paper's authors - Professor Alan Saks from the University of Toronto and Professor Jamie Gruman of the University of Guelph contend performance management should involve an evaluation of employee engagement and that for many companies enhancing employee performance can be best achieved by changing the focus of the performance management process to a focus on the management of employee engagement. ANI Aug 18, 2011, 11.36am IST Tags: performance management process|Jobs