EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – What is it ? All about Employee Engagement What is Employee Engagement ?

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – What is it ?

I thought to write this article after I got a chance to meet an HR Manager focussing on employee engagement and looking forward the way out to do so, Being a newly appointed one she was trying to change the culture and transform the company and was looking to put in some serious efforts towards that. The company was a product based company running since decades with the same set of “HR rules”.

Following were my thoughts (to be very frank most of the below mentioned) on Employee Engagement. She beleived that these are of not much use. So, I though to share this in the form of an article towards the readers of this blog.

Please leave your valuable comments and/or suggestions at the end as it will help keep me motivated and will make me learn more things and discover more ways of analyzing a single thing from various aspects and angles.

Finding good employees is one thing, but keeping them happy and engaged is just as critical to make sure you can retain them for the long term. Here are few effective activities you can use right now to make sure you get the best results out of your most valuable resource.

Employee engagement is a relationship between an organization and its employees. An "engaged employee" is one who is motivated about their work and so takes positive action for the organization's reputation and interests.

An organization with 'high' employee engagement might therefore be expected to outperform those with 'low' employee engagement.

There are differences between attitude, behaviour and outcomes in terms of engagement. Outcomes of employee engagement may include higher productivity, fewer conflicts, more innovation, lower numbers leaving and reduced sickness rates. But we believe all three – attitudes, behaviours and outcomes – are part of the engagement story.

When it comes to employee engagement then employees see through such attempts very quickly. Engaged employees freely and willingly give discretionary effort.

Is it just the latest management fad? We believe that while it does have clear overlaps with analytical antecedents such as commitment, ‘organisational citizenship behaviour’, job involvement and job satisfaction, there are also crucial differences.

In particular, engagement is two way: organisations must work to engage the employee, who in turn has a choice about the level of engagement to offer the employer.

There is no Perfect model for successful employee engagement there were four common themes that emerged in the employee engagement activity. Enablers of engagement have proved to be useful lenses which can help organisations assess the effectiveness of their approaches.

Visible, empowering leadership providing a strong strategic way out about the organisation, where it’s come from and where it’s going.

Engaging managers who focus their people and give them scope, treat their people as individuals and coach and stretch their people.

There is employee voice throughout the organisations, for reinforcing and challenging views, between functions and externally, employees are seen as central to the solution.

There is organisational integrity – the values on the wall are reflected in day to day behaviours.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – THE EVIDENCE

The UK has an employee engagement deficit.  Survey after survey indicates that only around one third of UK workers say they are engaged – a figure which leaves the UK ranked ninth for engagement levels amongst the world’s twelfth largest economies as ranked by GDP (Kenexa 2009).

The UK also has a productivity deficit. The most recent ONS survey found that output per hour in the UK was 15 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7 industrialised nations in 2011; on an output per worker basis, UK productivity was 20 percentage points lower than the rest of the G7 in 2011. This represents the widest productivity gap since 1995.

I believe these two factors are related.  As this paper demonstrates, there is a firm correlation between employee engagement and high organisational productivity and performance, across all sectors of the economy.

As well as performance and productivity, employee engagement impacts positively on levels of absenteeism, on retention, on levels of innovation, on customer service, on positive outcomes in public services and on staff advocacy of their organisations.

It is also clear that engagement impacts more on performance than the other way around.  A study in a leading retail bank found that employee engagement levels predicted subsequent business level performance over a three year horizon while business unit performance predicted engagement only over a single year.

No wonder that 94% of the world’s most admired companies believe that their efforts to engage their employees have created a competitive advantage.

What is employee engagement ?

Employee engagement does not mean employee happiness. Someone might be happy at work, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are working hard, productively on behalf of the organization. While company game rooms, free massages and Friday keg parties are fun–and may be beneficial for other reasons–making employees happy is different from making them engaged.

Employee engagement doesn’t mean employee satisfaction. Many companies have “employee satisfaction” surveys and executives talk about “employee satisfaction”, but the bar is set too low. A satisfied employee might show up for her daily 9-to-5 without complaint. But that same “satisfied” employee might not go the extra effort on her own, and she’ll probably take the headhunter’s call luring her away with a 10% bump in pay. Satisfied isn’t enough.

As per my understanding Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.

This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company. They don’t work just for a paycheck, or just for the next promotion, but work on behalf of the organization’s goals.

When employees care—when they are engaged—they use discretionary effort.

This means the engaged computer programmer works overtime when needed, without being asked. This means the engaged retail clerk picks up the trash on the store floor, even if the boss isn’t watching.

Engaged workers have 6% higher net profit margins, and according to Kenexa research engaged companies have five times higher shareholder returns over five years.

How does employee engagement lead to higher stock prices? The ROI of engagement comes from what I call the Engagement-Profit Chain:

Engaged Employees lead to…higher service, quality, and productivity, which leads to…higher customer satisfaction, which leads to…increased sales (repeat business and referrals), which leads to…higher levels of profit, which leads to…higher shareholder returns (i.e., stock price)

As former Campbell’s Soup CEO, Doug Conant, once said, “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”

How can leaders engage employees’ heads, hearts, and hands?

Leaders must show that they value employees.

Firstly Break All the Rules, Employee-focused initiatives such as profit sharing and implementing work–life balance initiatives are important. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with the boss. Employees look at whether organizations and their leader walk the talk when they proclaim that, “Our employees are our most valuable asset.”

Leaders should provide challenging and meaningful work with opportunities for career advancement. Most people want to do new things in their job.

For example

Do organizations provide job rotation for their top talent?

Are people assigned stretch goals?

Do leaders hold people accountable for progress?

Are jobs enriched in duties and responsibilities?

Not giving people the knowledge and tools to be successful is unethical and de-motivating; it is also likely to lead to stress, frustration, and, ultimately, lack of engagement. Leaders must communicate a clear vision. People want to understand the vision that senior leadership has for the organization, and the goals that leaders or departmental heads have for the division, unit, or team. 

Success in life and organizations is, to a great extent, determined by how clear individuals are about their goals and what they really want to achieve. In sum, employees need to understand what the organization’s goals are, why they are important, and how the goals can best be attained. Clarity about what the organization stands for, what it wants to achieve, and how people can contribute to the organization’s success is not always evident.

Leaders clarify their expectations about employees and provide feedback on their functioning in the organization. Good leaders establish processes and procedures that help people master important tasks and facilitate goal achievement.

Business leaders can learn a great deal from Wooden’s approach. Surveys show that, over and over, employees feel that they receive immediate feedback when their performance is poor, or below expectations. These same employees also report that praise and recognition for strong performance is “much less common”. Exceptional leaders give recognition, and they do so a lot; they coach and convey.

The implementation of the measurement system led to three startling conclusions. First, an employee’s understanding of the connection between her work – as operationalized by specific job-relevant behaviors – and the strategic objectives of the company had a positive impact on job performance. Second, an employee’s attitude towards the job and the company had the greatest impact on loyalty and customer service than all the other employee factors combined. Third, improvements in employee attitude led to improvements in job-relevant behavior; this, in turn, increased customer satisfaction and an improvement in revenue growth. In sum, good leaders help people see and feel how they are contributing to the organization’s success and future.

Employees value control over the flow and pace of their jobs and leaders can create opportunities for employees to exercise this control. Do leaders consult with their employees with regard to their needs?

Are employees able to voice their ideas, and does leadership show that contributions are valued?

H. Norman Schwartzkopf, retired U.S. Army General, once remarked:

I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon.

But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each of whom wants to do good.

A feeling of “being in on things,” and of being given opportunities to participate in decision making often reduces stress; it also creates trust and a culture where people want to take ownership of problems and their solutions.

The success of Microsoft, for example, stems in part from Bill Gates’ belief that smart people anywhere in the company should have the power to drive an initiative.

Many studies show that, when employees work in teams and have the trust and cooperation of their team members, they outperform individuals and teams which lack good relationships.

Great leaders are team builders; they create an environment that fosters trust and collaboration. Surveys indicate that being cared about by colleagues is a strong predictor of employee engagement.

Leaders should strive to maintain a company’s reputation and demonstrate high ethical standards. People want to be proud of their jobs, their performance, and their organization.

WestJet Airlines is among the most admired organizations in Canada. The company has achieved numerous awards.

For example, in 2005, it earned the number one spot for best corporate culture in Canada. On September 26, 2005, WestJet launched the “Because We’re Owners!” campaign. Why do WestJet employees care so much about their organization? Why do over 85 percent of them own shares in the company? Employees believe so strongly in what WestJet is trying to do and are so excited about its strong performance record that they commit their own money into shares.

Leaders help create confidence in a company by being exemplars of high ethical and performance standards.

To illustrate, here are few examples to consider, what happened to Harry Stonecipher, the former CEO of Boeing. He made the restoration of corporate ethics in the organization a top priority but was soon after embarrassed by the disclosure of an extramarital affair with a female employee. His poor judgment impaired his ability to lead and he lost a key ingredient for success – credibility. Thus the board asked him to resign. 

Employees working at Qwest and Continental Airlines were so embarrassed about working for their organizations that they would not wear their company’s uniform on their way to and from work. At WorldCom, most employees were shocked, horrified, and embarrassed when the accounting scandal broke at the company. New leadership was faced with the major challenges of regaining public trust and fostering employee engagement.

Give Recognition: Everyone enjoys having their hard work recognized, and it’s one of the least expensive and most effective motivators out there. In fact, recognition often outperforms monetary rewards as a motivating factor for employees.

While a private pat on the back is always appropriate, recognition goes even further when others learn about it. Make a habit of recognizing successes “publicly,” by making announcements, handing out awards, and citing names and accomplishments in company publications and on the website. For employees who consistently outperform, reward them with a promotion and increased job responsibilities.

TWO WAY COMMUNICATION- Unlike the old saying about children, employees don’t want to be “seen but not heard.”

To be fully engaged in their jobs, employees need to feel free to express their views on subjects that affect their work, and they need to feel that what they say is actually being heard.

Open communications is one of the simplest steps you can take to keep employees actively engaged as a part of the company. This isn’t limited to traditional HR areas such as working conditions, benefits, or dress code. Long-term business strategy is always on the minds of employees who really want to make a difference, and their unique perspective of working on the front lines can provide them with valuable insights that senior managers might miss.

Create and promote multiple ways employees can learn about what’s going on in the company and opportunities for them to offer feedback or suggestions that will actually be heard and considered.

For example, consider a company newsletter, a regularly updated intranet, or a monthly “Letter from the CEO,” which poses questions to the employees and gives them an opportunity to respond straight to the top. This kind of interaction boosts engagement and goes directly toward improving the bottom line.

Offer Real-time Progress Reports

Communicate the company’s goals clearly, then keep employees apprised of how they’re doing in helping to reach those goals.

An employee shouldn’t need to wait until their annual performance review to know how they are doing. The best company leaders offer continuous feedback so their employees always know where they are excelling and where there is an opportunity for improvement.

Have FUN because “All work and No play makes Jack a dull boy” Don’t fall into the trap of pushing your employees towards higher levels of productivity and efficiency without taking into account the need for rest, relaxation, and balance. Make it a point to set aside times for employees to have fun.

Use holidays, corporate milestones to just enjoy each other’s company in way that isn’t focused on business. As friendships develop in new and unexpected ways, the end result is a company where everyone truly enjoys going to work and being among their coworkers.

“If you want creative workers you must give them enough time to play.” Nobody likes the idea of going to work if there’s no room for fun. An all work, no play office environment doesn’t make it easy for employees to feel totally comfortable. If employees aren’t comfortable at their job, they will not become engaged or go above and beyond at work. Especially if you want your employees to be creative and think outside the box, it’s important to offer stimulating activities to mix things up.

Establishing CSR (corporate social responsibility) is important for a company’s image, but it also helps with employee engagement! Present some options for an affiliate charity, and ask for employee opinions on what organization to choose. Make sure everyone is passionate about the cause you’ll be supporting, and start collecting ideas for how to raise money for your charity. Whether it be employee donations, a fundraiser event, or a company yard sale, everyone can feel good about working with a company that gives back.

Don’t be afraid to get creative! Putting on a silly in-office awards ceremony is a great opportunity to show your wacky side. Think of some playful awards categories that don’t relate to actual work performance. Things like “nicest ties” or “funkiest style” are good for lighthearted awards. Let everyone vote on the categories and plan the ceremony as an end of year or quarter event. This is another good opportunity to have food, drinks, and a nice time as a team!

Theme Days

Establishing theme days is an effective method of loosening people up and creating a humorous office environment. Some theme days can be wardrobe related as well.