Employee engagement is meant to describe the connection anyone feels towards their workplace. It determines the level of dedication and ultimately gives a sense of the quality of work that can be expected from the employee.
A highly engaged employee is good news for the employer since it directly implies good productivity levels. So, the importance of dedicating resources to harbor employee engagement programs cannot be undermined for any organization looking to succeed.
The focus on employee engagement has been rising in the global context and it no longer remains only a human resource concept but has become an overall business concern in this ever-competitive economy.
A study by Gallup involving 2.7 million workers working across 100,000+ teams shows that the behaviors of those business units having highly engaged employees show 23% greater profitability than the ones having less engaged employees.
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Research and Analysis
In the words of Dr William Kahn who first introduced the concept of employee engagement in the year 1990, the workers in an organisation can be involved at 3 main levels including emotionally, cognitively and physically with their work.
He published his research in the paper ‘ Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement (Academy of Management Journal, December 1990, Vol. 3, no. 4, pp 692-724)’.
He wrote that engaging the workers across all 3 psychological dimensions like making them feel safe, having meaningful contributions to their workplace and having the right energy plus resources would help them to feel secure in their roles, feel that the efforts they were making were worth it and believe that they would be supported in their physical and mental efforts.
In the year 2015, a Southampton team of researchers cited additional dimensions to the employee engagement theory. They focused on 4 different factors of engagements namely:
- Work/job engagement which talked about actual tasks performed by every employee during their workday.
- A multi-dimensional engagement means that the employee might have separate levels of engagement with the organization as a whole that can be different from their task engagement levels.
- Another engagement dependency was on the overall attitude of the employee since a person with a positive approach in life is most likely to have positive levels of engagement with his work as well.
- Self-engagement is another factor to be considered which includes the employee’s relatability towards a high level of performance at work.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) also agreed with Dr Kahn’s work but highlighted the fact that a single definition of employee engagement does not exist since the same can be achieved in a variety of ways.
It is recommended that every organization conducts its employee survey regularly and decides which employee engagement programs work best for its business model.
CIPD believes that creating strategies that cover 360-degree growth including commitment at a company level, the happiness gained from daily work tasks, improving the quality of working relationships between colleagues as well as managers and job satisfaction should all be combined to achieve the best levels of employee engagement in an organization.
Another analysis report published in 2004 by May et al was in favor of Dr Kahn’s research giving importance to physiological factors like safety, feeling valued and availability of good resources for the employees to increase their overall commitment levels.
In 2009, there was another review conducted by Macleod & Clarke which recognized 4 enablers of employee engagement including giving importance to the voice of the employees which essentially means listening to employee feedback, strategic narrative being provided to the employees, managers being actively involved in engagement and maintaining the organizational integrity which is about the reputation of the company in the market.
Ten Employee Engagement Programs
Employee engagement begins from the moment an employee begins their journey in the organization in which they have been hired to work. An impression can be made in the beginning itself by ensuring a smooth recruitment process which should continue till the onboarding is complete.
Then, during the tenure of the work life cycle, the focus should be on creating good learning and development schedules for the employees and providing equal opportunities to succeed and get promoted to higher positions in the organization.
This positive setup should continue till the employee retires from the company or exits the company due to other reasons. However, it is a proven fact that companies investing in good employee engagement programs have low attrition rates overall, such as :
01. Hassle-Free Onboarding
The idea is to design an onboarding process that makes the employee feel so welcome that they get inspired to put their best foot forward from the very first day of joining.
Also, the process should include an adequate amount of informative collaboration with immediate managers or experienced colleagues so that before going live, the employee should become confident and well-versed in what he is expected to do daily.
02. Investing in Personal Growth
If the company offers learning opportunities and decent training sessions, then the worker feels driven to excel.
Visualizing a path for advancement becomes a motivational factor as the employee knows that the company is invested in his personal growth as well. A recent survey shows that 54% of people quit their job since they were not feel valued by the organisation.
03. Adopting a Bottoms-up Approach
An employee should be constantly encouraged to voice out their opinions and give constructive feedback for the betterment of the business. When senior leaders or managers listen to their ideas, it fosters creativity and a sense of ownership among all team members.
04. Recognizing Good Work
Being appreciated at one’s workplace is a dream of all the workers and this has been proven to become one of the biggest motivators for people working all over the world.
05. Creating a Sense of Purpose
When employees have clarity on how their work contributes to the achievement of organizational goals, then their work becomes fulfilling and there is a positive impact on the work culture.
06. Encouraging Team Events
Team building activities and shared goals strengthen the bond among colleagues as well as managers. Workers feel refreshed after attending events outside their daily place of work and community participation has been known to prove effective in increasing productivity levels.
07. Sketching a Success Roadmap
A roadmap pointing out a clear set of goals and milestones keeps every employee focused on their targets and ensures the reduction of unnecessary tasks which does not add value in any way to the business goals.
08. Offering Privileges
Companies offering decent perks and privileges often have a more loyal employee base than the ones with less than decent compensation packages.
09. Hiring Good Leaders
A team is as good as its leader and hiring good people for leadership positions is important since a recent survey showed that 52% of people left their organization due to their managers.
10. Providing Flexibility
Recent studies conclude that 50% of people working in the corporate sector quit their jobs since there was no flexibility provided at their workplace and thus they did not have a good work-life balance.
There has been a substantial increase in remote work and hybrid-remote work culture in recent times, especially after the Covid pandemic to make sure that there is flexibility and better work-life balance.
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Conclusion
It is safe to infer that in the kind of world we currently live in, achieving success in engaging employees remains a challenge for most organizations.
However, adopting holistic approaches based on the principles of open communication remains at the core of this topic and that is what any company should focus on these days.