Abstract
Engagement is a fulfilling job related state of mind that makes employees feel connected with their workplace on an emotional level. The key drivers of workplace engagement for employees include career opportunities, communication, brand alignment, recognition and appreciation, compensation and workplace relationships. Highly engaged employees are beneficial to the growth of business because they add to the innovation and overall profitability of the organization. They promote customer loyalty, employee retention, growth of revenues and higher profitability. However, engaged employees might turn disengaged if they are overburdened with mounting work pressure and stress. In the competition to retain and attract best talents of the market, companies are overhauling their policies and programs to develop a higher level of employee engagement by providing employees with training on skills, awards of recognition, healthcare benefits and perks and improving the relationship between managers and employees.
Engagement refers to a positive, satisfying, job related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). Vigor means high intensity of enthusiasm, energy and mental flexibility while working. Dedication means strong devotion to work with higher level of enthusiasm and challenge. Absorption means being fully immersed in work with no sense of time passing by and no intention of pulling out from the work soon. Employees engaged in work show high levels of energy, dedication and mental resilience to their work. Employee engagement involves employees making full utilization of their physical, cognitive and emotional resources in their performance. Engaged employees share a deep emotional bond with their workplace and strive hard for the growth of their organization. Higher levels of work engagement by employees reap benefit in an increase in employee earning, sales growth, high performance and lower rate of absenteeism. This paper would highlight on drivers of engagement, advantages and disadvantages of employee engagement and the efforts required to increase employee engagement.
There are many drivers of engagement drawing employees towards an organization emotionally and intellectually. The Aon Hewitt Report defines engagement as an emotionally and intellectually involved state of mind reflective of the extent to which an organization has succeeded to hook the hearts and minds of people on to their work (Jauhari, Sehgal and Sehgal, 2013). One of the key drivers to employee engagement is career opportunities. Employees join an organization not only to make a living, but to build a career. Studies show that employees who have their career aspirations and goals in alignment with the vision statement and mission of a company are more likely to get attached to their organization. The managers and immediate supervisors play a significant role in ensuring employees their future success in the company and as more and more opportunities are provided to employees to excel in their career, they develop an emotional connection with the organization.
Another driver to employee engagement is brand alignment. Often employers choose well-celebrated personalities and sport stars to endorse their brand whereas their own employees remain unaware of what their brand stands for. In a survey conducted by Gallup aimed at finding out how many employees in US agree with their brand's promise, it was discovered that only 41% were aware of and agreed with their brand's promise while the rest either disagreed or were uncertain about the same (Kolflat, 2012). Therefore, a solid brand engagement framework should be in place to involve employees in the brand alignment program so that employees become aware of the brand strategy, their role in it and feel confident endorsing the brand. In fact, employer branding strategy helps acquire talents and engage employees.
Recognition and appreciation is another important driver of employee engagement. Recognition and appreciation from managers and supervisors make employees feel that their contribution to the company is acknowledged and that they are valued in the organization. Recognition also demonstrates that employers notice the little things employees do for the success of the organization which often go unnoticed. A study conducted by socialworkplace.com shows that 69% employees are willing to work harder if their contribution is recognized, 49% employees are willing to leave their jobs for a company that acknowledges employees' hard work and 89% engaged employees believe that their managers and supervisors would stand by them in times of trouble with customers and top management (Jauhari, Sehgal and Sehgal, 2013).
Compensation is also one of the most important drivers for employee engagement. An employee's compensation package is constituted of a variety of monetary rewards including base salary, variable pay and benefits. Base salary is the fixed salary that an employee receives on the basis of hours worked whereas variable pay depends on the overall performance of the organization and is usually given to employees in recognition of their contribution to the organization. Benefits include retirement plan, health insurance, savings and other perks like company sponsored transport etc. It is the HR's job to offer employees with a competitive yet lucrative compensation package so that they feel an economic connection with the organization and feel motivated to improve their earning by putting in hard work.
Workplace friendship is another driving factor for employee engagement. Since employees spend a considerable amount of time each day with colleagues, friendship is likely to flourish among them. A survey conducted by a recruitment firm Randstad in 2010 shows that a majority of people in the US are happy in their jobs when they find friendship in office (Swift 2011). Workplace friendship makes the work environment a fulfilling, enjoyable experience for the workers. Friendship in the workplace helps workers receive constructive criticism from colleagues who they are friends with and boosts individual productivity by promoting employee engagement.
Communication is an important hallmark of employee engagement. Internal corporate communication helps employees develop a sense of attachment with the organization and contributes to their organizational commitment. One way communication results in information overload and doesn't add to the solution of a problem whereas two way communication in which management talks to the employees and on the basis of responses received from the employees takes necessary action helps a great deal in forming employee engagement as employees feel that their voices are heard and their grievances are given serious consideration.
A broad spectrum of employee welfare programs and additional benefits also are driving factors of employee engagement. Welfare programs like mandatory medical checkups, high blood pressure screenings, discount on fitness centers, childcare facilities, free flu shots, BMI monitoring, weight loss and smoking cessation programs send employees the message that the employers value them beyond how their contribution influences the bottom line. The employer's commitment to the well-being of employees increases job satisfaction, retention rates and employee attendance.
There are many advantages of employee engagement. Employee engagement proves advantageous to the company because engaged employees love their work, trust their employers and dedicate time and effort passionately for the business growth. They feel a great sense of attachment towards their organization and feel committed to their work. Their emotional attachment and commitment to the organization reveals in their performance and higher rate of productivity. Organizations with highly engaged employees are found to experience 26% more productivity, greater level of attracting top performers, lower rate of turnover and higher returns to shareholders (Irvine, 2009). In 2006 Gallup conducted a survey which came out with the finding that disengaged employees cost about $328 billion yearly to US business owing to their decreased level of productivity and performance. Disengaged employees due to not performing fully to their potential don't give back the desired returns to the investment made on them. On the other hand, the Gallup study found out that engaged employees because of higher level of emotional attachment to the organization contribute to innovations and growth of the company (Jauhari, Sehgal and Sehgal, 2013). They are not only more stable, productive and profitable for the organization they also tend to stick to the organization for longer period of time.
Employee engagement also contributes to develop customer loyalty. Engaged employees create a customer-friendly atmosphere and are willing to go out of their way to provide a fulfilling service to the customers making sure that the customers are satisfied with the product and service. Satisfied customers are more likely to return their visit and promote the company’s good name through the word of mouth. Further engaged employees are more aligned with the brand they are selling and hence they exhibit more enthusiasm and passion in selling products. For instance, the sales girls well-acquainted with the cosmetic brand they are selling would show more enthusiasm in luring customers by providing tips on make-up and helping them choose the right foundation or right lipstick suitable to their complexion. Their love for the brand and excitement would translate into their interaction with customers who will get impressed by the information and service provided. Since engaged employees are more productive than disengaged employees, in case of customer complaint or query engaged employees will show more alacrity in solving the matter. Customers are more likely to repeat their visits if they receive satisfying customer service.
Highly engaged employees also increase profitability and revenue growth of an organization. A global engagement study conducted on 664,000 employees in 2005 shows that companies with high employee engagement show greater amount of profit with 19% increase in operating income, 13% increase in net income growth and 27% increase in earnings per share compared to companies with low employee engagement which show 4% reduction in net income growth, 11% decline in earnings per share and 33% decline in operating income (Navisys). Engaged employees because of their love for their job and the position they are in are willing to give that extra effort required for the success of an organization. Disengaged employees only work that much they deem fit to receive a paycheck, but engaged employees don't do everything for receiving compensation. Their passion for their job and their attachment to the organization gives them an impetus to improve their skill and performance to contribute to the growth of the company.
Engaged employees show higher level of retention and lower rate of absenteeism. Studies have found that disengaged employees are 80% more likely to leave their organization than their engaged counterparts. Since engaged employees are more productive and dedicated to their work, they are less likely to miss their work. Reduced rate of absenteeism would lead to higher productivity, increasing the overall effectiveness of the organization.
There are many disadvantages of engagement as well. Engagement if not handled properly can lead to employee dissatisfaction. If the engaged employees feel that they are being taken advantage of by the management with more and more workloads heaped on them due to their higher ability for performance, they may soon turn disengaged. Even employees who are role models to others can at some point of time give up if they feel that they are being pushed to their limits with more work responsibility than others in the same job. They feel overburdened by lot of work pressure and this leads to frustration and dissatisfaction among the high performers. When the ‘role model’ employees give up on their effort for being too much laden with work, they are likely to show less helping attitude to others. It is often observed that dissatisfied employees are less likely to help others than satisfied employees. Secondly, if engaged employees feel that their work pressure is too much compared to others in the same position then they feel an increased anger towards their supervisors. They also feel that the expectation kept of them is too high at times to fulfill. Often in their effort to live up to the expectation they take too much mental and physical stress on themselves which leads to a lot of uncalled for health issues. For example, it is not uncommon for employees to suffer from back pain and slip disc in spine due to long hours of sitting in front of computer at the workplace. If the work stress continues for a long time then the overall efficiency of engaged employees goes down and their motivation to do hard work is replaced by increased frustration levels. Finally, if the motivation factor goes down, productivity goes down as a result.
Over engaged employees sometimes get so much involved in their work that they sidetrack. For instance, an employee working on data analysis may love his job to the extent that he analyzes data even where it is not needed. Furthermore, engaged employees due to increased amount of work pressure and responsibility often fail to devote more time to their near and dear ones which leads to clashes within family. Especially for women who are busy moms, the increased level of work stress takes a toll on their health and work and family life balance. For instance, a mother might miss her daughter’s birthday party due to an important meeting holding her up throughout the evening and it would cause feelings of guilt and grief for not being able to balance the work and family life. Thus the long working hours and mounting work pressure leads to family and work life conflict which in turn leads to depression and the employee loses his earlier enthusiasm for work and it hampers his overall performance and productivity.
The question is how to increase employee engagement? In the competition to retain best talents of the market, companies are trying hard to improve their policies and infrastructure to make employees develop an emotional connection with the organization which would result in higher level of work engagement. In order to build a healthy relationship with the employees from the very beginning of their joining an organization, employers are up to helping employees establish a broader range of emotional connectivity by taking care of their needs and providing assistance in assimilation into the new work culture. Companies with high level of employee engagement provide employees with formal training and resources to improve effectiveness. They allow employees to employ imagination and innovativeness into their work. They actively seek suggestion from employees and act upon the suggestions provided. For example, if an employee is asked by the top management to give his suggestion and inputs about the launching of a new product by the company would feel important to have his opinion considered in the matter. This in turn would increase his confidence and his involvement with the organizational objectives.
Giving work responsibilities to employees and involving them in the decision making process strengthens the morale of the employees, boosts up their self-confidence and gives them a sense of empowerment. Employees feel accountable for the jobs they do and feel emotionally involved with the organization which resultantly improves their productivity. For instance, if an employee working in C++ or Java for years is told to train the new joiners and supervise them would take this additional responsibility as a challenge to improve his interpersonal skill because supervising a batch of young trainees successfully would require him to build a rapport with them and this training would also provide him the opportunity to improve his management skill. Improvement in his skill and performance would ultimately benefit the company only.
Managers play an important role in creating employee engagement. Since managers and immediate supervisors are the ones employees are directly in communication with, their roles are crucial to help employees feel engaged with the organization. The interaction between the managers and the team members influences employee engagement to a great deal. The manager's attitude, behavior and feeling are instrumental in making positive impact on the employee. Bratton and Gold state that the relationship shared between line-manager and employee lies at the core of the learning environment. A line-manager stimulates the desire in an employee for positive learning (Jauhari, Sehgal and Sehgal, 2013). Some companies in order to help develop a healthy relationship between managers and employees implement strategies to make them communicate more. For instance, Zappos which is an US based online retailer encourages the managers to spend 10%-20% of their working hours interacting with team members to build a level of trust and understanding. Some companies like Accenture organize 30-30 meeting between managers and employees outside the office premises to make the interaction more informal so that employees can interact with the managers on personal level and come up with their career aspirations and goals more openly. Such regular interaction among employees and managers proves effective in building mutual trust and understanding.
Rewards and recognition have proven to be effective in making employees feel values and appreciated for their efforts. Such appreciation and recognition helps employees feel attached to their organization emotionally. Many companies these days employ a lot many recognition and rewards programs for their employees. For instance, in Caltech there is a program called the Spot Award Program which awards $100 American Express gift check to employees on the spot at a staff meeting for their special contribution to their department. The recognition and applaud by peers helps the recipients feel morally boosted and encouraged to continue their good effort.
Besides a competitive salary, benefits and perks awarded to employees also help employee engagement. Due to mounting work pressure and rising cost of health care, employees often look for a comprehensive healthcare package provided by the employers. Studies show that about 80% employees globally feel that employers should be responsible for the wellbeing of the employees by providing them healthcare benefits and incentives. Of all healthcare benefits provided by the employers, 64% employees find health insurance to be the most attractive one. Apart from healthcare benefits, some companies provide many other perks for the employees such as childcare facilities, discount on gyms, training and so on. One of the companies known to be very employee friendly is Google Inc. Listed as No.1 Company out of the 100 best companies in the annual list of Fortune, Google alongside lots of perks and unlimited sick leaves offers its employees the opportunity to put their imagination and creativity to work. Google is constantly changing and growing its policies and procedures. When the company found that the new mothers were leaving the concern for 12 weeks paid time off, it immediately changed its plan allowing new mothers 5 months long paid time off with all the perks, benefits and full payment (Bulygo). The result was 50% decrease in attrition rate for new mothers.
In conclusion, engaged employees utilize physical, cognitive and emotional resources in their performance and add to the revenue growth of the organization. There are many driving factors to employee engagement such as communication, career opportunities, brand alignment, recognition and appreciation, compensation and workplace relationships. Highly engaged employees prove to be an advantage by adding to the innovation and overall productivity of the organization. They bring customer loyalty, growth of revenues and higher profitability. However, engaged employees might turn disengaged if they are bogged down by too much work pressure and stress. Most of the companies these days are implementing a lot of strategies to increase the employee engagement because it is very important to have the employees satisfied for the success of a company and higher level of employee satisfaction translates into a result of increased productivity and bottom-line of the organization.
References
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