Workforce engagement has become a vital issue for many organizations, and an area of interest to both researchers and practitioners. As per Macey et al (2011), workforce management is the association between a company and its workers. An engaged workforce is possible when employees are fully committed about their job duties and so engages in activities that enhance the interest and reputation of the organization. A company with high workforce engagement tends to outperform those with low workforce engagement. The achievement of desirable levels of workforce engagement is influenced both positively and negatively by a number of factors. Studies have shown that there are critical factors which contribute to workforce engagement. They include management performance, training and career development, remuneration and motivation. This paper discusses these factors and how an organization’s approach to leadership poses challenges to workforce management.
Career development affects workforce engagement by retaining the most talented employees and availing opportunities for personal development. It is crucial for the workforce to feel that the core values that govern the organization are clear and not ambiguous. Similarly, training improves the level of workforce engagement as it allows for upward mobility of staff. Andrew and Sofian (2012) state that training programs improve commitment to an organization and this tends to make employees not to leave voluntarily compared to cases where there is no training. However, Macey et al (2011), argue that in few cases, training may empower the workforce to become more employable and leave the organization to develop their careers elsewhere.
Management performance involves the organization showing respect for qualities and contribution of each employee regardless of their job ranking and this contributes to workforce engagement (Andrew and Sofian 2012). Management can enhance performance by promoting ethical standards whereby each employee engages in decision making process in their areas of work. Organizations managers should create a challenging but trustful environment in which the workforce is encouraged to innovate in order to move the organization forward. Equal opportunities for growth and development should be provided to each employee and the workforce performance should be fairly assessed so as to promote workforce engagement. Organizational managers who follow a transparent and unbiased appraisal technique usually have high levels of workforce engagement. Therefore performance of management greatly contributes to high levels of workforce engagement.
Remuneration in terms of raising the workforce pay reduces employee turnover. Organizations which give attractive benefits and reward packages experience low attrition rates compared to those that do not. According to Wollard and Shuck (2011), pay plays the role of satisfying the workforce and raising pay may result in even greater job satisfaction making employees happy ultimately leading to workforce engagement. However, Andrew and Sofian (2012) argue that remuneration should be incorporated with other factors so as to improve workforce engagement. This is so because pay makes an employee satisfied but this does not guarantee that they will not quit working, moreover, it means that employees who are unsatisfied will voluntarily stop working for the organization. Despite this, an organization with a proper pay system motivate workers to continue working in that organization. Therefore, workforce should be provided with more benefits and compensations to boost workforce engagement levels. For example, benefits such as appropriate health and safety systems will make workers feel secure while working and this increases their levels of workforce engagement.
Motivating employees contributes to high levels of workforce management. The workforce can be motivated by improving the job environment in such a way that employees do not strain so much to complete a task maybe due to lack of facilities. Rewards and recognition also motivates employees to perform better and be more involved in their jobs and this improves workforce engagement (Andrew and Sofian 2012). When employees are compensated and given benefits for good work, they develop a high desire for work and some even work extra time to achieve the goals of the organization resulting in good workforce engagement. Satisfiers such as challenging work environment, recognition and responsibility motivate the workforce to higher levels of employee engagement. Additionally, hygiene factors such as job salary, job security and fringe benefits also lead too high levels of workforce engagement.
Organizational approach to leadership possess challenges to workforce engagement. This is because leaders are responsible for setting the tone and culture to be followed. Effective leaders can influence the workforce to attain the organizational goals and differ from managers in the view that they have the ability to motivate their workforce. When an organization made up of transactional leaders, then workforce engagement is gained through rewards and punishment. Wollard and Shuck (2011) define transactional leaders as being contingent to reward, laissez-faire and manage by exception. Contingent rewards refers to situations whereby leaders give rewards to those who perform well while those who don’t perform well are not rewarded. Management by exception involves a conservative approach in which resources are applied in response to any event that falls out of the set parameters. Laissez-faire on the other hand is whereby the leader is the only one involved with the problem and the workforce does not contribute in decision making. This three aspects challenges workforce engagement in an organization. In transactional leadership, the leader is limited to giving rewards based on performance and this may only be effective in the short term thus challenging workforce engagement.
An organization can also use the leader member exchange approach in leadership which also poses a challenge to workforce management (Kahn 2010). This approach entails both the leader and the members have a high quality relationship and both are wholly involved in decision making process. As a result, the workers feel that they have a responsibility as they are highly satisfied and have access to valuable resources. However, there are also cases of low leader and member exchange in which the leader offers low support to members making them to feel like they have less responsibility and ability to contribute in decisions making. Such a scenario poses a great challenge to workforce engagement (Wollard and Shuck 2011). The leader and member exchange approach does not explain how members become part of the in-group and this forms a basis for discrimination and unfairness which in turn challenges workforce engagement. Leadership can also be approached from the side of transformational leadership. In this approach, the leaders and workforce raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation. Transformational leadership fosters development of high levels of workforce engagement.
In conclusion, workforce engagement is a crucial aspect in management. The major factors that contribute to workforce engagement include training and career development, remuneration, management performance and motivation. The way an organization approaches the issue of leadership possess a challenge to workforce engagement. Transactional leadership and leader member exchange approach lead to low levels of workforce engagement. However, transformational leadership promotes high workforce engagement levels.
Reference
Andrew, O.C. and Sofian, S., 2012. Individual factors and work outcomes of employee engagement. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 40, pp.498-508.
Kahn, William 2010. ‘The essence of engagement: lessons from the field’ in Simon Albrecht (ed) 2010, Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice, Edward Elgar Publishing.
Macey, W.H., Schneider, B., Barbera, K.M. and Young, S.A., 2011. Employee engagement: Tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage (Vol. 31). John Wiley & Sons.
Wollard, K.K. and Shuck, B., 2011. Antecedents to employee engagement a structured review of the literature. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13(4), pp.429-446.
