8.Employee engagement

What Is Employee Engagement? Definition, Strategies, and Example

 

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is a human resources (HR) concept that describes the level of enthusiasm and dedication a worker feels toward their job. Engaged employees care about their work and about the performance of the company, and feel that their efforts make a difference. An engaged employee is in it for more than a paycheck and may consider their well-being linked to their performance, and thus instrumental to their company's success Ref.(Investopedia)

To promote employee engagement, HR professionals must develop effective strategies that align with the organization's goals and culture. Which includes,

1. Provide opportunities for growth and development: Employees are more likely to be engaged when they feel that their work is meaningful and that they have opportunities for growth and development. HR professionals can promote employee engagement by offering training and development programs, mentoring and coaching, and career advancement opportunities.

2. Foster strong relationships between employees and managers: Employees are more likely to be engaged when they have a positive relationship with their manager. HR professionals can promote employee engagement by providing managers with training and support to help them develop strong leadership skills and establish positive relationships with their employees.

3. Create a positive work environment: A positive work environment can help foster employee engagement by promoting a sense of community, trust, and belonging. HR professionals can create a positive work environment by promoting open communication, recognizing and rewarding employee achievements, and promoting work-life balance.

4. Encourage employee participation and input: Employees are more likely to be engaged when they feel that their opinions and ideas are valued. HR professionals can promote employee engagement by soliciting feedback and input from employees, encouraging employee participation in decision-making, and creating a culture of collaboration and teamwork.

5. Measure and track employee engagement: HR professionals can use surveys and other measurement tools to track employee engagement levels and identify areas for improvement. By regularly measuring and tracking employee engagement, HR professionals can identify trends and develop strategies to promote engagement and retention.

Why is employee engagement important?

Research shows that employee engagement initiatives make people more inclined to work harder and solve problems, grow and develop faster, get along with people better, and stay longer at a company. All these factors have a measurable business impact, and contribute to organizational success:

• Increased performance – SHRM research shows that people who are engaged in their work are more likely to help the company achieve its goals
• Higher employee retention – according to the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology at Work, an engaged employee is 87% less likely to leave their organization. This means reduced employee turnover costs for HR professionals having to recruit new staff, train them and wait for them to ramp up to full productivity
• Higher job satisfaction – when your workforce is happy it enriches your workplace culture
• Increased revenue – according to Gallup, highly engaged employees contribute to 21% greater profitability and those teams who score in the top 20% in engagement realize a 41% reduction in absenteeism, and 59% less attrition – better business outcomes all round
• A better customer experience – the same Gallup study found that high workplace engagement contributes to a 10% increase in customer ratings and a 20% increase in sales, which in turn can lead to…
• Higher customer loyalty and customer retention result from highly engaged employees

Understanding Employee Engagement

Employee engagement can be critical to a company's success, given its clear links to job satisfaction and employee morale. Communication is a critical part of creating and maintaining employee engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to be productive and higher performing. They also often display a greater commitment to a company's values and goals.

Employers can encourage employee engagement in many ways, including communicating expectations clearly, offering rewards and promotions for excellent work, keeping employees informed about the company's performance, and providing regular feedback. Other strategies include making efforts to make employees feel valued and respected, and feeling that their ideas are being heard and understood. Engaged employees believe that their work is meaningful, believe that they are appreciated and backed by their supervisors and that they have been entrusted with the success of their company.

Employee engagement has been a considered part of management theory since the 1990s and became widely adopted in the 2000s. While it has its detractors, mostly based on how difficult it can be to measure, employee engagement has been found to have direct links to a company's profitability and financial health.

 

Employers could build an employee engagement strategy around American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s three-tiered hierarchy of needs pyramid, which includes: basic needs of survival and safety, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment.

Pros and cons of employee engagement:

Pros:

1. Increased productivity: Engaged employees are more motivated and committed to their work, which leads to higher productivity and better quality of work.
2. Improved retention: Engaged employees are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing turnover and associated costs.
3. Enhanced customer satisfaction: Engaged employees tend to provide better customer service, which can lead to higher customer satisfaction and retention.
4. Increased innovation: Engaged employees are more likely to generate new ideas and contribute to innovation within the organization.
5. Positive workplace culture: Employee engagement initiatives can help create a positive workplace culture that fosters collaboration, teamwork, and a sense of community.

Cons:

1. Cost: Employee engagement initiatives can be expensive, especially if they involve significant training and development programs or rewards and recognition programs.
2. Time-consuming: Developing and implementing employee engagement initiatives can be time-consuming, requiring significant effort from HR professionals and managers.
3. Limited impact: Despite efforts to improve employee engagement, there may still be a subset of employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged.
4. Resistance to change: Employees and managers may be resistant to changes in the workplace culture or processes that are required to promote employee engagement.
5. Difficulty in measuring impact: Measuring the impact of employee engagement initiatives can be difficult, and it may be challenging to demonstrate a clear return on investment.

Refernces,

1. Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(2), 268-279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268

2. Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692-724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287

3. Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008). The meaning of employee engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 3-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x

4. Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 600-619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169

5. Bakker, A. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2010). Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research. Psychology Press.

6. Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2008). Positive organizational behavior: Engaged employees in flourishing organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29(2), 147-154. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.515

Web sites accessed on 14/4/2023,

https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/employee/employee-engagement/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/employee-engagement.asp#:~:text=Employee%20engagement%20is%20a%20human,their%20efforts%20make%20a%20difference.