Culture And Employee Engagement : The Fruitful Investment

“Employee engagement” concept has been found in all organizations in present scenario and it plays a vital role in organization performance. Employee engagement is the mode by which an organization can develop a strong relationship between the organization and its employees. Employees should fully

One of the primary factors in employee engagement is a person’s relationship with his or her direct manager. Some managers are excellent at managing teams and making each person feel valued, while others don’t have the same abilities. Train your managers in the skills that can improve employee engagement, and it can boost your organization’s overall results. Most employees fear their supervisors, so they choose to leave because they don’t want to work in a stressful environment. However, they don’t always express their

3.2 Evaluate the business benefits likely to accrue from a culture of employee engagement – benefits for the organization, its executives/managers, its workforce and its customers

Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organisation which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Thus engagement is distinctively different from employee satisfaction, motivation and organisational culture.

Employee Engagement: It’s a known perception that an engaged workforce provides many intangible benefits that is linked directly to retention. HR policies should focus on employee engagement initiatives that stimulate motivation levels of employees to perform better and bond with organisation. This process should be initiated right from induction and continue throughout their tenure by opening channels of continuous communication and encouraging interpersonal relations. HR is responsible to incorporate methods to measure engagement and at regular intervals track engagement contribution to company’s success.

In other nations meeting the altruistic and simple human needs of being part of something greater than yourself are the driving forces to an engaging environment (Vorhauser-Smith, 2013). According to Major Angelo’s actions of communicating with employees and developing a relationship with them demonstrate how leaders begin to create an engaging environment. According to Harter & Adkins (2015), employees whose manager communicate with them through meetings are practically three times more likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings with them. Another method to engage employees is by ensuring they understand their goals and helping them understand the big picture of how their role impacts the whole organization structure.

Employee engagement has been a trend of management since 2004.(CMI 2015) ‘Some people may believe that engagement is just about employees ‘going the extra mile’, but it is much more.’(CMI 2014) Within globalization, how to apply employee engagement is significant for an organization to achieve their performance. A key aspect of employee engagement concerns how employees manage their position, performance and development in relationship to the company’s strategies. Therefore, according to Moenguc (2013), employee engagement has been personalized as a“persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment.” To demonstrate how this process affects the overall performance of an organization, John Lewis has been selected as the case study

Employee engagement is a concept whereby an employee feels an emotional attachment to their employers and the goals and values the employer holds. There doesn’t appear to be a definitive description of employee engagement, but most agree that the emotional attachment is a key element to being an engaged employee. “The term employee engagement has gained considerable popularity in the past 20 years yet it remains inconsistently defined and conceptualized”, Shuck B & Wollard K (2010) - Human Resource Development Review. This emotional attachment could be described as a passion for the organisation and their part in it and a feeling that they can make a difference.

Employee engagement is always thought to be most desirable element towards employers. Nowadays not only in the corporate world but also in the small business industries employee engagement has equal important. Because it is the people who cannot be duplicated (Anitha, 2013). Committed employees are asset for any organizations. To gain competitive advantage in this modern era committed people are a great tool (Anitha, 2013). They put their best effort for the well being of their workplace and often motivate other employees. The purpose of this essay is to explore the stimulators and components which employers can use to successfully engage their employees. At first this paper will briefly review employee engagement, challenges faced by employers while engaging employees. It will also focus on MARS model. After that it will focus on finding which drives commonly motivate employees. Finally, this paper will try to recommend some strategies that employers can use for effective employee engagement.

Employee engagement is a fairly new concept (Macey & Schneider, 2008), yet it has received extensive attention in the past decade, leading Schaufeli & Salanova (2007) to contend that engagement is indispensable for modern organisations given the multitude of challenges they face in such a dynamic business environment. Moreover, it leads Macey et al. (2009) to contend that organisations that harness engagement can even gain a competitive advantage. For example, research by Macey et al. (2009) showed “that among a sample of 65 firms in different industries, the top 25% on an engagement index had a greater return on assets (ROA), profitability, and more than double the shareholder value compared to the bottom 25%” (Gruman & Saks, 2011). Furthermore, Gruman & Saks (2011) note that numerous studies highlight the role employee engagement plays in driving “individual attitudes, behaviour and performance as well as organisational performance, productivity, retention, financial performance, and even shareholder return”. Therefore, as captured by Kaye & Jordan-Evans (2003), “the challenge today is not just retaining talented people, but fully engaging them, capturing their minds and hearts at each stage of their work lives”.

In studying Human Resource Management, we study the foundations and principles by which an organization operates and conducts business. We also study the internal behavior of the organization. This includes studying the chain of command and the relationship between how employers treat their employees according to the organization’s moral values and what is expected of them by society’s ethical standards and by the regulations that the federal government imposes upon them. Although we touch upon the basics of HRM, we fail to dissect a topic that many believe to be one of the most integral components in managing a successful organization; this subject being employee engagement. Employee engagement can single handedly make or break an organization and hinder its relationship with its customers, but before understanding the cause and effects of employee engagement, one must first understand what employee engagement is, what it means to the employer, and what it means to the employees.

The beverage organization Coca Cola has established programs to create and support employee engagement throughout their organization. For Coca Cola to promote engagement, they relie on their local leaders to promote and support the work groups. For these leaders, extensive training has been established to improve areas of leadership that can inspire and create a positive work environment. These areas are also seen as areas of engagement that can impact of business results and is the important to employee empowerment. According to Xu and Helena, a impactful and direct correlation between the levels of engagement and leadership style is where the leadership is caring and nurturing to create a work environment that can be conducive in order to increase the levels of engagement (2011). The leadership training also works on leaders practicing behaviors that are directly related to engagement as part of the leader’s daily routines.

As we saw above that how engagement or disengagement of employees can lead success or failure of organization. So, it is very important for an organization to do research on employee’s mindset and working condition in organization that directly affect the mindset of employees. We will begin by briefly reviewing antecedents and hallmarks of employee engagement. And finally we will show that how managers, organizations and employers can foster the type of mindset that can facilitate the employee

Employees are key to creating sustainable competitive advantage. Consistently, research has shown that employees who are engaged significantly outperform employees who are not engaged on several different key performance metrics (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002; Gebauer, Lowman & Gordon, 2008; Lockwood, 2007; Vance, 2006). As global replication of technology and processes becomes easier and easier, the differentiation of service becomes critical for an organization in order to shine in an increasingly competitive market. Changing demographics have enabled increased competition for skilled resources regardless of location (Simonds, 2007) with technology innovations and service-focused jobs requiring more specific skills (Lawler, 2000). Now more than ever, companies are recognizing that the ability to attract, engage, develop and retain talent is critical (Lockwood, 2007). Understanding the key to employee engagement and utilizing methods to increase engagement will be a key differentiator for companies looking to achieve long-term success.

Leaders also try to achieve the same quality for their own status, which allows them to pursue greater strength, achieve personal goals and future endeavours. According to a recent study conducted by Psychometrics Canada a pioneer in research assessment, has mentioned in one of its report that employee engagement in the organisation plays a major role in the success of any organisation. Accordingly it says that the best way to increase the relation is by working out a strategy that builds positive environment and culture relations between the workers and ensuring a good leader to fit for the purpose. Leaders in the organisation can try to achieve a better employee engagement by listening to followers opinions, communicating his vision with a clarity, providing and developing strategies and solution for the success, and finally recognising the ability of the followers and praising their contributions. Thisaspect of leadership is displayed by general feedback, generating ideas and possess enthusiastic in requesting for help (Bradley P. Owens, 2013). One example of this leadership quality is described by DAVID J. BOBB(David J B, 2013) in his book saying following servant leadership is very difficult as it is not a natural talent to anyone. He takes the example of George Washington, though considered to be a man of high temper and showing excess pride in his capabilities and qualities during his period as a freedom fighter. As he has foreseen the global position he is getting