Employee Engagement, Customer Satisfaction, And Cash Flow

Employee engagement is today’s leadership priority. However, the catchphrase goes a long way back in the beginning of the 21st century. It has gained interest to this date, which can be credited to Gallup’s first version of the Q12 in the 1990s commonly termed as the Gallup Workplace Audit (Gallup Consulting, 2006). Subsequently, Gallup has continuously refined and expanded their Q12 for current business challenges. Furthermore, several literatures, surveys and evidence-based studies abound that exhibited positive results with employee engagement such as increased performance, safety, retention and profits among others.

Employees are the most important, and often, most costly asset within any organisation. Ensuring they are fully engaged and committed to the success of the business is crucial. Listed below are the activities needed to reinforce the connection employees have with their company, job and colleagues, leading to a more satisfied and motivated workforce.

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.

Only twenty-nine percent of employees are actively engaged in their jobs. These employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. People that are actively engaged help move the organization forward. (Dan Crim, 2006)

Employee engagement, which reflects the emotional commitment an employee has to an organization is not just an organizational nicety but a business necessity due to direct ties to a number of performance outcomes, such as profitability,

In internationally competitive business environments, employers need dedicated employees fully committed to the success of their organization (Kenan-Flagler, 2011). Although, there is a difference between employees who are engaged and those who are disengaged in terms of their commitment to the organization, motivation, enthusiasm and their focus on building a better future for their company. In these areas where engaged employees excel, disengaged employees fall short. These employees can have a negative effect on everything from customer service to sales, quality of products, productivity of the workers and other crucial areas of the business. The companies that invest their time in getting to know what matters to their employees are the

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

The opportunities to engage employees in corporate America has plenty of room for improvement based upon this survey. Towers Watson conducts the research in order to provide a benchmark to organizations each year. The survey offers engagement opportunities for sustainable engagement. Towers Watson (2014) defines effective leaders as being committed to an organization’s strategic priorities and modelling its values and culture and perform across four key dimensions and associated competencies: envisioning the future, inspiring others to follow, transforming the organization to achieve the vision, and adapting to changing the internal and external conditions (see Appendix C). Employees appreciate being motivated by the leaders of an organization,

It is amazing how many companies out there struggle with the simplest of things with understanding the value of their employees. Engaged employees are critical to the success and growth of any company. Having read and watched several articles about some trend setting companies, I already see ideas and attributes to take back to my management career.

Better goods, services, technology, and tactics are several things that make one business more successful than the other. In addition, to have a competitive advantage, employee engagement is more essential than ever to the success of a business. Research has also shown that when it comes to employees, the ones who are engaged outperform considerably higher than employees not engaged. The individual correlation between the employee and their leader is important. Employee engagement is guided by the actions of their leader. The leader is responsible for creating an environment in which the employees remain engaged. There are five skills that are crucial for a good leader to possess to successfully increase engagement. They are building trust, mentoring, inclusion, alignment, and team development.

The challenge presented by the literature is the lack of a universal definition of employee engagement. Most managers acknowledge the fact that employee

An organization’s capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to achieve high performance levels and superior business results. Some of the advantages of Engaged employees are • • • • Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success. They will normally perform better and are more motivated. There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability. They form an emotional connection with the company. This impacts their attitude towards the company’s clients, and thereby improves customer satisfaction and service levels • • • • • • It builds passion, commitment and alignment with the organization’s strategies and goals Increases employees’ trust in the organization Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment Provides a high-energy working environment Boosts business growth Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company

The monkeys at the top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes. The unknown author of this metaphor provides a descriptive analogy on the view of the executives who are at the top of the organizational chart which is completely opposite of the view that everyone else in the company sees. These different perspectives are just one of the reasons why employee engagement continues to be an important topic of research among consultants and company leaders. Engaged employees are defined as being committed to their organizations’ goals and values, motivated to contribute to organizational success, while enhancing their own sense of well-being. Even though engagement is a personal feeling, it still requires a combination of effort between the employee and the leaders of the organization. The bottom line is that organizations need highly engaged employees working in their companies because at the end of the day every employee’s productivity is affecting the bottom line of the company.

Companies that have higher levels of engaged employees have higher earnings per share (EPS) than companies that have lower engagement levels (Kelleher, 2011). Engaged employees are more productive, have higher levels of customer loyalty and help their employers become more profitable. An engaged employee is less likely to leave their current position. This saves their company money because there is no need to spend money to hire and train new personal. These saving can be passed along to the employees for increased wages, bonuses, and benefits. All of these items help in motivating employees, to attempt to engage the disengaged.

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