Employee Engagement

The CIPD (2014) factsheet states that Employee Engagement is a concept that ‘is generally seen as an internal state of being – physical, mental and emotional – that brings together earlier concepts of work effort, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and ‘flow’ (or optimal experience)’. An engaged workforce willingly demonstrates discretionary effort within their roles; their goals and values reflect that of their employers/organisation; they express a passion for work, feel valued and that their work has meaning.

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 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

Aon Hewitt (2012) indicates that the business success is critical regarding company’s performance on employee engagement. Engaged employees have a clear understanding of their roles in business strategy and deliver greater performance; they get more involved as well as having a strong connection and commitment to the company and strive to go above and beyond in their jobs (Aon Hewitt, 2012). Aon Hewitt (2012) also mentions that engagement is about measuring the state of emotional and intellectual involvement or commitment of the workforce. It goes beyond satisfaction (“how much I like things here”) and commitment (“how much I want to be here”) to engagement (“how much I want to, and actually do, improve the business results”) (Forde, 2014).

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

Employee engagement is a business management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and therefore will act in a way that furthers their organisations interests. 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. A well and engaged employee is efficient and effective and a valuable asset in the workplace.

All organisations should explore the engagement within its operations as having a handful of disengaged employees will suddenly multiply and increase tenfold. In order to

The second aspect suggested by Macey and Schneider (2008) refers to the positive conditions encountered at work. This aspect implies that behavioral engagement is more likely to take place when some conditions such as the nature of the work people do and the leadership encountered at work yield positive attitudes; therefore behaviorally engagement. In conclusion, there is no single definition of employee engagement that can encompass the full meaning of the term. Employee engagement is simply a combination of the facets explained above; employee engagement is the key to create and yield positive results at the work place, is the treasure any organization wants to possess in order to create competitive advantage and success in general. According to studies made by Gallup, engaged workplaces yield a 38% in productivity and a 27% increase in profitability. Promoting an engaged workforce should be one of the first goals the organization sets. Maximizing the innate talents by taking into consideration the psychological state engagement, behavioral engagement and personal traits engagement of every individual will bear a sustainable organizational growth.

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 touches every aspect of human resources management and human resources is found in every field and sector of every organization. This makes this topic about employee engagement important to both the employer and the employee if the company wants to be successful. Research by (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009) defined employee engagement as:

Employee engagement is burning topic for HR, with almost 40% of HR professionals stating this was the most pressing issue of the day (Society for Human Resource Management, 2015). The reason for this attention is that only 13% of employees stat they are “engaged” with 63% “not engaged” and 24% “actively disengaged” (Crabtree, 2013). Furthermore, in a knowledge economy, employees are the product of the business. Determining and predicting the employee-value proposition as to engagement continuum contributes to the overall culture (Harris, Craig, & Light, 2010). Happier employees create happy customers, and more revenue (Davenport, Harris, & Shapiro, 2010).

The global economy is constantly changing, due to globalisation and the innovation of technology. With the expansion of global trading and supplying, the need to gain a competitive advantage over other competitors is a constant requirement. It has been stated that ‘this century demands more efficiency and productivity than any other time in history’ (Kompaso, et al., 2010). A challenge for employers in today’s economy is the retention of a workforce, though; it can also be seen as a competitive advantage. Retaining a workforce is essential for short-term and long-term sustainability of an organisation. Though, the challenge of retaining a workforce is finding the strategies to keep them. Motivation theories, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Locke’s Goal Setting Theory, through a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motives, have helped increase productivity levels in employees. Though, for the retention of employees, it encompasses a lot more than just promoting output levels, the engagement of a workforce is essential. Employee engagement is a relatively new concept, basically defined as ‘the individual’s involvement and satisfaction as well as enthusiasm for work’ (Harter, et al., 2003). There has been little academic research into the topic (Saks, 2006), which has limited the development of models or theories to relevantly explain and give direction in executing employee engagement (Saks, 2006). Though, greater levels of employee engagement are linked with the

Mishra and Boynton study finds that employee engagement is an important factor of internal communication. Nowadays, most organizations and their managers are looking for bridges to build trust between employees and executives. Executives and managers think employee engagement is top priority for them to build mutual trust. Engagement boosts deep relationship between management and employees. Internal communication is important for enhancing a culture of transparency between top management and employees in any organizations. Definitely, employees are happy working in an environment where they trust the people, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with. Since employees think positively in organization, which is more productive, eventually both management and employees benefit from having great compensation. Good environment is based on open communication, which brings out employee’s and management’s voice together so it is good enough to resolve any kinds of issues. When organizations take care of their employees, then employees trust their management’s honesty, openness, support, and willingness to listen to the employees’ voice. Strong internal communication works as a bridge for trust and commitment with employees and management, which can in turn lead to employees’ engagement. This honest and transparent internal communication is best received directly from managers to their employees.