Five Leadership Skills That Increase Engagement

There are three levels of engagement in which an employee can be measured at (Catado, P. 2011); fully engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged. A fully engaged worker takes it upon themselves to stay relevant and up-to-date in company’s and their professional field and take on additional responsibilities as the opportunities arise. They also show respect towards their fellow colleagues, are willing to put in more effort than is expected, and exhibit high levels of enthusiasm.

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.

Engagement is a sign of satisfaction and loyalty to the firm which can be incurred by increasing job resources

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 branch of public relations maintained between the manager and the employees. It is an integral part of a successful business organization. According to Kruse (2012) the employee engagement can be defined as, “The emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.” There is a distinction between the employee being happy and the employee actually being engaged in his or her work. According to Kruse (2012), a research from Towers

Studies have shown a clear correlation between engagement and performance, and improving them both. Also, links between employee engagement,

Employee satisfaction doesn’t necessarily mean employees are engaged. Employees can be happy, show up for work daily, but that doesn’t mean they are being productive or mindful of patient’s needs. When employees are engaged, they care. Examples would be a hospital employee making eye contact with visitors and patients, another would be a night shift worker being aware of quiet time during their shift. (Kruse, 2015) Leaders need to know what drives employees’ engagement. Leaders that behave consistently with the organizations core values and show a sincere interest in the employee’s well-being have been a link to improving employee engagement.

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

Currently, many businesses are looking toward engagement, which measures satisfaction, commitment, and also energy and enthusiasm. How a person feels about the work they do everyday has the greatest impact on engagement since they want to feel valued and be recognized for their efforts. That is truer now than ever since many people are working more than the standard forty hours a week and want to know that their time away from family matters. Satisfied employees are not necessarily engaged. Engaged employees have an emotional connection to the organization, believe they are contributing, and are growing both individually and professionally and put forth additional effort to complete tasks. That being said, recent studies suggest employers should switch their focus from employee satisfaction to employee engagement scores since it is a better indicator for retention of talent, satisfaction in culture and branding, and stakeholder value.

Multiple studies have been conducted to defining employee engagement, what it means today, as well as the evolution of employee engagement; examine the current of employee engagement, and other suggestions for authentic and healthy employee engagement into the future. When I hear the word engagement I think of long term commitment, such as marriage, family, and employee loyalty. Corporate Leadership Council (2004) defines Employee engagement as “the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organization, how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of that commitment”. However, today the term is associated with the one of the hottest topics in management. “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” (Kaye & Jordan-Evans 2003).

This course emphasized the concept of employee engagement in the workplace. Employee engagement is critical for many reasons, it is necessary to understand and help organizations lower employee turnover, increase revenue, and help managers communicate more efficiently. There are differences between employees who are actively engaged and disengaged in the workplace. Within active engagement, it is more likely that an employee is confident, valued, and inspired within the organization. They understand their personal worth in the group. The quote by Maya Angelou resonated with me, “People will forget what you said, what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel”. This quote speaks true to all aspects of life, not just in the workplace. When we treat people with their God-given significance, it can motivate them to work and live better. Employees who are

Employees enjoy involving in a corporate where they trust the people they work for, enjoy the people they work with and have pride in what they do (Mishra et al. 2014, cited in Carroll, 2006, p.1). Typically, an open, honest and transparent internal communication in a company is the characteristic of the positive work environments. The notion of employee engagement is a relatively new and popular one, one that has attracting a lot of attention for most of corporates and has been heavily marketed by internal communication practisers such as human resource consulting firm that offer advice on how it can be developed and leveraged (Macey and Schneider, 2008). Successful employee engagement is regarded as the enticing promise of increased productivity, effectiveness and profitability for organisations (Ruck, 2010, p.55). The company are intending to capitalise on effective internal communication, especially, finding the role of fostering employee engagement to gain benefits hugely. In order to evaluate the importance of internal communication to the achievement of employee engagement, this essay has been divided into three discussions. To begin with, it will examine the definition of engagement in a corporate with related theories and models. The second part will analyse why employees get engaged and how to drive for engagement. The last part will present the centrality of internal communication.

Employee engagement has gained rapid attention in the past five to ten years and all for the right reasons. Data shows that engaged employees tend to perform better at their jobs and also surpass expectations when it comes to helping colleagues, members and the organization. Employee engagement can be defined as a positive emotional attachment that a person forms with an organization leading to behaviors that drive productivity and boost performance. The goal of employee engaging is to provide maximum satisfaction to the employee while in return getting maximum contribution from them.

Employee engagement has been recognised by many organisations as a leading and primary source and tool of competitive advantage and business success. Based on research conducted, engaged employees are recognised as being more productive than disengaged employees; thus leading to improved employee performance, increased workplace productivity and profitability, and ultimately, organisational success. The term employee engagement is primarily associated with the employee’s commitment to the objectives, goals and ultimate success of an organisation, exercised together with the enhancement of the employee’s own sense of well-being and development. David Macleod explains employee engagement as “a concept that is greater than the sum of its parts” and describes the concept as, “this is about how we create conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential” (Macleod, 2015).

Robinson and Hay (2003) mentioned employee engagement as an evolution of past research which focuses on employee satisfaction, motivational approaches and commitment. This is a modernized version of job satisfaction. According to Robert J. Vance (2006), employees who are engaged in their work and committed to their organizations give companies crucial competitive advantage- including higher productivity and lower employee turnover. Now-a-days the companies’ objective is to retain the best talents and manage their performance for increasing company’s productivity and revenue.