Developing and Sustaining Employee Engagement


Introduction to employee engagement

The success or the failure depends on the level of employee engagement and for that, the employees must be passionate and motivated by the best practices in the organizational context. The best practices must be invested in their working environment. Apart from that, the level of employee commitment and their emotional desire for the organization is also driven by the best practices (Saks and Gruman, 2021). People mostly misunderstand job satisfaction with employee engagement despite different definitions. But both are interconnected to each other that are heavily influenced by many factors such as individual characteristics, location, and culture that are fluctuating from time to time.

Best practices to improve Employee Engagement

When employee engagement is at a low level, things automatically get off the direction that can drive towards the failure of the organization, hence it is considered the best practice that gives the best outcomes to the organization (Truss, Shantz, Soane and bAlfes, 2013). For the purpose of making make a positive impact in the company, there are important ways and strategies to increase or enhance employee engagement as follows.

•  Promote open communication

Effective and open communication can increase employee engagement. It has become a powerful tool in modern work environments. Accepting employee suggestions can greatly improve open communication and help eliminate the monotony of the work environment. To build a culture of open communication, trusting team members is important for building trust in employee involvement (AduOppong & AgyinBirikorang, 2016). The duty of managers and other top managers is to listen to employees and create a better platform for open communication without fear of speaking. Sharing ideas is also a good habit for an organization's success and setting individual or team goals is also considered a good habit for increasing employee involvement (Kelly & MacDonald, 2019). In addition, you can improve your engagement in discussion mode by providing feedback.

 

•  Emphasizing mission and setting core values

To inspire and guide employees in the right direction, they need to set goals and as a strategy to enable them to be more involved in their work in the organization. Corporate culture is based on organizational values and missions. Emphasizing how employees can engage in tasks so they can understand the importance of their involvement in themselves and the company. (Anitha, 2014). Employees need to set goals related to team restructuring to align with their mission and core values. The airline I'm attached to encourages employees to practice the "Me to Company" attitude, where the airline's mission is always paramount. Employees promote "change" through attitude where the company emphasizes that the employees are the driving force behind the success of the organization, while focusing on increasing employee confidence that change is possible.

 

•  Coordinating volunteer opportunities

In today's world, individuals are more concerned about community development and the employees also expect that the company does something to the community at its best. Hence, it is vital to practice the corporate social responsibility that can be done by improving volunteer opportunities. By connecting deeper, the employees can offer opportunities that cause to unite employees better. It is estimated that 70% of the employees believe that volunteering can improve engagement through unity of work and morale of the employees (Ibrahim, Said and Abas, 2020). Apart from that, 89% of the employees believe that by organizing and participating in charitable and CRS volunteer activities, a better working environment can be anticipated (Ibrahim, 2020). The CRS program initiated by my organization recognizes that there are many aspects to social responsibility and identifies health, education, and youth empowerment as top priorities. Since its inception in 2003, the program has put together several projects for state-owned airlines, each working independently towards the company's goal of helping children in need throughout Sri Lanka. The program also participates in many infrastructure development projects, scholarships, seminars, and workshops to improve the quality of education and health of children.

 

•  Fostering innovations and career development opportunities

To elevate employee engagement, it is important to make employee contributions more meaningful in order to leverage their skills and abilities to improve the company's vision. Apart from that, it is also important to enable employees to innovate in the workplace, which leads to increased employee involvement (Carter, Nesbit, and Badham, 2018). Facilitating innovation helps increase the productivity of people and systems within an organization, resulting in professional development opportunities and self-development opportunities to bring people more united in the work environment. In addition to  work, they need both professional development opportunities and personal development opportunities, hence it important that organization provide adequate training and teamwork opportunities for employees (Gupta, 2015). Further the organization must understand what motivations its employees are pursuing to increase their engagement with the work environment. Positive incentives for continuing education and training are considered a positive factor in employee commitment.

 

•  Providing employees’ flexibility

The success or failure depends on the flexibility that the company provides to the employees. When the company provides flexibility, more employee engagement can be examined. Flexible working schedules and remote working opportunities can increase the level of employee engagement productively and effectively because most of the employees refer to a balance in working and life (Haski-Leventhal, Roza and Bramme, 2020). Further,  the employees expect the company supports them to balance their personal commitments and work responsibilities. In that situation, it is needed to set flexible working hours and flexible working schedules in terms of working from home and working at the office.


•  Responsive feedback

 

Figure: Employee engagement effect on business outcome

(Source: Ghosh & Itam, 2020)

Feedback is seen an essential driver in employee engagement that emphasizes organization, hierarchy, and effective communication in the working environment. Through feedback, the opportunities and loops are identified properly. The feedback can be conducted through responsive meetings, and regular follow-ups for the purpose of commentating on their appreciation, and dedication to the work (Carter, 2018). Ensuring feedback on the givens tasks and responsibilities is also very important to identify their progress and performances. Taking feedback seriously is very important for all the stakeholders in the company. The employees are seriously concerned about moving toward feedback that eventually becomes a part of the environment culture that directly influences turnover (Powis, 2012). The business revenue and unnecessary processes cause to slow down the employee performance in employee engagement. The individual changing can be examined based on responsive feedback by increasing employee engagement in an effective way.

 

Employee engagement is of great interest to employers in a wide range of industries and it is the employer's desire to find ways to motivate employees and increase their commitment to work and the organization.

 

 

References

  • Adu-Oppong, A.A. and Agyin-Birikorang, E., 2014. Communication in the workplace: Guidelines for improving effectiveness. Global journal of commerce & management perspective, 3(5), pp.208-213.
  • Anitha, J., (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International journal of productivity and performance management.
  • Carter, W.R., Nesbit, P.L., Badham, R.J., Parker, S.K. and Sung, L.K., (2018). The effects of employee engagement and self-efficacy on job performance: a longitudinal field study. The international journal of human resource management, 29(17), pp.2483-2502.
  • Ghosh, N. and Itam, U., 2020. Employee Experience Design: An Innovation for Sustainable Human Capital Management Practices. In Handbook of Research on Managerial Practices and Disruptive Innovation in Asia (pp. 110-127). IGI Global.
  • Gupta, M. (2015). A study on employees perception towards employee engagement. Globsyn Management Journal, 9(1/2), 45-51.
  • Haski-Leventhal, D., Roza, L. and Brammer, S., 2020. Employee engagement in corporate social responsibility. Sage.
  • Ibrahim, N.F., Said, A.M.A., Abas, N. and Shahreki, J., (2020). Relationship between well-being perspectives, employee engagement and intrinsic outcomes: A literature review. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(12), pp.69-74.
  • Kelly, S. and MacDonald, P., 2019. A look at leadership styles and workplace solidarity communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 56(3), pp.432-448.
  • Powis, A., 2012. A journey to award‐winning employee engagement. Human Resource Management International Digest.
  • Saks, A.M. and Gruman, J.A., (2021). Advanced introduction to employee engagement. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Truss, C., Shantz, A., Soane, E., Alfes, K. and Delbridge, R., (2013). Employee engagement, organisational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory. The international journal of human resource management, 24(14), pp.2657-2669


Comments

  1. Nilushi Fernando18 April 2022 at 10:01

    Hi Chamara, I agree with your descriptive post. Communication plays an important role of an Organisation. It could be described as the backbone of the success of an organization and further it could also be described as the life wire of an Organisation. Both the manager and the subordinates should have good communication skill in achieving the goals (Massoudi, A.H. (2017).

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    Replies
    1. Chamara Gunarathne7 May 2022 at 04:30

      Valid point Ashanti, as you have mentioned, communication is the backbone of successful businesses (Kramer and Pfitzer, 2016). Communications can either be your greatest asset or your worst nightmare. Strong communication improves the company culture by allowing employees to solve problems quickly and prevent barriers from arising.

      Delete
  2. Ashanthi Rajapakse2 May 2022 at 10:22

    Interesting content ,Chamara. While I agree with the post, it's stated that work quality also plays a major role in achieving organisational goals to generate employee engagement of each individual (Alqarni,2016). And other areas such as the amount of engagement in the organization is determined by a variety of factors, including the character of the individual being treated ( Wang & Chen,2019).

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    1. Chamara Gunarathne7 May 2022 at 04:06

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Chamara Gunarathne7 May 2022 at 04:08

      Yes Ashanthi, quality of life at work is important for all organizational inputs that lead to employee satisfaction and influence organizational effectiveness. The importance of work life quality is to extend jobs and working conditions that are excellent for employees as well as the organization's economic strength. According to Ogedegbe, (2014), Working environment, coworkers, job security, and job responsibilities all have a significant impact on an individual's job dissatisfaction. Better job satisfaction leads to a higher quality of life at work. An employee who is happy with his job at the company is more likely to do well at work.

      Delete
  3. Polwattage Dinith Tharushika Perera6 May 2022 at 00:14

    Hi Chamara, I agreed but I would like to explain few more thing in employee engagement. Employee engagement is a massive creation that touches almost every aspect of the human resource management sector we know of. If every part of the human resource is not addressed properly, employees will fail to fully engage in their work in response to such mismanagement. Construction employee bonding is based on previous concepts such as job satisfaction, employee commitment, and organized citizen behavior. Although it is related and included in these concepts, employee participation is broad in scope. Employee engagement is a stronger predictor of positive organizational performance and clearly demonstrates the two-way relationship between employer and employee compared to the previous three constructions: job satisfaction, employee commitment, and corporate citizen behavior. Employees who are engaged are emotionally attached to their organization and go beyond the employment contract and join their employer with great enthusiasm for their employer’s success (Markos and Sridevi, 2010).

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    1. Chamara Gunarathne7 May 2022 at 04:13

      Thank you Dinith for your insightful comment. Engaged employees devote themselves to their jobs so that the organization can easily achieve its goals and objectives. Employee wiliness is similar to organizational willingness. Furthermore, engagement will increase bottom-line profit, performance, and productivity, all of which will benefit the organization and its employees (Robertson-Smith and Markwick 2009).

      Delete
  4. Gimhani Hiroshima Perera6 May 2022 at 14:00

    Hi Chamara. You have published an elaborative post. Further, a positive manager-employee connection is also an important component of employee engagement and retention (Penna, 2007). According to Penna (2007), "meaning at work has the potential to be a productive means of bringing employers and employees closer together to the benefit of both." Employees discover meaning when they have a sense of community, have the freedom to be themselves, and have the opportunity to contribute. Employees want to work for businesses that are meaningful to them (Penna, 2007).

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    Replies
    1. Chamara Gunarathne7 May 2022 at 04:25

      Agreed Gimhani, Managers are expected to lead by example and create a fun work environment with every employee interaction. They recognize employees in the manner in which the employee wishes to be recognized. This also applies to the communication. Great leaders understand that genuine communication and recognition are personalized for the recipient. They understand that fair and equal are not synonymous (O’Leary and Pulakos, 2011)

      Delete
  5. SOS Booster22 March 2023 at 00:55

    Empower your employees and drive business growth with our customizable engagement strategies. Trust our expert team to create a workplace culture that inspires and motivates your employees to do their best work. For more details about our best Employee Engagement Company in India, visit our website!

    ReplyDelete

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