Understanding Employee Engagement and Commitment
When employees care - they are ‘engaged’
In today's world, associations
are preparing for more intellectual capital rather than material capital for
higher business success. As an explanation for this employee involvement:
employee satisfaction, loyalty, turnover, profits, and productivity are challenges
that companies face constantly. Employee engagement is organized to create the
right conditions for all employees, commit to organizational goals, be
motivated, and enhance personal well-being (Armstrong, (2010). According to
Sun and Bunchapattanasakda (2019), two types of employee engagement definitions
are identified; Employee engagement as a multi-faceted structure (cognition,
emotion, behavior) and engagement as a unified structure (positive state of
mind, preparedness for engagement, opposite of burnout). Organizations tend to
contribute skills, competency, and imaginative behavior to respond to outside
variables with the hope of the outcome would proportionate directly to the
return on investment (Bhuvanaiah and Raya, 2014). The HR department of the
leading airline I'm attached to launches a series of employee retention
initiatives aimed at integrating employees to achieve the airline's mission and
value. Designed with the vision of creating a devoted, ambitious workforce that
encourages employees to always put the company first, employees are encouraged
to abandon their egocentric motivations and work towards the common goal of
reaching airlines values: which are ‘Leadership, Creativity, Accountability,
Proactiveness and Diligence’
(Source : Bakker, Demerouti and
Xanthopoulou, (2012)
As shown in figure 01, employee
engagement is located in the upper right quadrant of the circumplex model as it
resembles high levels of pleasure and activation. Job satisfaction is different
from engagement because it is a much more active experience. Workaholism has a
powerful inner drive to work excessively hard, but this experience is often
accompanied by a lack of pleasure. Finally, attempting to put burnout in the
lower left quadrant of the circumplex model (low joy and activation) is
constant with some studies that suggest burnout is conceptually the inverse of
work engagement (Bakker, Demerouti and Xanthopoulou, (2012)
Employee engagement has dominated
in diverse forums and has made a place as a critical but controversial
construct (Borah and Barua, (2018). The influencing factors of employee
engagement are divided into three categories- Organizational factors (management
style, job rewards) Job factors (work environment, task characteristics), and
Individual factors (physical energies, self-consciousness) (Sun and
Bunchapattanasakda,2019).
Engaged employees focus on the
innovation and success of the organization and portray being loyal, dedicated,
productive, and convey results. Non-engaged employees come to perform job roles
with little energy or enthusiasm for their work. They feel no significant
connection to their work or organization and undoubtedly be seeking other job
opportunities. These employees’ negative, uncooperative, and hostile behavior
undermines the team and the organization (Chaudhary, Rangnekar and Barua,
2013)
How employers measure Engagement
typically assess their employees’ engagement levels with company-wide attitude
or opinion surveys. Main considerations in measuring employee engagement could
be categorized, but not limited to, pride in employer, Satisfaction with the
employer, Job satisfaction, Opportunity to perform well at challenging work,
recognition and positive feedback for one’s contributions, Prospects for future
growth and understanding the organization’s mission (Kular, Gatenby, Rees,
Soane and Truss, 2008). Based on the above limitations employee engagement
measures how satisfied employees are with their jobs and can be classified into
four major groups based on their perceptions of their company (Jha and Kumar,
2016)
• Highly
engaged employees: Highly engaged employees posses a very positive attitude
toward their workplace. Employees who feel connected to their teams, enjoy
their jobs, and have positive experiences with your company are more likely to
stay and contribute to its growth. These "brand ambassadors inspire their
coworkers to work hard and perform to the best of their abilities.
• Moderately
engaged employees: Employees who are moderately engaged have a positive
attitude towards their company. Although they enjoy working for their company,
they also believe there is room for improvement. Employees in this category are
less likely to request additional responsibilities and are more likely to
underperform.
• Barely
engaged employees : Barely engaged employees are uninterested in their
workplace. They are usually unmotivated in their jobs and will only do what is
necessary to get by—sometimes even less. Employees who are barely engaged may
be looking for other jobs and pose a high turnover risk.
• Disengaged
employees : Discouraged employees have a negative reputation for their work
environment. They are separate from the organization's mission, goals, and
future. They lack a commitment to their position.
Different research emphasizes
that employee engagement could be adopted through practices that address
effective communication, job responsibilities, utilization of resources,
leadership styles, and elevated corporate culture (Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014)
It is employees' degree of responsibility and contribution towards the
association and its values. An engaged employee is aware of the company context
and contributes with passion for the benefit of the organization.
References
- Armstrong, M., 2010. Armstrong's essential human resource management practice: A guide to people management. Kogan Page Publishers. p. 153-15
- Bakker, A.B., Demerouti, E. and Xanthopoulou, D., 2012. How do engaged employees stay engaged. Ciencia & Trabajo, 14(1), pp.15-21.
- Bedarkar, M. and Pandita, D., 2014. A study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting employee performance. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133, pp.106-115.
- Bhuvanaiah, T. and Raya, R.P., 2014. Employee engagement: Key to organizational success. SCMS journal of Indian Management, 11(4), p.61.
- Borah, N. and Barua, M., 2018. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Journal of Organisation & Human Behaviour, 7(4). p 28
- Chaudhary, R., Rangnekar, S. and Barua, M.K., 2013. Engaged versus disengaged: The role of occupational self-efficacy. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 18(1), p.91-101.
- Image sourse : Borah, N. and Barua, M., 2018. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Journal of Organisation & Human Behaviour, 7(4). p 28
- Jha, B. and Kumar, A., 2016. Employee engagement: A strategic tool to enhance performance. DAWN: Journal for Contemporary Research in Management, 3(2), pp.21-29.
- Kular, S., Gatenby, M., Rees, C., Soane, E. and Truss, K., 2008. Employee engagement: A literature review
- Markos, S. and Sridevi, M.S., 2010. Employee engagement: The key to improving performance. International journal of business and management, 5(12), p.89-91.
- Sun, L. and Bunchapattanasakda, C., 2019. Employee engagement: A literature review. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 9(1), pp.63-80.
Hi Chamara, I agree with the contents of the post. It is also emphasised in Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra (2014) that Employee Engagement is one of the biggest challenges faced by organisations at present and also in the future with complex and strict regulations in many organizations.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nilushi for your valuable opinion. In this regard, I also would like to highlight that employee retention is another major issue pertaining to employee engagement. Nevertheless, Aon recently announced trends in global employee engagement for 2018, which reports that employee engagement has “rebounds to match its all-time high" at 65%. The index consists of three sections: Say, Stay and Strive. Aon's research has improved each of these areas, which explains that employees are more likely to talk about their company or product, stay in the same company, and make extra efforts. This is considered a major improvement in engagement
DeleteHello Chamara...! Agreed on your comments and studies which are mentioned. Also tis can be further elaborate according to (Muthike, 2016), Employee engagement is described as employees' willingness to work extra hours, trust the organization and what they stand for in order to contribute to the organization's success.
ReplyDeleteHi.. thank you for your feedback.. and yes Ruwan, an engaged workforce or employee infuses everything they do with meaning, energy, and enthusiasm. As desribed by Markos and Sridevi, (2010) employees want to feel valued and respected; they want to know that their work matters and that their ideas are being considered. Employees who are highly engaged are more productive and committed to the organizations for which they work (Chandani, Mehta, Mall and Khokhar, 2016).
DeleteHi Chamara , Nicely done and like to add more here ,Investing in employee engagement will have a favorable impact on the performance of the company. Customer satisfaction is frequently linked to improving good qualities and driving improved performance in the firm. As a result, involvement is considered as beneficial to both the company and the employee. The employer benefits from a productive and reliable workforce, while the employee benefits from a pleasant working environment (Kompaso and Sridevi, 2010).
ReplyDeleteAgreed Maheshi, but the argument here is, many people, including those who regularly discuss workplace productivity, mix up the terms productivity and effectiveness. These terms, however, are not interchangeable. Some employees are very productive but not very effective, whereas others are effective but not very productive. In his reserch Kamery, (2004) says that effectiveness is the amount of effort put in by an employee, whereas productivity is the amount of work completed.
DeleteDear Chamara, Totally correct. In order to identify above categories of staff, Companies should measure the current level of employee engagement. There are different ways to identify employee satisfaction level and conducting employee satisfaction survey , e-NPS survey and suggestion box are few of them. (Nevogt, 2020).
ReplyDeleteSure Dulanjana, measuring employee engagement allows organizations to identify profiles of engaged employees as well as opportunities to improve engagement levels. Measuring engagement is just the beginning. The second step is to share the results with the employees, and the final step is to act on the findings. However, you can't manage what you can't measure, so it's critical to develop a strategy for measuring such a critical driver of organizational success (Gupta, 2015)
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