The origin of Employee Engagement

Alexander in (356 BC – 323 BC) about 2300 years ago conquered many lands by battling for years with the help of his army as he was well engaged with them. Alexander was very close to his army and made sure that salary was paid on time. He also engaged in their grievance. The definition on this by Hay Group is that the best results are met by encouraging employees. Along with organisational goals, employees tend to maintain a good relationship with the employers (Juneja, 2019).

Introduction

According to Kortmann et al, 2014, in the current corporate world, companies depend on available human capabilities to run an organisation, but wouldn’t work for long. Maintaining or running a successful organisation won’t be possible with having the employees engaged. Many organisations struggle in proposing the change as their main focus on the employees are lost (Hill & Birkinshaw, 2012).

Skilled labour, education level, best practices, developments has been introduced to increase the efficiency in every firm but due to disengaged employees, the productivity or the results have drastically dropped. (Purcell, 2014). This is one main reasons as to why many major companies don’t exist for long as it has affected the financial side of the firm (Bersin, 2014).

(Kahn, 1990 694) describes employee engagement as when the employees are given an opportunity to express their views physically, emotionally and through actions. The emotional part of the employees could be classified as either negative or positive views about the organisation. Moreover, according to Kahn, engagement is when an employee is physically and emotionally present while doing their daily work.

Employee engagement, recognition and how it impacts our daily lives

Getting all the employees engaged in everything that happens in the office and rewarding them by recognising or appreciating their work could lead to a massive change within themselves and as a whole. The below video clip gives a very good understanding on how it could impact one’s life and the change it could bring to work.

Video 1.0 : Employee engagement and motivation

  (Source: Achievement awards group, 2012)

References:

Employee Engagement & Motivation video. (2012). [video] Achievement Awards Group.

Hill, S. A., & Birkinshaw, J. (2012). Ambidexterity and survival in corporate venture units. Journal of Management, 40, 1899–1931. doi:10.1177/0149206312445925

Juneja, P. (2019). Understanding Employee Engagement - Definition and its Origin. [online] Managementstudyguide.com. Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/understanding-employee-engagement.htm [Accessed 22 Sep. 2019].

Kular, S., Gatenby, M., Soane, E. and Truss, K. (2019). Employee Engagement. A Literature Review, [online] (19). Available at: https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/4192/1/19wempen.pdf [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].

Kahn, W.A. (1990) ‘Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 33, pp692-724.

Kortmann, S., Gelhard, C., Zimmermann, C., & Piller, F. (2014). Linking strategic flexibility and operational efficiency: The mediating role of ambidextrous operational capabilities. Journal of Operations Management, 32, 475–490. doi:10.1016/j.jom.201.09.007

 

Benefits of Employee Engagement and Recognition

Monetary and non-monetary rewards has a major effect on employees’ job motivation and their satisfaction level towards the job. (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2010; Haile, 2009; Severinsson & Hummelvoll, 2001) Recognition plays a major role and it could be simply classified as appreciating and accepting their hard work. (Caligiuri et al., 2010; Nelson, 2005; University of Iowa, 2009) According to Gostick and Elton (2007), It could even be in the form of a personal note to show how important that employee is.

The need for recognition

Once an employee is appreciated, they feel better about their talents and feel more capable towards work and they start producing better results. (Daniels, 1999; Darling et al., 1997; Nelson, 2005; Gostick & Elton, 2007). With the help of a survey of 200,000 employees, it has come to knowledge  that when an employee recognition is done properly, many business development plans or ideas could be put forward, reducing unplanned leaves, punctuality increases and more space for efficiency and accuracy at work, Gostick and Elton (2007).

Recognition or appreciation of one’s work could lead to job satisfaction and build self-confidence (Keller, 1999).  According to Allen and Helms’ (2002) research’s finding has come to light that regulation appreciation could help the organization achieve goals and targets.

Ways of recognition

Recognizing or accepting of an employee’s hard word doesn’t necessarily have to be of monetary value. It could be a way of mentioning the individuals name is the team meeting, huddle or even in a firm wide email. Posters, banners or even in a notice board in the front area of the office premises would help employees feel appreciated (Darling et al., 1997; Nelson, 2005; University of Iowa, 2009).

According to a member of customer success team at 6Q in Australlia, (R, 2019), employees could be recognized in many ways.

• Top employee of the month
• Employee recognition programs
• Having them posted in the company’s annual calendar
• Firm wide email/social media
• Company’s magazine or journal article

Video 2.0: Employee Recognition

      (Source: CommLab India, 2011)

The above video states the importance of employee recognition and the results driven by it. It makes the employees feel they are an asset to the firm and they are very special. It also says that we need to praise in public but criticise in private. Getting to know them is another greater way of appreciating them. Timely rewards is another major way of accepting them and their hard work.

References

Allen R. and Helms M. (2002). “Employee perceptions of relationships between strategy rewards and organizational performance”, Journal of Business Strategies, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 115-139.

Caligiuri P., Lepak D. and Bonache J. (2010). Global Dimensions of Human Resources Management: Managing the Global Workforce, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Creative Ways To Give Employee Recognition. (2011). [video] CommLab India.

Darling K., Arm J. and Gatlin R. (1997). “How to effectively reward employees”, Industrial Management, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 1-4. DeCenzo D. A. and Robbins S. P. (2010). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (10th ed.), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

DeCenzo D. A. and Robbins S. P. (2010). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (10th ed.), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Gostick A. and Elton C. (2007). The Daily Carrot Principle: 365 Ways to Enhance Your Career and Life, New York: Simon & Schuster.

Keller J. M. (1999). “Motivational systems”, in: H. D. Stolovitch & E. J. Keeps (Eds.), Handbook of Human Performance Technology (2nd ed.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, pp. 373-394.

R, H. (2019). 7 Awesome Methods for Employee Recognition. [online] The 6Q Blog. Available at: https://inside.6q.io/7-awesome-methods-for-employee-recognition/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2019].

University of Iowa (2009). “Reward & recognition”, available online at: http://research.uiowa.edu/pimgr/?get=reward.

Increase in employee engagement

Increasing in engagement appraisal gives both the parties, employee and employers to review and study themselves as to whether they have fulfilled their duties towards the organizational goal Schaufeli and Salanova (2008). Feedback to employees will always be helpful depending on the feedback provided. It could also end up in deadly criticism (Baron, 1988).

Setting up a goal is very important in every organization so the individuals know where they are heading up to and be more engaged in it Macey et al. (2009). According to Armstrong (2000) it is evident that not only organizational goals be considered but individual goals should be given more priory as well. If goals are not combined in them, then driving towards them becomes more difficult (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999). Imposing goals on employees has a lesser impact than combined ones (Sheldon & Kasser, 1998).

According to Lytle (2019), few things are mentioned to increase employee engagement.

•Making sure the organization has all the resources to perform - Enabling infrastructure in an organization is very important as it could help employees be more engaged. Employees who are more engaged will have be advanced in what they do as they may have to adapt according to the current change, mainly effective change. Therefore, resources play a major role.

•Individual attention at all times – the Employer will have to do individual e valuation tests, in another words, study each employee and find out what they like and dislike doing or what they are more capable of doing. In that way employers could get employees more engaged in their daily work.

•Proper training provided – Time to time training to the employees will help them brush up their knowledge and also will build a confidence and trust within the firm and will make them more engaged in what they do. Cross training is another important training type which helps the organization save costs on hiring new employees to get different work done. As employees who are cross trained will have a multi-tasking knowledge to perform at any instance. Providing proper coaching will help employees find out what they are lacking in their daily work routine. Leaders get a chance to give them proper vouching when regular one to ones take place. This could result employees enjoying what they do.

•Listening to employees – feedback from employees should be appreciated and acknowledged. Listening to views and feedback from employees will help the organization drive towards a better tomorrow. None other than the employees know whom to hire and what to change in an organization as they are more engaged than anyone else. Every employee should be given an opportunity voice out their opinions in return they feel they are given more priority to be engaged.

•Employee get-together – In the fast growing world, people run behind work and money. Stress levels have increased to another level where people feel more pressurised and employees tend to fall sick quite often.  Therefore, bringing all the employees together in the way of a quarterly party, payday drinks, award ceremonies, bash and company trips would make them all feel recognized and engaged.

•Rewarding and appreciating - Employees always look forward for appreciations and rewards to work better, perform better and get motivated. So rewarding them in public, either in an assembly, team gatherings or award ceremonies will make them feel their engagement towards the company have always been appreciated.

Video 3.0: Increasing Employee Engagement

(Source: Platinum Leadership, 2016)

Video 3.0 gives a very good example and tips how employee engagement could be improved.



References

Armstrong, M. (2000). Performance management: Key strategies and practical guidelines. London, UK: Kogan Page Limited

Baron, R. (1988). Negative effects of destructive criticism: impact on conflict, self-efficacy, and task performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, pp.199−207.

How to increase employee engagement through team building. (2016). [video] Directed by C. Walsh, G. Nash and A. Bartley.

Lytle, T. (2019). 7 Tips to Increase Employee Engagement Without Spending a Dime. SHRM. [online] Available at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/1016/pages/7-tips-to-increase-employee-engagement-without-spending-a-dime.aspx [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].

Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, pp.482−497.

Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1998). Pursuing personal goals: Skills enable progress but not all progress is beneficial. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, pp.546−557.

Schaufeli, W. B., & Salanova, M. (2008). Enhancing work engagement through the management of human resources. In K. Näswall, J. Hellgren, & M. Sverke (Eds.), The individual in the changing working life pp. 380−402. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Employee Engagement, team work and leadership

Any organizations core element is team work (Senior and Swailes, 2004). When a group of employees get-together and work and help each other towards a set goal (Rasmussen and Jeppesen, 2006). To achieve this, the leadership contribution also plays a vital role and there should be a good relationship between the team and their leader Sparrowe and Liden (2005). Quality of team work will have an effect when the leaders have a good relationship between the team. Good team work will have a positive impact on the engagement Brunetto et al. (2013). Organizational goals and good sales could be achieved with commitment from these employees and less problems leading to them Rasmussen and Jeppesen (2006).

According to Pawar and Chakravarthy’s (2014) employees in an organization resign for so many reasons like career progression, issues with their staff mainly being the issues with their direct leaders or managers. This could be due to lack of proper feedback and appreciation to the employees which will have a major impact on them engaging with the team and organization (Branham, 2005).
The organizational values needs to be conveyed to all its employees in the best communication method to achieve its goal, when this happens, engagement of employees take place (Bindl and Parker, 2010). Good communication skills from the top Management will create a better employee engagement between the teams (Bakker et al., 2011).

According to (Mickan, Rodger, 2000) Leadership is mainly based on trust and this could lead to good teamwork in an organization which could result in better employee engagement and performance. Since the team members have different competencies, the employees could gain and share the knowledge and work towards better and to improve their self-confidence.

Accountability holds another important place in building up employee engagement and team. As a part of the job, employees needs to understand the expectations of their leaders and it is the duty of the team to fulfil it. They need to be accountable of their actions. When the structure of accountability in an organisation is built up well, then the employee performance leading to good team work and engagement increases (Haneberg, 2012). Unity of the team will be constructed based on teamwork, attitudes and possessiveness which could drive employees towards one goal (Evans & Dion, 1991).

According to (Swathi, 2013) Employee engagement can be divided into 5 categories:

1. The fully Engaged and satisfied :Employees in this category are always fully satisfied and engaged with their work. They only strive towards organizational goal.

2. This comes second in line. Employees on this group needs a slight push up to keep them going and they can easily fall into the first group.


3. The honeymooners -: their contribution to work will be very less although they are satisfied. They mainly focus on non-critical tasks rather than working on what is necessary.

4. The Burners : These are employees who have the will to work but need support to carry their load, if proper guidance or help isn’t provided, they will be disengaged and would be very difficult to lift them up.


5. The left alone: finally in line are the employees who are almost in the disengaged group. The cause could be due to these employees not been looked after well, or even rewarded for their work. If the leaders do not get them engaged, they might end up looking for options.

Video 3.0 : Leadership, Engage your team

(Source: Leadership - Engage your Team - Create a Culture of Engagement, 2013)

In the above video, it gives a good explanation on employee engagement with leadership.













List of References

Bakker, A.B., Albrecht, S.L. and Leiter, M.P. (2011), “Key questions regarding work engagement”, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 4-28.

Bindl, U.K. and Parker, S.K. (2010), “Feeling good and performing well? Psychological engagement and positive behaviors at work”, in Albrecht, S.L. (Ed.), Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

Brunetto, Y., Xerri, M., Shriberg, A., Farr-Wharton, R., Shacklock, K., Newman, S. and Dienger, J. (2013), “The impact of workplace relationships on engagement, well-being, commitment and turnover for nurses in Australia and the USA”, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 69 No. 12, pp. 2786–99.

Evans C.R. and K.L. Dion. 1991. “Group Cohesion and performance: A Meta-Analysis.” Small Group Research, 22(7): 175-186. [Accessed 5th Jan 2016].

Haneberg. L, 2012, Accountability and Ownership, MPI, pp. 1-6. [Online] Available through: http://managementcraft.typepad.com/Accountability%20and%20Ownership%20Article.pdf [Accessed 5th Jan 2016].

Leadership - Engage your Team - Create a Culture of Engagement. (2013). [video] Directed by K. Wright. USA.

Mickan. S, Rodger. S, 2000, Characteristics of effective teams: a literature review, Australian Health Review, pp. 201-208. [Online] available through: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/12145106_Characteristics_of_effective_teams_a_liter Page 85 ature_review [Accessed 22nd Sept 2015].

Rasmussen, T. and Jeppesen, H. (2006), “Teamwork and associated psychological factors: a review”, Work and Stress, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 105–28.

Senior, B. and Swailes, S. (2004), “The dimensions of management team performance: a repertory grid study”, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 53 No. 4, pp. 317–33.

Sparrowe, T. and Liden, C. (2005), “Two routes to influence: integrating leader–member exchange and social network perspectives”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 50 No. 4, pp. 505–35.

S, S. (2013). Impact of leadership on employee engagement. International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services & Management Research, [online] 2(5). Available at: http://indianresearchjournals.com/pdf/IJMFSMR/2013/May/14.pdf [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].

Employee engagement in a leading BPO firm

I work for a leading BPO in Sri Lanka. There are many departments like finance, insurance, legal and accounting sectors. There are around 800 staff. Our firm provides services for international clients from here.

As a leading BPO in Sri Lanka, it is not easy being on the top always. The company faces both internal and external issues. The competition is very high and I has to retain its best employees to achieve the goal.

The department I work for has 85 employees and 6 Managers. On a monthly basis, it has come to light that the firm has started recruiting new people as the old employees have started resigning. Is we look at the reasons for the resignation, majority are because of less engagement within the firm or not been appreciated.

Employees who work hard and their productivity is very high, still they are in the same position for many years. There was an employee who has been there for 13 years, worked very hard and brought a lot of profit for the company. However, she was promoted as a Team Leader just in her 11th year and that was it. No recognition, no appreciation or not even a good promotion. Two years down the line, she had to hand over her resignation which was a major shock to the firm. Few months after she left, the organization started feeling the pressure from the top Management as the sales dropped to significant extents. Deficit increased. Although new employees were brought in, it was not going to be like the well experienced ones as it could take a lot of time to bring them to the required competency. The major reason for many employees like her to leave were not praised for the good work or lack of recognition what they do.

It’s not always about the work and driving sales, but also about getting all the employees engaged in what the company does. It’s not the matter of what the activity could be, big or small get everyone in. The HR recently introduced a FUN FRIDAY activity where they have some sort of activity just for an hour where the whole department will have to participate. They are divided into groups and activities like, general knowledge quiz, singing competitions, best drama and many more were brought in. After few good Fridays, the company realised that people enjoyed their work and the productive levels of many employees increased.

Teamwork is another important factor that is lacking in our organization. Mainly because are people are rewarded for individual performance and achievements. Whereas there should be a parameter where team engagement and or people who supports the team will also be considered for rewards and recognition. When this is in place, people learn to share their knowledge and skills with others and will support the team whenever needed, as stated in the previous blog posts. Unity will prevail within the team and target achievements will be more realistic.

Many of our colleagues who work here, have so many skills and ways of improving the process or even changing them. Since, they are not encouraged or motivated with some sort of recognition program, their skills and talents that may be helpful to the firm are limited. Therefore, to bring the best skills out, some monetary valued system should be introduced. It should be given out to them with their monthly salary. When this happens, new are ideas will be out and innovation will take place. Employees needs to be cross trained so when a need a need arises with the other teams, staff from one team could pool in and help the rest without having the need to hire more staff.

Maslows hierarchy of-needs for employees

Figure 1.0 : Maslows hierarchy of-needs for employees

                                          (Musgrove, 2016)

According to Figure .1.0, the High Flyer right on the top are highly engaged group of employees. They work independently and also help others without even help being requested. Their achievements are always beyond expectations and they create less work for Managers. The engaged group comes 2nd in line. This group of people understand their values and also believes that the company is proud of their work and thinks them as a valuable asset to the firm. They keep themselves occupied all the time and look for more work if needed. The third category are the Almost Engaged group. This set of people are neither happy nor unhappy with their work. They work there as they have no other choice and feels that they have no developments within the firm whatsoever. According to (Holbeche and Springett, 2003), engagement of employees plays a vital role in every work place and if the employees realise that they no development, they tend to look for options.

Further according to Musgrove (2016) the fourth one in line is Not Engaged people. This set of people have more unplanned leaves than planned leaves. They tend to call in sick more often and punctuality at work is nil. Final set of people are the disengaged people. They are more similar to the not engaged group but more towards the time wasters. They hate what they do and their only motive is just to earn money. They always hunt for jobs and ready to resign any minute. The company will have to work hard to bring the disengaged people to the Highly Engaged group through Engagement.
 

Reference list:

Holbeche, L. and Springett, N. (2003), In Search of Meaning in the Workplace, Horsham, Roffey Park Institute, ISBN: 0 907416527.

Musgrove, S. (2016). Employee engagement according to Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs. [image] Available at: http://www.brighterbusiness.co.uk/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-for-employers/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019].

Final thoughts

To companies to exist in the long run, employee engagement plays a vital role in every organisation. As per (Kahn, 1990 694) every employee should be given the freedom to express their views and feedback on their daily tasks. Getting employees engaged in all the extracurricular activities will also help them be more engaged towards the firm and the team and will also help them drive towards the success.

Employee recognition is very important as it motivates a person to work, most companies under-perform as the employees aren’t appreciated for what they do (Achievement awards group, 2012). Even if it’s a small task, just a thank you would make them do even more. |Employee recognition has a combined relationship with the humans’ emotions. Everything an employee does depends on their daily emotions. Therefore, keeping them appreciated and recognised will help them do a better job than the previous day (CommLab India, 2011). It also builds self-confidence and increases their capabilities.  There are many ways of recognising. Eg: award ceremonies, public announcements, firm wide emails, monetary and non-monetary recognition. Therefore, employers have various ways to choose to recognise an employee based on their performance. Recognition isn’t limited and it all depends on the achievement and performance.
Performance appraisals brings both employers and employees together and gives them both a opportunity to understand them and voice out their opinions This would result in better performance or better improvement based on the appraisal. Setting up a goal and to work towards it is also very important.  Giving the less engaged people more attention, necessary training and development will help them feel they are taken care of. In general all employees should be given necessary training from time to time so they could work towards the best and keep them more engaged in their work (Lytle (2019).

Team work plays a major role as it supports one another keeps the spirit going. Without team work, there’s no success (Mickan, Rodger, 2000). All employees should be engaged and have a good relationship within the team for them to have the team work. To bring in that bond, getting all employees in some sort of get together from time to time will help. Every employee will have different level of competency and talent which could be shared when they work as a team. Knowledge is shared and innovation is introduced.  Through innovation new ideas are introduced to improve the company’s process (Sundaray (2011). Every innovative idea been introduced should be rewarded so employees will get the interest of introducing better ideas. In summary, with proper employee engagement and recognition, a company will last longer with a higher success rate.





List of reference

Creative Ways To Give Employee Recognition. (2011). [video] CommLab India.

Employee Engagement & Motivation video. (2012). [video] Achievement Awards Group.

Lytle, T. (2019). 7 Tips to Increase Employee Engagement Without Spending a Dime. SHRM. [online] Available at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/1016/pages/7-tips-to-increase-employee-engagement-without-spending-a-dime.aspx [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].

Mickan. S, Rodger. S, 2000, Characteristics of effective teams: a literature review, Australian Health Review, pp. 201-208. [Online] available through: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/12145106_Characteristics_of_effective_teams_a_literature_review Page 85 [Accessed 22nd Sept 2015].