Employee engagement in HR Practices

 Overview

Human Resource is the key strength for an organization to run day to day operations (Shrotryia & Dhanda, 2019). According to Armstrong (2017) employee engagement happens when ‘people are committed to their work and to the organization’. However, there is no specific introduction or definition to employee engagement in 21st century since it has been initiated and measured in numerous ways.

As per the research that conducted by Gallup (2015), he found out 17.2% of the people working in the organizations are actively disengaged, 32% are engaged and almost 50.8% are not engaged (Mohanty and Choudhury, 2018). Based on this research, three levels of employee engagement presented.

  1.  Engaged Employees
  2. Disengaged Employees
  3. Actively Disengaged Employees

Since employee engagement directly impacts the job satisfaction, motivation and commitment to work of an employee (Reilly and Brown, 2008), both employee and employers should work towards to build a strong co-relationship inside the organization (Kompaso and Sridevi, 2010). The following model (Figure 01) introduced by Institute of Employment Studies after the depth research they have done about employee engagement (Armstrong, 2014).

Figure 01 - IES model of employee engagement

                                                            Source : Armstrong et al (2014)

In a 21st century workforce, employee loyalty is measured based on his behavior and attitudes, and the reflection of engagement rather than the years of service. (Mohanty and Choudhury, 2018). Employers identify that engaged employees are more productive and therefore, understanding employee motives and factors that drives employees to be attached in their work is important.

 The following elements are identified as three predictors of engagement (Towers Watson, 2009)

Ø  Rational – how well the employee understands roles/responsibilities

Ø  Emotional- how much passion employee can bring to work

Ø  Motivational- how willing is the employee to invest discretionary effort to perform their role


Drivers of Employee Engagement

Drivers of employee engagement may differ from one organization to the another next or may be in different departments within the organization and also will change occasionally. (Bedarkar, M., Pandita, D. 2014).  Crawford et el (2013) defined the Drivers of employee engagement as follows. (Armstrong, 2014)

  • Job challenge (Creates potential for accomplishment and personal growth)
  • Opportunities for development
  • Autonomy (The freedom, independence and discretion allowed to employees in scheduling their work)
  • Variety (jobs which allow individuals to perform many different activities or use many different skills.
  • Fit (Existence of compatibility between an individual and a work environment)
  • Higher customer satisfaction and advocacy

  According to Gallup Consulting (2012), the following core equation underlying the Gallup "Q12" approach. This demonstrates that just a talent of an employee will not effect on productivity, but also employee relationship towards the organization, right expectations and employee talent recognition and rewarding.


For the conclusion, employee engagement can define as a mutual relationship between employee and their organization and the support given by each party to fulfil their needs. Both employer and employee being engage to work and working environment plays a critical role in fulfilling organizational objectives and to overcome day to day operations successfully. By managing a high level of employee engagement helps an organization to retain employee loyalty and to improve organizational performance. To improve employee engagement, employer should know their current practices, where they should improve and also how to measure employee engagement in their organization which will be discussed in next blog.

  

References

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice, 13th edition. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page, pp.193-202

Bedarkar, M., Pandita, D. (2014). A study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting employee performance. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp133, 106–115.

Gallup Consulting (2012). The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organizational Outcomes.Gallup Management Journal

Kompaso, S. and Sridevi, M. (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management, [online] 5(12), pp.89-94

Mohanty, M. and Choudhury, S. (2018). A Conceptual Model of Employee Engagement - From the perspective of Manufacturing Industry. RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary, [online] 3(7), pp.290-295

Shrotryia, V. K., Dhanda, U. (2019). Content validity of assessment instrument for employee engagement. SAGE Open, 9(1), 1–7.

Towers Watson (2009). Turbo-Charging Employee Engagement: The power of recognition from managers-Part I. Available at : https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Towers-Watson-2009-Model-of-Exponential-Engagement_fig5_348929200












Comments

  1. The performance management system has been continuously evolving in every industry to cope up with current scenario, which enables individuals to work in alignment with organizational goal. In 21st century, performance management system has become an integral part of Employee Engagement. Hence, the organizations take their decisions on modifying the system as per their own context. (Rath A, 2018)

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    1. I agree with comments, Employee engagement positively associated with job performance. That means that engaged workforce will likely perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively (Yongxing et al, 2017)

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  2. Agree. If the industrial sector is taken, the employee engagement has a significant impact on a company's sustainability and it enhances organizational performance (Mokaya & Kipyegon, 2014). The quality of the work produced increases with more employee engagement (Khan, 1990). Along with encouraging coworkers, the workplace can boost productivity and job satisfaction when the employee engagement is met properly (Yousef, 2017).

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    1. Yes, the presence of high level of employee engagement will enhance job performance, productivity, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and affective and continuance commitment towards the job (Chalofsky & Krishna, 2009; Wollard & Shuck, 2011).

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  3. In the present-day context, employee engagement has become a powerful source of competitive advantage in challenging the other market competitors as employee engagement is considered as one of the biggest rewards in an organisation (Deepika,2014). In addition, the concept of employee engagement relates to three key drivers of employee engagement, namely communication, work life balance and leadership (Bedarkar,2014).

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    1. While fully agreeing with your comment, I would like to bring together few other drivers of employee engagement such as trust & integrity, Career growth and Employee development opportunities, Nature of the job, Line of sight between employee performance and company performance, Coworker's Behavior and Participation in decision making processes (Singh, 2016)

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  4. When employees are involved in making decisions, they gain a professional and personal stake in the organization and its overall success. This commitment leads to increased productivity as employees are actively participating in various aspects of the company and wish to see their efforts succeed overall (Dijk & Michal, 2015). This is not only beneficial to company growth, but is also on-the-job training for workers. The increase in responsibility expands employee skill sets, preparing them for additional responsibility in the future (Lievens & Chapman, 2019).

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    1. Participation in decision making processes drives employee to engage in their work and motivate towards to new tasks assigning by the organization. Highly engaged employees will definitely achieve both financial & non financial goals in the organization and drive towards the success (Singh, 2016).

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  5. Very well agree! Starting a company band and jamming on Fridays,
    holding contests within the organization, some physical activities in the work place like yoga sessions are also a few ways that helps to release work place stress and will make the day a bit more fun for employees (Eisenhauer, 2019).

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  6. Yes, Work engagement is beneficial for both employees and organizations and employee engagement plays a significant role on work performance as well. (Demerouti & Cropanzano,2010). However when employees are hardworking to achieve goals of the organization their work engagement will not be increasing in-role performance because they are engaged in tasks assigned by the organization (Demerouti,2006).




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  7. Nice Blog! Are you excited to team building? Team building is a best way to connect and increase the bond with each other. See list of amazing indoor employee engagement activities that help to make their day memorable.

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