The hidden power of Employee Engagement

 

Overview

William Kahn, the Founding Father of Engagement, has defined engaged employees to “physically, cognitively and emotionally express and use themselves during their role performances” (Kahn, 1990, p. 694). Number of studies claim that an improved employee engagement levels will be result in the bottom-line profit increases. (Harter et al., 2002). Also Gallup research on employee engagement values demonstrates that engagement may result in positive health and positive feelings towards work and organization (Gallup, 2006).

Employee engagement outcomes

According to Stairs and Galpin (2010) by maintaining a high level of employee engagement, an organization can achieve the following (Armstrong, 2014):

• Lower absenteeism and higher employee retention;
• Increased employee effort and productivity;
• Improved quality and reduced error rates;
• Increased sales;
• Higher profitability, earnings per share and shareholder returns;
• Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty;
• Faster business growth 

The CEO of a $2.3 billion company called HCL Technologies, with 60,000 professionals in 26 countries, Vineet Nayar, introduced “employees first and customers second” practice to strengthen employee engagement within the organization. This innovative approach caused HCL Technologies revenues and operating profits to became more than triple since 2005. (Wright, 2010). It is one of the best example about the effectiveness of the power of Employee engagement.

Video 1 : Employees first, customers second

Speech by Vineet Nayar, the CEO of HCL Technologies

Source : TEDx talks (2015), Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCdu67s_C5E&t=4s) 

According to a survey conducted in Apparel sector in Sri Lanka, the findings revealed that 22% promotion opportunities were not purely based on their performance, 12% responded that they were not rewarded adequately, 12% responded that performance evaluations did not reflect the effort they have put at work and 11% responded that managers were not aware about what motivates them at work. Survey findings based on IT and KPO,BPO Sector indicated that IT sector employees are more engaged than KPO, BPO sector employees. (Dharmasiri, 2017)

In conclusion, the chapter is discussed about the strategic importance of engagement, outcomes of maintaining a high level of employment and the power of having engaged employees in an organization. Sri Lanka also has such success stories can be found in organizations who implemented engaged work environment within the organization. But unfortunately most surveys conducted in Sri Lanka has claimed that most of Sri Lankan employees are not engaged with their job. In the next chapter, which will be discussed about creating a healthy organization through employee engagement by using this hidden power of employee engagement. 

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

Dharmasiri, A.S., (2017) Engaging employees for enterprise effectiveness: Emerging evidence from Sri Lanka, ft.lk. Available at : https://www.ft.lk/ajantha-dharmasiri/Engaging-employees-for-enterprise-effectiveness-Emerging-evidence-from-Sri-Lanka/32-640687

Dharmasiri, A.S., (2021) Global Trends on Employee Engagement, Epitome of Engaging Employees. Available at :

https://apbsrilanka.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2010_22nd_conv_a_7_Dr_Ajantha_Dharmasiri.pdf

Gallup (2006). ʹGallup study: engaged employees inspire company innovation: national survey finds that passionate workers are most likely to drive organisations forwardʹ, The Gallup Management Journal, Available at :

http://gmj.gallup.com/content/24880/GallupǦStudyǦEngagedǦEmployeesǦInspireǦCompany.aspx

Harter JK, Schmidt FL, and Hayes TL (2002), ʹBusiness‐unit‐level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta‐ analysisʹ, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(2), pp. 268–279

Kahn, W.A. (1990), “Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 692-724

TEDx talks (2015), Employees first, customers second | Vineet Nayar | TEDxAix, Available at :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCdu67s_C5E&t=4s , Accessed on 14 August 2022

Wright, A. D. (2010) Nayar : Put Employees First to Grow Business, Available at : https://blog.shrm.org/trends/nayar-put-employees-first-to-grow-business , Accessed on 14 August 2022