Introduction
Employee
Engagement is vital for excellent performance and organization of all sizes
world over invests heavily to raise the bar and develop engagement and
commitment of their employees. Jack Welch, the former general Electric CEO
cited employee engagement as the first driver to best measure a company’s
health (Vance, 2017). An engaged employee provides the organization with added
advantages of employee loyalty, which results in longer stay increasing staff
retention and thereby improving the bottom-line profit. An engaged employee
will also play an active role in improving customer satisfaction and will be
the key pillar in implementing organizational change (Smith & Markwick, 2009)
Engagement and Business Performance
The level of engagement by an employee can be categorized in to three as: Engaged, Not-Engaged and Actively Disengaged (Krueger & Killham, 2006). Figure 2.0 details the traits for individuals in each of these engagement levels. Therefore, it is important for organizations to understand the level of engagement of their employees. Knowledge is half the battle won, as it would give a holistic view of what works, what does not, the existing gaps and in turn organizations could understand what drives and promotes engagement that will ultimately foster productivity (Lockwood, 2007).
Figure
2.0: Levels of Employee Engagement and their Behaviors
According to Harvard Business Review Analytics Services (2016), Employee Engagement tops as the 3rd highest factor that’s more likely to bring in success as viewed by business leaders; indicated below in figure 3.0. The research conducted around the subject also demonstrates, a highly engaged workforce, while maximizing the investment in human capital and improving productivity can also significantly reduce cost and directly impacts bottom-line.
Figure
3.0: Factors most likely to bring Business Success
Figure
4.0: Outcomes of Highly Engaged Business Units and Teams
(Source:
Gallup, 2020, p. 3)
However,
Gallup (2017), reports worldwide 85% of employees are either not engaged or
actively disengaged, which is rather alarming to note as the business performance
we currently see are brought in by only 15% of the workforce. Krueger &
Killham (2006), estimates $328 Billion as the cost incurred by US economy as a
result of actively disengaged employees.
Conclusion
Employee
engagement plays a major role in improving business performance. Organizations still
has much work to be done to retain the engaged employees and raise the bar for disengaged
and actively disengaged to become engaged if they are to remain in business.
Reference
Employee
Engagement and Performance: Latest Insights from the World’s Largest Study,
2020, Gallup, viewed 21st October 2020,
Impact
of Employee Engagement on Performance – by Harvard Business Review Analytics
Services, 2016, Achievers, viewed 21st October 2020,
< https://hbr.org/sponsored/2016/04/the-impact-of-employee-engagement-on-performance>
Krueger, J &
Killham, E (2006), Whose Driving Innovation at your company, Gallup – Business
Journal, viewed 21st October 2020,
< https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/24472/whos-driving-innovation-your-company.aspx>
Lockwood, NR (2007), Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage: HR’s Strategic Role, SHRM Research Quarterly
Smith, GR &
Markwick, C. (2009) ‘Employee Engagement: A review of current thinking’, report
469, Institute for Employment Studies, viewed 17th October 2020,
< https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/employee-engagement-review-current-thinking>
State of the
Global Work Place (2017), Gallup, viewed 21st October 2020,
< https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238079/state-global-workplace-2017.aspx#formheader>
Vance, RJ 2017, Employee Engagement and Commitment: A guide to
understanding, measuring and increasing engagement in your organization, SHRM
Foundation – Special reports and expert views, viewed on 21st
October 2020,
Hi Sonali, I would also like to add up to this post that, All large and medium corporates in the world have started to pay more attention to employee engagement due to multiple reasons and benefits for organization development and performance (Kane-Frieder et al., 2014). In competitive and productive environment, Marvin Weisbord said, “The quickest way to increase dignity, meaning, and community in a workplace is to involve people in the redesigning of their own work”. He considered this the shortest way to reduce cost, increase quality, and get more satisfied customers (Weisbord, 2004). Although the benefits of having an engaged employee are obvious, the challenge is how to create and retain these engaged employees. The top management for organizations and some practitioners in organizational development are interested in this issue and they would like to make the engagement process easier like plug workforce into this process and directly turn them into engaged and more productive people. Others conceived that the employee engagement was not like a plug activity. Making engaged people requires a long-term process and systemic strategies and policies and follow up the results and modify the plans in the light of these outcomes. It also requires designing appropriate work duties consistent with qualification and competences of the employees as well looking at daily connections between the top management and leaders and the employee who manage them (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009).
ReplyDeleteYes Malithra, to further prove on what you have stated, Gartner conducted a survey across 60 countries from all major industries with more then 800+ HR Leaders, to identify top priorities for HR Leaders for 2021. The survey resulted with building critical skills and competencies as the top priority. The other main factors were, Workforce and work design and redesign, leadership and employee experience (Gartner, 2020). All factors stated have a direct link to employee engagement hence, it could be suggested that organizations will continue to develop engagement of staff as engaged employees will bring in greater organizational success (Gallup, 2020 & Harvard Business Review Analytics Services, 2016).
DeleteHi Sonali, I would like to add this; almost all major HR consulting firms are in the business of raising the level of work. These companies claim to have found conclusive and powerful evidence that productivity, sales, customer satisfaction, and retention of employees increase the profitability of work. Employee engagement increase the organization performance (Bakker and Leiter, 2010, 11).
ReplyDeleteHi Ranga, what you have stated is further proved by the latest study conducted by Gallup on Employee engagement and performance. Sales productivity improved by 18% and both low turnover and high turnover organizations the numbers improved 43% and 18% respectively. Organization profitability too increased by 23% (Gallup, 2020).
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEmployee Engagement, as a concept, has been gaining significance since the past 10 years. Organizations today consider engaged employees as strategic partners in their businesses. The concept of employee engagement has now gained even more prominence, since many drivers have been identified, which impact employee performance and well-being at the workplace. As companies across industries strive to survive and rise above the stiff competition, physical and mental well-being of employees will be one of the important aspects that HR managers need to focus on. Hence, employee engagement is today seen as a powerful source of competitive advantage, especially in the turbulent times(Pandita and Bedarkar 2015)
ReplyDeleteAs correctly stated, engaged employees will provide organizations with crucial competitive advantages, including higher productivity and lower employee turnover. In today’s tough economy maximizing productivity of the employees is more important than ever and organizations have uniquely positioned HR teams to drive and increase employee engagement (SHRM, Recourses and Tools).
DeleteHuckerby (2002) discusses findings from the UK suggesting that only 17 percent of
ReplyDeleteemployees are truly ``engaged'' in their organizations, while 63 percent are ``not
engaged'', and 20 percent are ``disengaged’‘ those who have mentally quit but stay on.
these figures may be representative of poorly conceived ``guestimates'' or may be an
accurate representation of employee behaviours? If the latter, a colossal 83 percent of
employees are on the job drawing salaries and benefits, while their energy is unavailable to the organization.
The existing literature on drivers of employee engagement indicated that there is paucity of research on these five drivers and their impact on employee engagement. According to your blog the implementation of the engagement drivers has had a good impact on the organization. That said, engagement doesn’t always seem to add up. For starters, the correlation between engagement and performance outcomes is far from perfect, which means that many engaged individuals and teams are not delivering the results that leaders expect. By the same token, some leaders will find that their best performing teams are often amongst the least satisfied.
Contrary to what you have stated, analysis suggest that having highly engaged teams would improve organizational performance ( Gallup Meta Analysis,2020). And based on the latest engagement survey conducted by Gallup (2017), it was identified that on a global perspective only 15% of employees are engaged. So what this means is that the results we see now are contributed by just 15% of the workforce. Imagine the improvements we could see if the engagement levels are up even by 5% (Gallup State of the Global Workplace, 2017).
DeleteEmployee engagement originally results in greater employee performance, which further leads to increase organizational performance (Tower Perrin, 2006). Relationship between employee engagement, customer satisfaction, productivity, profit and employee turnover, which eventually, would lead to increased possibility of business success (Harter et al, 2002).
ReplyDeleteTower Perrin, now formally known as 'Tower Watson', conducted a global work study in 2012. According to this study there are 2 key points that organizations need to focus for engagement. First to enable workers with internal support, resources and tools and second to create an environment that’s energizing to work because it promotes physical, emotional and social well-being (Tower Watson Global Work Study, 2012).
DeleteOrganizational performance lies at the heart of a firm’s survival. In very generic terms, Organizational performance has been defined as a set of both financial and non-financial indicators capable of assessing the degree to which organizational goals and objectives have been accomplished (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). The drive for organizational success is rooted to employees that are engaged; these employees possess characteristics that include behavioral factor, which is the employee’s efforts in their work; emotional aspect, the employee’s feelings about the organization; cognitive engagement, employee belief of the organizations culture, leaders, and the overall organization (Lockwood, 2007; Saks, 2006). Thus, to drive company performance, employee engagement acts as an essential factor.
ReplyDeleteAs rightly stated, engagement and organizational performance is interlinked. With high engagement levels organizations will see better performance and vise versa (Markos & Sridevi, 2010).
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ReplyDeleteEngaged employees are the one of the most significant factors for an organization, the persons who act as the pillars of any organization that brings positive vibes such as productive ethics and accountability (Levinson, 2007). employee feedback is also very important factor in an organization. Managers should welcome employee feedback for the development and success of any organization. Also. employee engagement and organizational performance, the strategic plan of every organization could be demonstrated in the best way (Kazimoto, 2016).
ReplyDeleteObtaining employee feedback is one way of gauging the disengagement factors. Therefore most organizations use surveys, or convene focus groups to get employee feedback which in turn would help them improve levels of engagement (Wong, 2019).
DeleteAgreed. Human resources is most valued resource of any organization is , with high capacity employees are the key to success & the way to set modest advantage in the global scenario. Also organization with engaged employees always try to find innovative ways to address to problems and to increase the productivity. Therefor Employee Engagement is possibly the most critical metric for organizations in the 21st Century (Singh,2016).
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt, humans are the most valued resources in any organization. An organization would not exist with out it's employees. Hence ensuring the satisfaction and motivation of them is important to any organization (Singh,2016).
DeleteAdmit your statement and in current challenging environment employee engagement experience and effect both the organization and employees (Osborn and Hammoud 2017). Even employees can utilize contract agreement amenities to encumber the attainment of the goals and objectives of organization and organization capability to anchorage employee engagement blueprint is critical for them (Sun and Bunchapattanasakda 2019).
ReplyDeleteIt is true that engagement experience effect both the employer and the employee. Variables impacting engagement are can be factored to 3 categories as Organizational, Job and Individual. And outcomes of these variable are focus on individual and organizational performance. This could either be positive or negative (Sun & Bunchapattanasakda , 2019).
DeleteEmployers should try to identify only the areas where can benefit from employee engagement and thus contribute to the organization's performance as that high level of employee engagement does not lead to a better overall performance in all areas of the organization (Skiller, 2010).
ReplyDeleteContrary to what you say, with an engaged workforce organizational performance do improve and this has been proven with many studies and analysis. One such report is the Gallup Meta analysis released in October 2020 which shows many indicators that have a positive impact on organizational performance. Therefore, it would have been better if you could have mentioned what factors does not perform better so we could have a a discussion on same.
DeleteRoy(2017),explained that , Employee engagement has become a focal point in today’s workforce because companies are finally beginning to grasp that in order to keep your customers happy, you need to have happy, engaged employees .But, Gallup(2017),noted, only 33% of employees in the USA were engaged in 2016 – “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their workplace". Considering benefits of employee engagement, how to measure it, and then how you can start engaging your employees right way.
ReplyDelete(a) Higher Employee Satisfaction
(b) Higher Retention and Lower Turnover
(c) Higher Productivity
(d) Increased Profitability
(e) Less Absenteeism
(f) Increased Employee Loyalty
True. In the same report CEO of Gallup poses a question to all asking 'What if we doubled the current engagement levels? or Trippled?' And goes on to state 'Image how quickly that would fix global GDP, productivity and hence, human development.' (Gallup, 2017). This is definitely a thought to ponder and take action.
DeleteOrganizations should encourage and keep employees well? Being, which is one of the factors that contribute to their performance and commitment to achieve organizational goals (Albrecht, S.L.2012)
ReplyDeleteCommitment to employee well being is fundamental to engagement. This represents organizations considering health and safety seriously, working to minimizing accidents, injuries, violence and harassment, and taking effective action should a problem occur (Robinson, Perryman & Hayday, 2004).
DeleteHi Sonali, Baumruk and Gorman (2006), says that the engaged employee consistently demonstrates three general behaviors which improve organizational performance:
ReplyDelete1 - Say-the employee advocates for the organization to co-workers, and refers potential employees and customers.
2 - Stay-the employee has an intense desire to be a member of the organization despite opportunities to work elsewhere.
3 - Strive-the employee exerts extra time, effort and initiative to contribute to the success of the business
As correctly stated these are traits exhibited by an engaged employee. Adding few more points on identifying if an employee is engaged are; consistently exceeds goals and expectations,encourages and supports team members, optimistic and positive, persistent to name a few ( Marciano, 2010).
DeleteAccording to John Storey et al (2009), Employee engagement is attracting a great deal of interest from employers across numerous sectors. In some respects it is a very old aspiration – the desire by employers to find ways to
ReplyDeleteincrease employee motivation and to win more commitment to the job and the organization.
In some ways it is ‘new’ in that the context within which engagement is being sought is different.
One aspect of this difference is the greater penalty to be paid if workers are less engaged
than the employees of competitors, given the state of international competition and the raising
of the bar on efficiency standards. A second aspect is that the whole nature of the meaning of
work and the ground rules for employment relations have shifted and there is an open space
concerning the character of the relationship to work and to organization which employers sense
can be filled with more sophisticated approaches.
While engaged staff bring many benefits to the organization like Productivity improvement, open communication and faster go to market in projects, with disengaged employees, not only it impacts the employees work but also spreads to other team members. Therefore, it is no wonder why organizations seek to engage their staff and considered important (Forbes Human Resource Council, 2018).
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