The impact of employee
engagement
Employee Engagement
Engagement
takes place when people are committed to their work and the organization and
are motivated to achieve high levels of performance (Michael and Stephen,2013), and also according to Schrita and Mohamad (2017), dedicated and meaningful
work enables employees to realize how valuable they are within the organization
and makes them engaged. The basic needs of satisfaction have been found to
directly relate to dedication of employees
At the
same time Employee engagement has been perceived as a motivational factor
towards organization’s objectives achievement. The good environment that is
offered to the worker enables him to offer the best that the organization needs
for its achievement of goals and objectives(Kazimoto,2016). further the world’s
top- performing organizations understand that employee engagement is a force
that drives business results (Bhavani , Sharavan and Arpitha,2015). Hewitt Associates (2009,p1) defined an engaged employee as “the
measure of an employee’s emotional and intellectual commitment to their
organization and its success” (Karen and Aneil,2014).
Stakeholders of Employee Engagement
According
to Michael and Stephen (2013) Line managers play a key role in enhancing job
engagement with the support of organizational initiatives in the areas of job
design; learning programmes, including leadership development for line
managers; and performance and reward management systems.
Also
Solomon and Sandhya (2010) state Managers unequivocally agree that this century
demands more efficiency and productivity than any other times in history.
Businesses are striving to increase their performance. Managers have been
grappling with many challenges to succeed putting their company ahead of
competitors.
Importance of work environment
on employee engagement
Employee
behaviors do not occur in a vacuum, but in a specific and unique work
environment. People placed in work environments that “fit” are more likely to
intrinsically enjoy their work (James and Jeanne,2006). Flexible work practices
have long been viewed by employees as valuable workplace tools to facilitate
work life management. Employees report that workplace flexibility influences
decisions to join an organization, satisfaction with their jobs, and plans to
stay with their employers. Recently, some employers have come to recognize that
workplace flexibility positively influences valued business outcomes such as
attracting, motivating, and retaining key talent in competitive labor markets,
increasing employee satisfaction and engagement, as well as improving
efficiency and effectiveness (Amy et al,2008).
The reverse is true for those placed in work environments that do not “fit”.
For these employees, normal daily work occurrences may be unpleasant and
interpreted more negatively, thus resulting in negative outcomes such as
boredom, poor work performance, and lack of satisfaction. Also younger
employees were “less loyal to the company”. As a result, younger employees may take the view
that nothing is permanent, and may disproportionately emphasize the importance
of work environments that match their preferences (James and Jeanne,2006).
Key driving factors of employee
engagement
The
main drivers of engagement are meaningful work (the most important), senior
management vision and communication, positive perceptions of one’s line manager
and employee voice – employees having a say in matters that concern them (Michael
and Stephen,2013). Macey et al (2009) emphasized the work environment and
the jobs people do. They noted that: engagement requires a work environment
that does not just demand more but promotes information sharing, provides
learning opportunities and fosters a balance in people’s lives, thereby
creating the bases for sustained energy and personal initiative (Michael and
Stephen,2013).
Employee
engagement can be achieved through the creation of an organizational
environment where positive emotions such as involvement and pride are
encouraged, resulting in improved organizational performance, lower employee
turnover and better health. At the same time individuals feel positive
emotions, they are able to think in a more flexible, open-minded way and are
also likely to feel greater self-control, cope more effectively and be less
defensive in the workplace (Soni, ND).
According
to Penna (2007) research report meaning at work has the potential to be
valuable way of bringing employers and employees closer together to the benefit
of both where employees experience a sense of community, the space to be
themselves and the opportunity to make a contribution, they find meaning.
Employees want to work in the organizations in which they find meaning at work.
On the other hand, The White (2006) study found that almost two thirds’ (60%)
of the surveyed employees want more opportunities to grow forward to remain
satisfied in their jobs. Strong manager-employee relationship is a crucial
ingredient in the employee engagement and retention formula. Further The Towers
Perrin Talent Report (2003) identifies the top ten work place attributes which
will result in employee engagement. The top three among the ten drivers listed
by Perrin are: Senior management’s interest in employees’ well-being, challenging
work and Decision making authority. In other words, CIPD (2006) on the basis of
its survey of 2000 employees from across Great Britain indicates that
communication is the top priority to lead employees to engagement (Solomon and
Sandhya,2010).
Outcomes of employee engagement
Engaged
employees perform better, are more innovative than others, are more likely to
want to stay with their employers, enjoy greater levels of personal well-being
and perceive their workload to be more sustainable than others (Michael and
Stephen,2013) Employee engagement matters to both the employee as well as the
organization. Employees can utilize contract agreement provisions to impede the
attainment of the organizational goals and objectives. Management’s capability
to leverage employee engagement strategies is essential in an organization.
Organizations that have highly engaged employees have greater profits than
those that do not (Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM], 2014).
Organizations with highly engaged employees experience increased customer
satisfaction, profits, and employee productivity (Schrita and Mohamad ,2017).
Challenges in an organization for
employee engagement
According to Balaji, (2014)
the challenges for employee engagement is as follows
- Managers and employees don’t understand engagement.
- The goals and metrics of engagement programs are often limited.
- Engagement is not productivity or an output.
- Outside factors may influence engagement.
- Diverse employees and different generations are engaged by different things.
- Difficulty in understanding fluctuating mind of youngsters.
- Underestimating the significance of employee engagement in the organizational success.
- Lack of co-operation and co-ordination from management.
- Figure 1: Employee Effectiveness Framework – Common Drivers.
(Source:
Hay Group,2016).
After
reviewing research & survey findings of Hay Group by Gullab, it can be
certainly concluded that high levels of employee engagement will lead to
improved employee commitment & involvement towards job and thus creating a
motivated workforce – that will work together to achieve the common goals of
the organization. Highly engaged workforce will definitely make an organization
more successful in terms of financial & nonfinancial parameters. Employee
Engagement depends on four major conditions in the workplace: Organization’s
culture, continuous reinforcement of people focused policies, meaningful
matrices and organizational performance (Yuvika.S,2016).
Hemas Manufacturing Pvt Ltd:
Impact of cross functional team initiatives towards establishing more employee
engagement
As
organizations take on challenges that require increasingly innovative and
practical solutions, the value of cross-functional teams is becoming more
evident than ever. Bringing together the resources and skills from employees
across different departments and functions, these teams are capable
of delivering better and faster results if they are
well-organized and managed effectively. Through teamwork and collaboration,
they can become an invaluable asset to an organization.
Hemas
HR form a cross fictional teams for each for their main brands represent
(Personal care/Home care/Oral care/personal Hygiene) Each team have 12-member
combination from key department of the company (Sales/Marketing/Finance/Supply
chain/R&D/Production/HR). Brand manager of each category is nominated as
the leader of each team.
Role
of cross functional teams
· Collaboration with the team, brand manager develops the annual brand plan
and get the approval from management to execute the plan
· Initiate and execute various
projects to achieve desired brand and company objectives
Evaluation of cross functional team performance
·
At the end of the
financial year each team need to submit a report to management about activities
they have initiated as a team and outcomes, impact towards achieving brand and company objectives
· Each team will be
given to present the summary to the top management. Thereafter top management
decide the ranking of each team (financial objective achievement /innovation/team
work contribution.)
Reward and recognition
·
Each member of the
winning team will be rewarded with cross functional team incentive bonus
according to their contribution (Commitment/leadership/technical
know-how/innovation.)
·
Cross functional team
contribution is considered as a KPI for individual performance review stage
(Executive and above category)
Importance of having cross functional team
· Measure performance from multiple angles
· Make sure all employees are engaged towards company goals despite the functional specialization
· Promote frequent communication
· Establish and maintain processes
· Organize regular team Building activities· Measure performance from multiple angles
Key initiatives of cross functional teams in 2016
and 2017
· Home Care-Diva Sepalika variant launch
· Personal care –Velvet body wash launch
· Oral care –Gel variant launch
· Cost saving project of distribution and warehouse management – Baby care
Conclusion
Professionals
expect to work with peers who are competent. If this does not occur, employee
engagement decreases. On the other hand,
when teams of highly competent people are brought together, employee engagement
tends to grow. Also the competition for talent is expected to get tougher as
there is a demand for more services. In addition, engaged employees are more
likely to stay with the organization. Higher levels of employee retention are
tied to better quality care, as well as lower costs for temporary and overtime
staff (Balaji,2014).
Reference list
·
Amy,L.R., Janet T. C., Laurie L. S. E.,Jeffrey H., and Robert T. B.
,2008,’ The relationship of perceived flexibility, supportive work life policies, and use of formal flexible arrangements and occasional flexibility to employee engagement and expected retention’, <www.reserchgate.net>, 11(2),pp.183-197
,2008,’ The relationship of perceived flexibility, supportive work life policies, and use of formal flexible arrangements and occasional flexibility to employee engagement and expected retention’, <www.reserchgate.net>, 11(2),pp.183-197
·
Balaji, R.,2014, ‘Issues and Challenges Faced
By HR Managers in Employee Engagement in It Sectors ‘, International Journal of
Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology,3(6)
·
Bhavani S.A., Sharavan and Arpitha(2015) ‘A Study Effectiveness of Employee Engagement in Automobile
Industry ‘,International Journal of Economics & Management Sciences,4(10)
·
James,W.W.,Jeanne,H.Y.,2006,’ Generational
preferences for work environment fit: effects on employee outcomes ‘,Emerald
Group Publishing Limited,12(2),pp.150-161
·
Karen,M.,Lois,B.,Aneil,M.,2014, ‘Driving
Employee Engagement: The Expanded Role of Internal Communications ‘,Association
for Business Communication,51(2),PP.183-202
·
Kazimoto, P., (2016) ‘Employee Engagement and
Organizational Performance of Retails Enterprises ‘, American Journal of
Industrial and Business Management, 6(1), pp.516-525
·
Michael,A. ,Stephen.T.,2013, Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource
Management Practice,13th ed. India, Michael Armstrong
·
Schrita,O,W., Mohamad,S,H.,2017, ‘Effective
Employee Engagement in the Workplace ‘,International Journal of Applied
Management and Technology: Walden University ,16(1),pp.50-67
·
Soloman,M.,Sandhya,M.S.,2010, ‘Employee
Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance ‘,Canadian Center of Science and
Education,5(12) ,pp.89-95
·
Soni,A.,ND,’ FACTORS INFLUENCING EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT: A STUDY OF DIVERSE WORKFORCE’, International management Institute,
New Delhi (India)
·
Yuvika.S.,2016, ‘Employee Engagement as a
Contemporary Issue in HRM--A Conceptual Framework ‘, International Journal of
Engineering and Management Research,6(5),pp.364-368
Bhavani et al. (2015) state that employee engagement is the best tool to gain competitive advantage. They further mentioned that through engaged employees a company can gain many advantages such as reduction in attrition rates, increase company performance and worth of stakeholders. According to a research done by Osborne and Hammoud(2017) found out that US corporations loss annually $350 billion due to disengaged employees. Therefore Shanaka as you correctly said engaged employees drives an organization forward. Through them a company can gain more reputation with reduction in cost factor. So a company has to take this factor as a critical issue and should analyze further the ways of engaging employees.
ReplyDeleteShamila(2018) state that Employee engagement is integral in driving organisational success as engaged employees are motivated and strive to achieve organisational goals and objectives.The economic climate in South Africa propagates many organisations to consider retrenchments, restructuring, and continuous improvement in pursuit of profitability and sustainability(Statistics SA: 2017).
DeleteDear Shanaka, You are concluding by saying "Professionals expect to work with peers who are competent. If this does not occur, employee engagement decreases." This statement is further confirmed by , Balaji.R (2014) , Employee engagement is the key to making sustainable changes in an organization. An ‘ engaged employee’ is the one who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about his work and thus will act in a way that furthers his organizational interest. The success of any organization depends on the engagement and involvement of its employees at work . The engaged, responsive employees are identified by the degree to which they fully occupy themselves as well as on the strength of their commitment to the employee and role. The present paper analyses the drivers of employee engagement and assesses the relationship, if any between the organizational practices relating to HR and employee engagement.
ReplyDeleteDear Hemendra, According to Shaheen , Fais and Abdul,(ND) further sate that relationship between employee and employer is inevitable to enrich the employee engagement level. Employee relations focus on what level employees are engaged with their work in the organization. The positive views and attitudes of superior towards subordinates convey excellent employee relations that results high employee engagement at the workplace
DeleteDear Shanaka, as you stated on your blog that employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values (Smitha, 2013). Employee engagement involves organization-wide and should be viewed as broad cultural and organizational strategy (Frank et al., 2004), it works as a chain of actions (Shaw, 2005) which need the participation of all employees in the company (Robinson et al., 2004), and also have clear and continuous interactions with its members (Kress, 2005). In a survey based on 2000 employee across the Great Britain, It was found that communication is the top priority for employee engagement (CIPD, 2009).
ReplyDeleteDear Shameer, According to The study of Agrawal and Ojha (2016) it was found in their study that the level of engagement was low among Gen Y in comparison with other two generations such as baby boomers and generation X, which justifies initial conceptualization that Gen Y is more demanding and wants to work on its own pace. They might not be very satisfied with the available benefits and opportunities in their organizations. These employees have grown up in a time where information has become available instantly.
DeleteAs you have mentioned above that employee engagement leads to high levels of performance, it is also stated that in recent years, there has been a great deal of attention in employee engagement. Numerous studies have claimed that employee engagement forecasts employee outcomes, organizational success, and financial performance (Bates, 2004; Baumruk, 2004; Harter et al., 2002; Richman, 2006).
ReplyDeleteSalanova (2007) states that engagement is “essential” for modern organizations given the many challenges they face. At the same time, it has been reported that employee engagement is on the decline and there is an increase in disengagement among employees today (Bates, 2004; Richman, 2006). All Americans in the workforce are not fully engaged which leading to what has been referred to as an “engagement gap” (Bates, 2004; Johnson, 2004; Kowalski, 2003).
Dear Nipuni, I agree with your statement.The term engagement refers to an “individual’s involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for work”(Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002, p. 269). Built on the work of Kahn (1990), engagement describes the intimate involvement with and framework of the work experience. When employees are engaged, they are emotionally connected to others and cognitively vigilant to the direction of the team (Harter et al., 2002).
DeleteMone and London (2010) defined employee engagement is “a condition of employee who feels
ReplyDeleteinvolved, committed, passionate, and empowered and demonstrates those feelings in work behavior”. It is thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee. Thus, employee engagement is a barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization. Only a satisfied employee can become an engaged employee. Therefore it is very essential for an organization to see to it that the job given to the employee matches his career goals which will make him enjoy his work and he would ultimately be satisfied with his job.
Dear Jancy,Employee engagement involves organization-wide and should be viewed as broad cultural and organizational strategy (Frank et al., 2004), it works as a chain of actions (Shaw, 2005) which need the participation of all employees in the company (Robinson et al., 2004), and also have clear and continuous interactions with its members (Kress, 2005).
DeleteShanaka valuable points have described , also studies showed the positive relationship between employee engagement and innovative behavior. For instance, Slattenand Mehmetoglu (2011) revealed that employees who are highly engaged at their work are more likely to show a more innovative behavior during their role performance. They argued that highly engaged employees have a positive state of mind that helps employees to broaden their though-action process. Similarly, Agarwal et al. (2012) have found that engagement has a positive correlation with innovative work behavior and employee engagement mediated the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationship and innovative work behavior
ReplyDeleteDear Amali,When an employee is engaged within their organization, everyone benefits. Engaged employees are builders. Employees use their talents, develop productive relationships, and multiply their effectiveness through those relationships. They perform at consistently high levels. They drive innovation and move their organization forward(Van Allen, 2013).it was found that greater engagement was related to more
Deletepositive service employee performance(Menguc,Auh,Fisher, & Haddad, 2013).
Dear Shanaka,as you have mentioned that "Engaged employees perform better, are more innovative than others". Whereas, Bedarkar and Pandita (2014), believe that factors such as Leadership and Communication are the key drivers of Employee Engagement.According, to Anitha (2014) the terms Employee Engagement is defined as follows "the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organisation and its values". Moreover, according to Kahn(1990), states that if an employee is engaged that particular employee will express himself/ herself in the workplace, cognitively, emotionally and physically. In addition to that, it is believed that employees are the key component in an organisation so they should be provided with a work life balance, otherwise the employees could become disengaged and this would overall affect the organisation’s performance (Bedarkar & Pandita, 2014).
ReplyDeleteDear Niroshini,A positive organizational culture also aids in the engagement process due to the fact that a positive workplace supports its employees.Buliding employee engagement calls for many aspects of a positive organizational culture. Sirisetti (2012) notes that improved engagement happens when there are positive working relationships, employee input in decision making, and supporting growth and development with learning opportunities.In a study of job demands and
Deletetheir relationship with engagement, Schaufeli and Baker(2004) found that a measure of job resources that included support from colleagues predicted engagement.
Dear Shanaka ,Employee engagement has become a heavily discussed topic in recent years.From a HR perspective today, engagement continues to be an important consideration. Due to the challenging economic climate, organisations now more than ever are deciding to restructure and resize, which has resulted in organizations
ReplyDeleteinvestigating new approaches to maintain and increase engagement. Organisations fight to recruit and train their talent, so they need to do their best to keep hold of it.Organisations need to strike the right balance between fostering and enhancing employee engagement levels while at the same time not compromising their competitive position (Robert,2011).
For companies to get the most out of employee engagement, it is imperative that they develop a thorough understanding of their current employee engagement strategies and the effects those strategies are having on employees. To assess an organization’s current status, they can develop a measurement system that includes a scale for examining the various components of employee engagement and a comprehensive scorecard that pulls everything together. The scorecard is composed of a number of items used to measure the individual employee engagement components (based on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being lowest and 5 being highest). This approach allows managers to identify the areas in need of development. An organization’s overall employee engagement level is directly influenced by the components of employee engagement (employee satisfaction, employee identification, employee commitment, employee loyalty and employee performance) and are therefore the result of the aggregation of these components (Kumar,2015)
Dear Nadheesha,I agree with your statement that Interestingly, engagement can increase during turbulent times because employees are fearful that they will be the ones losing their jobs(Singh, 2013).In fact,Marchington and Kynighou (2012) found varying responses to change depending on how much consultation with employees was completed during the change.In a study with respondents undergoing organization change with six different types of requests for engagement varying from “change imposed without employee consultation” to “formal consultation with employees” they found that employee involvement was critical to a company’s success when turbulent times occurred(Marchington & Kynighou, 3341).
DeleteHi Shanaka, as you mentioned above, it is further explained by several authors that committed employees are more engaged.
ReplyDeleteEmployee engagement is about having a sense of ownership while exhibiting different facets of attitudes and behaviors towards achieving company goals. Employee loyalty can be enhanced through employee engagement which lead to cultivate positive attitude about the organization wherein employees paly a crucial part as brand ambassadors. Those who are loyal to the company are motivated to do more than expected. This would ensure that they deliver delightful customer service (Kumar and Pansari, 2015). It is found that organizations experience positive outcome such as increase loyalty of the employees, increase in productivity, higher retention rate, business growth and increase in profits, higher retention rate and greater commitment for achieving organizations goals through proper employee engagement (Khan,2013). Motivating employees to do their best is engagement. When employees are intellectually and emotionally engaged, they feel passionate and they feel a profound connection to their company. They are committed towards achieving company goals and they drive innovation and move the organization forward (Prabhakar and Reddy, 2016).
Dear Nilmini,As you stated that To make or maintain the companies profitability, leaders of companies must work hard to engage employees (Kortmann et al.,2014).However, leaders may sometimes struggle to adapt their organization in response to change if they limit their focus to existing products and processes (Hill & Birkinshaw, 2012). Understanding how to manage the balance between employee relations, adopting innovation, and maximizing short-term profits is critical to business leaders ensuring a viable future for their corporations (Hill & Birkinshaw, 2012).
DeleteShanaka, as you have mentioned engaged employees perform better, energy is the outcome of positive employee engagement (Maslach and Leiter, 2005). Furthermore organizations benefit from positive dynamic and energized workforce since employees work well together, relationships are supportive, inspiring and information is freely shared moreover they assert that energy can be an internal characteristic of the individual, derived from the job itself or ‘caught’ from the energizing influence of others (Cross et al, 2003).In addition, the relevance of designing jobs which encourage employees to actively engage in their tasks and work environments in order to gain meaningfulness from their work (Turner et al, 2002).
ReplyDeleteDear Rochana,The basic needs of satisfaction have been found to directly relate to dedication of employees (Vandenabeele, 2014). Fullagar and Mills (2008) found a significant relationship between intrinsic motivation and flow experiences. Flow is the holistic sensation that employees feel when they are totally eng aged within their work (Fullagar & Mills, 2008).
DeleteHi Shanaka, Rothbard (2001) defines engagement as psychological presence and, furthermore, states that it involves two critical components: attention and absorption. Attention refers to cognitive availability and the amount of time one spends thinking about a role, while absorption means being engrossed in a role and refers to the intensity of one's focus on a role. According to Maslach et al. (2001), six areas of work-life lead to either burnout or engagement: workload, control, rewards and recognition, community and social support, perceived fairness and values. They argue that job engagement is associated with a sustainable workload, feelings of choice and control, appropriate recognition and reward, a supportive work community, fairness and justice, and meaningful and valued work According to Holbeche and Springett (2003), people’s perceptions of ‘meaning’ with regard to the workplace are clearly linked to their levels of engagement and, ultimately, their performance. They argue that employees actively seek meaning through their work and, unless organisations try to provide a sense of meaning, employees are likely to quit. Robinson et al. (2004) define employee engagement as “a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its value. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.”
ReplyDeleteDear Ricky,The failing global economy has created a huge shift in the way business takes place (McCuiston & DeLucenay, 2010). Employee engagement matters to both the employee as well as the organization.Employee engagement has emerged as one of the greatest challenges in today’s workplace. With complexities and stringent regulations in many organizations, employee engagement will continue to challenge organizations in the future (Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra, 2014). Organizations with highly engaged employees experience increased customer satisfaction, profits, and employee productivity (Ahmetoglu, Harding, Akhtar, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2015;Carter, 2015; Cooper-Thomas et al., 2014;Vandenabeele, 2014).
DeleteHi Shanaka,
ReplyDeleteThe term employee satisfaction is mainly looking at the happiness of the employees which do not directly shows the level of motivation, level of involvement and the emotional commitment of the employees towards the business and the job role (Mohapatra & Sharma, 2010). Furthermore, it was understood that the satisfaction is a difficult criterion to measure where the measurement of satisfaction will vary from one employee to another (Saks, 2011).
If an organization is looking at the improvement of satisfaction of the employees, it is not necessary to looking at the performance improvement where the employees could satisfy by offering various benefits and privileges to them (Sharma & Raina, 2013) However, the improvement of the employee engagement will require to ensure that the employees are satisfied with the work load and the recognition which increases the commitment towards the business.
Dear Asela, further explain why engagement so much important. There is a considerable body of evidence demonstrating that engaged employees can significantly contribute to organisational success such as improved performance,
Deleteprofitability, productivity, customer satisfaction-loyalty as well as reduced levels of absenteeism and turnover1
(Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002). It is thought that a highlyengaged workforce offers a special kind of competitive advantage to organisations. This is due to the inherent difficulty of imitation by competitors; it is claimed that it is easy to adapt your product and price but creating a highly-engaged workforce is something entirely different. However, the UK is still facing an ‘engagement gap’, with 68 per cent of
employees reportedly ‘not engaged’ and 21 per cent actively ‘disengaged’ (Gallup, 2017).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Shanaka, Rothbard (2001) defines engagement as psychological presence and, furthermore, states that it involves two critical components: attention and absorption. Attention refers to cognitive availability and the amount of time one spends thinking about a role, while absorption means being engrossed in a role and refers to the intensity of one's focus on a role. According to Maslach et al. (2001), six areas of work-life lead to either burnout or engagement: workload, control, rewards and recognition, community and social support, perceived fairness and values. They argue that job engagement is associated with a sustainable workload, feelings of choice and control, appropriate recognition and reward, a supportive work community, fairness and justice, and meaningful and valued work According to Holbeche and Springett (2003), people’s perceptions of ‘meaning’ with regard to the workplace are clearly linked to their levels of engagement and, ultimately, their performance. They argue that employees actively seek meaning through their work and, unless organisations try to provide a sense of meaning, employees are likely to quit. Robinson et al. (2004) define employee engagement as “a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its value. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.”
ReplyDeleteDear Shanaka,
ReplyDeleteOne of the key aspects seen as impacting employee engagement is rewards. Rewards can be defined as various benefits that are offered to employees in exchange for work or value. Rewards may differ in that they may be intrinsic or extrinsic, direct or indirect, and financial or non-financial (Armstrong, 2006; Mahaney & Lederer, 2006). According to Gross and O’Malley (2007), rewards now include the opportunity for career development as well as the effect that the working environment may have on the individual. Employers are required to propose both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as a means of growing organizational outcomes (Mahaney & Lederer, 2006). It is significant to understand that a reward system will fundamentally impact individuals and team members’ performance and engagement levels within the organization. It is therefore critical to implement an effective and efficient reward system based on each unique organization’s needs (Kerrin & Oliver, 2002). Over the years, the reward systems have changed within organizations from merely monetarily compensating individuals to motivating them in the workplace as well (Hankin, 2005). An organizational reward system should be designed to motivate employees in terms of advanced performance, engagement, engagement and commitment levels. Besides, the rewards system should also tie organizational strategies, goals and culture, as well as should guarantee that organizations attract and retain their people (Allen & Killman, 2001). The alignment of the overall rewards system to organizational strategies will ensure workplace effectiveness, positive work outcomes and increased employee efforts (Bamberger & Levi, 2009). Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards differ to a great extent. Intrinsic rewards emphasis on the job and work itself, whereas extrinsic rewards are exterior to the job and the work that surroundings the job. Intrinsic rewards include growing opportunities, a sense of achievement, status, recognition, gratification, self-esteem, challenge, autonomy and responsibility (Mahaney & Lederer, 2006). An individual may originate intrinsic rewards through the capacity to engage in challenging work, receive response and acknowledgement, as well as being provided with the opportunity for growth and development within his or her job (Mottaz, 1985). These employees will be able to produce outcomes and at the same time remain engaged, satisfied and proud of their accomplishments (Mahaney & Lederer, 2006).