EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT


1.0 Understanding employee engagement

Employee engagement is a human resource concept that describes the enthusiasm and commitment an employee feels towards their work (Armstrong, 2012). Further, employee engagement known as commitment and thrive which motivate employees to do their best, for the benefit of themselves and organization success (Bakker, 2010). Engagement is all about the willingness and ability of the employees to give sustained flexible effort to help the organization to succeed in achieving their desired goals (Armstrong, 2012).

 

Schaufeli (2012), consider employee engagement as working condition of employee’s mind which demonstrated by three factors such as vigor, dedication, and absorption. Schaufeli (2012), stated that, engagement is a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are motivated towards achieving organization’s goals. It keeps employee engaged by creating opportunities to connect with their top-level management, subordinates, and wider organization. Further, it creates a working environment and culture which satisfies employees to feel that they are doing a good job. Employees will be more engaged and motivated through creating opportunities along with contributing towards the success of the organization to enhance their own sense of well-being (Vance, 2006). Vance (2006) stated that, employees who are committed on their work gives organizations vital competitive advantage by showing higher level of productivity and low employee turnover. Engaged employees cares about their work and the performance of the company and feels that their efforts make a difference and shows greater commitment in achieving company’s values ​​and goals (Armstrong, 2014).
Engaged employees influence their team members by creating a healthy environment, positive work culture, and flexibility, to get better outcome in the productivity (Bakker et al, 2012). Highly engaged employees are more active, and better in maintaining good relationship with their team members to solve problems at critical situation when its needed (Armstrong, 2014).
Characteristics of highly engaged employees
Highly engaged employees have an emotional connection to their work and their company and will focus on working towards to company’s goals. Engaged employees use organization resources themselves by proactively shaping up their working environment, but also creates their own resources when it is needed to achieve organization goals (Bakker, 2010).

According to Baker et.al (2012) the following are some of the characteristics of engaged employees.

·      Employees know what their role is, what their job is, and they want to do it in effective and efficient manner.

·      Employees are loyal to the company and more productive.

·     Employees are motivated to work towards the success of the organization and know what success is and how to work towards it.

·    Employees are rationally and emotionally attached to their organization and motivated to act at a high level.

·     Employees give innovate ideas where company needs to improve on in terms of solving problem and decision making.

i.e : “Brandix” Srilanka, considers people as their “lifeline” of the organization. The success story of brandix is commitment and tireless efforts of its employees which made the company as a leading apparel exporter in Sri Lanka over the years with high level of market value and brand image. Brandix have 55,000+ associates of successful people and having business operations in India and Bangladesh. “Brandix” celebrate employee’s milestones and identify talents to bring unique ideas to everyday work. Therefore, Brandix pave the path and provide opportunities to employees to unleash their true potential to remain them committed to their work. It creates an engaged workforce and empower employees to become their best self both at work and in their personal lives. (Brandix sustainability report, 2019-2020)

 List of references

·         Armstrong, M (2012). Armstrong’s handbook of management and leadership: Developing effective people skills for leadership and management. 03rd ed. London: Kogan page, Limited. (P.142-144).

·    Armstrong, M and Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed. London:Kogan page, Limited.(P.193-201).

·  Bakker, A. B. (2010). Engagement and "job crafting": Handbook of employee engagement: Perspectives, issues, research, and practice (p. 229–244).

·   Bakker, A. B, Demerouti, E. and Xanthopoulou, D. (2012). How do Engaged Employees Stay Engaged? (P.15-21).

·       Brandix apparel Ltd, (2020). Sustainability report. Available at https://brandix.com/images/brandix-sustainabilty-report-2019-20.pdf. (Accessed on 30 April 2021).

·      Schaufeli, W. B. (2012). Work Engagement. What Do We Know and Where Do We Go: Romanian Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.14(1).pp.1-10.

·      Vance, J. R. (2006). Employee engagement and commitment: A guide to understanding, measuring, and increasing engagement in your organization. society of human resource management (SHRM) foundation.

Comments

  1. Pernalla Vincent3 May 2021 at 08:46

    Agreed & indeed .Employee engagement as the employee's effective involvement in work and the state of complete physiology, cognition and emotion that goes with the work engagement including three dimensions: work engagement, organizational recognition and sense of work value (Sun, 2018).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E.Sujeendran12 May 2021 at 10:00

      Agree pernalla, panboli (2019), stated that physical strength increase employee engagement to complete daily tasks and activities, while cognition and emotion engage employees in a way to identify their abilities, slef assesment, positive and negative work related challenges respectively.

      Delete
  2. Nivethini Manoharan4 May 2021 at 04:46

    I agree with your argument. When an employee is engaged within the organization, everyone benefits. Engaged employees are builders. Employees use the talents, develop productive relationships, and multiply the effectiveness through those relationships. They perform at high consistent levels. Employees drive innovation and move helps the organization move forward (Allen, 2013).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E.Sujeendran12 May 2021 at 18:15

      I agree nivethini, highly engaged employees find that their work is so meaningful to the company, and work hard, show enthusiasm, and commitmemt towards work, which increases productivity of the company (Towler, 2018). Gallups (2017), survey report identifies that, highly engaged employees are 44% more productive than satisfied employees.

      Delete
  3. Harsha Wijesinghe9 May 2021 at 03:24

    I agree with your explanations. The company should understand that employee engagement will decide the relationship between the employer-employee fit and business stability. Employee engagement facilitates valuable emotional commitment, motivational personality, and financial stability. (Memon et al., 2014)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E.Sujeendran13 May 2021 at 20:42

      In addition to your comment, employee engagement is a two-way relationship between employer and employees, which has a direct impact on employees work environment as well. To drive engagement, employers use available resources in effective way to provide better working environment and culture within organization. These aspects are important for an organization to increase organizational performance, productivity, and profitability while satisfying employees' overall sense of well-being in terms of monetary and non-monetary benefits (Schmidt, 2004).

      Delete
  4. gagana_amadoru9 May 2021 at 07:16

    I agree with your view, the employee engagement reflects on different levels of human resource management. It is stated as a critical driver of personal attitude, behaviors, and job fulfillment as well as organizational cash flow, retention, productivity, shareholder return, and overall growth (Bates, 2004; Harter,et.al,2002).in addition, it is really appreciated to analyse and realized the drivers of employee engagement. Three psychological states playing a role as personal engagement components are listed down as psychological availability, psychological safety, and psychological meaningfulness (Kahn, 1990). The drivers of them were discovered by Kahn (1990) as task attributes, job qualities, work interactions, interpersonal relationships, stable and safe workplace, both group and intergroup dynamics, as well as leadership styles and team norms. Another approach to study employee engagement drivers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E.Sujeendran13 May 2021 at 21:15

      I agree Gagana, psychological engagement factors such as, emotion and cognition play significant role in employee engagement, where it deals with maintaining positive relationship with superiors and peers which does not create any interruption or internal conflicts at the workplace. Employees who are psychologically engaged have better understanding about company mission and vision statement and perform their job role accordingly (Armstrong, 2014).

      Delete
  5. Chanaka Babaranda10 May 2021 at 20:31

    I agree with your point and adding to that if employees are engaged with the business, awareness of their responsibilities is high. Not only they work to achieve excellence, motivate co-workers to achieve organizational goals (Anitha, 2014).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E.Sujeendran13 May 2021 at 21:31

      Alfes et al (2010) stated that engaged employees are more innovative, more likely to support other subordinates and always want to stay with their employers to enjoy greater levels of well-being by understanding their workload to perform better to increase the growth of the organization.

      Delete
  6. Chamara D. Jayaweera15 May 2021 at 03:38

    Agree with you. Engaged employees are also more likely to display discretionary behaviour. Engagement has been found to be closely linked to feelings and perceptions around being valued and involved, which in turn generates the kinds of discretionary effort that lead to enhanced performance (Konrad, 2006).

    ReplyDelete
  7. ERANDA ELLEPOLA15 May 2021 at 04:52

    Agreed with you and employee engagement is key role in the organization. Employee engagement describes as a positive work attitude, which results in an increased level of activation and identification with the organization’s goals (Schaufeli et al., 2002).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sandun Madusanka15 May 2021 at 22:53

    I agree with you, there is a positive or negative relationship between reward, work-life-balance, work environment and employee engagement, organization should maintain that level of relationship positively to have a better employee engagement (Husna & Shah & Zailan,2016).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sachith Fernando15 May 2021 at 23:43

    Agreed with you Sujeendran. adding to your argument Robinson (2006) state that 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.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Indeevari Ratnayake17 May 2021 at 00:21

    Totally agree with your views, Some experts define engagement in terms of employees' feelings and behavior. Engaged employees might report feeling focused and intensely involved in the work they do. They are enthusiastic and have a sense of urgency. Engaged behavior is persistent, proactive and adaptive in ways that expand the job roles as necessary. Engaged employees go beyond job descriptions in, for example, service delivery or innovation. Whereas engaged employees feel focused with a sense of urgency and concentrate on how they approach what they do, satisfied employees, in contrast, feel pleasant, content and gratified. The level of employee job satisfaction in an organization often relates to factors over which the organization has control (such as pay, benefits and job security), whereas engagement levels are largely in direct control or significantly influenced by the employee's manager (through job assignments, trust, recognition, day-to-day communications, etc.) (SHRM, 2021).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Vindya Ratnayake17 May 2021 at 23:52

    I agree with you. Adding to that, employee Engagement’ cannot be a cosmetic intervention in enhancing commitment towards job, motivation or productivity. Corporate culture has an important role in enduring positive impact of such engagement programs (Shrestha, 2019).

    ReplyDelete

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