Strategies Increasing Employees Engagement
Employee engagement is a management theory of Human Resource Management. It refers to the relationship which exists between the organisation and the employees of the organisation (Bridger, 2014). Employees are said to be engaged when they are very positive towards their work and are motivated to achieve the goals of the organisation. Employee engagement can be high or low. It is said to be low when the employees underperform and are not motivated or interested to work, at the same time they are not absorbed to their work. It is considered to be high when the employees in an organisation outperform and are very enthusiastic towards their work; also they are absorbed to their work as well (cipd, 2011a).
Employee engagement must not be misunderstood as the satisfaction or happiness of the employees rather it is the commitment that is given by the employees to the organisation to contribute in the attainment of the organisational goals. Employee engagement can be attained by increasing the internal communications within the organisation. The commitment of the employees will increase their involvement and finally the productivity which will in turn help the organisation to achieve the objectives of the company by way of the plans and policies set by the company (Forbes, 2012).
The employee engagement strategy is that approach which is carried out at the workplace to achieve organisational success (Truss, 20113). The employee engagement strategies are important for any organisation because it helps in improving the efficiency of employees, it reduces the employee turnover, retain its employees, make them happy workers, help them maintaining work life balance and finally make profits for the organisation. The reason behind the employee engagement approach is to retain the talented and deserved people for their organisation because it will be very easy for them to switch from one organisation to another. Therefore; it is recommended to the organisations to implement strategies to engage their employee and at the same time increasing their efficiency and job satisfaction (Carbonara, 2012).
The strategies which would increase the engagement of the employees in an organisation will be as follows:
Investing in the development of employees- Development of employees is important as individuals strive for their personal growth along with the growth of the organisation. In addition to this, the employees should be provided with the abilities to enlarge their knowledge they will be more energetic towards their work. The knowledge of employees can be enhanced when they will be given leadership opportunities as it is done in the companies like Frishco. Apart from this, training sessions will be of great help to enhance the knowledge of their employees therefore; increasing the skills of its employees (Heydlauff, 2017).
Creating a flexible working environment- Under this strategy, it is suggested to the organisations to evolve a good working environment for their employees where they could feel free to express themselves. They should be given freedom to take breaks during the office hours and not just be seated on their desks for the whole day and witness work pressure. The employees should be told that the concern of the organisation is their results and not how much time they do spend being in office (Murphy, 2011).
Investing in the development of employees
Praises and perks- This strategy talks about both the monetary and non-monetary motivations foe which the employees in each organisation crave for. Praises and appreciation is the non-monetary motivation and reward which is found to be a great motivational tool to increase the engagement of the employees. Perks are those monetary benefits which are given to its employees for contributing in the growth of the organisation. This will keep the employees happy about their jobs; feel appreciated and motivated to come to their workplace every day. Organisations have to keep a balance in between both kinds of benefits as it will keep the employees attracted and dedicated for their work. This will therefore; keep them engaged at the end (Sheridan, 2011).
Communication, delegation and feedback- The organisations are required to encourage open communication for its employees as this will help in knowing their perspectives about different ideas (Engagement Multiplier, 2016). Communication shall include communicating the crystal clear objectives and goals of the organisation. Frishco also focused on the communication through which employees can be informed about the strategies if the company so that they are more engaged with their work. Expectations that are held by the organisation from its employees are for their part of contribution in the goals of the organisation. Delegation is a motivational factor to give the employees an opportunity to grow and increase their competencies. It can be of both delegation of authority as well as delegation of responsibility. It can be done by giving equal chance to its employees to lead and get more ownership in any task. Feedback promotes a two way communication through which the opinions of the employees can be known as this can help the organisation in the problem solving and decision making. It can be encouraged through team meetings, surveys and suggestion boxes (Forbes, 2016).
Further, there are some examples which are illustrated below for the better understanding of implementing the strategies of employee engagement.
Meaningful- This strategy was provided by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development to one of the public sector company based in UK called ScienceCo by this the employees found work as their hobbies. The strategy is important as it states the extent to which the employees find their work meaningful as it will help the employees to have a positive attitude towards their work and workplace. This is a significant factor in relation to get the employees personally engaged so as to achieve their personal goals along with the organisational goals (cipd, 2010).
Employee Involvement and Communication- CIPD has given its consulting’s to another company PlastiCo which a plastic bottles manufacturing industry in UK. For increasing the employee engagement the organisation was suggested to increase the level of engagement. The reason behind the strategy to be chosen employee involvement in the decision making of the company will lead to positive attitude of the employees towards the work. Communication will develop a participative environment on the organisation and will also enhance performance of the employees which will be the result of employee engagement strategies (cipd, 2010).
Creating a flexible working environment
Hence, it can be identified from the above mentioned examples that how strategies play an important role in increasing employee engagement at their workplace.
It is very natural that when there are different people with different attitudes and opinions in an organisation, it is expected that there will occur conflicts among them in the strategy implementation. There are various factors which lead to disengagement of employees. The very foremost factor is leadership style that is followed by the leaders or managers during the phase of change in the organisation which leads to the engagement or disengagement of employees. The style of leadership can be authoritative or democratic; the style of the leader should also follow an unbiased and non-discriminative style to evaluate each and every employee of the organisation. Partial behaviour of leader can lead to conflicts between the employees of the organisation and at the same time creating unhealthy environment. Authoritative kind of leadership is found to be the major factor in leading to conflict and unhealthy environment in the organisation. The reason behind this is that during times of strategic changes in the organisation the leaders are required to keep the employees fully involved and informed about all the happenings within the organisation (Forbes, 2012). In the case study, the Frishco Company follows the democratic kind of leadership because when advices from employees are taken then it develops a feeling of respect and trust among the employees therefore; it also prevents conflict situations.
Strategy Implementation requires involvement of employees to a level where the employees can develop a feeling of belongingness with the organisation. The situations in which conflicts arises are while implementing the strategies is when employees are not communicated with the right information (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2011). It is important to develop a trust among the employees to get their full support in the implementation of the strategies as such kind of practices of involving employees in decision making and action plan of strategies will lead to greater employee engagement and satisfaction. Conflicts arise during period of low performance when blaming one another seems as an option of resolving the problem. Indifferent channels of communication will lead to conflicts as there is a big requirement of proper downward communication that starts from the senior management to the low level management where the workers and employees of the organisation exists. Poor quality of communication will lead to distress in the organisation where the employees will never develop any kind of personal emotional connect with the organisation therefore; leading to inefficiency in the performance of the employees (Doherty & Guyler, 2008).
Conflicts also arise when employees are compelled to stay for long hours at their workplace and that too with fewer breaks. Such a situation will lead to imbalance in the work life of the employees which will never make them feel contended towards their work and therefore; increase in absenteeism and employee turnover. In addition to this, conflict also arises when the employees are not given opportunities of leadership despite of their good performance which leads to conflict and disengagement among the employees. Apart from this, when employees are not given chances to progress internally within the organisation it leads to conflict between among the employees and the employee and employer (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2011). The ways through which the conflict can be reduced or avoided are illustrated below:
Praises and perks
Firstly, the management of the organisation must be good enough in finding out the source of the conflict (AMA, 2017). There should be detailed information of the cause of the conflict and at the same time, they should listen to the stories of both the parties as this will only help in resolving the problem. Secondly, it is needed to look beyond the incident by not only finding out the cause of the conflict but also the stress that has been led by the conflict to the parties of conflict. Thirdly, the step is to act as a good listener who listens to both the parties and tries to understand their viewpoint, motivating the parties to find solutions which will end the conflict. Fourthly, the step is to coming up to a solution which will be beneficial for both the parties as well as the organisation. It can be done through ways like collaboration or cooperation which will resolve the issues. Lastly, the person resolving the conflict i.e. the mediator is advised to make both the parties agree on a similar solution, shake their hands and then finally, agree to resolve the problem or conflict (AMA, 2017).
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has given consultings to its clients. One was mediation which helped the employers and employees to resolve the issues and conflicts prevailing in their workplace. Mediation can be both internal and external which can resolve the conflict arising in the organisation. The in house mediation improved the relationships among the employees and helped employers to handle cases of conflicts very nicely and finally satisfying both the parties in the end. The other example through which the conflict can be settled is compromise agreement which provides compensation to the parties (cipd, 2011b).
Conclusion
On the basis of the above discussion, it can be concluded that the there are various ways of increasing the employees engagement. There are different strategies which help in increasing the engagement of employees. These strategies will thereafter increase the engagement along with affecting various other factors like the satisfaction, efficiency and productivity of employees. The engagement of employees helps in decreasing the employee turnover, absenteeism and distress of employees. Further, the discussion has depicted that how there will be conflict while implementing the strategies in the organisation. These conflicts will lead to an unhealthy working environment which will therefore; affect the efficiency and productivity of the employees. In addition to this, conflict makes the employees unhappy and stressful. Apart from this, employees will stop enjoying their jobs rather will treat it as burdensome. Lastly, the report has thrown light on the topics by discussing the cases from Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development which gave consultings to different public and private sector companies. The case study of Frishco has also focused on various elements which increases the employee engagement. The elements which they have followed are leadership, communication, improved structure of the organisation and living the brand values. Similarly, such practices will improve the engagement of employees in any organisation.
References
AMA, 2017, The Five Steps to Conflict Resolution, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www.amanet.org/training/articles/The-Five-Steps-to-Conflict-Resolution.aspx.
Bridger, E., 2014, Employee Engagement, Kogan Page Publishers.
Carbonara, S., 2012, Manager’s Guide to Employee Engagement, McGraw Hill Professional.
Cipd, 2010, Creating An Engaged Workforce Research Report for the year 2010, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www2.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/DD66E557-DB90-4F07-8198-87C3876F3371/0/Creating_engaged_workforce.pdf.
Cipd, 2011a, Employee Engagement, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www2.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/DEDBD9B6-EB63-4B78-864A 3EE06C42BAD1/0/EmployeeEngagementsamplecontent.pdf.
Cipd, 2011b, Conflict management survey report for the year 2011, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/conflict-management_2011_tcm18-10813.pdf.
Cloke, K & Goldsmith, J., 2011, Resolving Conflicts at Work: Ten Strategies for Everyone on the Job, John Wiley & Sons.
Doherty, N & Guyler, M., 2008, The Essential Guide to Workplace Mediation & Conflict Resolution: Rebuilding Working Relationships, Kogan Page Publishers.
Engagement Multiplier, 2016, Why is Employee Engagement So Important?, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www.engagementmultiplier.com/blog/why-is-employee-engagement-so-important/.
Forbes, 2012, 5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-conflict/#300d14dc1e95.
Forbes, 2012, What Is Employee Engagement, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#27b09c477f37.
Forbes, 2016, Eight Simple Ways Leaders Can Boost Employee Engagement, viewed on 5 March 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2016/04/14/eight-ways-leaders-can-boost-engagement-amongst-employees/#7eb3cdac1fcd.
Heydlauff, P., 2017, 21 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement, BookBaby.
Murphy, M., 2011, Hiring for Attitude: A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting and Selecting People with Both Tremendous Skills and Superb Attitude, McGraw Hill Professional.
Sheridan, K., 2011, Building a Magnetic Culture: How to Attract and Retain Top Talent to Create an Engaged, Productive Workforce, McGraw Hill Professional.
Truss, C., 2013, Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice, Routledge.
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