Tags: Engaged Performance, Motivating Employees, Retention, Organisation, Research, Study, Gallup, IES, ISR
IES Research Networks defines engagement as “a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee”
Engagement brings clear business benefits to an organisation by giving it a competitive advantage. A positive impact on the bottom line has been the norm in companies with highly engaged workers.
A study – conducted by ISR, a leading global employee research and consulting firm – shows the clear relationship between an engaged workforce and bottom line results.
The study found that there is almost a 52 percent gap in the one-year performance improvement in operating income between companies with highly engaged employees versus companies whose employees have low engagement scores.
The same study also reveals how high engagement companies improved by 19 percent, while low engagement companies declined by almost 33 percent in operating income over the study period.
Increasing employee engagement levels will not only have a positive impact on the bottom line of an organisation but as a corollary it increases its brand value as an employer. An organisation having a good percentage of engaged employers will find it easier to attract top quality employers and also for it to retain them.
Bill Erickson, Vice Chairman – Kenexa feels that what “most organizations fail to realize is that employee engagement is the biggest retention factor they have control over. Engaged employees not only stay longer with the organization, they are more productive, more conscientious, make fewer errors, and take better care of customers.”
Study’s show that an employee joins an organisation with very high sense of engagement. But as the length of his service in an organisation lengthens, his engagement with the organisation shows a marked decline.
Dr. Bilanich a Management Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach and Author feels that these are the probable causes:
- Little or no feedback or guidance from those in charge
- Lack of opportunity to discuss problems or provide input
- Lack of resources to solve problems or to do a job well
- Little or no reward or recognition
- Little opportunity to develop one’s potential
- Pressure to perform and achieve more with less
- Lack of opportunity to interact socially
- Interpersonal conflicts left unresolved
- Little joy or humor except for office gossip and cynicism
- Stress in balancing work and home responsibilities, leading to energy depletion
Engaged employees are the back bone of a successful organisation. Keeping the intensity of engagement high should be the mission of its managers.
Curt Coffman, Global Practice Leader for Q12 Management Consulting and co –author of Gallup’s best selling book on great managers, First, Break All the Rules, and Follow This Path, reveals what the world’s great managers do in order to boost engagement levels in their workforce:
“Start with expectations. Has the employee lost clarity about his role? Is he confused about what the manager, and the business, needs him to contribute every day? Then make sure he has the right materials, equipment, and information to move toward those outcomes.
Next, refocus on that employee — on his skills, knowledge, and talents. Employees who get to do what they do best every day move toward engagement. And last but not least, catch him doing things right. Recognize him for excellence. Recognition is personally fulfilling, but even more, recognition communicates what an organization values, and it reinforces employee behaviors that reflect those values.
Set clear expectations, give employees the right materials, focus on the employee, and recognize your best performers — those are the strategies that drive engagement.”
This needs sustained implementation and involves a lot of mentoring and monitoring. Even if this commitment to employee engagement falters for a short period it results in irretrievable loss of momentum.
Ineffectual implementation of employee engagement programmes can cause irretrievable damage to the competitiveness of organisations and its businesses. All effort should be taken to review the process and if ineffectual, new ways to communicate and effectively combine each employee’s needs and skills should be devised for meeting the commonly defined challenges faced by the organisation.
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