“Building a culture of high employee engagement": summary and analysis

Summary 

The title of the article by Gary Tomlinson is “Building a culture of high employee engagement.” Tomlinson (2010) seeks to scrutinize the leading factors of engaging employees in all business activities carried out by an organization. According to Tomlinson (2010, 25), the evaluation of the issue uses a case study of a process engaged by Kia Motors. The firm is a South Korean organization majoring in the manufacture of automotive. The study aimed at showing how the human resources (HR) department developed a vital plan to address low employee engagement levels. The developed engagement employee strategy was based on the marketing communication tools. Tomlinson (2010, 25) identifies the utilized tool as SOSTAC; situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action, and control. Breaking down the tool yields the idea from identifying the significant problems to achieving solutions and evaluating their success in ensuring employee engagement.

The situation at hand entailed understanding the challenges facing HR in the organization. Tomlinson joined the company in 2006 as the new HR leader in the presence of a challenging situation, where the organization had experienced significant falls in the volume of the sales made, reduced financial profits, and low workers’ engagement levels Tomlinson (2010, 26). Under the new management, the first step entailed a plan to understand employee contentment by carrying out internal survey among them. The exercise identified multiple challenges including, low internal communications of only 3% of the expected outcome, and knowledge on the planned organization’s direction 32% (Tomlinson, 2010, 26). The challenges had resulted to a 32% employee turnover by the end of the year. According to Tomlinson (2010, 26), HR discussed and concluded with the board of directors in the company to set engagement goals for the organization to solve the situation. The objectives included increasing the workers survey answers on the twelve vital involvement indicators, reducing employee turnover, reducing the employee recruitment costs by 10% annually, and increasing the mean score among the major direct manager line indicators by approximately 10% (Tomlinson, 2010, 26). The achievement of the goals required the organization's vital strategy of becoming an actual employer of choice.

The strategy aimed at improving employee engagement by creating an emotional connection to enhance their passion and idea of living for the brand. The Kia Motors plan of engaging workers consisted of three central aspects, the belief describing mental, the feeling the brand generates showing emotion, and the generation of discretionary effort illustrating behavior (Tomlinson, 2010, 26). The method aligned with three related subjects, including leadership, internal communications, and developing workers based on the factors affecting employee engagement in the business. The factors included topmost leadership, understanding, and trust in company direction, direct line manager, involvement on the major decisions involving the company, understanding vital business problems, training, and growth (Tomlinson, 2010, 27). On the other hand, the tactics involved introducing the Kia Motors Engagement Model integrated for significant impact. The intervention had five pronged strategies: leadership development, employee development, employee recognition, organizational development, and internal communications (Tomlinson, 2010, 27). Finally, control measured the success of the method by identifying improvement on the four key objectives. The identified outcomes were a 14% increase in the measurement scores across the five direct line manager indicators, HR cost reduction, significant reduction of employee turnover from 31% to 15 %, and increase in employee survey result in the twelve key engagement indicators Tomlinson (2010, 29). The improvement showed there is a crucial relationship between employee engagement and business results.

Reaction 

The article is excellent in revealing the significance of internal communications in building high employee engagement culture. The general logic employed in organization management must consider internal communications as a critical aspect of business success. Besides, employees cannot know and understand various issues such as plans anticipated by the administration without effective internal communications. Tomlinson (2010, 28) shows that Kia Motors supported the implementation of internal communications exclusively as a significant intervention in improving employee engagement. The idea was implemented in multiple ways. First, the organization engaged quarterly employee briefings and explicit performance management use (Tomlinson, 2010, 28). This tool ensured that appraisals were 100% completed by all employees across the company. Second, the organization launched an innovative corporate intranet (Tomlinson, 2010, 28). The development improved communication across the firm in the content entailing aspects like crucial business data to enhance connection between the varying departments. Finally, an employee forum consisting of representatives from each department was set to ensure all employee groups (Tomlinson, 2010, 28). Eventually, the manager could address all issues raised by employees through the representative meetings. Also, the minutes and conclusions were published for access by all employees to ensure transparency. These strategies provided employee engagement for all workers resulting in improved internal communications in the organization.

Employee engagement is a vital aspect of business success. Engaging workers correctly through substantial communication improves overall organizational performance since all employees in the various departments across the organization work towards a similar objective. According to Tomlinson (2010, 26), Kia Motors faced significant challenges, including increased financial losses in 2006 due to low employee engagement. Notably, the company is the fourth largest automotive manufacturer globally, employing over 40 000 workers in over 167 countries worldwide (Tomlinson, 2010, 25). The case study used in the article focused on Kia Motors United Kingdom. The corporation employs over 2500 workers. Managing such vast populations of employees and ensuring effective internal communications is not easy. Although the organization is highly developed and stable, it required strategies to provide considerable internal communications.

The article uses the case study to show the significance of internal communications in ensuring employee engagement to enhance business success. Internal communication is significantly related to my experiences as a HR leader. However, I lacked sufficient knowledge on its impact in business settings. Thus, the information impacts my perspective concerning employee engagement positively. It increases my knowledge and understanding of the importance of engaging all employees working in an organization despite their working levels. I learn that organizations must engage all workers from senior managers to the junior staff since they are all part of the company. Besides, all employees should work towards achieving one goal of ensuring business success. I realize the significance of using internal communications in allowing employees to give opinions on the principal matters affecting the company. The idea aids in a quick resolving of problems and attaining optimal solutions. Although leaders ought to make organizational decisions, they should engage all employees since the implementations may affect their outcomes at work. Incorporating and building employee engagement culture enhances transparency and effective internal communications leading to the eradication of challenges such as high costs and financial losses. Eradication of the problems leads to business success.

Conclusion 

The article “Building a culture of high employee engagement” shows the significance of employee commitment in business success. The author uses a factual case study of an existing company he has worked for in implementing employee engagement strategy to show the process and its impact on the overall organizational performance. The script is accurate in showing the related data used in investigating the case study, the intervention process, results, and evaluation of the procedure's success. Eventually, Tomlinson shows the positive outcomes of employee engagement through effective internal communications. HR is challenged to develop intervention plans to ensure nurturing of the culture in their organizations. This article is useful for any organization facing employee engagement challenges since it identifies such issues, their consequences, possible solutions, and outcomes of the implementations. It is clear and complete in showing how effective internal communications involving employees from all departments across the organization impact the development of a high employee engagement culture. Also, it shows the considerable benefits of the plan to the organization.

References 

Tomlinson, G. (2010). Building a culture of high employee engagement.  Strategic HR Review ,  9 (3), 25-31. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/14754391011040046/full/html