Employee engagement: not only crucial in the retention of workers, but has also contribute to higher innovation and profits

Introduction 

A 2018 report by Engagement Multiplier indicated that more than a quarter of employees in the United States are at a high risk of turnover. The report further explained that one third of these employees who are at high risk for turnover are talented, capable, and motivated employees who more than often surpass their performance expectations. They can easily secure other employment positions, and they are always aware of this. Furthermore, the publication revealed that 53% of employees are positive that if they lost or quit their current jobs, then they would be able to secure an equivalent job position within the next six months (“Why is employee engagement so important?” 2018). The trend only serves to indicate one thing: That if an employer fails to give his or her employees an enthralling incentive to stay, they will definitely leave and find other jobs that accord them compelling reasons to stay put. With competition for top talent being on a steady rise in the recent past, employers cannot afford to lose their trusted employees. One of the initiatives and by far the most important tool to reducing employee turnover is employee engagement. Employee engagement is not only crucial in the retention of workers, but has also been validated to contribute to higher innovation, higher profits, and also the enjoyment of working with a fully engaged workforce (“Why is employee engagement so important?” 2018).

What is Employee Engagement? 

The concept of employee engagement has earned different definitions from different scholars over the years. Saks and Gruman (2014) concluded that there is a lack of unanimity on the implication of employee engagement. However, regardless of the fact that there still lacks a consensus on the meaning of employee engagement, one thing that is consistent in nearly all the definitions is the idea of the nature of the employer-employee relationship. According to Saks and Gruman (2014), employee engagement denotes the extent to which employees are vehement about their jobs, how they are committed to the organization they work for, and the extent to which they put discretionary effort into their work. Albrech (2011) also had his say about the definition of employee engagement. He narrated that employee engagement implies the extent to which an employee’s interests and personal goals align with the goals and the vision of the institutions they work for. Finally, Engage for Success also provides the meaning of employee engagement. The organization re-counts that employee engagement refers to a workplace approach resulting in desirable conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each and every day, stay committed to the institution’s values and goals, and also bring about the motivation to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being. Engage for Success also went a step further to explain what employee engagement is not. According to the publication, employee engagement cannot be achieved by a mechanistic approach that intends to extract discretionary effort through falsification of employees’ emotions and commitment. Workers often see through such attempts/efforts to manipulate their emotions and commitment, and can easily become pessimistic and disillusioned (“What is employee engagement?” 2018).

Why is Employee Engagement Important? 

From the discussion above, it is fair to say that employee engagement goes way past games, activities, and events. To help understand the significance of employee engagement at the workplace, it is crucial that we revisit the introduction part of this discussion. The report by Engagement Multiplier expressed that, “If an employer fails to give his or her employees a beguiling reason to stay committed to their current job positions, the employees will more than frequently consider leaving their job positions so as to find jobs that satisfy their values and goals.” Therefore, employee engagement is about positive attitudes and behaviors causing improved business outcomes, and most importantly, in a way that they trigger and reinforce one another. Employee engagement has been established to drive performance at the workplace, leading to increments in business returns (Dalal, Baysinger, Brummel & LeBreton, 2012). Several other scholars supported the opinions of the quartet. Harter, Schmidt and Keyes (2003) revealed that businesses with more engaged employees experience approximately 51% more productivity. Gibbons (2019) also divulged that engaged employees outperform disengaged employees by 20-28%. Organizations having engaged workforce therefore outperform their competition, recover more quickly following financial setbacks and recessions, and manifest more innovation. Such is the significance of employee engagement.

Employee engagement is also crucial in attracting and retaining top talent within the workplace/ minimizing employee turnover. Employee engagement helps create a sense of loyalty, belonging, and pride within the workers. In addition, employee engagement is also about drawing out a deeper commitment from the employees; hence, fewer leave, grievances and conflicts are minimized, accident rates reduce, and sick absence declines as well (“What is employee engagement?” 2018). Employee engagement also creates a sense of team work, regular and constructive feedback and most importantly, helps forge an appealing working environment (“What is employee engagement?” 2018). This is the mix of qualities that most employees desire. An employee afforded these qualities always has little or no intentions of quitting their job positions.

Advancing the argument above, a 2009 report by Centre for Creative leadership publicized that employee engagement helps foster trust between the employer and his employees. The report further explained that 80% of engaged employees manifest a high degree of trust in management, compared to just 25% of disengaged employees. The increased level of trust that engaged employees manifest at the workplace has been corroborated to lead to employees becoming advocates of the organizations they work for to the clients, customers, and users (Centre for Creative Leadership, 2009). Most of engaged employees have also been confirmed to be more likely of going an extra mile to finish a piece of work. Finally, trust resulting from employee engagement has also been ascertained to be the root cause of the onset of creativity and innovation at the workplace (Centre for Creative Leadership, 2009).

What Influences Employee Engagement? 

A lot of research has been conducted regarding the determinants of employee engagement, and in most occasions, communication is always at the top of the list. The contribution of leadership communication in employee engagement cannot be underestimated. Mansoor and Hassan (2016) explained that leadership communication is the top internal communication tool that statistically correlates to employ engagement. Internal communication teams should therefore remind and coach leaders, especially line managers on the significance of communication at the workplace. Line managers are the focus of this discussion due to their extent of involvement and interaction with employees. Face to face expression of an organization’s vision, progress as well as strategies, and also creation of feedback channels is linked with better employee engagement.

Another determinant of employee engagement is employee voice. Employee voice is often linked to employee engagement, yet it still remains vastly untapped. Employee voice implies to when workers believe that they have a voice, and most importantly, a voice that leads to actions (Mansoor & Hassan, 2016). Employee voice refers to a two way communication channel, and where the opinions of both parties are respected. To help bring about employee engagement therefore, internal communicators should influence and support leaders, and even urge employees to have a voice both in their day to day obligations and also concerning bigger business issues. Furthermore, as a way of improving/encouraging employee involvement, employers should create platforms where their employees vent their opinions. These opinions should be keenly analyzed and then shared with people in influential positions within an organization. A business should dare ignore employee voice at its peril.

In addition, an organization’s reputation is another factor that is likely to influence employee engagement. Anything that is likely to affect what employees think about the institution they work at (perceived organizational identity), or what the employees think their family and friends think of the organization they work for has been established to directly correlate with employee engagement. Employees spend a huge portion of their lives (estimated at 40% of their lives) at work, it is therefore important that the organizations they work for be a reflection of their identity and values (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Internal communicators should therefore communicate topics aimed at elevating the repute of organizations in the minds of employees, for example, constructive media coverage, corporate social responsibility, and also awards and prizes. It is also important that internal communicators provide the institution’s stance on negative media coverage (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Do not try spinning the news, instead, always count on the employees to defend the organization before friends and family.

Career support and peer culture are also known to influence employee engagement. This is according to Shuck and Wollard (2009). The duo gave the definitions of the two subjects, defining career support as according employees the opportunity to develop through assignments and key jobs. On the other hand, they described peer culture as employee interaction and sharing of ideas and opinions on work-related issues at the workstation. To help improve employee engagement, employers should give their employees an opportunity to grow through their assignments. Additionally, employers should also encourage peer relationships among workers leading to highly engaged and productive workers, as well as drivers of organizational performance (Shuck & Wollard, 2009).

Finally, Shuck and Wollard (2009) also touted pay fairness, employee recognition, and development opportunities as probable determinants of employee engagement. The duo argued that as a way of promoting employee engagement, employers should motivate their employees by implementing pay that is equitable to employee performance. Employers should not exploit or underpay their employees. Regarding employee recognition, Shuck and Wollard alleged that recognizing in a sincere as well as timely manner the incremental improvements and contributions of employees is key to fostering of employee engagement. Lastly, discussing development opportunities as one of the influences of employee engagement, this is what Shuck and Wollard had to say: that providing workers with formal learning programs and also opportunities to put their newly acquired skills into practice, complemented with the freedom to learn from others could lead to strengthening of employee engagement (Shuck & Wollard, 2009).

How to Raise Employee Engagement 

Having explored the benefits and the influences of employee engagement, how to raise employee engagement helps advance this discussion. Just like the subtopics discussed earlier, this is another area that has received a lot of attention from researchers. Corey Fair of Walden University explained that affording employees flexibility, being authentic always as an employer, and asking for feedbacks from employees can help improve employee engagement a great deal (Corey, 2018).

According to Engagement Multiplier, a top-down commitment to engagement as a culture, defining your engaged purpose, and the ability to quantify and score engagement levels on an ongoing basis are imperative to the advancement of employee engagement. Moreover, comprehension of basic engagement principles (purpose, engaged leadership, action, transparency, and commitment) is key to raising employee engagement (“Why is employee engagement so important?” 2018).

Eccles, Perkins, and Serafeim (2012) also expressed their opinions regarding this topic. The triplet revealed that building of trust, management transparency, offering visibility, hiring traits and behaviors sometimes at the cost of skills, and engaging employees right from their first day at work often contribute to high employee engagement. They also alleged that playing and volunteering together are also key to creation of healthy employee engagement. These discussions about ways of raising employee engagement only propose one fact: that there is no secret to increasing employee engagement at the workplace. By doing something as simple as asking your employees what needs to improve at the workstation, or what changes need to be implemented so as to enable them enjoy their time at work, or make their time at work more fruitful and productive, one is actually on the right course to improving employee engagement.

How to Measure Employee Engagement 

Measurement of employment engagement offers the best strategies to improving employee engagement. Employee engagement can be measured through employee pulse surveys. Employee engagement surveys must be statistically authenticated and benchmarked against those of identical organizations if in case they are to offer meaningful clues. Failure to do this, it is difficult to know what you are quantifying and it is also difficult to know whether the results obtained are bad or good. Pulse surveys are a great way to appraise employee engagement and also grasp how your team is feeling all the times (Fletcher, Bailey, Holmes, Buzzeo, Robinson, Alfes, Madden & Currie, 2014). The more an employee knows about their team, the more likely they are to solve problems that are employee engagement-related. The octet also went a step further to explain how a good pulse survey should be like. The quartet explained that a good employee pulse survey should be:

Short 

Pulse surveys should not be ideally 5-10 questions in length. The relatively shot length is designed to keep employees engaged and also not to collect too much data. Too much date may be difficult to process (Fletcher, et al., 2014).

Specific 

The surveys should specifically focus on areas that need to be improved. Do not collect to much data at once (Fletcher, et al., 2014).

Frequent 

Pulse surveys should be sent out frequently so as to keep the employer updated on how their teams are feeling all the times. Pulse surveys can be sent out ideally once every week, and their short lengths is to help make up for the frequency in which they are sent out (Fletcher, et al., 2014).

Simple 

The questions in a pulse survey should be kept clean and succinct. This enables the answers to be both definitive and clear and in turn renders data processing realistic and simple (Fletcher, et al., 2014).

Anonymous 

Employees should respond to pulse surveys anonymously. This ensures honesty of opinions, and therefore, allowing the employer to provide them with the most relevant solutions (Fletcher, et al., 2014).

Actionable 

Employees need to be assured that they are sharing their thoughts with the management for valid reasons. Putting an action into intention stimulates a conditioned response from the employees: they will continue to share relevant information whenever they are called upon to do so. They are well aware by now of the fact that something will be done whenever they raise a concern (Fletcher, et al., 2014).

Conclusion 

Creation of desirable working conditions for all members of an organization enabling them to give of their best each and every day, stay committed to the institution’s values and goals, and also creation of the motivation to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being is crucial is several ways at the organizational level. It causes increased job performance by employees, minimizes employee turnover, and also helps forge trust between the employer and the employees. Lucky enough, the power to impact employee engagement fully lies within the hands of an organization’s management. An institution’s hierarchy can both create and enhance employee engagement. Some of the plots that can be used by an employer to create and enhance employee management include encouraging of employee voice, leadership communication, and promotion of career support, peer culture and employee appreciation. Additionally, a commitment to employee engagement culture, permitting employees flexibility at the workplace, and being authentic always as an employer are also known to promote employee engagement. Finally, measurement of employee engagement is an important tool in ensuring that employees are satisfied always, and also for driving institutional success. Thanks to methods of employee engagement measurement, employers are today able to determine how the employees feel about their jobs and the work environment, and also ascertain how much progress they are making as an organization.

References

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Centre for Creative Leadership (2009). 08/09 annual report. Retrieved January 14, 2019 from https://www.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2008-2009-annual-report-center-for-creative-leadership.pdf 

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Gibbons, J.M. (2019). Employee engagement: a review of current research and its implications. The Conference Board. Retrieved January 14, 2019 from https://www.conference-board.org/publications/publicationdetail.cfm?publicationID=1238&centerID=0 

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