Introduction
Professionals and scientists who work in the sphere of human resource management (HRM) spend much time and effort trying to find out how they can improve organisational performance through their activities. Recent conclusions showed that the implementation of effective employee engagement strategies and could be rather beneficial in the framework of this issue. Moreover, the improvement was also noticed in individual well-being. Thus, it is believed that engagement is advantageous for both employers and employees. However, a lack of knowledge about this topic is still observed, which prevents organisations from understanding how the levels of personnel’s engagement can be raised and lowered. This article will try to resolve this problem, discussing how to use different strategies and practices to improve employee engagement in a specific organisational context.
Principle Drivers for Employee Engagement
Every employee needs to feel valued by the organisation and involved in it just like all other employees. These feelings are the most critical, as they ensure and even presuppose employee engagement. In this framework, it is significant to involve a person in decision-making and allow one to share ideas, contributing to the outcome. In addition to that, an employee should have a possibility of job development because it ensures that one will not be looking for a better position outside the company. Finally, an organization should pay attention to employee’s health and provide an appropriate package that will meet one’s needs. In order to maintain all mentioned peculiarities of employee engagement, at least three key drivers of engagement should be considered.
Just recently, the report prepared by Quantum Workplace was published. According to it, management/leadership is the main employee engagement driver that should be considered when trying to increase its level. Professionals identify that leaders are in charge of the creation of a positive working atmosphere that is critical for the personnel. In addition to that, the workers are expected to have trust-based relations with them because otherwise a lot of misunderstanding will occur, which can prevent the company from reaching its potential. It is also vital to ensure that the workers deal with the meaningful work. They are willing to use their skills and knowledge so that they can contribute to the organisation and help it to make a step forward. The workers need to feel that their job is engaging to be happy and satisfied with it and want to perform even better. Relations with co-workers also matter. One of the Gallup’s G12 surveys showed that employees who have best friends at work are more connected to their organisations (Clapon). They cooperate with others better and want to support the company more. Thus, it is significant for HRM to implement different interventions to improve employee relationships and avoid conflicts.
Diagnostic Tools for Measuring Employee Attitudes
As it was already mentioned, the employees are willing to be aware of their future, have the meaningful job, and good relations with co-workers. On the basis of these points, professionals can measure employee engagement so that they get to know if some improvements are needed. It is significant to understand that it is not enough to ask if the employees are satisfied with what they already have. HRM should find out what the organisation should do to keep its workers. Focusing on this issue, Aflac Insurance, for instance, got to know that they require interventions for working mothers because they comprised the main part of the workforce.
The Gallup G12 measurement tool can be used to gather such information. It includes questions that focus on people’s attitudes towards their work, their relations with other employees and management, and thought about development. The IES diagnostic tool encourages to pay attention to employee’s feelings, including the feeling of being valued, involved, and engaged. Here, the assessment deals with the quality of management, communication and cooperation with other workers, development, thoughts about well-being and commitment (Robinson 3). Thus, diagnostic tools do not differ greatly. They all focus on the main drivers of employee engagement and their realisation in a particular organisational context.
People Resourcing, Development, Performance, and Communication Strategies that Raise Levels of Employee Engagement
In order to improve employee engagement, management should consider different people resourcing strategies, based on workers’ needs. It can be advantageous to focus on HR training so that only the best talent is recruited and employed. A special employee engagement program should be developed to satisfy the workers. The strategy should focus on the long-term business goals, as they allow to pay more attention to employee well-being. Focusing on development strategies, organisations such as HYATT discuss employee’s inner motivation (Flint and Hearn). They emphasise the necessity to consider several promotion opportunities. American Express believes that the best way to enhance employee performance is to emphasise high performance and appreciate it with some bonuses. Employee behaviour is considered to be one of the essential elements of this strategy because it impacts people’s emotions and affects their engagement. Communication strategies are focused on the implementation of effective communication approaches that make the employees closer to each other. It is possible to create a blog for the workers only, for example, so that they can share information. All in all, these strategies presuppose that the organisation does something that its employees need or want so that they become more satisfied with their jobs and feel more involved.
Barriers to the Acceptance of Employee Engagement Strategies
Employee engagement strategies may be not accepted and considered to be unimportant in some situations. For example, if the management does not understand the meaning of engagement and its necessity. To cope with this issue, special training should be offered so that they improve their knowledge of current tendencies. Managers and employees may be cynical about this issue. They can consider that these strategies are just a trick and they will not have any positive influence on the current situation. Then, it is significant to focus on the improvement of the relations between the employees and their employers. It may be beneficial to offer some meetings outside of the working environment so that trust-based relations can be developed.
Organisational bureaucracy and its desire to control everything can also be a great barrier. It is significant to involve employees in the decision-making process, allowing them to contribute to the company’s success. Lack of work-life balance can make the managers and workers not willing to keep to the organisation. It is significant to develop an appropriate schedule so that they will not be obliged to work more than agreed. Finally, a great barrier to the implementation of employee engagement strategies can be poor management decisions. If they constantly change or turn out to be ineffective, the employees tend to be not willing to follow management’s demands. Thus, it is significant to ensure supervising and implement policies for them to take responsibility for such actions.
Employee Value Proposition
Employee engagement can be promoted greatly with the help of employee value proposition. It is an employer brand that includes the information about the value that the workers will contribute and can obtain in return. In other words, it describes the offer of the organisation. A successful proposition can be generated only on the basis of the information obtained from the workers and other stakeholders regarding recruiting, employee satisfaction, workforce characteristics, etc. It deals with everything the employer uses to attract personnel and make them involved. As these elements are identified with the help of survey, they reflect current needs and allow the employer to fulfil them. Being aligned with organisational goals, it also ensures that the work will be meaningful. Knowing what is offered, employees tend to be more willing to keep to one company and get engaged.
Reflection
The information discussed in this article is likely to be extremely valuable during working practices. It allows understanding how to maximise personnel performance and make them willing to achieve organisational objectives. This assignment points out the ways in which the information about employees’ needs and their satisfaction can be gathered. Analysing it, I can determine existing barriers that prevent my company from successful generation and implementation of employee engagement strategies. In addition to that, I will know how to define those values that my organisation will require from the employees and those it will be willing to provide. Gathering all these information, I will be able to develop efficient and effective strategies to ensure employee involvement and improve organisational performance.
Works Cited
Clapon, Paula. “The Top 3 Employee Engagement Drivers.” 2016, Web.
Flint, Mandy, and Elisabeth Hearn. “Engagement – And What They Do Right.” Managers. 2015. Web.
Robinson, Dilys. Employee Engagement. Brighton Publishing Home, 2007.