Employee Engagement at Caterpillar and The National Health Service - Case Study Example

?EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Employee engagement is crucial for effective, corporate decision-making Employee engagement is a business management concept utilised in seeking to ensure employees remain enthusiastic and fully involved in their work. Engaged employees, thus perform their duties in ways furthering their organisation’s interests. Employee engagement, therefore, can be defined as the measurable degree of an individual’s emotional attachment to their work (Kruse 2012). Engagement measures both negative and positive attachment, commonly displayed in the various attitudes held by employees towards their job(s). Employee engagement profoundly affects an employee’s willingness to learn, cooperate, and work together with others (Karsan & Kruse 2011). Employee engagement can therefore be identified as a fundamental element of teamwork. Engagement should, however, not be confused with satisfaction and motivation. Different individuals might find parts of their job which offer satisfaction and motivation yet they might not be fully engaged. The concept of employee engagement remains an essential element of business management, which can effectively assist in corporate decision-making. Employee engagement could be defined as the willingness and ability for employees to assist the organisation to succeed, through offering discretionary effort, continuously (Wellins et al. 2005). Business decisions regarding human resource can be effectively undertaken through the understanding of various aspects of employee engagement. The element of engagement could be measured through the continuous monitoring of individuals behaviour, consequently understanding their engagement to work related activities (Seijts & Crim 2006). Proper knowledge of the engagement level possessed by employees can assist human resource management decisions by identifying individual’s skills and motivators. The decision-making process, regarding employee matters, within many organisations remains a sole function of the human resource department. Understanding employee engagement for different employees can effectively assist human resource managers in making duty allocations and recruitment. While many drivers exist for employee engagement, the most common measures utilised by employers in determining employee engagement are commitment to work and effort shown in work. Employees to stay within the organisation commonly display the employee commitment through the desire. Many international corporations engage in the assessment of employee engagement in enhancing the decision-making process. This enables the corporations to make informed business decisions regarding the organisational operations. There are several aspects of employee management which managers must undertake in order to ensure their employees remain engaged to their respective jobs. Among these drivers of employee engagement, the top three could be identified as management’s interest in employee well-fare, work related challenges, and the decision making authority (Saks 2006). Employee engagement notable among many employees remains the capacity to fell valued and involved within the company operations. This significantly concerns the decision-making process utilised within an organisation. Involvement of employees in decision making helps in increasing their morale. Consequently, the ultimate results of decision-making involvement are increased engagement of employees with corporate operations. The involvement of employees in decision-making includes seeking their opinions regarding various issues surrounding corporate operations. Though their ideas might not be implemented, the thought of having voiced their ideas becomes a source of encouragement. Managers remain the key to achieving engagement of an entire corporate workforce. In achieving considerable engagement of employees the managers must undertake various responsibilities aimed at improving the morale of employees (Baumruk & Gorman 2006). Firstly, managers must become aware of the employees efforts; hence work towards aligning these efforts to corporate strategy. Secondly, the manager must empower junior staff, to ensure they can make sound decisions, which are in line with organisational objectives. Thirdly, the manager must encourage collaboration and teamwork among employees in order to increase the output of employees. Fourthly, the manager must assist the employees in achieving career related growth and development. Lastly, the manager must be able to recognise work effort and develop an appropriate plan for rewarding such efforts (Wellins et al. 2005). Employee engagement remains a fundamental element in business performance for many large corporations and organisations. The decisions made within any organisations should, therefore, be assessed to evaluate their effects on employee engagement. Engaged employees are constantly in certain behaviours, all providing considerable improvement to organisational performance (Baumruk & Gorman 2006). One such behaviour depicting employee engagement remains the capacity for employees to make referrals on behalf of the organisation. These referrals could either regarding potential employees or customers. This can be identified as a way for showing employee determination and desire to see organisational improvement. Engagement of employees appears when they feel to be part of the organisation, and development of the organisation is viewed as personal development. Another element indicating employee engagement in an organisation is the capability for employees to reject opportunities to work in other organisation. This assists an organisation in staff retention through increased staff commitment towards achieving organisational objectives. Employee engagement and commitment has been cited as the first concept towards successful business among numerous multinational corporations (Robinson et al. 2004). Following employee engagement, customer satisfaction and increased sales come automatically. This remains true because employees are the individuals directly involved in undertaking the various organisational operations. Engagement results in increased voluntary input, consequently producing increased output. Modern times have seen numerous companies investing in employee engagement and commitment practices and reaping considerable benefits. The last employee behaviour depicting engagement is working extra hours, and showing concern towards the success of the business. Individuals’ voluntary input towards achieving company objectives remains a clear indication of employee engagement. The engagement levels experienced among different organisations remains a significant determinant of the profits achieved by the companies over time (Kruse 2012). Disengagement of employees, therefore, directly affects company profits through reduced input by the employees. Within the business world, increased input directly results into increased output in terms of income and profits. Investing in employee engagement therefore, could sufficiently improve the financial status of an organisation without direct investment into business related issues like marketing (Wellins et al. 2005). When companies need to make business related decisions like rebranding or expansion, it becomes essential to undertake a comprehensive review of the employee engagement levels prevalent within the organisation. The employee engagement levels can assist employers in making informed decisions regarding the duties assigned to employees (Karsan & Kruse 2011). In the case of caterpillar, for example, expansion resulted in increased profits for the company. Failure to understand staff engagements could be catastrophic to such business moves, when individuals become less engaged. Such employees would potentially fail to support expansion moves, consequently resulting in failure by the plan (Seijts & Crim 2006). Sufficient engagement, on the other hand, becomes essential in enhancing the support offered by employees in business objectives. Employees become personally involved in the quest to ensure better results for company operations. In the modern business world, employee engagement has been termed as the leading element affecting company profitability. An organisations management needs to adopt strategies which ensure increased employee engagement (Karsan & Kruse 2011). Newly recruited employees should be offered comprehensive orientation. This orientation should include an explanation of the company mission, vision and objectives. Other orientation elements like company values, and priorities of the specific departments, remain essential in assisting the employee to understand what the organisation expects of him/her. Through comprehensive understanding of their various responsibilities the newly recruited employees can quickly make decisions without much consultation, despite being new to the company. Effectiveness of employee engagement therefore, should begin with the first day of employment, following recruitment. The decision making process within many organisations can become effectively improved through employee engagement. Fully engaged employees are normally empowered and have sufficient understanding of company objectives. This enables the employees to provide sufficient and accurate information to potential company clients, confidently (Markos & Sridevi 2010). Sufficient understanding of the company values remains essential element of employee engagement, which enables employees to act on behalf of the company, effectively. Through engagement many employees become enabled to make decisions in line with company objectives, independently (Vance 2006). This kind of independent decision-making quickens the decision-making process within large organisation. Fully engaged employees become capable of making similar decisions based on the understanding of company objectives and values. Quick decision-making process remains essential in customer retention and increased sales volumes. The element of decision making in organisations with fully engaged employees becomes fast and efficient. This results from the comprehensive understanding of the various company requirements like values and mission (Vance 2006). Through employee engagement, individuals working for the same company could be termed as possessing similar knowledge of the company, hence make similar decisions irrespective of the rank. Decision making regarding recruitment become easy among employees with high engagement levels (Markos & Sridevi 2010). The engagement levels in a company assist human resource in making recruitments and promotions. Companies with high employee engagement levels commonly promote individuals among their employees, without fear of losing these individuals to competing companies. NHS According to a survey undertaken on employees of NHS in Great Britain, by the Institute for Employment Studies, employee involvement indecision making process was a key employee engagement driver (Robinson et al. 2004). The employees within this organisation became more engaged following their feeling of being valued by the employer. Simple consultation process in decision-making could become the difference between engaged and disengaged employees within any corporate. Incentives offered by organisations play a fundamental role in the encouragement and consequent empowerment of employees to become more engaged in company operations (Saks 2006). Companies should engage their employees to ensure maximum output from the employees. The NHS provides incentives to employees to engage them through offering free medical care. The organisation has received significant engagement of its employees an element which has resulted in ensuring staff retention within the organisation. The organisation can be able to develop long term strategies through assurance of current staff presence in the long term. Through having engaged staff, the organisation has developed long term business strategies. These strategies have enabled the organisation to improve service delivery to the general public, subsequently displaying efficiency of the organisation. CATERPILLAR The engineering firm caterpillar remains one notable organisation which has received surmountable gains from employee engagement. The company managed to earn $8.8 million in savings resulting from decreased absenteeism and overtime following investment in employee engagement (Vance 2006). Engagement clearly translates to potential business for majority of businesses making considerable investment in employee engagement. Companies seeking to reap the benefits of employee engagement, like caterpillar, should undertake rigorous designs and implementing procedures for effective employee engagement. Recruitment and training functions of the human resource contribute much towards effective employee engagement into the objectives of the company. Employee behaviours and attitudes towards their jobs remain significant indicators of the engagement levels present among many employees. References Baumruk, R. & Gorman, B., 2006. Why managers are crucial to increasing engagement, London: Melcrum Publishing. Karsan, R. & Kruse, K., 2011. We: How to Increase Performance and Profits through Full Engagement, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Kruse, K., 2012. Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance 2nd ed., New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing. Markos, S. & Sridevi, M.S., 2010. Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), pp.89–96. Robinson, D., Perryman, S. & Hayday, S., 2004. The Drivers of Employee Engagement Report 408, London. Saks, A.M., 2006. Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), pp.200–219. Seijts, G.H. & Crim, D., 2006. What engages employees the most or, the ten C’s of employee engagement. Ivey Business Journal, 70(4), pp.1–5. Vance, R.J., 2006. Effective Practice Guidelines-Employee Engagement and Commitment, Colorado. Wellins, R.S., Bernthal, P. & Phelps, M., 2005. Employee engagement: The key to realizing competitive advantage. Development Dimensions International, pp.1–30.  Read More