Challenges of Employee Engagement - Essay Example

Employee Engagement Name Course Lecture Date Introduction The business world seems to be changing in terms of global nature of tasks of employees and also based on diversity of modern day workforce. With these changes engaged, employees are essential for organizations competitive advantage. Organizations that place high value on employee engagement achieve something that their major competitors finds hard to emulate. Specifications of roles and responsibilities in a fast changing environment have become more complicated to the point that, employees are likely to be faced with unexpected and uncertain decision-making situations when working. Thus, organizations need to ensure that their employees always work in a manner that is consistent with the achievement of organizational objectives. Additionally, a considerable number of employees are now searching for environments where they can be engaged and thus feel that they are contributing positively to their organizations success. According to a number of authors, work engagement is termed as a fulfilling, active and work-related state of mind that is illustrated by dedication, vigor and absorption (Robinson, Perryman & Hayday 2004). Employee engagement has been acknowledged as being a reliable predictor of employee and work unit performance. The major challenge facing organizational leaders is that a considerable number of their employees are not engaged. Discussion Managers need to employ various strategies so as to ensure that employees experience a high level of absorption in their work. Employee engagement is a never ending process. A primary strategy that managers can adopt is to come up with a list of engagement drivers. Figure 1 in the appendix section shows the core drivers of engagement (Robinson, Perryman & Hayday 2004). Each organization irrespective of its business is in a way characterized by its unique structure, culture and dynamics. The answer to the drivers of engagement will always be different for every organization. Managers need to embark on conducting research that entails robust analysis and design to establish their levels and drivers of engagement. By discovering the barriers to engagement and coming up with the right solutions, are as a result of interpretative analysis. Thus, an organization needs to determine its barriers to engagement and deal with them so as to encourage employee engagement in its respective organizations (Robinson, Perryman & Hayday 2004). Another strategy that managers can adapt to improvement engagement is connecting with their employees. Managers need to show a lot of value to their employees. Manager’s needs to embrace initiatives focused on the employees for example profit sharing and implementing a balance between personal life and work. It has been argued that if the relationship between the managers and employees seems to be fractured, no amount of bonuses will be able to persuade the employees to perform at higher levels (Gonrig 2008). Employee engagement is usually a reflection of how the employees of an organization feel about the relationship that exists between them and their boss. Employees are more likely to ascertain if the managers are actually walking their talks and most especially when managers claim that the organizations core assets are the employees. In instances when employees note that their managers are sincere with them, they are likely to reward them with being more engaged. Additionally, managers should also clarify their expectations to their employees and at the same time offer feedback to each employee functioning in the organization. Therefore, managers need to establish procedures and processes that will help their employees in mastering essential tasks thus leading to facilitation of goal achievement. Feedback is constructive and positive when it comes to employee engagement. Managers need to keep comprehensive reports of their employees and keep track of any improvement made by employees. By doing so, managers are able to improve skills of their employees and thus create small wins that can help the employees; departments and the organization perform efficiently (Gonrig 2008). A great number of surveys show that, employees at times feel that they usually receive feedback when they have performed poorly or below the employer’s expectation. Managers also need to give rewards and recognition to those who perform well. This will go a long way in enhancing work engagement. Work engagement can also be optimized through the use of HRM strategies. By building on engagement, synergy is created between an organization and its employees thus leading to the outcome for both the employees and the organization. The results that are typically portrayed by these employees are positive work attitudes, good performance, and increased intrinsic motivation. Human resource managers need to undertake a continued assessment and evaluation of their employees (Roberts & Davenport 2002). Through this, they will be able to know the employees better, increase their commitment and motivation as well as their professional and personal development. Managers also ought to offer training and career development of their employees. The core objective of the training is to modify behaviors and make employees adopt practices that are relevant to the performance of the organization. Research relating to engagement has ascertained that, an upward gain spiral exists, and self-efficacy in a way boosts engagement and in turn engagement increases the efficacy beliefs. To make employees engaged, managers ought to offer meaningful and challenging work and provide their employees with opportunities to advance their careers (Roberts & Davenport 2002). A great number of employees always want to engage in new activities in their jobs. For example, from time to time, managers should ensure that there is job rotation and employees should be given stretch goals. Manger needs to challenge their employees but at the same time ensure that they instill confidence in them that the problem can be solved. By depriving employees, the tools and knowledge to be successful can be de-motivating and unethical and more so, it can lead to the frustration stress and ultimately lead to lack of engagement (Gonrig 2008). To enhance employee engagement, managers need to communicate a clear vision. Employees need to recognize the vision that managers have for the organization. Therefore, employees need to be aware of the organizational goals, their importance and how the goals can be obtained. Employees need to have an excellent clarity of what their organizations stands for, what the organization aims to achieve and how they can contribute to their organizational success (Vance 2006). Employees who are not engaged have sheer ignorance of how their organizations work. Thus, managers need to coach their employees on how they can work together for them to achieve common goals. Managers should also strive to preserve their organizations reputation and at the same time demonstrate high ethical standards. Employees want to be always proud of their performance, jobs, and their organizations. Employees can also be engaged in their work if their managers offers them with the control over the pace and flow of their jobs. Managers need to provide the employees with opportunities for them to exercise control over their jobs. They should also consult the employees when it comes to their needs. In regard to these, organizations need to accommodate the needs of an employee with an ailment or a mother. They need to be given time to attend to their concerns. Managers can also make their employee more engaged by involving them in decision making and most especially, in instances when the decisions are likely to affect the employees in one way or another (Seijts & Crim 2006). Managers also need to engage their employees in the setting of milestones and goals that may be termed as important. At the same time, employees should be given opportunities to voice their core ideas, and their ideas should be valued. By offering employees with opportunities to participate in decision-making, stress is reduced and also trust is created. The employees also develop a culture where they are able to take ownership of the problems and adequate solutions. There exist a great number of organizations who have created room for their employees to contribute to decision making. This has had a positive effect on work engagement, job satisfaction and motivation of employees (Saks 2006). For instance, Microsoft, success stems from Bill Gates notion that, irrespective of their place in a company, smart people possess the power to drive initiatives. In regard to these initiatives such as the Six Sigma are in a way dependent on the active participation of shop floor employees. Conclusion Academicians and practitioners have argued that, for organizations to achieve competitive advantage over their competitors they need to have an engaged workforce. The discussion presented above offers a compelling argument as to why managers need to make employee engagement a critical area and thus prioritize it. Managers needs to actively recognize the level of engagement of their employees, find reasons why there is no full engagement, endeavor to solve those reasons and implement strategies that will eventually facilitate full engagement. These policies ought to be ongoing. Though employee engagement may seem hard to achieve, managers should always strive to sustain it since, if not supported by the leaders, it will easily fade with relative ease. Though employee engagement may not be the general cure to all problems facing organizations, but by implementing the strategies organizational can be moved to higher levels of effectiveness. At the same time, employees are able to achieve personal and career development. References Robinson, D, Perryman, S & Hayday, S 2004, The drivers of employee engagement, Institute for Employment Studies, report. Saks, A 2006, ‘Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 21, no. 7, pp. 600-619. Vance, R 2006, ‘Employee engagement and commitment, A guide to understanding, measuring and increasing engagement in your organization’, Society for Human Resource Management, pp. 1-45. Roberts, D & Davenport, T 2002, ‘Job Engagement: Why It’s Important and How To Improve It’, Wiley Periodicals, pp. 21-29. Gonrig, M 2008, ‘Customer loyalty and Employee Engagement: An Alignment for Value’, Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 29, pp. 29-40. Seijts, G & Crim, D 2006, ‘What Engages Employees the Most, or the Ten C’s of Employee Engagement’, Ivey Business Journal, March/April, pp. 1-5. Appendix Figure 1: Drivers of engagement Drivers of engagement meaningfulness of work voice, being able to feed your views upwards senior management communication and vision supportive work environment person–job fit line management style Read More