CONTENTS

 Meaning

 Definition

 Importance of employee engagement

 Types of employees

 3 C’s of employee engagement

 Elements of Employee Engagement

 Process of Employee Engagement

 Why there is less employee engagement?

 The most effective strategies of employee engagement

 Factors that affects employee engagement

 What else we can do to engage employees?

 Benefits of Employee Engagement

 Some examples of employee engagement Organizations

 Conclusion

 References

 Snap Shots
 MEANING

Employee Engagement is a fundamental concept in the effort to understand and describe, both
qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship between an organization and its
employees. An "engaged employee" is defined as one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic
about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's reputation and
interests. An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards the organization and its value.

An organization with "high" employee engagement might therefore be expected to outperform

those with "low" employee engagement.

Employee engagement first appeared as a contested management theory in the 1990s becoming
widespread in management practice in the 2000s, but it remains contested. It stands in an
unspecified relationship to earlier construct such as morale and job satisfaction. Despite
academic, employee-engagement practices are well established in the management of human
resources and of internal communication

“Definition”

William Kahn provided the first formal definition of personnel engagement as the harnessing of
organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express
themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances.
 WHY IS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SO IMPORTANT?
As a manager, keeping your employees engaged is perhaps the biggest challenge you face. It’s
also a huge opportunity to gain long-term commitment and discretionary effort from your team.
That effort will ultimately lead to higher sales and fewer mistakes.

There is more and more convincing evidence that improving employee engagement can
significantly improve company performance across a number of key areas, such as;
profitability, productivity, customer satisfaction, innovation, health and safety, sickness and
absence, turnover and wellbeing. Implementing unplanned ideas and activities that you think
might help, without monitoring or measuring their impact, is a waste of time and resources.
 THE THREE TYPES OF EMPLOYEES – ENGAGED, NOT ENGAGED &
ACTIVELY DISENGAGED

Engaged

This type of employee works with passion and feels profound connection to the company.
Engaged employees are active participants in their work; they want to be doing it and to get it
done. Either way, they have a sense of purpose and motivation, and don’t need to be carefully
watched, hand-held, or badgered.

Not Engaged

Checked out, sleepwalking through the day, putting in hours instead of energy. In other words,
zombies that are eating your profitability instead of brains

Actively Disengaged

Simply put people who are miserable at their jobs. They actively undermine coworkers and
sabotage projects.
 3 C’S OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Career: When individuals join an organization, they expect to build a career with it. If the top
management and immediate managers spend dedicated time in carving out the careers of its
employees, they will feel that they belong to the organization. They feel engaged when they
receive support from the management in grow their careers.
An organization can provide its employees with opportunities to grow professionally through job
rotations, indulging them in significant tasks, challenging assignments and promotions. They
should also be given a specific level of authority and autonomy to take their decisions on their
own. The organizations prepare an entirely new breed of employees if they genuinely invest in
developing the careers of their people.

Competence: Competence is all about the ability to grow. Regular workshops and training
sessions must be held in order to help employees acquire a higher level of skills and
competencies. The focus should be on developing for marketable skills. Most employees after
spending a few months look for competence-boosting opportunities with the organization so that
they can grow and move to the next level of their careers. While the career focuses on the actual
growth in terms of designation, wages and perks and authority, competence is the ability to grow
utilizing the opportunities.

Care: Sitting at the topmost, care is regarded the finest art of the managers by which they can
make employees feel an indispensable part of their organization. The managers need to be
empathetic and sensitive towards people and understand their personal problems. Showing small
day-to-day caring gestures towards employees make them feel that they belong to the
organization and organization belongs to them
 ELEMENTS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

 Leadership

Employees are desperate to have meaningful relationships with their managers. Did you
know that praise from a direct manager is almost as effective at motivating employees
as giving them stock options? And praise is free! In fact, the single greatest predictor of
employee commitment — whether those employees will continue working at your
company — is their relationships with their managers. We can’t overstate this: when it
comes to engagement, good management is critical.

 Communication
Wondering what makes a good manager? Start with good communication. Make sure you
communicate with your employees openly, honestly, and often. Don’t shield your
employees from news of business failures — they’ll only hear about it elsewhere, and
hearing it from you will engender trust.

 Culture
A positive corporate culture results in happy employees who want to come to work every
morning. Not only that, but the better the culture, the more profitable the company. If you
aren’t convinced, researchers at the University of North Dakota determined that
investing in companies from “Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For” consistently
yields a larger return than the overall market — larger, even, than investing in the S&P
500.

 Rewards and recognition

More than three quarters of employees say they work harder if they were recognized
more. This includes formal recognition, like years of service or employee-of-the-month
programs, as well as informal programs like company “points” or thank-you cards. A
well-defined recognition and reward system allows employers to effectively differentiate
between good and poor performers and tie recognition and rewards directly to the
 behavior that matters for the success of the organization. What gets recognized gets
repeated.

 Professional and personal growth

The opportunity to develop new skills and capabilities is critically important to ambitious
employees. Most employee development occurs on the job in the form of new projects or
responsibilities, but could also include regional conferences, new reading materials, or
certification courses. Keep your employees engaged by finding out how they’d like to
stretch and giving them appropriate opportunities for growth in that direction.

 Accountability and performance

Everyone wants to be part of a winning team. People who perform well feel good about
themselves —and where they work. But like any team, they need coaches who can
provide honest feedback. Immediate praise reinforces desired behaviors, and timely
criticism can help avert future problems before they snowball.

 Vision and values

Engaged employees understand the big picture and how they fit into it. A clearly
communicated vision and statement of core values give employees something to rally
around. If employees feel like a part of something bigger than themselves, they are much
more likely to go above and beyond to contribute to that greater purpose.

 Corporate social responsibility

Employee engagement levels are twice as high among employees who say they are proud
of the contributions their organization has made to the community

Successful companies tend to be deeply connected with their communities, committed to

social outreach, and they encourage employees to participate in worthy causes that make
the world a better place.

Do any of these qualities fit your company? Good news, we’re now accepting
applications for the 2016 Achievers 50 Most Engaged Work Places Awards.
 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT – PROCESS

 Prepare and Design

The first step in the process is about discovering the specific requirements of your
organization and deciding the priorities. After that, a customized design of carrying the
whole process can be designed. It is recommended to seek advice of an expert
management consultant to increase the chances of getting it done right at the first
attempt.

 Employee Engagement Survey

Design the questions of the employee engagement survey and deploy it with the help of
an appropriate media. It can be either in printed form or set online depending on the
comfort level of the employees and your questionnaire evaluation process.

 Result Analysis
It is the most important step in the entire process. It is the time when reports are to be
analyzed to find out what exactly motivates employees to perform their best and what
disengages and compels them to leave the organization. The results and information can
then be delivered through presentations.

 Action Planning
‘How to turn the results of the survey into an action’ is a challenging question that
organizations need to deal with utmost care. Coaching of line managers as well as HR
professionals is very important to tell them how to take appropriate actions to engage
employees. They should also be told about the do and don’ts, so that they can
successfully implement the changes.

 Action Follow-up
Action follow up is necessary in order to find out if the action has been taken in the right
direction or not and if it is producing the desired results. Communication and project
management processes are the backbone of the entire Employee Engagement Process.
Communication involves plan follow-up, providing timely information and involvement
of each level of organizational hierarchy.
 WHY THERE IS LESS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?

1. Inadequate Education

Some employee engagement issues arise due to the lack of education in the field most
closely related to the job. If your field is a highly specialized one, and workers don't
possess the know-how to succeed in it, they may not be engaged. To prevent this
problem, ensure that you hire workers with the necessary training and take care to
provide training when new developments arise within your field.

2. Employees do not feel connected to their peers.

In past studies, we found out that the number one thing employees love about their jobs is
their coworkers. Unfortunately, in this year’s report, we discovered that only 24% of
workers say they have a strong connection with all of their colleagues. Generally
speaking, today’s workers form connections with the members of their immediate teams.
They don’t get to know colleagues who work in different departments too well.

Only 27% of workers believe their companies are doing a great job with team-building
efforts, according to our Engagement Report. There’s any easy fix: invest in team
burning activities so that all of your employees get to know all of their coworkers. The
stronger the bonds your employees develop.

3 .There aren’t enough opportunities for professional development

While half of today’s managers believe there are adequate opportunities for professional
development at their organizations, only 26% of employees do.

25% of employees feel as though management is transparent — compared to 42% of

managers who feel the same way.

To boost engagement, make sure that you understand each of your employees’ career
goals. Support them any way you can. Check in with them from time to time to make
sure they feel like they are progressing toward their goals.
 THE 6 MOST EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

1. Think “Bottom Up”, not “Top Down”

You don’t build a house starting from the roof and working downwards, do you? Well, the same
goes for companies. After all, your people are the bedrock on which you are founded, and if you
don’t know what it’s thinking, you’ll soon run into trouble.
Using surveys and questionnaires is crucial when gauging your employees’ feelings and
opinions. We know what you’re thinking: ‘Will this ever actually affect anything?’ In many
cases, these surveys aren’t quite thought out. They’re phrased in such a way that they are
designed to produce an outcome that will satisfy the executive board, but do nothing to
allow employees to comment on the real issues. They’re also an example of top down thinking,
focusing possibly on one or two issues rather than thinking holistically.
Instead, if you’ve given careful consideration, you’ll see that your survey is only the springboard
to engagement. Once you have the results, hold a team meeting – not necessarily formal, perhaps
something with lunch included – and go through it. Focus on common issues and ask your team
about how an issue can be improved upon.
The more your teams are asked their opinions, the more they will feel empowered, trusted and
respected – and the more engaged they’ll be.

2. Show them you listen

If a clear issue has been identified, then it should be acted upon. More importantly, it should be
visibly addressed, particularly if you have discussed it with them. Knowing that one’s opinions
are not only listened to but also contribute to change is another way to increase engagement. Use
your internal notice boards to demonstrate what you’ve done in response to what your employees
have said.

3. Share good practice and ideas between teams

There’s nothing better than seeing your ideas and work practices being praised, so ensure that
your employees have the opportunity to share and display their very best work. Peer-to-peer
learning, whether in meetings or via your Talent Development Platform, is a great way to foster
engagement and create or strengthen links between your employees.
4. Have an employee voice
Having a once-a-year satisfaction survey is not enough to gauge how your company is doing.
You also need to facilitate channels where each employee can raise issues and give their
feedback. For this, consider using discussion forums where your teams can air issues and get
feedback from their peers and managers.
5. Understand individual learning styles and preferences

If you understand how your employees learn – whether they prefer to work independently or in
groups, for example – you will also find out a lot about how well they work and in which ways
they are more likely to engage with projects.

You should also consider when someone can learn, and for how long. This is an important
consideration with online training in particular: you will find that some employees will happily
get on with individual training, while others are better suited to synchronous, collaborative
learning. Your Talent Development Platform should offer a variety of ways in which the user can
engage with their course.
6. Employ effective group learning strategies

Traditional workplace training sessions are part of working life and a great way to help everyone
engage with new ideas and techniques. However, there is the risk that they can become
somewhat stale, manager-lead exercises. Here’s where the instructor should put aside their
managerial hat, and act instead as a facilitator for action, rather than directing it. Let the whole
team be involved. Challenge employees to step out of their comfort zone for example by making
a quieter employee act as sub leader.
 FACTORS THAT AFFECT EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

1. Attitude

Happy employees are better at their work. We popularly believe that hard work and success
make us happy, yet psychology research reveals that happiness brings us success. Employees are
responsible for owning their own happiness. If you aren’t happy doing what you’re doing.

According to another statistics, 25% of job success is based on IQ, while the other 75% is based
on our beliefs, connectedness to others and ability to manage stress.

Positivity impacts the brain significantly. Author of The Happiness Advantage, found that
positivity, or optimism, is the leading predictor of success in entrepreneurs and business leaders
because they perceive more opportunities in the midst of challenges.

2. Management

Leadership sets the tone for company culture. Leaders are able to influence, produce change and
motivate teams. The most effective leaders help employees see the value in their work .When the
workplace becomes emotionally charged due to anxieties and unforeseen challenges,
management has the ability to address the situation and curb potential conflict. If management is
unable to calm employee anxieties and help teams refocus on the work, well … who will?

According to a study conducted by Cornerstone on Demand and research film top reason why
employees stay in their current positions – aside from compensation and benefits – is “a good
manager I enjoy working for.” Positive attitudes in management impact not only employee
engagement, but also retention numbers.

3Health

Sickness and other health issues are a drain on employee productivity. Sick employees tend to
call out for fear of infecting coworkers or simply because they feel more comfortable at home.
Tired employees also cost you productivity and money. In fact, fatigue carries estimated losses
of more than $136 billion in lost profit, and 84% of the cost is not related to reduced productivity
over a sick-related absence.
A policy helps alleviate some of these concerns and encourages they feel employees to work
when and where they feel most effective. . When implemented correctly, remote employees are
likely to be as connected and engaged as those who work consistently in the office.

4. Technology

No matter how positive and engaged your employees are, they may remain unproductive without
the right technology.

For example, a sales team in its early stages keeps track of leads using a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet, while a growing sales team needs a more sophisticated system – like CRM software
[link to CRM post]– to manage the sales cycle and leads as they mature. Plus, ease of use
through advanced technology keeps employees engaged, while outdated systems and redundant
or tedious processes only lead to frustration.

The positive attributes of smart employees are enhanced by the right technology Look into
current processes and see how they might be improved through a technology upgrade. The
productivity of your employees and your overall business stand to benefit.

5. Culture

Because employees feel more engaged when connected, collaboration has been linked to
productivity and positivity employees who develop structure. Create a culture that values input
from everyone.

Without the proper culture, engagement spirals out of control. Culture – along with collaboration
– increases connectedness, and employees who feel outside of that connectedness tend to lose
focus and underperform.
 WHAT ELSE WE CAN DO TO ENGAGE EMPLOYEES?

Step 1 – Put everyone in the Right Role Again, get the right people on the bus and make sure
they are in the right roles. This means that all talent acquisition and retention strategies have to
be aligned with meeting company goals.

Step 2 – Give Them the Training

No manager or leader can expect to build a culture of trust and accountability — and much less
improve engagement without setting the team up for success. This means providing the proper
training and development while removing obstacles.

Step 3 – Task Meaningful Work

Engaged employees are doing meaningful work and have a clear understanding of how they
contribute to the company’s mission, purpose and strategic objectives. Again, this is why they
first have to be placed in the right role. I’ve made the mist hiring great talent just to get them in
the door – but didn’t have a clear career path or role for them. If you don’t sort those details out
quickly, they will leave.

Step 4 – Check in Often

The days of simply relying on mid-year reviews for providing feedback are long gone. Today’s
workforce craves regular feedback — which of course leads to faster course correction and
reduces waste. Use both formal and informal check-in strategies — and use them every week.

Step 5 – Frequently Discuss Engagement

Successful managers are transparent in their approach to improving engagement — they talk
about it with their teams all the time. They hold “state of engagement” meetings and “engage”
everyone in the discussion —and solutions. Again, these principles are not complex, but must be
prioritized. Companies that get this right will drive greater financial returns, surpass their
competitors and easily climb to the top of “the e best places to work” lists. So get on it!
 BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

1) Employee Satisfaction: Research indicates that if employees are engaged with the company
their job satisfaction levels increase. Employees that are engaged and satisfied are very invested
in the success of the business and have a high level of commitment and loyalty. Satisfied
employees play a key role in your organization, as ambassadors of the company. They promote
and support the company’s mission, strategy and brand.

2) Productivity: Engaged employees are often top performers, those committed to ‘going the
extra mile’ to achieve business success. As an employee become more engaged their absenteeism
lowers and their motivation increases leading to increased productivity. What this means is that
the more engaged the employee is the more efficient and driven to succeed they become.
According to research performed by the Hay Group ‘the offices with engaged employees were as
much as 43% more productive’.

3) Retention & Recruitment: Retaining good employees is key the success of every business.
Employees who are engaged significantly lower the risk of turnover for the company. As
engaged employees are more invested in the success of the company they also become more
loyal. Simply put, when employees are satisfied and engaged they are far more likely to stay with
the organization. Coupled with retention, businesses that have a highly engaged workforce have
an increased ability to attract new, qualified employees.

4) Innovation: There is a close relationship between innovation and employee engagement.

Engaged employees perform at a higher level and bring passion and interest to their job, which
often leads to innovation in the workplace. As highly engaged employees feel they have a real
stake in the organization, they strive to ll organizational growth.

5) Profitability: Companies with more engaged employees tend to have higher profitability
rates. When employees are engaged they become more productive and efficient, positively
affecting the company’s bottom line. A study by Wyatt Watson found that companies that have
highly engaged employees produce 26% higher revenue per employee. The equation makes
perfect sense. The more engaged your employees are the more efficient and productive they
become, lowering operating costs and increasing the profit margin.
 SOME EXAMPLES OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ORGANIZATION

GOOGLE - TRANSPARENCY

Google have been very intentional about creating the culture they want. One aspect of that culture
is their focus on transparency. The idea is to break down barriers, encourage creativity and
collaboration. And employees, as a result, are feeling empowered by that transparency. Culture
comes down to habits and Google, by creating a culture of transparency and freedom, creates
habits of creativity. Formalizing that people spend 20% of their time doing something outside their
normal work function, facilitates a creative culture. Ultimately culture is about “how things get
done” and should not be left to chance, it’s too powerful a force not to take control over – and
Google has done this well.

In our experience, we see organizations that focus s on transparency engaging employees more
than those that don’t. Employees want to be a part of something where there are no hidden agendas
and they are experiencing an honest perspective whether that is good news or not. Informed
employees feel valued and engagement typically follows.

AMERICAN EXPRESS – FOCUS ON BEHAVIOURS

In a world where results are everything and goals are often largely about what results people
achieve, regardless of how they achieved them, American Express was different even 25 years ago.
The company has for a long time had equal weighting between the fact that people achieve their
goals and how they do it. It simply should not be possible to achieve top results, ratings, pay and
potential bonus without considering the impact of habits.

Habits are how we conduct ourselves, act and react, towards others. We’ve found that successful
companies understand how habits impact employees on an emotional level, where much of
engagement with an employer happens. They therefore value how people do their job. You can’t
have someone being a high performer but behaving really badly at the same time - it sends the
wrong message. The high performers in companies where engagement is high understand their
impact and behave in a collaborative and respectful way.
JOHN LEWIS - EMPOWERING

John Lewis expresses a strong focus on people. One way of doing this is to call their employees
partners. A word is not just a word; it is also the connection people make with that word, the
emotions that it awakens. By calling them partners, the company is clearly expressing that there is
a shared responsibility for the customers and the outcomes of the company. So they focus on
involving their partners in decisions and solutions, empowering them to create the best customer
experience.

We see a lot; that employees who are invited to be involved (not just served a “fait accompli”) also
feel empowered and they take personal responsibility – they know they can make a difference and
it engages them to do more.

Hyatt – Employee Development The hotel group’s high employee retention and long tenure
speaks volumes in an industry known for its high employee turnover. The focus on employee
development and promoting from within plays a large part in this. Another interesting practice,
connected to development, is how they empower their employees (whom they call associates), to
listen carefully to each other and guests, to be able to solve problems and create new solutions,
rather than following scripts of what to do, making the guest feel special and heard.

Many organizations we’ve met share this commitment to employee development and are therefore
able to trigger that inner motivation that comes from knowing that you’re growing and developing.
Besides, continuous development is crucial in order to successfully deal with the constant change
all organizations face.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES - PURPOSE

This airline sees their purpose as connecting people with what’s important to them. They don’t just
see themselves as transporters of people, but as enablers who help people get to people or places
they care about. This may be seen as a small differentiation, but it can make a big difference in
how important an employee perceives his/her job. A strong, clear purpose connects emotionally
with employees, it engages.
In our experience, purpose is becoming more and more important to employees. To see that you
are doing something more profound than just selling a product or service, makes you feel
important. It’s no longer enough to “just do a job”, we’re seeing that people want to make a
difference, to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

VIRGIN - LISTENING

This multi-industry organization has a habit of listening to its employees, to show that they are
valued, to listen to their opinions and take care of their ideas, to have healthy debates and
continuously innovate. It’s a win-win; the organization keeps learning and employees feel
important and engage with the organization.

Listening is at the heart of engagement. In our experience, everyone wants to be seen and heard –
it’s a minimum requirement of leadership, yet often overlooked for the immense value it can bring.
On top of it simply being the right thing to do. We see that employees who feel listened to, want to
reciprocate, they want to do their best, because they feel valued and important.
 CONCLUSION

Employee engagement is attracting a great deal of interest from employers across numerous
sectors. In some respects it is a very old aspiration – the desire by employers to find ways to
increase employee motivation and to win more commitment to the job and the organization. In
some ways it is ‘new’ in that the context within which engagement is being sought is different.
One aspect of this difference is the greater penalty to be paid if workers are less engaged than the
employees of competitors, given the state of international competition and the raising of the bar
on efficiency standards. A second aspect is that the whole nature of the meaning of work and the
ground rules for employment relations have shifted and there is an open space concerning the
character of the relationship to work and to organization which employers sense can be filled
with more sophisticated approaches.
 REFERENCES
 http://engageforsuccess.org/what-is-employee-engagement
 https://www.effectory.com/knowledge/themes/what-is-employee-engagement/
 https://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au/business-advice/employing-staff/types-of-
employment
 https://www.inc.com/business-insider/types-of-employees-you-should-fire.html
SNAP SHOTS