Employee engagement key to great corporate culture

Wednesday, 22 April 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Much has been said about ‘employee engagement’, without properly defining the term in its real context. Many have confused themselves with the thought that employee engagement is the same or similar to ‘employee satisfaction’. Employee satisfaction provides an indication as to how happy and content the employee is at work. It also means that the employee is quite content in collecting his pay, while he may have done very little work! Therefore employee satisfaction does not in any way provide an assessment of their loyalty, motivation, involvement or their emotional commitment to their work. Employee satisfaction hence can be increased by providing new and increased benefits, but will not increase performance! In fact having many so called ‘satisfied employees’ can and will lead to a frustration of the ‘high performing emp

loyees’. It must be therefore understood that whilst high performing employees need to be challenged, they also seek to challenge the status quo and seek change, they wish to be accountable to deliver and exceed expectations, whilst low performing employees in contrast are happy to cling to the status quo against change and above all will shun responsibility and accountability. So what is employee engagement? Among a few definitions one that appears to be most appropriate is ‘The extent to which employees are emotionally involved with their job, passionate about their work, and above all committed to their organisation’. Employee engagement can and must be measured to ascertain the levels of engagement of their employees. Many short surveys may provide only a part of the required results. Leadership of organisations often wonder as to why they are unable to successfully complete their work and on time! Managers and Supervisors have remarked that they have the required cadre, but are unable to provide reasons as to why such work is incomplete or not completed on time! A cursory assessment of the available staff, taking into account their skills, qualifications and experience alone will only provide sufficient evidence of their capabilities! But would it provide an evaluation of the employee’s effectiveness, their emotional involvement and their commitment to the job, or for that matter, their ability to be totally responsible and accountable? Measuring employee engagement There are two main aspects to measuring employee engagement, one that relates to the entire organisation, its leadership, management, values, trust, fairness and how they wish to be treated! The other is somewhat more specific and relates to ‘Engagement with the manager/supervisor’. It would measure how they feel treated, whether they obtain proper feedback and moreover having a strong working relationship of mutual respect between themselves and their immediate superiors/managers. For organisations to succeed, there is more to employee performance that need to be considered, and those are; clear goals, understanding the nature of their work and how it contributes to the overall success of the organisation and the other is the competency of the managers! Do they have the skills to manage, motivate and inspire employees? In order to implement the right strategies to increase employee engagement, organisations need to conduct proper well defined surveys and use other statistical analysis of various groups at different levels and at various functional roles. Many global workforce surveys have revealed the alarming rate of employee engagement! The rates are from about 14 to 17% of employees who are engaged! Does this mean that overall around 75 to 80% of employees across the corporate world are disengaged? Perhaps this is one of the greatest reasons for employee turnover in organisations, and poor corporate culture, and the resulting question from employers is ‘I can’t find employees’ or ‘I can’t find the right employees’ or should I put it in some other context: ‘The employer’s inability to attract the right talent and retain them’. The questions that are often asked are: Can an organisation with a large percentage of engaged employees produce better results? Do they contribute a greater percentage to the bottom line? Can their presence attract right talent? Do such organisations have a lower turnover of employees? Do such organisations have a better corporate culture? The answer to all these questions will often be ‘yes’. So let’s accept the fact that employee engagement is directly connected to performance. Performance can also be directly connected to attracting and retaining the right employees and indeed connected to the bottom line of the organisation! But more than all these aspects it is indeed connected to an inspiring corporate culture. (The writer is the MD/Principal Consultant of Executive Search Ltd/Appointments of International Management Specialists (AIMS), a well known head-hunting guru who is a pioneer in the field of executive search and head-hunting with over three decades of experience in the business. The associate companies in the Group also provide recruitment and placement services for a wide array of technical and non technical junior and mid-level positions to many countries around the globe).

Employee engagement key to great corporate culture

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