Good Practices for Employee Engagement Research Assignment (Essay Sample)

Good Practices for Employee Engagement
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Good Practices for Employee Engagement
There is need for employee engagement in all companies in order to achieve the set organizational goals. Employee engagement is a workplace approach where all employees of the organization are committed to the organization and motivated to contribute to achieving the organizational goals and its success (Truss, Alfes, Shantz, and Soanze, 2013). The report is based on the examination of the first five "Best companies to work for" by Sunday Times. These companies were ranked from the best to the worst. The first to the fifth of the companies are Paragon Interior Group, Phaidon International, Educ8, The7stars and Reassured. The ranking was best on the leadership, well-being of the employees, personal growth, the company, the manager, the team and the fair deal with these employees. These five companies are performing well in employee engagement because of their manager's good leadership. They ensure well being of their employees and the companies contribute immensely to the society and the community in which they operate. Besides, there is increased personal growth of the employees, good relationship between the managers and the employees and within the teams of the organization and there is good reward for the employees.
Leadership is one of the most important elements used in these small organizations to enhance their employee engagement to achieve increased performance. It refers to the process by which leaders influence their followers to achieve a given set organizational goal (Gareau, 2010). In the best companies to work for, managers in these companies are respected and valued by their employees for the leadership and decisions that they make in these organizations. In Paragon Interior Group, the senior management teams are aware that the Paragons values and visions should be visible from their day-to-day behavior in the organization. Paragon has ensured that to be a good company to work for, their leaders must recognizes the achievements of their employees, valuing differences and inspiring them to be the very best they can. In Phaidon International, which featured in the second position, also have good leadership that makes them the best company to work for. They have introduced the quarterly meeting where the company's C.E.O addresses the employees on the development, planned events financial data, international offices and the company strategy. These meetings are also recorded and placed in the company intranet where other employees can access them. Through this, they employees have always remained engaged and are up to date on the company's developments and goals. Educ8, a third placed company in the best companies to work for, also has good leadership for employee engagement. In the organization, each senior manager discuss the company values with their teams in a monthly performance one to ones and the employees are asked how they have displayed the values over the past month and if they have seen others display them. The senior managers of this company also discuss in each team meeting and the employees' focus group meetings, the values of the organization. The value evaluation in the organization ensures that employees are engaged in achieving the organizational goal. The fourth placed small company is The7stars. The C.E.O of the company believes in treating the employees of the organization as grown-ups and not children. This responsible adult culture of the organization enhances open discussion of the organizational information, empowering the employees and giving them lots of autonomy. This gives the employees more scope to be creative, innovative and be able to feel engaged with the company and the company's performance. Lastly, Reassured Company, the fifth placed in the list, its leadership has ensured employee engagement through meaningful works, good senior management communication style and vision, supportive work environment of the employees and ensuring employees-job fit, and good line management. In addition, the leadership implemented a share scheme, which all the employees of the organization are eligible to join to ensure employees engagement.
Well-being of the employees of the organization is one of the key areas of good practice for employee engagement in an organization. According to Finney (2008), it refers to how the employees of the organization fell about their lives, their jobs and their relationship with the people around them. There is increasing recognition of the importance of employees' wellbeing in the organizations. Many managers are striving to ensure employee engagement and get the best out of their employees by practicing and ensuring well-being of their staff. The examination of the best companies to work for suggests that well-being result into employee engagement and improved work place performance. The well being of the employees in these top five small companies have been raised to ensure employee engagement and improved performance of the company. To begin with, Paragon Interior Group provides health services to their employees. The employees and the families of this company are entitled to free Flu Vaccination, which is paid by the company, and there is free private healthcare for the employees. The company implemented Healthy Breakfast Club where on a daily basis employees are served with healthy breakfast and during this time the employees get more opportunity to socialize and facilitate cross company relationship. The company also provides curry nights and social events hence high employee engagement in the company. In The7star Company, well being of the employees is one of the best practices that increase employee engagement in the organization. The company ensures that its employee's health is considered. They provide free gym for every employee and a ride to work scheme. It had free Boris bike keys so that staff can get to meeting and other places in the company to improve their health. The company also provides free fresh fruits and breakfast from Monday to Friday to their employees. Besides, the company has introduced a scheme where employees can trade their benefit packages for something tailored to them like dentist insurance to ensure their engagement with the company.
According to the information provided in best companies to work for, team engagement is one of the good practices for employee engagement. The employees of these companies refer to the teams as my team because it is from his or her team that they get full engagement with the organization. A team refers to a group of people or employees who work towards a common goal or purpose (Gareau, 2010). In the top five small companies, Paragon interior group has been using team to enhance employee engagement in the company. There has been a quarterly mandatory off site event with the employees where the Directors of the organization give information about the company and its performance against the target and those things that lowers the employees' performance. This is a good team for the employee engagement and updating the employee on existing new and new objectives. During this meeting, there is 2-3 hour interaction session for all the employees of the organization to ask questions and work in teams. The directors of the company also hire outside facilitators for these meetings so that the employees also see them as part of the team and feel engaged. Lastly, during these meetings, good performing teams are rewarded and this makes all employees of the organization to be more engaged.
Good managers also contribute to the employee engagement in organizations. These people in the organization direct, organize, coordinate and plan the activities of the organization. Good managers of a company ensure proper management of activities and the employees of the company hence increasing employee engagement leading to an improved performance of the company (Carbona, 2013). This can be seen in Phaidon International where the company managers act as mentors to the junior employees. This mentoring scheme in the company has enabled senior management team to work more closely and on a daily basis with the directors of the company to ensure continuous employee engagement. Similarly, Educ8 managers are also increasing the employee engagement in the organization by ensuring that they invest money and time in creating new management roles in the company. With the new managers in the organization the interaction between the employees and their managers has increased therefore ensures employee engagement. The company's heavy investment in its managers is to ensure that the employees of the organization get the appropriate support and give opportunity to junior employees to climb up to the management level thus increased employee engagement in the company. The7stars, the third placed company in the list of the best companies to work for also engage their employees through their managers. In the company, there are no hierarchical structures where even the senior managers are involved in carrying out the small tasks in the office. They have created "the7stars five day", these simple things in the company that everybody is expected to perform. This practice ensures that the employees of the organization are engaged throughout in the company.
Companies that perform better are the ones that engage employees through personal development or growth. Employees growth is another good practice of employee engagement as can be seen in the best companies to work for by Sunday Times. This involves developing employees' personal career potential and enhancing their ability to perform and be successful (Richard, 2009). This removes the fear of unknown within the employees and equipping them with knowledge and skills of expertise in carrying their tasks effectively. In the top five co...