Employee Engagement (Essay Sample)

Employee Engagement Name: Institution: Date: Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc445832612 \h 32.0 Understanding Employee Engagement PAGEREF _Toc445832613 \h 52.1 Drivers of engagement PAGEREF _Toc445832614 \h 52.2 Steps to creating a successful employee engagement strategy PAGEREF _Toc445832615 \h 62.2.1 Survey PAGEREF _Toc445832616 \h 62.2.2 Analyzing the degree of engagement and disengagement PAGEREF _Toc445832617 \h 72.2.3 Implementing activities, programs and policies to enhance employee engagement PAGEREF _Toc445832618 \h 82.2.4 Making engagement an ongoing process PAGEREF _Toc445832619 \h 83.0 Developing an employee engagement strategy in different organizational structures PAGEREF _Toc445832620 \h 93.1 Employee Engagement Strategy in the Manufacturing Plant in Malaysia (Hierarchical Structure) PAGEREF _Toc445832621 \h 103.2 Employee engagement Strategy in the Head Office in Ireland (Flat structure) PAGEREF _Toc445832622 \h 114.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc445832623 \h 135.0 References PAGEREF _Toc445832624 \h 14 1.0 Introduction Employee engagement is a management approach that offers conditions to facilitate more results and make sure employees do tasks to the best of their capabilities; not to be confused with employee satisfaction that only refers to how content and happy employees are. Employee engagement is based on open communication, trust, motivation, and commitment. For an employer, employment engagement leads to the business success due to the positive attitude of the employees. According to Markos & Sridevi (2010), when a company has a high level of employee engagement, employee sick days reduce, grievances and disputes are fewer, and accident rates decline due to the employees' commitment and pride to work for the organization. Employers also enjoy the employees' determination to go the extra mile to complete tasks, and this increases the performance of the firm in general. As for employees, they acquire a better understanding of their tasks and responsibilities, how they complement other tasks in the firm as well and their implications for the success of the organization. Employees feel motivated and empowered and can, therefore, complete tasks and improve the processes to achieve greater results with a shorter amount of time. Employee engagement exists in companies where there are authentic and strong values, mutual respect among employees and management, and commitment (AON , 2012). Surveys can be used to measure employee engagement in an organization. The survey, however, must be compared with other agencies to provide a benchmark to acquire effective results. Employee engagement is measured from two primary frontiers which are employee engagement with the supervisor and employee engagement with the organization. The latter focuses on the employees' relationship with the senior management and the leadership and the enterprise as a whole. The relationship is based on trust, fairness and confidence in the senior management's abilities to run the company. On the other hand, employee engagement with the supervisor focuses on the relationship between the employees and their direct supervisors based on mutual respect, giving instructions and receiving feedback and fairness (Vance, 2006). As the HR director for a multinational car component manufacturer whose employee engagement is at an all time low, I am obliged to develop a strategy that will seek to enhance employee engagement and increase the performance of the organization in general. The head office is in Ireland and the second plant is located in Malaysia. Not only are both environments different but so is the organizational structure and the labour provided. In Ireland, the organization's structure is flat and the employees, who have been externally recruited, provide skilled labour and are managed by line management. Most of the employees in the head office are also members of a trade Union. The Malaysian plant consists of mostly unskilled labour, which is internally recruited, in a hierarchical organizational structure and shows no interest in joining any trade unions. This plant also relies on an employee relations strategy while the head office is pursuing an employee involvement employee relations strategy. This study will create an employee engagement strategy to increase the level of engagement amongst the employees and the management in both plants as its primary objective. This study will also analyze the relationship between employee engagement and managerial leadership, strategic aspirations, Human Resource, infrastructure, and maintenance, gaining a competitive edge and high performance. This will be accompanied by concrete examples of engagement activities. 2.0 Understanding Employee Engagement 2.1 Drivers of engagement According to Dicke et al. (2007), understanding key drivers of disengagement or engagement will facilitate better planning of employee engagement activities that will enhance employee engagement. The biggest driver of engagement is the employees' sense of value in the organization. This is illustrated by the organizations and the supervisor's value of the employees' knowledge and skills in the organization as well as their value in decision making. Another component of the workers sense of value is the extent of the value allocated to the workers ideas and opinions. This is why an open communication is so important in firms seeking to enhance employee engagement. The employee can freely chip in and give solutions to problematic areas, therefore, feeling like he/she is part of the organization. Managers have an important role in enhancing employee engagement by providing opportunities where the employee can develop their jobs. Career development is a driver of engagement that fulfils the employees' short term and long term goals. An employee, who is likely to remain in the same position for a decade without any signs of getting promoted, is likely to be unmotivated. Such an employee will attach a negative attitude to the job and eventually their performance will dwindle. On the other hand, an employee would be motivated to work harder and smarter and have an overall good work ethic if there is an opportunity for career advancement. Robinson et al. (2004), states that employees feel ‘at home' and valued in organizations where the management is concerned with the workers health and well being. This is illustrated by the company's efforts to establish a safe environment for its workers, supplying safety equipment, addressing an employee's health issues and even setting up a health benefits fund and program, and offering health insurance. Also, offering child care programme for employees who have young infants and need baby care services and establishing favourable parental leave policies. In a recent survey, Netflix, the media provider company ranked first as the leading company offering favorable parental leave policies. The company offers parents unlimited paid leave for 12 months. The employees also have the opportunity to come back to work as full time or part time. 2.2 Steps to creating a successful employee engagement strategy 2.2.1 Survey The first step to creating a successful employee engagement strategy is to identify whether the employees are engaged or disengaged. As discussed above, this is done by conducting a survey. It is important to note that even though there are common questions to ask in the survey for different organizations, there is no ‘one size fits all version. companies, therefore, have to do the survey according to the processes, workforce, company structure, and those that would encourage a greater response (Lowenstein, 2013). Popular questions included in most employee engagement surveys are; ‘How do you feel about coming to work every morning?', ‘Do you feel valued at work?', ‘Does your manager inspire you?', and ‘Do you feel proud to tell people where you work?' moreover, ‘Do your fellow employees inspire and motivate you?' These questions help the managers analyze the feelings the employee attaches to his work and how motivated and inspired he/she feels about the company's leadership. According to Troyani (2014), ‘Yes' and ‘No' questions should be avoided because the information required needs to address problem areas in detail and consequently more enlightening. 2.2.2 Analyzing the degree of engagement and disengagement The second step requires the management to analyze the information collected in the survey. With information provided, managers will be able to identify the problem areas that need improvement and their strengths. This also allows the company to understand the impact of the employees' engagement and disengagement. For example, if the survey shows that most employees are not proud of telling people where they work, this could be an effect of the public's negative view of the image. In such a case the company may need to take steps to increase a positive public image by participating in CSR activities. Also, disengaged employees affect the business' profits and success of the business' processes. George (2013) reiterates that in time, disengaged employees affect engaged employees by breaking their spirit and eventually eroding company culture. This step also allows the management to identify the areas leading to employee engagement. By doing so, the company can further improve in this area to increase the number engaged employees. This will also assist the management to identify what particular drivers are influencing employee engagement (Robinson, et al., 2004). As discussed above, the strongest driver is the sense of value felt by the employee. In this section, the organization can choose to introduce more programs for career and educational advanc...