Employee Engagement Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Instructions:

University of South Florida College of Nursing

NSP 4881 Health Care Human Resources Systems and Strategies

Employee Engagement Paper

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Many of us have participated in employee satisfaction surveys. However, many organizations a have moved away from employee satisfaction surveys and now measure employee engagement. Employee engagement is more strongly linked to organizational performance on key indicators such as productivity, revenue growth and patient/customer satisfaction. While 80% of health care employees report that they are satisfied with their job and employer, only half of those are truly engaged. Interestingly, even in health care organizations in which employee engagement is high, clinical departments tend to have engagement scores that are lower than other departments. In fact, departments that serve patients with the highest acuity tend to score the lowest on employee engagement. The purpose of this assignment is to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and ability to apply relevant principles and concepts covered in the course to the examination of employee engagement and its influence on organizational performance and patient satisfaction.

Before you begin, carefully review these instructions and the grading rubric for this assignment. The Employee Engagement Paper is worth 20 points and constitutes 20% of your grade for this course. This paper is automatically submitted to Turnitin to screen for plagiarism. It is also highly recommended that you submit your final draft to SmarThinking to assist you in proofing your paper.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

This assignment allows the student to research the topic of employee engagement, its influence on organizational performance and how human resource management strategies can impact employee engagement. This assignment contributes to the student’s achievement of learning outcomes of this course.

If available, review and analyze the results of your organization’s most recent employee engagement survey or, since employee engagement influences patient satisfaction, the most recent HCAHPS scores. You may use the results of these surveys to make specific points in your paper. You need not identify your specific organization; you may use a pseudonym. You may also use your experiences from a previous employer as either the basis of your paper or to compare/contrast with your current employer.

The body of the paper should be no longer than four to five (4-5) pages (maximum). This page limit does not include the title or reference pages. This paper must be written in third person.

Paper Content

Introduction: Research and introduce the concept of employee engagement. Discuss why this topic is important to the field of human resources and health care.
In the body of your paper
1. Discuss if the employees in your organization are engaged in the mission, vision and strategic priorities of the organization? How do you know? ( Write in third person!)
2. Is there a difference in the level of engagement of clinical employees as compared to other employees? Why?
3. What is the role of HR in engagement?
4. Where is the greatest need for improvement?
  1. i. Are these areas negatively impacting patient care?
  2. ii. Assess why you believe the organization does not do as well in these areas.
  3. iii. Create a plan of action for how you would improve these areas. How will you measure your success? What will your barriers be in improving these areas of concern?
5. What does your organization do well that makes you proud to be a part of this organization
You must show evidence that support your conclusions. If you are unable to have access to your organization’s Employee Engagement survey or HCAHPS scores, you may write the paper from a theoretical standpoint based on the research you have done or use your experiences from a previous employer.

B. Writing Guidelines
1. Write the paper based on the assumption that the reader knows nothing about the topic or purpose of your paper---as you would if you were preparing a manuscript for publication.
2. Follow APA formatting guidelines for your paper found in the APA manual.
  1. Headings must be used in the body of the paper (See page 62 in the APA Manual). Do not use Roman numerals or numbers in your headings
  2. Since there is generally a very limited use of direct quotes in scholarly and scientific literature, the use of direct quotes is discouraged for papers in this course. If you do use direct quotes, there should be no more than two (2) in the entire paper. They should be very limited in length, generally a sentence or less. In addition, whenever used, you must explain how the quote is relevant to the point you are making in the paper.
There is a minimum of five (5) evidenced based and/or peer reviewed references required for this paper.
1. One can be the Fried and Fottler text.
2. All references should be dated, unless the date is not available and the source is a widely recognized, authoritative website (e.g. CDC, CMS.gov, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Joint Commission HHS.gov, etc.).
Be sure to check your Turnitin score prior to final submission. Review the findings and revise your paper if your score exceeds 25%.
It is also highly recommended that you submit your final draft to SmarThinking to assist you in proofing your paper

Required components/elements of the paper include:

Title page (page 1) with required elements as outlined in the APA manual
Introductory Paragraph follows placement of the title at the top of page two (2) and introduces your reader to the subject of your paper and the major concepts that will be presented in the paper. It should not indicate that this is a course assignment.
Body includes the discussion of items contained I A-2 above on the topic you have selected. Organize the body using Level 1 section headings; see page 62 in the APA manual for information on use of section headings.
Summary one or more paragraphs summarizing key points from the body of the paper
Reference list - Minimum of five (5) recent evidence based or peer reviewed references required. References must have of publication date and be in alphabetical order.

D. Required Format and Headings:*

Title Page

Introduction (no heading)

Body

I. [Employee Engagement] (Level 1 heading)

[Overall engagement]( Level 2 heading )
[Engagement of Clinical employees] (Level 2 heading)
[Role of HR in Employee engagement ] (Level 2 heading)

II. [How strategies/ actions influence engagement] (Level 1 heading)

[What isn’t working & how to fix it] (Level 2 heading)
[What this organization does well] (Level 2 heading)

Summary (Level 1 heading)

References on a separate page; must have date of publication and be in alphabetical order.

source..

Content:

Employee engagement paper
Student’s name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Date

Introduction
Employee engagement refers to the criteria used by the management at the workplace to ensure that all the employees are committed and determined to observe and work towards the values and goals of the organization. The emphasis here is on the motivation of these workers to facilitate the success of the entire organization as well as enhancing their own well-being.
Overall engagement
The topic of employee engagement is essential to the human resource management and health care setups due to their contribution towards productivity and workplace harmony. Engagement of clinical employees
Healthcare workers are supposed to be productive and provide top quality health care services who happen to be the clients (Wolf, 2011). At the same time, the workers have to feel appreciated financially to facilitate their increased input. These employees also have to be given an environment to facilitate their career growth to making them better professionals (Levoy, 2007).
Employee engagement is essential to the world of human resource in the sense that it helps to benefit both the organization and the workers. The task of the human resource is to channel the efforts of the employees towards achieving the goals of the firm, and the presence of the engagement leads to the realization of the set goals. According to Levoy (2007), employees also benefit from the same in terms of career growth and financially thus leading to much satisfaction among the members of the human resource team.
Engagement of clinical employees
There is a health organization known as MediHub Clinic that is responsible for treating numerous ailments among society members. This organization has prioritized quality health care provision where emphasis is put in hiring competent medical professionals and another support staff to facilitate the same. The mission of the hospital is to attend to all patients in time and ensure quality of the services. To achieve this, the management has begun a communication framework where employees express their ideas to the supervisors thus helping to initiate relevant mechanisms. A friend of mine called Johnson has been working in this organization for the last three years, and he acknowledges that the management has always ensured that the employees work hard and diligently for the sake of the patients.
There is an evident difference in the level of engagement of clinical employees compared to other employees in this organization. As advised by Abiodun (2010), the management has identified clinical officers and nurses to be the most critical employees thus engaging them fully to facilitate the attainment of the set goals. Each clinical employee is supposed to write a monthly report citing areas that have to be addressed to facilitate performance and quality requirements.
Role of HR in employee engagement
The human resource team in this firm is playing a crucial role in employee engagement. It is acting as a link between senior management and employees where it helps to explain the policies set by the management as well as airing the frustrations and concerns of the employees to the management team. There are areas that the employees; especially medical professionals feel have to be improved to ensure the clinic to achieve set goals.
How strategies/actions influence engagement
Communication and welfare of the employees have to be improved immediately. There are communication hiccups being witnessed in this firm where the monthly reports of the employees fail to reach the senior management in material time to facilitate their actions. The welfare of employees regarding the congested working and living conditions are yet to be addressed thus degrading the level of motivation among employees. The career growth aspects of employees are yet to be addressed by the management since there are no avenues to facilitate the same.
The above discussed issues are negatively impacting on the growth and performance of this clinic. The employees need frequent responses to their concerns by the management to enable them to commit themselves fully to the activities of the organization. The organization is not doing well in the communication, welfare enhancement, and career growth requirements of the employees due to human resource shortages, financial constraints, and lack of goodwill. The number of supervisors in such a growing establishment is quite low implying that there is a communication breakdown that aims at hampering the flow of activities. The financial constraints are limiting the firm’s commitment to addressing the welfare of the employees like providing a conducive working and living environment. Career growth programs are being hampered by lack of finances and goodwill. Goodwill is lacking since managers believe that when employees get additional skills, they will flee to other organizations that offer better terms and conditions of service.
What isn’t working and how to fix it
There is a need of a plan to address the above explained shortcomings of this firm. There is a need for a formalized and organized communication structure within this organization. The management has to buy and install computers that are fully equipped with the internet to help in fastening communication between the workers and itself. The new gadgets shall enable the employees to communicate easily and help the management to respond almost quickly thus improving the working relations. The management has to liaise with other organizations to facilitate career development requirements of the clinical workers. These organizations can be bigger hospitals and training institutes that shall offer additional training and education programs to the employees.
The welfare advancement requirement is quite critical to enhancing productivity. There is a need to build more servant quarters within the premises of the clinic to offer sufficient accommodation services to the employees. Each and every clinical officer shall need to reside within the premises of the clinic to help in addressing emergency cases among the patients. The improvement of the working environment in terms of installing modern and efficient working machinery and equipments is needed. The management should sour...

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Employee Engagement Paper (Research Paper Sample)

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