Running Head: VONAGE HOLDING CORPORATION 1

Vonage Holding Corporation

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Introduction
Nexmo was founded in 2011 and it’s headquarter was in San Francisco before it was

acquired by Vonage Holding Corporation in 2013. Nexmo primarily objective in business is to

offer the best application programming interface API-based Communication for messaging,

offering integrated development environment for programmable voice and chat app. Nexmo thus

is involved in providing communications platform as a service (CPaaS). Therefore, Nexmo is a

platform of Vonage Holding Corporation that is tasked with developing and marketing

communications application programming interface that helps a developer or a business to be

innovative on how they communicate with their customers (Robin and Hayday, 2009, p. 37).

Vonage Holding Corporation is a business that is involved in providing cloud

communication services to clients. It’s headquarter is in Holmdel Township, New Jersey and was

founded in 2001 with around 250-500 employees. Initially Vonage Holding Corporation was

involved in providing telecommunication services which was based on Voice over Internet

Protocol (VOIP). The company was started by Jeff Pulver in 1998 and was initially called Mini-

X but later when Citron and Bhola joined the company as board members the company changed

its name to Vonage Holding Corporation. On May 2006 Vonage Holding Corporation publicly

started selling their shares to the public by trading in the New York Stock Exchange (Robin and

Hayday, 2009, p. 37). In 2013 Vonage Holding Corporation acquired several companies starting

with Nexmo which is involved in providing communications platform as a service (CPaas) and

even Vocalocity which provide software as a service (SaaS) to customers.

Employee engagement
Engagement entails various aspects such as emotional, physical and safety issue that

come into play when employees work together in a team to accomplish a certain task. Therefore,
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employee engagement refers to both the physical and emotional connection that is developed by

an employee toward the organization he/she is working for that will cause him/her to put the

discretionary effort that is needed for the organization to be successful (Macey & Schneider,

2008, p. 30). Usually, employee engagement in an organization has many benefits since it leads

to increase in productivity and even customers are satisfied by the services offered by the

organization.

In its strive to refine it strategies and ranks, Nexmo has made the employee engagement

subpar. Although they have achieved most of their goals, they still lag behind in terms of

employee engagement. Their main focus is hiring the best talent across all functions in the

industry to enable them solidify their foundation and allow them rank up globally at a stable

pace. This process has led to lesser concerns on the workers welfare. The need to strength the

company’s developer programs has further pushed employees to work harder in a less “fun”

work environment. Recently, a lot of concerns have been placed on the customers making that of

employees decline. For instance, in 2017 (nexmo.com, p. n/a), the company introduced the real-

time transcription and sentiment analysis which meant further suppression of the employee

engagement as they worked harder to make the project a success. For example, when Nexmo

was acquired by Vonage it had 300 employees but after it was acquired many staff members

were retrenched and according to Nexmo as of 2018 it had 211 employees showing that there is a

significant reduction in employees. However, the company has recently started focusing on the

engagement especially after it achieved its milestone by winning the Fierce Innovation Award

for Business Services (nexmo.com, p. n/a). This made the company reward its employees, which

may have led to an improvement in engagement level.

Recently, Nexmo employees are engaged in the daily day to day routine by being

encouraged to share their knowledge. Since Nexmo primary objective is to provide

communications platform as a service most of their employee are thus base in the Information

technology department and are usually tasked with developing the integrated development

environment that will enable developers to integrate their system with Nexmo infrastructure. For

example, Nexmo employees have to share their knowledge with each when developing and

integrating interactive video content in the customer’s website and mobile application. This

employee engagement in this instance refers to employees engaging each other and contributing

when developing on the best strategy for implementing the internet protocol so as to ensure that

their low latency when users are using the website and that the mobile applications are

responsive in the user’s devices. Also, Nexmo employees engage the public using their website

which is user friendly and easy to use. Through Nexmo website employees are able to share the

technical knowledge they have with the public and are even able to engage businesses and

customer that are using their services to provide support. Support in Nexmo comes in different

way, for example, Nexmo website offers documentation guidance of most of the services they

provide that users can use to rectify simple technical problems. They even have tutorials on how

to implement their libraries to a business system (Macey & Schneider, 2008, p. 33).

Furthermore, Nexmo in order to promote employee engagement they have their own blog

and an internal magazine. Also, the organization is engaged in various social hack party that

other organization are participating for instance, Microsoft Corporation. Mostly, Nexmo blogs

tries to engage the employees and the users of Nexmo services by concentrating on offering

insight and information on which services the company is offering that will be helpful to an

organization and still be pocket friendly. Most issues discussed in Nexmo blogs are based on
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their services such as a blog trying to explain to a customer some of the best communication

medium that are good for message delivery are some of the topic discussed (Kahn, 1990, p. 694).

Hack night which refers to social technology events are a major part for Nexmo employee

engagement since they are known to break the monotony involved when working is a continuous

process. Usually, hack night try to bring everyone together and allow the free expression of

thought by every employee causing them to be very productive. Also, Nexmo employees are

involved in hack that other organization have organized for example, Nexmo usually attends and

are participants in most hack event organized by Microsoft Corporations.

Good practices
Good practice also known as best practice implies to a procedure that has been proven by

researchers to produce the optimal result. Both good and best practices are part and puzzle of

Nexmo Incorporation which is part of Vonage Holding Corporation. Recognized body such as

the W3 Consortium and the ISO tables some of the best practice in the Information Technology

field. Nexmo, when designing, developing and implementing their integrated environment for

communications platform as a service they adhere to best practice stated by the W3 Consortium

and the ISO so as to ensure their product are widely accepted. Some of the benefits that accrue to

Nexmo for meeting the standard set and implement their processes according to best practice laid

down is that they are able to build systems that are efficient and are cost effective (Armstrong,

2010, p. 130). Also, this good practice has enabled them to respond to the changes in the market

fast when it comes to matter of innovations. Even they have become more competitive that their

competitors such as Twilio.

Good practice has been infused in all the three products offered by Nexmo which is the

messaging, voice and authentication services. For example, in order for customers and

businesses to implement their two factor authentication using Nexmo API, Nexmo has a 2FA

patented technology that helps them to detect unauthorized parties that are trying to gain access

to their system. Second the 2FA technology protect system against fraud by using phone number

and step up verification process as activities that ensure that a user is authenticated before he/she

can access the system. Also, good practice in Nexmo comes out in their employee engagement

with business owner who engage Nexmo for authentications services. For example, Nexmo is

able to provide tailor made messaging services to customers making them to be more satisfied by

the services being offered by the organization (Cipd.co.uk, 2019, p. 22).

Furthermore, Nexmo has the messaging services where they are involved in giving

services of sending and receiving bulk messages. Also, offering smart technology that can be use

to send messages through platforms such as face book messenger, Viber and even Whatsapp.

Nexmo offers businesses with a SMS API that they can use in their businesses to create an

effective communication channel with their customers. Some of the best practice offered by

Nexmo is that they provide secure and private SMS channel that users of the system can use to

book for appointment and even purchase and confirm the delivery of the product they have

purchase. Second the SMS API provides an avenue that is easy to authenticate users. By

developing SMS API that comply to the global compliance engine Nexmo good practice has

enable them to increase the number of users using their system. Also, the good practice of

meeting set standards has enabled Nexmo to enter new market since their products are widely

accepted (Craswell & Poore, 2011).

Barriers to Employee Engagement

There are various barriers that are linked to the blockage of employee engagement in

Vonage. Some of these include excessive bureaucracy, lack of clarity, and lack of work-life

balance among others.

According to Robinson and Hayday (2009, p. 27), bureaucracy has the potential to block

employee engagement. This is because bureaucracy outlines that rules and procedures have to be

followed regardless of their appropriateness to a specific situation. In such a situation, control is

preferred over results. Bureaucracy in the organization lead to the employees becoming less

engaged as they have to work harder to make their ideas heard or even get approval to make

some simple changes.

Lack of clarity is another barrier to employee engagement in the organization. A

considerable amount of employee associate engagement with job satisfaction, morale, or mere

happiness. But engagement involves more than that. When employees are engaged with each

other and with the job, they are motivated to put in their best effort. This makes them be satisfied

with their work, which then translates into better results (Dalal et. Al., 2012, p. 42).

A lack of work-life balance also contributes to a minimal employee engagement

(Robinson and Hayday, 2009, p. 37). Most of the times, the Vonage leaders expect the workers

to put the organization needs first rather than their lives’ requirements. In such a situation,

workers feel obligated to work for long hours to appear as productive as possible to the

employer. The workers suffer from the fear of falling victims of downsizing. This condition

makes employees to be engaged in a minimal way, as they feel coerced to be working. However,

spending a lot of time on a job does not always translate to fulfilling productivity as the value of

time spent at work determines how it is spent.

An engaging leadership is not a behavior that comes naturally. Most of the organization’s

leaders fail to spark an inspirational communication and great transparency. These are simple

steps that can improve a great employee management but business managers always fail to start.

There is need for leaders at all business management levels to engage employees both

individually and collectively at a sustained level of commitment. However, such efforts are often

against the lectures of MBA courses and reduce as workers are promoted up the organizational

ladder. Cynicism is also a barrier when both management and employees get cynical about

engagement. In the modern life, cynicism is pervasive and generally drives a negative view,

which considers individuals as always selfish and acting toward self-motivated goals. This

makes employees who view engagement on these bases to consider it as a move by employers to

make them work harder for less money in sole benefit of the employer. Cynics thus view

engagement as a trick to make workers harder for no real reason (Naus et, al., 2007, p.683).

According to Robinson and Hayday (2009, p.25), inadequate IT is also a barrier to

employee engagement. When the organization tries to assist the employees engage effectively it

runs into saturated communication channel due to the inadequate IT. High levels of

communication technologies are required to improve engagement and this faces a challenge as it

is difficult to cut through noises. It is thus challenging for a business to get the attention of the

employees. Soliciting inputs also creates a lot of information and feedback, which can be

overwhelming to the engagement team. Poorly targeted learning and development is another

challenge facing employee engagement. For instance, when a company does not carry out

research on the current business issues, it may fail to address the problems that exist between the

staff. In this case, the existing problems will remain unsolved and primary to the business.

Failure to carry out research may lead to misinformation, which may lead to workers
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engagement to lower more. A company thus needs to identify a negative learning source within

the business and remedy it to encourage engagement.

The company also lacks insights, alignment, and a focus at the top. Senior leaders may

believe in the work’s place culture and employee engagement while the truth is that the

employees strive to link it to the business in an effort to improve engagement. Besides, the

failure of the organization to carry out engagement surveys makes the management to guess what

is necessary to most of their employees. The notion of everybody, ranging from the management

to employees, being busy has discouraged focus on enhancing engagement (Robinson and

Hayday, 2009, p. 27). There could also be biased decisions that are based on who asks rather

than on facts. Some management staff may make certain decisions but later change them for a

reason not obvious to the employees. In such a situation, workers feel disengaged making them

to feel that they are not heard. This makes them believe that their opinions are neither valued nor

supported.

Strategies to Improve on Barriers to Employee Engagement

According to the Vonage Business, employee engagement strategies are often not

supported as a lot of managerial staff lament the team-building activities. They however believe

that employee engagement is of significant importance to a company’s success. This is what has

driven them into formulating their strategies to improve employee engagement.

One of these strategies is maintaining an effective communication. Lack of

communication makes an individual feel disconnected to other people. The modern day

technology has left most of communication within a business be restricted to instant messaging

and email. Therefore, there is need to encourage unified communications technology. Vonage
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thus needs to utilize full-featured meeting more than using typical emails and chat windows.

They point out that using video conferencing as a replica of old fashioned get together will boost

the employee engagement, as it will bring a personal touch to the online communication

(Robinson and Hayday, 2009, p. 23). For instance, the employees can be provided with iPads to

enable them video conference. This should roughly cost about $30,000.

Another strategy is making activities not look too professional. Generally, people look

forward for the end of the day as there are more fun at home than at work. Therefore, an idea can

be formulated to create a work atmosphere that is less official and rather a friendly one. The idea

here is to introduce a work environment that will make employees feel more at home which lead

them to getting more deeply engaged. Feedback should also be encouraged as a motive to

facilitate engagement. In this case, there is need to inflict a feeling in the workers that they can

influence a change within the business. Therefore, workers opinion should be encouraged and

the result of their analysis be availed to every worker. Humans feel more engaged while in a

community and doing so will encourage them to participate in the business activities which will

lead to a sense of ownership.

Most of business experience retention problems. This is especially so in the strive to

retain specialists by companies. The employee retention challenge may pose another challenge as

it creates vacancies that are difficult to fill. According to the CIPD Report (2017), retention of

some staff is more challenging than of others. For instance, it difficult for a company to retain a

specialist compared to a manual staff. However, the problem of retention can be solved by

introducing learning and development opportunities that will enable workers improve their skills

through learning and in turn make them engaged to the company’s activity as it gives them an
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opportunity to grow. In addition, a company can introduce a retention pay as an incentive to keep

key employees on the company during different business cycles (CIPD, 2017).

An investment in relationship is another significant strategy towards enhancing

engagement. There is need for employers to have a close relationship with their employees

beyond knowing their names and the number of children they have. This action creates a well-

being engagement both inside and outside the work place. A feeling of nobody being present to

listen to an individual kills any hope of engagement. A shift from focusing on a project success

to people success can also assist in improving the employee engagement (Robinson and Hayday,

2009, p. 25). According to Vonage, it is easy to disengage if an individual is only driven by the

need of making a project successful. When an employer makes such a shift, employees change

their perception of their work being the only important thing they offer their employer.

In order to increase engagement, work environment should be made an enjoyable place

but still in a business context. Creating such a condition, the daily tasks become exciting and the

engagement behaviors are thus easier to change. Strategies of improving engagement therefore

should focus on sparking motivation, ability, and trigger. Employees are motivated to compete

for awards; they are encouraged to acquire ability to break tasks into manageable ones, and then

triggering them to take actions. The action of rewarding employees create a feeling that their

efforts and performance are appreciated and are thus confident to strive for more. Organizations

need to formulate an economics structure that does not act as a barrier to commitment. The

business needs to establish a relationship that makes an economically viable sense. For instance,

reasonable pay should be provide to maintain an employment relationship that is worth as there

is a mutual dependence between the employer and the employee (Robinson and Hayday, 2009, p.

28). Employee engagement should involve steps to make it easier for employees to be motivated
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to work on a daily basis. Therefore, enhancing communication with the employees and making a

fun working environment can help boost employee engagement.

Business ought to focus on enhancing engagement, as there are many benefits to be

reaped. For instance, an enhanced employee engagement will result to an increased job

satisfaction, increased job satisfaction, decreased employee turnover, decreased absenteeism,

increased sales and decrease employee intention to leave among others (Robinson and Hayday,

2009, p. 28). The company can invest $50,000 to provide for IT upgrades, employee rewards,

and employee welfare programs and many other motivating programs. This should in turn

enhance their engagement in the business’ activity which will then accrue better returns to the

company.

When employees are empowered, they develop a sense of pride in what they do. This

makes them more productive and contagious as it washes away barriers that exist between the

workers and the customers, which in turn betters the customer experience.
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