EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Understanding Employee Engagement - Definition and its Origin

Organizations have come to realize that in today’s constantly changing business scenario, the
most valuable resource that needs to be leveraged is human resource. This means not just
attracting the crème-de-la-crème and retaining them but keeping them motivated and committed
to achieving the organization goals.

Origin of Employee Engagement

History records that about 2300 years ago, Alexander (356 BC – 323 BC) was able to
march ahead and conquer unknown lands by battling for years across continents, miles
away from home, because he had an engaged army that was willing to abide by its
commander.
Alexander is known to have achieved the engaged workforce by ensuring that he spent face time
with his men, listening and addressing grievance, ensuring on time payment of salary, dressing
like the rest of his army and most importantly by leading from front.
More recently, in World War II, Americans funded a lot of money for researching the behaviour
of its soldiers to be able to predict their battle readiness.
History is dotted with examples of leaders who have led their men by building a psychological
commitment between their men and their ideology to achieve greatness. In this psychological
contract lies the roots of today’s Employee Engagement theories propounded by organizations.

Definition of Employee Engagement

An engaged workforce produces better business results, does not hop jobs and more importantly
is an ambassador of the organization at all points of time. This engagement is achieved when
people consider their organization respects their work, their work contributes to the organization
goals and more importantly their personal aspirations of growth, rewards and pay are met.
The Hay Group defines enagaged performance as “a result that is achieved by stimulating
employees’ enthusiasm for their work and directing it toward organization success. This result
can only be achieved when employers offer an implicit contract to their employees that elicits
specific positive behaviours aligned with organization’s goals...”
Lanphear defines EE as “the bond employees have with their organization” Lanphear further
espouses that “when employees really care about the business, they are more likely to go the
extra mile.”
The definitions, as seen, focus on employer as well as the employee. Today’s millennial
workforce is more informed, connected, willing to work given learning opportunities. Personal
growth, opportunities to learn and explore is becoming a primary driver. Equity more then pay is
a driving force. Catering to the changing needs to foster engaged employees is the need of the
hour.

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Process of Employee Engagement
This is the hardcore fact that the future business performance and revenues and profitability of an
organisation no longer depends upon traditional capital management and investment and
portfolio management. But the success of any organisation in this constantly changing world of
work depends upon human capital management. The companies who understood this fact long
before are the most successful and highly productive organisations of the currents times. Those
who have just realised it are still struggling to establish a reputation in the industry.
Since the mantra of success of any organisation is the higher involvement, engagement and
dedication of employees towards their jobs and their continuous performance to attain more, it is
necessary to keep their spirits high, motivate them to perform their best always and generate a
breed of satisfied and dedicated employees. Employee Engagement is not a onetime process that
can quickly bring results; rather it is an ending process that will go on till the existence of an
organisation.
As it is an established fact that there is a clear link between organisational performance and
employee engagement, every organisation seeking sustenance and growth in the ever changing
world of work quickly respond to the needs of employees along with designing and
implementing a customised process to increase the levels of employee engagement. The
following are a few basic steps in this process based on the best industry practices.

1. Prepare and Design: The first step in the process is about discovering the specific requirements
of your organisation and deciding the priorities. After that a customised design of carrying the
whole process can be designed. It is recommended to seek advice of expert management
consultant in order to increase the chances of getting it done right at the first attempt.
2. Employee Engagement Survey: Design the questions of the employee engagement survey and
deploy it with the help of an appropriate media. It can be either in printed form or set online
depending upon the comfort level of the employees and your questionnaire evaluation process.

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 3. Result Analysis: It is the most important step in the entire process. It is time when reports are to
be analysed to find out what exactly motivates employees to perform their best and what
actually disengages them and finally compels them to leave the organisation. The results and
information can then be delivered through presentations.
4. Action Planning: ‘How to turn the results of the survey in to an action’ is a challenging question
that organisations need to deal with the utmost care. Coaching of line managers as well as HR
professionals is very important in order to tell them how to take appropriate actions to engage
employees. They should also be told about do’s and don’ts so that they can successfully
implement the changes.
5. Action Follow-up: Action follow up is necessary in order to find out if the action has been taken
in the right direction or not and if it is producing the desired results.

With this, communication and project management processes are the backbone of the entire
employee engagement process. Communication involves plan follow-up, providing timely
information and involvement of each level of organisational hierarchy. The project management
process includes careful planning, watchful resource management, vigilant budget control and
monitoring the actions.

Elements of Employee Engagement

The term employee engagement has been defined by various researchers. A commonly agreed
upon definition would be physical, psychological or emotional involvement of the employee
while at work.
Four things are important when we talk about employee engagement; commitment, motivation,
loyalty and trust. Their level determines the quality of engagement of an employee. Each one is
briefly discussed in the coming paragraphs.

1. Commitment: Commitment means the degree to which individuals associate themselves with
the job, the responsibilities and the organisational objectives. Engaged employees are those
who are fascinated by their work and committed to face every challenge to attain their goals.
They are dependable and highly productive and therefore, are accountable for what they do.
2. Motivation: Up till recently it was believed that the biggest motivation is achievement. The
reverse is also true, which means achievement results in more motivation. If employees put in
their 100 percent efforts to take their organisation to the next level, this attained status
motivates them more than anything. Proper rewards and recognitions can further motivate
them to achieve more and more for their organisation. Motivation and achievement go hand in
hand and act as the burning fuels for the success of any organisation.
3. Loyalty: Employees who are actively engaged in their work show more loyalty towards the
organisation. The best part is that they need less focus and attention of managers to perform
their task as they themselves feel accountable for their job responsibilities and results attained.
However, it doesn’t take much time for actively engaged employees to turn into disengaged
employees if the organisation doesn’t have a well established reward system. Recognition is a
basic necessity of individuals to remain steered up towards their job.
4. Trust: High levels of employee engagement can be fostered only when trust prevails in the
organisation from both the sides. As they share strong emotional bond with the organisation,
the latter should also show trust in their abilities. Employees must be given autonomy to

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 perform their tasks their way. They should not be restricted to a specific rules and regulations
and therefore, should be motivated to experiment to perform their task in a different and
innovative manner.

Dimensions of Employee Engagement

The only thing that makes highly productive organisations stand apart from rest of the companies
is the quality of the employees and the level of their commitment towards their work. The vice
versa, the trust that an organisation shows in their employees and efforts that it makes to keep
them focussed, motivated and satisfied, also is one of the many variables that distinguish
between highly reputed workplaces and those that are not up to the mark.
Organisations cannot achieve their goals just by defining their mission statement nor can they
foster a high performing work culture until they take substantial steps. They need people to get
the jobs done and that too with excellence.
For fulfilling all their goals, organisations require actively engaged employees. Employee
engagement happens only in those organisations which treat their people as their biggest assets
and take care of their basic necessities and other psychological needs. Workplaces that meet all
these conditions of employee engagement grow much faster and sustain much longer that those
who fail to meet them.
There are different dimensions of employee engagement that make productive
organisations stand apart from the rest and determine their destiny.
Things like what employees get in exchange for the efforts they put to perform the delegated
tasks, if employees are able to perform their best, if they are treated as an important asset or just
a means to perform the job and how they can grow if they stick to their organisation are of great
importance. Actually these are emotional elements revealing the basic employee needs. They
would like to contribute only when their efforts are recognised and awarded. Not only this, all
they can also drive them to be more efficient while delivering their jobs.

Dimensions of Employee Engagement

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What Do I Get: Employee engagement to an extent depends upon what people get in exchange
for performing the job. This includes basic compensation, benefits, organisational culture and
working environment. These are basic elements that motivate them to join the organisation and
perform the given task with complete dedication.
What Do I Give: As it is a two way process, setting clear expectations plays an important role.
This helps employees to understand what exactly they are expected to give the organisation. This
includes defining their job responsibilities that they need to fulfil and tasks that they need to
perform. The human resource team and immediate supervisors or managers need to tell them
clearly what they are expected to do. It creates more meaningful relationships among seniors and
subordinates and workgroups.
Do I Belong to the Organisation: Social association is the most basic requirement for anyone.
Even employees would like to stay with the organisation that treats them as their integral part
and not just the means to get the job done. ‘My opinions Count’ gives them satisfaction and
motivates them to put their best to meet organisational goals.
How Can I Grow: Continuous growth including promotions, salary hikes and rewards and
recognition are most essential tools to retain employees in the organisation. New challenges and
opportunities to learn keep them motivated towards their work life and encourage them to give
their best even during crisis.

Phases of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a concept that has begun to grab the attention of the corporate world for
past few years. When put simply higher levels of employee engagement mean higher
profitability of the organisation.
Employee engagement is critical. Highly productive organisations have understood this fact a
long ago where mediocre and low performing organisations have just started taking it seriously.
It makes sense to engage employees and make them find a meaning in what they do.
Those employees who do not understand what they contribute towards the success of their
organisation will not stick to it for long. They would rather consider leaving in a few months or
years as and when they are offered a high-paying job.
Employee engagement is a long term process and goes through various phases describing
the level of the engagement, involvement, attachment and belongingness between employee
and employer. These phases of employee engagement make a continuous cycle that each
organisation aiming to achieve increased profitability must undertake.

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Phases of Employee Engagement

1. Attract

The first phase of the employee engagement cycle is attracting the best talent from the
industry. This phase involves creating a positive impression about the work culture and
employee career as a potential employer. It is all about carefully creating an authentic,
genuine and crafted image as an employer. This is although an indirect yet the first
impression that attracts a big pool of candidates to apply for the job vacancies in an
organisation. The first phase is the most important phase of the employee engagement
cycle.
Another aspect spreading the reputation of an organisation is its employees. They are not
only the employees but also are regarded as internal customers. Their job and career
satisfaction speaks about their workplace. Therefore, they should not be taken for
granted. Besides attracting the talent from the outside, it is important to keep the existing
employees attracted towards the organisation.

2. Acquire

The acquire image involves more than one thing. It includes (1) the way the potential
candidates are interacted while advertising a position; (2) keeping the promises that were
made while hiring them and (3) providing the new joiners a right kind of work culture.
When an organisation advertises a position, interested candidates apply. The way their
applications are created, the reaction of the organisation and the manner in which they are
approached speak a lot about the image and work culture of an organisation.
Hiring the best talent not only serves the purpose. During their honeymoon or initial
period with the organisation, the company must try to keep all the promises that were
made during the selection process.

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 Besides this, they should feel happy and satisfied when their expectations are tested
against the reality. Providing the right kind of culture also plays an important role in
keeping them engaged.
The whole idea is to prepare them to perform their best by giving them challenging tasks
right from the beginning. It’s like developing a habit or culture right from the time they
decide to work with the organisation.

3. Advance

Continuous moving the talent is the last but an unending phase. It not only involves
promoting the employees to a higher designation along with salary increments but also
growing them in other tangible and intangible ways. Job rotation can help them grow in
experience, responsibility and belongingness but only when it is done right. Advancing
the employees in every aspect, be it monetary or non-monetary, is the key to retain
people and develop their overall personality.
These above are the main phases of an employee engagement cycle where preparation is done
much before an employee joins the organisation. As mentioned earlier, it is not only about
attracting, acquiring and retaining the best talent but also deals in advancing their experience and
personality.

Employee Engagement Strategies

Various studies have shown that actively engaged employees are almost 50 percent more
productive than their not-engaged or disengaged colleagues. The employee engagement cannot
be improved only by designing and implementing effective human resource strategies but their
involvement and quality of output produced by them also depends on their relationships with
their colleagues, subordinates and seniors. It is a basic need of human beings to belong and to be
belonged. Such collaborations can be a major contributor to the success of a company.
Until recently, solutions facilitating two-way communication including top-to-bottom and
bottom-to-top were given much important but nothing has been done to foster the open
communication and collaborations among employees. The way they interact with each other
determines the health of any organisation. A perfect balance of respect, care and competitiveness
should be prevailed in the organisation to keep them actively engaged in their jobs. Mutual
support and healthy relationships contribute majorly to the organisation’s success.
Besides this, empowering employees by delegating them responsibilities and giving them
autonomy to take decisions regarding their job on their own can also increase their productivity.
It is worth going beyond the traditional management tools of connectivity to help employees
remain motivated and dedicated to perform their tasks. To achieve this, the organisations can
design effective employee engagement strategies on the basis of the model explained below.

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 1. Unify the Experiences: Conduct an employee engagement survey in order to find the factors
responsible for engaging and disengaging employees. Unify the common experiences and
problems and design employee engagement strategies accordingly. Sharing of feedback in
written is one way of communicating the experiences and problems.
2. Evolving Through Open Communication: Open communication or face to face communication
in the form of discussions can really help in bringing the various issues and identifying the main
problems in the organisation. It is very essential to establish a proper communication where
everyone can put their views and suggest a solution too. Most of the top organisations ask for
suggestions and new ideas from their employees and then offer rewards on giving the best
proposal.
3. Providing Proper Communication Channels: Some employees are comfortable with open face-
to-face communication styles whereas there are some who want to give feedbacks and
suggestions in written. Discovering the best channel of communication and establishing a proper
route to share feedbacks and views plays a vital role.
4. Enabling Conversation Fluidity: Whichever way of communication you choose, ensure that it
has required fluidity. There should not be any hindrance in the established method of
communication. Not being able to provide feedback or share problems and experiences can lead
to frustration and distress among employees. Therefore, ensure that there are no barriers to
communication. This can also result in disengaging the engaged employees.
5. Manage Communication: Managing communication is the last but the most important step in
the entire process. Managers should keep a check on the entire process in order to ensure that
it is not adversely affecting the health of the organisation. They must make sure that it serves
the desired purpose and is not being used negatively.

Drivers of Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement has transcended from being the latest business buzzword to being
recognized by organizations as a tool that positively influences business performance. This

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linkage between organization performance and employee engagement was researched by ISR in
2006 by means of world-wide survey.
The ISR study reveals that companies with high engagement scores saw an increase of more than
25% in EPS (Earnings per Share), while companies with low engagement scores saw a decrease
of 11% in EPS. The results confirm the belief of many that engagement positively influences
business performance.
Hence, it is vital for companies to understand what “causes” employee engagement if they want
to influence the “effect” i.e. Employee Engagement. By understanding these drivers and
leveraging them, organizations can try and manage engagement levels of their employees.
So what drives employee engagement? Several theories have been propounded that focus on the
rational and emotional aspects of engagement. Some even focus on the tangible and intangible
aspects of engagement. Mercer’s ‘What’s Working’ studies reveal that engagement drivers differ
by geography, by industry and even by time.
While there is no one panacea for leveraging employee engagement, there are some broad
drivers which are presented below:

1. Work/Job Role - Employees must see a link between their role and the larger organization goal.
Understanding this linkage provides an intrinsic motivation and increased engagement. Most
employees will come to work on time without possessing a sense of belonging and will try and
complete assigned tasks even without possessing that sense achievement on completion of task.
However, an employee that sees a clear linkage on how his/her role contributes to the
organization will go the extra mile and help create organization wealth.
2. Work Environment/Organization Culture - The bond between an employee and the
organization is cemented when the employee identifies with the culture of the organization. An
employee is engaged and motivated to stretch beyond the call of duty if he/she finds the work
environment enabling and supportive.
3. Rewards and Recognition - The bottom line is that people work to earn which helps fulfil
ambitions. Equitable pay coupled with rewards and recognition programs enhances motivation
and leads to commitment and engagement.
4. Learning and Training Oppurtunities - As Lawyer (2006) put it - “People Enjoy Learning.” This is
especially true in the case of today’s millennial workforce that constantly looks at enhancing
knowledge and skill. Skill and Knowledge enhancement is not just important for the employees
but providing a learning culture is essential for organizations to remain relevant in the
constantly changing business landscape.
5. Performance Management - An effective performance management system contributes
positively to employee engagement. Goal setting lies at the root of any performance
management system. Clearly articulated goals, a fair and just means to judge performance and
timely, rational feedback are critical elements in creating a bond between the employee and
his/her organization.
6. Leadership - It is a well recorded fact that most resignations happen because the employee is
not satisfied with his/her ‘boss.’ An organization that spends time and effort in grooming leaders
who are aligned to its goals, culture and people invests well. New age industries have a young
and dynamic workforce that looks for autonomy in decision making, increased responsibility and
accountabilities.

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 7. Other Factors - Clear and open communication, quality of interaction with peers, collaboration,
organization policy, organization performance are all contributing factors to employee
engagement.

3 C’s of Employee Engagement

A major percentage of employees find their work boring. Ask HR managers about employee
engagement and they have only one answer: it is the biggest challenge that we are facing today.
Days of huge increase in wages or salaries even in highly productive organisations have gone. It
is unable to retain employees within the organisation for long. Due to this, the HR managers had
to come up with other motivators such as offsite parties and picnics, cricket or football matches
on anniversaries and birthdays, cultural festivals, painting and quiz competitions, crèches for the
children of employees, Friday bashes, movie tickets and discount shopping coupons and many
more.
Google, the most famous and successful technology firm provide free, healthy and well prepared
food to their employees. The company appoints well qualified and experienced chefs so that their
employees can relish awesome food at work. This is one of the strategies to make employees feel
happy at work; however, it alone can’t retain employees for long. There have to be something
else that can motivate people to being involved enthusiastically in their work. They must have an
emotional attachment with their job and company.
Beyond all the above mentioned popular techniques, there are other things that play an important
role in enhancing the engagement levels of employees. The proposed 3 C’s of employee
engagement are career, competence and care.

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The 3 C’s of Employee Engagement
Career: When individuals join an organisation, they expect to build a career with it. If the top
management and immediate managers spend dedicated time in carving out the careers of its
employees, they will feel that they belong to the organisation. They feel engaged when they
receive support from the management in growing their careers.
An organisation can provide its employees with opportunities to grow professionally through job
rotations, indulging them in significant tasks, challenging assignments and promotions. They
should also be given a specific level of authority and autonomy to take their decisions on their
own. The organisations prepare an entirely new breed of employees if they genuinely invest in
developing the careers of their people.
Competence: Competence is all about the ability to grow. Regular workshops and training
sessions must be held in order to help employees acquire a higher level of skills and
competencies. The focus should be on developing for marketable skills. Most employees after
spending a few months look for competence-boosting opportunities with the organisation so that
they can grow and move to the next level of their careers. While the career focuses on the actual
growth in terms of designation, wages and perks and authority, competence is the ability to grow
utilizing the opportunities.
Care: Sitting at the topmost, care is regarded the finest art of the managers by which they can
make employees feel an indispensable part of their organisation. The managers need to be
empathetic and sensitive towards people and understand their personal problems. Showing small

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day-to-day caring gestures towards employees make them feel that they belong to the
organisation and organisation belongs to them.

Benefits of Employee Engagement

History records how Alexander was able to march on and conquer hitherto unknown lands due
his valour and his motivated troops. However, the same history also records, how dissent
amongst his troops towards the latter part of his career, cut short his ambitions of supremacy in
Asia.
Alexander started hiring more outsiders, laying off his tired troops and more significantly
punishing open feedback by his men. His actions, at the latter part his conquest, were in stark
contrast to his initial techniques which had been successful in fostering a sense of belonging
among his men. This led to dissent and ultimately dealt a huge blow to Alexander’s aspirations.
In today’s business context, let us look at the cost of a disengaged workforce to better
understand the significance of employee engagement.

Cost of Disengaged Workforce

The findings of the Gallup Study of 2008 show that while the engaged employees believe they
can contribute to company’s growth, the disengaged employee believes otherwise, i.e. his job
does not contribute to the organization. This belief of the disengaged employee creates a
negative spiral that affects his work, co-workers, customers, productivity, and eventually both
happiness of employee and company performance. Some effects are illustrated below:

1. Effect on Work - The disengaged employee tries to evade work, struggles to meet deadlines and
is reluctant to accept additional responsibility.
2. Effect on Co-Workers - The negativity of a disengaged employee, demonstrated either through
raves and rants or complete withdrawal from participation, affects the team morale. After all
who has not heard of the proverb - one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.
3. Effect on Customers - Every employee, whether an organization likes it or not, becomes its
ambassador. And a disengaged employee either by actively de-selling the organization, or by
complete apathy towards their work, product, process, organization help create disengaged
customers.
4. Effects on Productivity - Disengaged employees seldom push themselves to meet organizational
goals let alone contribute to innovative practices at workplace. Since, they do not believe that
their work contributes to the organization; they evade completing tasks thereby affecting team
productivity.
5. Effect on Company Performance - In the corporate world, time is money and organizations must
innovate to stay relevant. A disengaged workforce by virtue of delayed completion of tasks and
inability to improvise and innovate cost the company dollars which ultimately affects bottom
line. This has been validated by a Gallup Study whose research showed that costs of disengaged
workforce in the United States was upwards of $300bn annually.
6. Effect on Personal Life of Employee - A disengaged employee is seldom able to shake off the
lethargy and perform in the current organization or land a job of preference. This leads to pent
up frustration which may ultimately affect his personal and family life.

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Benefits of an Engaged Workforce
An engaged workforce form an emotional connect with the organization that helps them

1. Go the Extra Mile to Achieve Individual and Company Success

2. Innovate at Workplace
3. Attract customers and employees
4. Become Evangelists of the company, its product and processes
5. Infuse energy and positivity at workplace.

All these elements play a vital role in determining the fate of an organisation. Besides this, two-
way communication to discuss challenges, potential consequences, vision and values and
organisation’s future should be established. In fact, communication is the backbone of any
organisation without which it can’t survive for long. Having an open conversation with
employees can solve the problems that they are facing in executing their job.
Apart from this, organisational culture, a well established and duly followed reward system
including compensation, benefits, stock exchange options and recognition and personal growth
and satisfaction of employees are also important factors in improving the levels of employee
engagement.

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