Human Resource Management and Employee Engagement - Case Study Example

? HRM and the 'Employee Engagement' Introduction Even though an organization may have many resources, manpower seems to be the most important one since no other organizational resources has the ability to function independently as manpower does. All the other organizational resources may become useless or idle if the manpower resource function ineffectively. In short, the role of employees is vital in determining the success and failures of an organization. Organizations which fail to utilize their manpower resources effectively, may struggle to achieve proper growth. On the other hand better utilization of employees may help an organization to meet its targets consistently. Employee engagement is a modern concept in scientific management theories. According to Scarlett Surveys International (2011), “employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work” (Scarlett Surveys International, 2011). An organization may have thousands of employees; however, it is not necessary that all the employees may show same commitment to the organization. At least some of the employees may show some kind of negative attitude towards the organization and they may not deliver 100% of their productivity. “According to the Gallup Management Journal's Employee Engagement Index, 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, 54% are not-engaged, and 17% are actively disengaged” (Employee Engagement - Excerpts from the Gallup Survey, 2011).The success and failure of an organization lies in its ability to increase the employee engagement statistics and reduce the instances of serious employee disengagement statistics. In other words, ‘Employee Engagement' is Central to an organization's success and HR professionals have a pivotal role in reducing employee disengagement or increasing employee engagement. Employee Engagement & Organizational Success From a management perspective, engagement is the process of leading people by enabling them to want to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continuous high performance and success of the business. From the employees' perspective, engagement is their attitudinal and emotional state developed from experiences perceived to be controlled by management (Scarlett Surveys International, 2011). There are many instances in which employees forced to accept certain jobs which are not their cup of tea. Since unemployment is a big problem all over the world, people accept jobs even if they are not comfortable with it. In other words, many people accept jobs because of circumstantial pressures. Such people will show disengagement in their profession which is not good for the organization. A right person at the right place is always a blessing to the organization whereas a wrong person at a critical position may always create problems to the organization. However, it is difficult for an organization to allot jobs always based on the interests of the employees. Modern organizational world may not be comfortable enough to specialists since the demand for all-rounders are growing day by day. Modern organizations ask their employees to work in various departments in order to utilize them effectively based on market fluctuations. For example, the demand for certain goods may vary time to time. It is nonproductive for an organization to keep a huge production workforce idle for longer periods when the demand for their goods becomes low. At the same time, it is unwise to appoint more sales staffs to increase sales when many of the production people remains idle. In such cases, the company may ask some of its production staffs to work in sales department. Production people may find difficulties while they work in sales department because of their lack of skills in canvassing sales. So they will try to show disengagement in their new assignment which is not good for the organization. In such cases, the organization should adopt different strategies to motivate the production workers engaged in their new assignments. “HR practitioners believe that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels about the about work experience and how he or she is treated in the organization” (Employee engagement, 2007, p.4). The attitude of the employees towards his profession and organization is very much important while an employee decides whether to fully engage or disengage in his profession. Sometimes the employee may feel that his superiors are not behaving properly to him; sometimes he might think that the superiors deliberately denied him promotions or rewards because of some prejudices and biases; sometimes he may also think that the organization is giving less importance to work-life balancing and forcing him to do overtime works quite regularity. In all the above cases, the employee may develop some kind of negative attitude towards his organization and will try to disengage as much as in his profession. In short, emotions and attitudes of the employees play a vital role in deciding employee engagement in an organization. Human resource managers should take necessary actions to keep the employee always motivated in their profession. Demotivated employees always show disengagement whereas motivated employees always show full engagement in their profession. Based on the commitment shown towards their profession, employees can be classified into three broad categories; engaged, disengaged and fully disengaged. Engaged employees always show positive attitude towards their profession and they always work for the betterment of the organization. They will always give emphasize to the organizational goals rather than their tasks. HR managers may not face much headaches while dealing with such employees. However, disengaged employees may always show interest only to their tasks rather than organizational goals. In other words, disengaged employees may work mechanically and they may not show much interest in the outcomes of their work. They will never try to make any required changes in their methodologies and will continue their routine jobs just like a machine. For example, suppose the receptionist was not in her seat when a customer comes to an organization. An engaged employee will always welcome the customer and try to assist him to fulfil his needs. On the other hand, a disengaged employee may not show any interest in dealing with such customers because of his belief that customer servicing is not meant for him. “The "actively disengaged" employees are the "cave dwellers." They're "Consistently against Virtually Everything." They're not just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness .They sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity” (Employee engagement, 2007, p.5). Management of actively disengaged employees is a big headache to the HR professionals. Actively disengaged employees will always raise complaints and protests. They may not be satisfied even if the organization shows positive gestures to them. Actively disengaged employees are big curses to an organization. They may not only disengage in their profession, but also may engage in activities which may cause problems to the organization. If the organization fails in its attempt to motivate these employees, the ultimate outcome would be the dismissal of these employees from their profession. “Research using a different resource of engagement (involvement and enthusiasm) has linked it to such variables as employee turnover, customer satisfaction – loyalty, safety and to a lesser degree, productivity and profitability criteria” (Employee engagement, 2007, p.5). An organization with high percentage of employee engagement may have less employee turnover statistics whereas an organization with less percentage of employee engagement may have high percentage of employee turnover. In short, employee engagement and employee turnover are highly interlinked. Employee turnover is a big head ache to organizations and HR professionals. An organization spends big amounts for the training and development of each employee. If the organization fails to get adequate returns from the employees, all such spending may become non-productive. Since the success of an organization depends on reduction of spending in non-productive sectors and increase in spending in the productive sectors, no organizations like to see increased rate of employee turnover. Some of the other advantages of having engaged employees are listed below. Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success. They will normally perform better and are more motivated. There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability. They form an emotional connection with the company. This impacts their attitude towards the company’s clients, and thereby improves customer satisfaction and service levels It builds passion, commitment and alignment with the organization’s strategies and goals Increases employees’ trust in the organization Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment Provides a high-energy working environment Boosts business growth Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company (Employee engagement, 2007, p.6). Since an organization communicates with its stakeholders through its employees, employee engagement is necessary to boost the brand image of the organizations. The employees of an organization are the talking symbols of an organization with respect to its reputation. That is why organizations always insist certain criteria and norms to the employee behaviour both inside and outside of the organization. The following illustration reveals the importance of employee engagement to an organization. (Employee Engagement - Excerpts from the Gallup Survey, 2011) “Engaged employees usually need the least amount of attention from managers because they're doing what they are needed to do”(Employee Engagement - Excerpts from the Gallup Survey, 2011). The necessity of supervision is less required in the case of engaged employees whereas more supervision is required in the case of less engaged employees. Engaged employees may not commit much mistakes because of their dedication to profession whereas disengaged employees may commit serious mistakes because of their negative attitude towards profession. In short, the profitability of an organization is directly proportional to the employee engagement factor in that organization. Efficiency and innovation are vital for an organization to stay in a highly globalized and competitive market at present. Organizations which show fewer interests in developing innovative products or new products may slowly disappear behind the curtains. The development of innovative products is related to the employee engagement factor in the organization. An organization with poor track record of employee engagement may not succeed in developing innovative products whereas organizations with good records of employee engagement may develop innovative products. For example, Apple and Samsung are two companies which have high percentage of employee engagement statistics. These companies succeeded in introducing lot of innovative products such as iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac, Galaxy S2, LED television, smart television etc. It should be noted that the competitors like Nokia, Microsoft etc were failed to keep in pace with the rapid innovations taking place in Apple and Samsung. One reason for their failure can be attributed definitely to the employee disengagement factor. “A successful employee engagement strategy helps create a community at the workplace and not just a workforce” (Examples of Employee Engagement Approaches, n. d, p.1). Most of the successful organizations in the modern era are following democratic management styles in its premises. Earlier, many organizations tried to dictate its employees and failed to develop properly. An organization is a second home to an employee since he spends a substantial period of time in his organization. Nobody wants to lead a life under immense pressure. If the organization provides a stressful life, the employees may not consider it as their home and their commitment towards the organization would be lessened. In such cases, the employees may behave like a workforce rather than a community. In other words, the employees may feel themselves, just like another passive component in the organization rather than an active entity. “An organization’s productivity is measured not in terms of employee satisfaction but by employee engagement. Employees are said to be engaged when they show a positive attitude toward the organization and express a commitment to remain with the organization”(Increasing Employee Engagement, 2007) Rewards and punishments can increase or decrease employee engagement. Some kind of motivation is necessary for every human to engage in certain activities. In fact motivation is the energy which sustains human life on earth. In the absence of any kind of motivation, people may become idle and disengaged in their activities. In the organizational world, motivation plays an important role in encouraging an employee to increase his productivity. Organizations often provide motivation to the employees with the help of strategies such as rewards and punishments. Rewards are necessary to the hardworking employees to increase their performances further whereas punishment is necessary to the disengaged employees to make them engaged in their profession. However, HR professionals should take extreme care while implementing reward and punishment system. Improper rewards and punishment may bring negative results as far as employee engagement is concerned. In other words, if an employee feels that the HR department has shown some kind of biases while deciding rewards and punishments, he may develop a negative attitude towards the organization and his profession. Thus, instead of motivating the employees, rewards and punishments can sometimes disengage the employees further in their profession. Conclusions Employee engagement is one of the primary factors which controls the success and failures of an organization. Successful organizations always maintain high percentage of fully engaged employees whereas unsuccessful organizations may always have a substantial number of employees who disengage in their profession. Since employees are the only active entity in an organization, the performances or utilization of all the other organizational resources are heavily dependent on the abilities of the employees. In other words, when the employees show full engagement in their profession, all the other organizational resources will be mobilized or utilized properly. On the other hand, if the employees show disengagement in their profession, utilization of other organizational resources will also be affected. In short, Employee Engagement' is central to an organization's success and HR professionals have a pivotal role in reducing employee disengagement or increasing employee engagement. References 1. Employee engagement, (2007). [Online] Available at: http://www.siescoms.edu/images/pdf/reserch/working_papers/employee_engagement.pdf [Accessed on 30 August 2011] 2. Employee Engagement - Excerpts from the Gallup Survey (2011). [Online] Available at: http://www.onestopmba.com/mba-current-affairs/details/employee-engagement-excerpts-from-the-gallup-survey-240.asp [Accessed on 30 August 2011] 3. Examples of Employee Engagement Approaches (n. d), [Online] Available at: http://www.opcuk.com/downloads/examples_of_employee_engagement_approaches.pdf [Accessed on 30 August 2011] 4. Increasing Employee Engagement (2007). [Online] Available at: http://retention.naukrihub.com/increase-employee-engagement.html[Accessed on 30 August 2011] 5. Scarlett Surveys International (2011). What is employee engagement? [Online] Available at: http://www.scarlettsurveys.com/ [Accessed on 30 August 2011] Read More