Are Engagement Strategies Desirable for Organizations and Employees - Essay Example

The MacLeod Report (2009) claims that engagement strategies are desirable for organisations and employees. With reference to academic literature, critically evaluate this claim. Introduction In a rapidly and ever changing work environment there is a constant need for the organizations to develop and exercise new and innovative methods to cater to the new technological and marketplace realities. Human Resource (HR) or the workforce is considered as the most vital element for the growth of the company. In today’s world, each and every company or organization has a human resource development (HRD) department, which can be considered as the platform for helping the employees to develop, nurture and improvise their knowledge, ability to perform, interpersonal and other organizational skills. Human Resource helps and contributes to maintain a competitive advantage of the company through various trainings, employee career orientations and development of skills and competencies which would be a company or product specific. They actually cater to shorten and act as a bridge to cover the gap between what the organization expects and what actually happens. The traditional sources of success like the product technology, studying market conditions and so on helps in providing competitive leverage both for its sustainability of the competitive advantage of the company sound functioning of the HRM is needed. This paper presents a critical analysis of the use and importance of the engagement strategies adopted by the HRM of a company. Suggestions to improve the engagement strategies for the betterment of the organization is also given. Defining strategic human resources management and engagement strategy Strategy chalks out the direction a company must travel in order to achieve the maximum output and benefit. Business strategy deals with achieving competitive advantage of a company over others. The strategic capabilities of an organization can be tested by the ability of the company to execute the same. It can also be called as the pathway which holds good not only for the employees but the management as well. Strategic HRM is related to the concept of strategy .It deals with the implementation and the execution of the HR policies (Armstrong, 2006). The strategic management requires the HR policies to be adhered and followed by the employees and the other staff. This is to bring out and cultivate the core competencies among the employees. The top management of the company checks the extent to which the rules made by the HR help in the growth of the company. The focus on the operational performance and the competitiveness has increased so much so that the managers have to make plans in accordance with the company’s objectives and aim (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2011). The HRM policies do not control the employee rather it motivates the employees. In order for the company to gauge and understand if the HRM strategy is really good and can yield better results, it is imperative that the companies focus on customizing its strategies to match its core competencies and the way they are to be exercised and implemented in accordance with the employees' decisions and suggestion.. The management needs to measure, define, evaluate the performance of the company and compare with the employee behaviour (Ashton Centre for Human Resources, 2008). Strategic human resources (SHRM) are a relatively new area in the field of human resource management. It is considered that advanced and effective human resources policies aids in enhancing productivity, quality of the work done by the employees which in turn improves the financial condition of the company, Strategic human resource management act as a link between the overall aim of the organization and the employees human resource needs. It shows the path for a smooth coordination of the HR policies and subsequent business performance. SHRM helps the managers to design programs which yields sound operational results and attain better performance of an employee (Caliskan, 2010). The field of human resources is one of the most challenging, ever-changing and dynamic areas in any company. Many organizations are finding it difficult to cope up the problems related to the HR policies. Changing technology, changing workforce, an increase in the number of public and private sector enterprises is contributing much to the problem related to the HRM (Bratton and Gold, 2007). Strategic HRM deals with the issues related to culture, commitment of the employees towards the organization, quality of work demanded by the management and the anticipated future need of an employee. Strategic HRM is a process which is essential in a large organization which defines how the things would be done (Abuqayyas, 2007). An employee would find it difficult to fully justice to their work unless and until every part of human resources needs and problems are given importance to. Such a work environment where an employee is dissatisfied creates confusion, disrespect and shows a negative impact on the working of the employee. Failure on the part of the management results in non productivity, anger, non engagement of the employee to the company. To overcome such bottlenecks, engagement strategies are practiced in the companies. These strategies enable the employee to attain job satisfaction, yields positive results on the part of productivity which in turn helps the HR management to reduce attrition and yields better employee commitment (Markos and Sridevi, 2010). Robinson et al. (2004) define employee engagement as” a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its value. An engaged employee is aware of the business context and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two way relationship between employer and employee”. Employees who are not engaged may not take an active participation in the work, do not show full commitment, wasting their effort on those works which would be unproductive. Engagement strategies enable the people to work comfortably and enthusiastically at their work place. They will have the urge and desire to perform best if and only if they are happy and contented in terms of the workplace culture, the attitude of the managers, freedom imparted by the management to speak their problems and they are heard and valued by those they work for and with. Engagement strategies are however made keeping in view the commitments and the promises of both the employee and the employers. It is a two way traffic, which goes hand in hand (MacLeod and Clarke, 2010). “Engagement is about creating opportunities for employees to connect with their colleagues, managers and wider organization. It is about creating an environment where employees are motivated to want to connect with their work and really care about doing a good job. It is a concept that places flexibility change and continuous improvement at the heart of what it means to be an employee and an employer in a twenty- first century workplace”(Truss et al., 2006). Critical Analysis of MacLeod Report The engagement strategies are desirable for organizations and employees. Engagement strategies are an inherent part of an organizational framework. It is the most useful and important tool which informs the management to know which section of the workforce are contented with their work. This saves the companies from attrition, poor quality of productivity, absenteeism of the employees to be present at the workplace and so on. This shows whether an employee is engaged to one’s job as well as the organization (Haid and Sims, 2010). The engagement strategies help the management to derive the required output which the company aims to achieve. It also shows the capability of the leadership to be able to drive the maximum output keeping a positive work culture. With the help of the engagement strategies the employees are well aware of the expectation of the management and what they themselves are accounted for. A clear, well planned, feedback and messages for the employers help the employees to understand the connection between them, their work and management. Employees become aware of the fact that they support the overall organizational performance (Haid and Sims, 2010). According to the Macleod Report (2009), engagement strategies are needed for the successful functioning of any company. This can be analyzed by the output both in terms of quality and quantity of products by the companies whose employees are not engaged in their work. Almost every sphere of organizational activities like the customer service, customer satisfaction, work culture, quality of work and so on is dependent on the employees and their conduct. An employee unless and until is positively engaged to the organization or the company cannot yield better results. This also gives rise to disloyalty to the company (Attridge, 2009). An organization or a company works best when the management is able to make their employees loyal, committed, creative, and capable to their operation. Infrastructure, money and a sensible and sound strategy are required in a company, but how people behave can make huge changes between the business success and failure. An engaged employee will have a personal attachment to their work and will be motivated and encouraged to perform better. They will want to perform positively and think out of the box. Whether or not an employee is engaged to the company can be easily made out by the way one behaves, in meetings, when they talk among themselves or with others .It is comparatively easy to understand the sense of energy, commitment, loyalty of a person towards the organization (MacLeod and Clarke, 2010). An engagement strategy is required to maximize the organizational performance and for the consequent benefit of the employees and the management. It is always important to have the employees thriving not surviving. In times of economic crisis, the management may want to downsize their employees and would require leaders to look for cost cutting measures. The engaged employees would be beneficial in these cases as they would still be open to work honestly, perfectly and regardless of the circumstances (Haid and Sims, 2010). In some cases engagement strategies does not hold good. The relationship between an engagement strategy and the organization has been established as a positive endeavour assuming the trends among the organization is in a steady state. There can be some influences from outside or within the organization also which may impact the overall working of the company. The situations like disturbed economic trends, a drastic change in leadership, changes in the business operations, outsourcing of projects, negative feedback imparted by the managers can cause the employees to behave adversely in spite of being engaged (Watson, 2011). There are other intrinsic factors which effects an employee’s perception like the inadequate promotions, constant pressure by the management, non recognition of work, discouraging work environment, lack of proper infrastructure and so on can lead to employee’s frustration and can also result in decreased productivity. Engagement does not guarantee top performance. Recommendations In the engagement strategies, factors like employee performance, productivity, safety, customer service, customer loyalty, profitability, retention should be given top priority. It can safely be defined as the employee-organization relation where the coordination of both is desired and required (Haid and Sims, 2010). In order for the companies to successfully implement and utilize best practices of engagement strategies, they have to understand the behaviour, attitude and need of an employee. An improved performance and productivity cannot be achieved merely by manipulating employees’ emotions and commitments. The employees should be able to feel that they are an integral part of the company, not as an “add on”. Best practices should be widely shared among the employees, the employers. The people with desired potencies should be rightly deployed for a better workplace conduct. There should not be any biases on the management’s part. This would bring an immense change in the nature and the type of productivity gained. An engaged employee would willingly, honestly and freely put an effort for the success of the company. Conclusion In today’s world, the management and the employers recognize that a sound and healthy human capital works as a main driving force for reaching company’s objectives. But if the employees are not honest and meaningfully engaged in their work, the result turns to be detrimental. The quantity, quality of the work done gets impacted leading to a failed performance in the global market. Engagement strategies help the companies to flourish by connecting the employees with the Human resource principle, the management and the objectives of the company. In many situation , for example during economic recession, many companies just focus on the methods to reduce cost to the company by cutting bonus, salaries and extra perks, putting less focus on the talent and retaining the employees. In lieu of the engagement strategies, they have to part with talent and would find it quite difficult to remain viable. Employees with strong engagement strategies have found it quite useful in their working lives. Mandy Symonds of United Welsh said, “Being involved not only gives me real opportunities to influence the decisions which affect me and my future, it also means I am more aware of the wider picture. As a result I can be confident United Welsh are going places, so for me it’s the place to be.” References Abuqayyas, A. 2007, Strategic human resource management SHRM, 15th Annual Meeting of the Arab Network for HRM/D, ITU. Armstrong, M. 2006, A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 10th edition, Kogan Page. Attridge, M. 2009, Employee work engagement: best practices for employers, Research Works Partnership for workplace mental health, Vol 1, Issue 2, pp 1-12. Bratton, J. and Gold, J. 2007, Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 4th edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Caliskan, N.E 2010, The impact of strategic human resource management on organizational performance, Journal of naval science and engineering, Vol 6, No.2, pp 100-116. Haid, M. and Sims, J. 2010, Employee engagement: maximizing organizational performance, Leadership Insights. Mac Leod, D., and Clarke, N. 2010, Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement, Office of Public Sector Information, Surrey. Markos, S. and Sridevi, M.S. 2010, Employee engagement: the key to improving performance, International Journal of Business and Management, Vol 5, No. 12, pp 89-96. Robinson, D., Perryman, S., and Hayday, S. 2004, The drivers of employee engagement report 408, Institute of Employment Studies, UK. The Aston Centre for Human Resources 2008, Strategic Human Resource Management: Building Research-Based Practice, CIPD Publications. Torrington, D., Hall, L., and Taylor, S., 2011, Human Resource Management, 8th ed. Pearson Education. Truss, C., Soane, E., Edwards, C., Wisdom, K., Croll, A., and Burnett, J. 2006, Working life: employee attitudes and engagement, CIPD. Watson, T. 2011, The power of three – taking engagement to new heights, Towers Watson report. Read More