Employee engagement an emerging concept (1)

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: AN EMERGING CONCEPT
Himanshu Tomar
Student, MBA II Year
Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology
tomar.himanshu90@gmail.com, 9541367827
Abstract
Employee Engagement as the name relates to the engagement of employee towards its
organization. Employee engagement refers to good relation of employee with its job. The
objectives of the present study are to find out the factors leading to employee engagement, to
study the recent trends and ideas prevailing in employee engagement. It has been observed
from the findings that career development, empowerment, equal opportunities and fair
treatment, performance appraisal, pay and benefits, health and safety, job satisfaction,
communication, and family friendliness co-operation are the factors leading to employee
engagement. It has been revealed that skills gap, integrated experiences and employee
happiness and growth are the latest trends in employee engagement. Encourage personal
projects, encourage charity, celebrate achievements, recognize and encourage innovation,
empowerment of employees, etc. are the ideas to increase the employee engagement. It has
been concluded that employee engagement is very important for the growth of the employees
and organization.
Keywords: Employee engagement, growth, job satisfaction, empowerment
1. Introduction
Employee engagement is the terminology used in the latest era to avoid the turnover
of employees. Employees are taken to be the biggest assets for any organization. Thus their
turnover must be reduced. For the low turnover of employees Employee Engagement is used.
How much he loves to do his work. How much he is indulged in his job. How happy he is to
do his job. What positive attitude he is carrying about the organization he is working with.
The efforts he is doing to stay with his organization. Kahn (1990) was the first researcher to
define Employee Engagement. He defines employee engagement as ―the harnessing of
organization members‘selves to their work 88 roles. In engagement, people employ and
express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. Most
often employee engagement has been defined as emotional and intellectual commitment to
the organization (Baumruk 2004 and Richman 2006) or the amount of discretionary effort
exhibited by employees in their job (Frank et al. 2004). Truss et al. (2006) define employee

engagement simply as passion for work, a psychological state which is seen to encompass the
three dimensions of engagement discussed by Kahn (1990), and captures the common theme
running through all these definitions.
2. Review of Literature
Purcell et al. (2003) study found a number of factors to be strongly associated with high
levels of employee engagement. One similarity which could be traced among all the factors
discussed was the connection between involvement and the work/job. Cufaude (2004)
advocates a situation when the supervisors adopt the viewpoint where the main objective of
the supervisor is to support and serve the employees; such a situation fosters high level of
engagement among the employees. Lloyd (2004) and MacDonald (2002) concluded that
employee engagement is reliant upon contributing and augmenting the capabilities of the
employees in addition to offering such jobs or work-roles which could be aligned with the
interest of the employees. Bhatnagar and Biswas (2010) observed that employee engagement
has been related to building a firms’ competitive advantage. Employee engagement in fact
can make or break the business bottom line (Lockwood, 2006). Martel (2003) observed that
in order to obtain high performance in post industrial, intangible work that demands
innovation, flexibility, and speed, employers need to engage their employees. It has also been
observed that objectives are more easily met when employee are engaged are more likely to
fall short when they are not. Beardwell and Claydon (2007) found that Employee
involvement is seen as a central principle of ‘soft’ HRM, where the focus is upon capturing
the ideas of employees and securing their commitment. Critics have argued that employee
involvement has management firmly in control and very limited real influence is given to
employees. According to Robinson (2006), employee engagement can be achieved through
the creation of an organizational environment where positive emotions such as involvement
and pride are encouraged, resulting in improved organizational performance, lower employee
turnover and better health.
3. Objectives of the study
 To find out the factors leading employee engagement.
 To study the recent trends in employee engagement.
 To study the idea to keep employees engaged in an organization.
4. Factors Leading to Employee Engagement
 Career Development- The opportunities provided to the employees in order to make
them feel comfortable with the work and to explore his own potentials.

 Empowerment- Emphases on the decisions and suggestion of the employees is to be
given to the employee in order to make him more engaged towards his job and
organization.
 Equal opportunities & fair treatment- Each employee must be given equal
opportunities in order to prove his worth to the organization. Any type of biasness
must not be done with the employees. All employees must be treated fairly in order to
make them more engaged.
 Performance Appraisal- The performance appraisal must be done fairly as per the
abilities of each employee in order to treat them equally as per the organizations rules.
The organization following a proper performance appraisal technique has the good
amount of employee engagement in it.
 Pay and Benefits, Health & safety- The pay system of an organization must be
satisfactory enough to make their employees stay back with them for long. The
benefits must be enough attractive to retain the employees. All the health and safety
issues must be kept in mind in order to make the employees safer and happier to work
with the organization.
 Job Satisfaction- A satisfied employee will only lead to the better engaged employee.
The organization must do every thing in order to make his employee meet his job
satisfaction. The employee must be given the job related to his interest leading to his
career development.
 Communication- The communication policies of the organization must be effective
enough so that any of employees must feel free to talk to his superiors and
subordinates. The communication must be upwards and downwards indeed in order to
make the employee free to interact easily.
 Family Friendliness and Co-operation- In order to make employee engaged his family
requirements must be kept in mind. As the employee will feel his family happy he
will be happy indeed and will always have a positive attitude toward the organization
leading to employee engagement.
5. Latest Trends in Employee Engagement
 Skills Gap- The need of skilled workers is growing rapidly, especially in technical
fields such as engineering, IT, mathematics or robotics. It’s easy to search the right
person anywhere in the world, but the thing to worry is that everyone else will be
doing the same. The question is how to retain on your existing talent and keep it
engaged? Things that can be done is through a healthy and happy company culture,

better facilities, better communication among pears and superiors in order to
decreases turnover rates and improve employee engagement.
 Integrated Experiences- The new generation entering into the market is entering with
a whole new set of expectations. A job for them means more than a career and some
company benefits. Employees want to learn, that they want to develop themselves and
to have a good experience in order to keep their growth at a great pace.
 Employee Happiness- Each organization big or small is looking for employee
happiness and employee engagement and they’re ready to compensate and negotiate
with the employees on their terms in order to retain the good employees. Increased
productivity, bigger revenues, lower turnover rates and employee loyalty are just one
happiness strategy away.
 Growth- The growth of an employee is directly proportional to the growth of
organization. The employee must be given fair chance to prove his worth to the
organization leading to his personal growth as well as the growth of organization.
6. Employee Engagement Ideas
 Assign company values- Assign one of your company’s values to a certain employee,
every month, based on a peer-voting process. The person who best represented that
value can be set as an example and be publicly acknowledged for his actions.
 Encouraging personal & live projects- Give employees a time slot to pursue their own
projects. Having people from different departments connecting and bouncing ideas
can help get a new perspective. Projects and initiatives can get new directions,
encouraging a creativity and energy flow that would only benefit the rest of the
working hours.
 Assign a mentor for every newcomer- An important part of the on boarding process is
having someone answer some really important questions. Questions that someone
would be hesitant to simply ask a manager. Building a trustworthy relationship with
someone with more experience in that company can help guide the newcomer. This
way he or she can better adapt and grow part of the team.
 Availability of resources needed- This doesn’t sound like other typical employee
engagement ideas but it has an important purpose. You need to make sure that you
have the basics covered before you move on to other, more abstract, ideas. Equip your
employees with the tools and systems that will make their job easier. This way, you’ll
get them to invest their energy into doing great work, instead of wasting precious time

 Have team photos- Have photos of your team on a wall, or frame them around the
office. Group photos, funny photos, events photos or random photos snapped when
people weren’t watching. It’s a cultural element that can encourage and cherish work
relationships and employee engagement.
 Raise salaries- Try to raise the salaries frequently in order to reduce the turnover rate
of skillful employees. As the skillful employees is much more useful asset of an
organization as compared to an unskillful one. Try to negotiate with such employees.
 Encourage charity- Team up the employees in order to help other employees in their
extreme situation in order to develop a sense of trust and belongingness into them.
Encourage them to do the charity for some social cause. Try to engage them into the
CSR activates in order to raise their interest into organization.
 Remind people your company’s mission and values- It’s important that you
emphasize, once in a while, what your company stands for. People need to be
reminded of why they are doing what they’re doing.
 Celebrate achievements- Big or small; they are the solid proof that the work people
are putting in has meaning. No one can go through tasks and assignments for months,
or even years without burning out. Refill their energy tanks with some recognition and
celebrate their hard work. This is also a great way to glue together teams.
 Celebrate people- Birthdays, promotions, retirements, newcomers welcoming, there
are plenty of important moments where people can be put at the front of the company.
They make the company and it’s a great and relaxing way of showing them that they
matter.
 Take help from experts- It’s the small things that can sometime make a difference.
Like having colored mugs at work or an awesome air freshener. Such small
differences may encourage an employee to come to organization regularly and even
work with more loyalty.
 Show respect- This should be the cornerstone for every office interaction. Especially
when it comes to people in different hierarchies. Such things at times make a leads to
big issues. So try to avoid them.
 Empowerment of your employees- Nothing creates a greater sense of responsibility
and ownership like having the decision power. Don’t be afraid to let people be their
own leader. It’s surely a great way to build trust, as leading to better environment in
organization.

 Recognize and encourage innovation- You might have heard some pretty inspiring
ideas around the office. What about that project that came together so well and had
some amazing improvements that no one initially thought of? Find out who came up
with that idea. Give them a friendly “Good job!” or recognize them publicly for going
the extra mile.
 Support enthusiasm in the workplace- Hire enthusiastic people. Encourage people to
actively manifest joy and positive emotions. Try to take some seminars on motivation
and the areas in which employees need assistance. Try to get their attention in order to
improve productivity.
 Encourage learning- Challenge and support employees in learning and developing
their skills. Not only will you have a motivated and well-prepared workforce but
you’ll see an increase in employee happiness and employee engagement.
 Get social- Go out, have fun, have teambuilding’s and weekend competitions! It can
be really overwhelming to work, work, work 8-12h a day and crave a weekend that
passes in a blink of an eye. Join sports competitions and encourage team playing
activities..
 Ask the people who really know employee engagement- Being as this is a fairly new
business component, you should trust the experts. Consult the right people to help you
build a solid employee engagement strategy.
 Get answers from your employees as well- This is related to feedback but it’s more of
an indirect feedback. Monitor and analyze your employees, your teams and the overall
workspace. You’ll get some essential pointers into what works and what you can
improve
 Build long-term engagement- Don’t settle for a quick fix. Develop a long-term
employee engagement strategy with clear objectives and action steps for more than a
year, then re-evaluate and build on it.
 Try and try again- If it feels not working never loose the hope and try again to make it
possible. But before another try find the loopholes in the earlier failure and avoid
them in new try.
7. Conclusion
One the basis of the findings it has been concluded that there are various trends which are
prevailing in employee engagement these days. Skill gaps, integrated experience and
employee happitness and growth are the trends to be kept in mind in order to get the
employees engaged into our organization. Career development, empowerment, equal

opportunities and fair treatment, performance appraisal, pay and benefits, health and safety,
job satisfaction, communication, and family friendliness co-operation are the factors which
were observed in order increase the employee engagement. Encourage personal & live
projects, assigning company values, assigning a mentor for every newcomer, availability of
resources needed, have team photos, raise salaries, encourage charity, remind people your
company’s missions, celebrate achievements, celebrate people, take help of experts, show
respect, recognize and encourage innovation, empowerment of employees, support
enthusiasm in the workplace, encourage learning, get social, ask people who really know
employee engagement, get answer from your employees as well, build long term engagement
and try and try again are the ideas to be kept in mind in order to increase the engagement of
employees.
References
 Baumruk, R. (2004). The missing link: the role of employee engagement in business
success. Workspan, Vol. 47, 48-52.
 Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T. (2007). Human Resource Management, A Contemporary
Approach. 5th ed. Harlow, Prentice Hall.
 Bhatnagar, J., & Biswas, S. (2010). Predictors and Outcomes of Employee Engagement:
Implications of the Resource-Based View Perspective. The Indian Journal of Industrial
Relations, 46(2), 273-288.
 Cufaude, J. (2004) in Lanphear, S. (2004). Are Your Employees Highly Engaged? Credit
Union Executive Newsletter, 19, 1-2. Credit Union National Association, US.
 Frank, F.D., Finnegan, R.P. and Taylor, C.R. (2004). The race for talent: retaining and
engaging workers in the 21st century, Human Resource Planning, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 12-
25.
 Kahn, W.A. (1990), Psychological conditions of personal engagement and is engagement
at work, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33, pp. 692-724.
 Lloyd, J. (2004). Offer empowerment to encourage engagement, Triangle Business
Journal, 5(1), 19.
 Lockwood, N. R. (2006). Talent management: driver for organizational success HR
content Program. SHRM Research Quarterly.
 MacDonald, M. (2002). How companies can find renewed focus during uncertain times.
Journal of Communication Management, 6(3), 220-227.

 Martel, L. (2003). Finding and keeping high performers: best practices from 25 best
companies. Employee Relations Today, 30 (1), pp 2743.
 Purcell, J., Kinnie, N., Hutchinson, S., Rayton, B., & Swart, J. (2003). Understanding the
People and Performance Link: Unlocking the Black Box. London, CIPD.
 Richman, A. (2006). Everyone wants an engaged workforce how can you create it?
Workspan, Vol. 49, pp. 36-9.
 Robinson, I. (2006). Human Resource Management in Organisations. London, CIPD
 Truss C, Soane E, Edwards C, Wisdom K, Croll A, Burnett J (2006), Working Life:
Employee Attitudes and Engagement 2006’, Wimbledon: CIPD

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