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How to increase employee’s engagement within an organization? Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each day, committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being. Employee engagement is based on trust, integrity, two-way commitment and communication between an organisation and its members. Employee engagement is about being included fully as a member of the team, focused on clear goals, trusted and empowered, receiving regular and constructive feedback, supported in developing new skills, thanked and recognised for achievement. Employee engagement is critical to any organization that seeks to retain valued employees given that a highly engaged employee will consistently deliver beyond expectations. Reasons for employee disengagement Benefits Lack of benefits such as adequate training, coaching or feedback can result in employee disengagement. This is because there is neither validation of performance nor the opportunity to build new skills within the organization. This makes employees feel like there is no obvious route forward for them if they continue to stay in the same organization. Moreover, because they do not have a clear idea of their performance, most employees feel undervalued. This not only results in a decline in their enthusiasm, but also breeds mistrust for the management. Communication Poor communication is a barrier to employee engagement. Communication should be a two-way process that entails listening, questioning, understanding and responding. Employees who are not well informed about the processes taking place in an organization are more likely to be disengaged. Compensation Organizations that offer poor remuneration packages will in most cases have disengaged employees because they feel undervalued. When employees perceive that there are inequalities in pay grades and poor acknowledgement of their individual efforts, they eventually lack the incentive to go out of their way to pursue organizational goals. This ultimately results in low self-esteem and the loss of identity and control. Fellow employees The presence of disengaged employees within an organization can contribute significantly to the disengagement of other employees. Moreover, the absence of good and rewarding relationships in the workplace, creates a disrespectful and uncomfortable environment, which impacts negatively on the level of employee engagement. Additionally, poor interpersonal relationships deprive employees of psychological safety because they limit trust, openness and honesty. Instead of working together as a team, employees will always be suspicious of each other’s intentions. The end result is an unfavorable workplace atmosphere, which can prove to be a huge stumbling block for the achievement of organizational goals because employees will be more inclined towards competing with each other as opposed to working together as a team. Leadership Poor leadership is characterized by poor line management and poor communication skills, which result in a frustrated and dispirited atmosphere at the workplace while at the same time cultivating a poor sense of community. Even though organizational leaders might be nice to their subordinates, they should also be in a position to get people to work together. Poor leadership might stall career progression and contribute to a general lack of apathy and focus among individual employees. Apart from getting bored and underperforming, these employees might also develop a lower sense of self-worth and contribution. Work conditions Hostile working conditions make it very difficult for employees to execute their tasks effectively. Such conditions are occasioned by misbehavior or bullying by overbearing staff, which causes friction and fosters a rigid environment that curtails working relationships. Poor working conditions not only inhibit the individual development of employees, but also jeopardizes the reputation of the organization. Ways to Improve Employee Engagement Employee engagement is a psychological contract rather than a physical one and as such, it is very complex and is influenced by several issues. Consequently, while there is a myriad of strategies that can be adopted to improve employee engagement within an organization, it is virtually impossible to pinpoint a universal means of fostering the latter. As a work related state of mind, employee engagement is characterized by dedication, vigor and absorption. Moreover, it is strongly influenced by organizational characteristics such as effective communication, reputation for integrity and innovation. Below are some of the strategies that can be adopted to promote employee engagement. · Gaining input from the staff Managers should promote bi-directional communication with employees. As opposed to merely pouring out their ideas to employees, manager should give them the opportunity to air their views about the issues that affect their jobs and their lives. While there should be clear and consistent communication of what is expected of the employees, manager should involve the latter in decision making and always show respect for their input. Managers should also share power with their employees should participative decision making, which would in turn foster a sense of belonging among them, thereby enhancing their engagement in realizing organizational goals and objectives. Developing effective communication channels between different staff levels is very likely to increase the level of engagement within an organization. · Job advancement Managers should encourage autonomy and independence among employees by allowing them to work under minimal supervision so long as the end justifies the means. They should focus on the results of the tasks assigned to employees rather than the processes used to achieve the results. · Job assignment Because the level of employee engagement is hinged on their participation in organizational tasks, managers should ensure that employees are cognizant of the strategic direction of the organization so that they fully appreciate their contribution to the achievement of its goals and objectives. Moreover, organizations should broaden the scope of job tasks (job enlargement) while at the same time providing more challenging and complex tasks (job enrichment) to promote work motivation among employees, which will go a long way in promoting engagement. · Personal growth The management should facilitate personal growth by offering training and development opportunities to employees. Additional knowledge about their jobs boosts the confidence of employees and enables them to work under minimal supervision, which in turn builds their commitment and self-efficacy. Training and development provide employees with opportunities away from the workplace to benefit from personal development, which drives both ambition and employment motivation. Other than that, it provides employees with the knowledge and skills to excel in their work and take on more complex assignments. · Recognition of performance Organizations should shift from traditional quantitative and object performance measures, towards qualitative measures. Rewarding employees on the basis of the knowledge and insights that could contribute to wider organization understanding enables them to use their insights to broaden their understanding of customer needs. · Team building events Team building events create a culture of integrated involvement, which empowers all members in the organization to work towards common goals and objectives. Team work could entail elements of shared leadership, where middle level and junior managers take on more responsibility for complex problem solving and setting performance indicators, or project teams that are developed to come up with solutions for specific issues. This helps to reduce staff isolation and increase opportunities for organizational knowledge sharing and learning, which contributes to employee satisfaction at work. Incentive options that will motivate higher work performance. The incentive is a positive motivational influence on a person that helps improve his performance. Thus, it can be said that all the measures taken by the management to improve the performance of its employees are incentives. The incentives can be broadly classified as financial incentives and non-financial incentives. Financial incentives refer to those incentives which are in direct monetary form i.e. money or can be measured in monetary terms. Financial incentives can be provided on an individual or group basis and satisfy the monetary and future security needs of individuals. Following are the main types of financial incentives: 1) Pay and Allowances: Salary is the basic monetary incentive for every employee. Beside basic salary, it also includes dearness allowance, travelling allowance and at times some other allowances too. It also consists of continuous increment in the pay every year and increase in allowances from time to time. 2) Productivity Linked Wage Incentives: Sometimes wage incentive plans are linked with payment of wages to increase productivity at individual or group level. Their quantum is based on actual output against targets. 3) Bonus: It is the incentive which is given over and above the salary or wages of the employees. 4) Retirement Benefits: Various retirement benefits such as provident fund, pension and gratuity, act as an incentive to an employee when they are in service in the organisation. 5) Profit Sharing: It refers to providing a share to employees in the profits of the organisation. This helps in motivating the employees to improve their performance and to contribute their maximum effort for increasing the profits. Apart from the monetary and future security needs, an individual also has psychological, social and emotional needs. Satisfying these needs also plays an important role in their motivation. Non-financial incentives focus mainly on the fulfillment of these needs and thus cannot be measured in terms of money. The most common non-financial incentives are: 1) Status With reference to an organization, status refers to the position in the hierarchy of the organizational chart. The level of authority, responsibility, recognition, salary, perks, etc. determine the status of an employee in the organization. A person at the top level management has more authority, responsibility, recognition and salary and vice-versa. Status satisfies the self-esteem and psychological needs of an individual and in turn, motivates him to work hard. 2) Organizational Climate Organizational climate refers to the environmental characteristics of an organization that are perceived by its employees about the organization and have a major influence on their behavior. Each organization has a different organizational climate that distinguishes it from other organizations. Some of the factors that influence the organizational climate of an enterprise are organizational structure, individual responsibility, rewards, risk and risk-taking, warmth and support and tolerance and conflict. When the organizational climate is positive employees tend to be more motivated. 3) Career Advancement Opportunity It is very important for an organization to have an appropriate skill development program and a sound promotion policy for its employees which works as a booster for them to perform well and get promoted. Every employee desires growth in an organization and when he gets promotion as an appreciation of his work he is motivated to work better. 5) Job Security Job security provides future stability and a sense of security among the employees. The employees are not worried about the future and thus work with more enthusiasm. 6) Employee Recognition Programs Recognition means acknowledgment and appreciation of work done by employees. Recognition in the organization boosts their self-esteem and they feel motivated. For example, declaring the best performer of the week or month, displaying their names on the notice board and giving them rewards, fall under the Employee recognition program. 7) Employee Participation Involving the employees in decision making regarding the issues related to them such as canteen committees, work committees, etc. also helps in