EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee Engagement and Commitment

Employees who are engaged in their work and committed to their organizations give companies crucial competitive advantagesincluding higher productivity and lower employee turn 3 best measures of a companys health:
Employee

engagement Customer satisfaction Free cash flow - former GE CEO Jack Welch

The greater an employees engagement, the more likely he is to go the extra mile and deliver excellent on-thejob performance

Key Ingredients
Occupying the job: personal engagement and personal disengagement represent two ends of a continuum. At the personal engagement end, individuals fully occupy themselvesphysically, intellectually and emotionallyin their work role. At the personal disengagement end, they uncouple themselves and withdraw from the role.
1.

Committing to the work & Company:

Defined as a willingness to persist in a course of action and reluctance to change plans, often owing to a sense of obligation to stay the course emotional component: People usually experience and express positive feelings toward an entity or individual to whom they have made a commitment. rational element: Most people consciously decide to make commitments, then they thoughtfully plan and carry out the actions required to fulfill them. Reciprocity affects the intensity of commitment

10 common themes under EE

Pride in employer Satisfaction with employer Job satisfaction Opportunity to perform well at challenging work Recognition and positive feedback for ones contributions Personal support from ones supervisor Effort above and beyond the minimum Understanding the link between ones job and the organizations mission Prospects for future growth with ones employer Intention to stay with ones employer

The Link Between Employer Practices and Employee Engagement

Job performance model

WORK CONTEXT
Leadership Work Organization Physical Setting Social Setting

PERSON
Knowledge Skill Experience Attitudes Ability Temperament Personality

PROCESS
Tools, Equipment, Technology Procedures Behaviors Prescribed Voluntary Proscribed

PRODUCT/SERVICE
Quality Quantity Timeliness Safety

Brief History

Advent of mass production in the early part of the 20th century, many American companies adopted the scientific management approach to work design.

Through scientific management, companies simplified tasks to be performed by highly specialized, narrowly trained workers.

Workers unhappy felt dissatisfied with their work, were often absent, and left employers in search of more meaningful employment.

In short, fitting jobs to efficient production systems disengaged employees and eroded their commitment.

Job & Task Design

Scientific management -> employee dissatisfaction -> disengagement Newer concepts

Job Enrichment- jobs that are high in meaningfulness, variety, autonomy and co-worker trust- stimulate engagement Job characteristics model: skill variety, task identity, task significance autonomy and performance feedback

Focus on social characteristics of work, including interdependence of job roles, feedback from others and opportunities to get advice and support from coworkers. These influence both engagement & commitment

Job enrichment

promotes engagement in both prescribed and voluntary work activities.

The Power of Job Enrichment

Increase employees engagement by enriching jobsimbuing them with

Increase employees commitment to your company by demonstrating reciprocity

meaningfulness variety autonomy co-worker support With job enrichment, providing employees with opportunities for employee performance on personal development. prescribed tasks improves. Workers define their role more broadlyand willingly take on tasks outside their formal job description.

Recruiting

Recruiting existing employees for desirable jobs, enhance their

engagement (by maximizing the person-job fit) commitment (by providing growth and advancement opportunities to employees in return for their loyalty)

For external candidates, sending recruiting messages that recognize and address commitment congruence (e.g., work-family balance)

Recruiting for Engagement and Commitment Enhance employee engagement Stimulate candidate commitment to your by: firm by:

targeting qualified applicants likely to find the work interesting and challenging. Ensure that your recruiting messages: extol attractive job features to enhance person-job fit encourage those who are not suited to the work to selfselect out.

For internal candidates, sending recruiting messages that emphasize: possibilities of movement/promotion to more desirable jobs, to signal commitment reciprocity. For external candidates, sending recruiting messages that: highlight the employer side of the exchange relationshippay and benefits, advancement opportunities, flexible work hours recognize and address commitment congruence (e.g., work-family balance) encourage those who are not suited to the organization to self-select out.

Selection

Increase employee engagement by selecting the right individuals for the right jobs. Choose candidates most likely to:
perform prescribed job duties well contribute voluntary behaviors avoid proscribed activities.

Enhance employees commitment to your organization by:

presenting selection hurdles that are relevant to the job in question. Successful candidates will feel good about surmounting such hurdles to land the job.

Training & Development

Through orientation, you foster personorganization fitvital for developing productive and dedicated employees. Through training, you help new and current employees acquire the knowledge and skills after which they are more likely to engage fully in their work, because they derive satisfaction from mastering new tasks.

Compensation

Incentive based pay can directly influence a workers productivity and hence engagement Competency based pay- rewarding employees for mastering job relevant knowledge and using these to produce results Well designed retirement plans to foster commitment Consider employees sensitivity to equity

Performance Management

Including employees in the goal setting process to ensure they accept the challenging objectives. Managers can use routine discussions about performance and feedback sessions Also define what going above and beyond the call of duty looks like and generate ideas for rewarding such contributions Effective performance management systems also identify employees who are not meeting expectations

Effective Performance Management

Increase employee engagement by providing:

Enhance employees commitment to your organization with:

Challenging goals that align with your companys strategic objectives. Positive feedback and recognition for accomplishments. Recognition and appreciation for extra voluntary contributions.

Performance management practices that: enable employees to experience success over the long term. facilitate congruence between employee commitment to your company and other life commitments. value the expertise of experienced employees.

Guidelines for designing Engagement Initiatives

Craft Compelling Business Cases for Improving Engagement and Commitment

Show how these investments (in employee engagement & commitment) have paid off for your organization or for other organizations by generating measurable business results. When you plan a change to your policies or benefits, take time to consider the impact of that change on employees with different life situationsmarried, single, older, children at home, childless and so forth. measure employee engagement at least once a year link survey items to the organizations performance measures, which support its business strategy identify top levers of engagement and drivers of measurable results for each business unit work with unit managers to create an Employee Engagement Action Plan for each unit

Consider Unintended Consequences

Ground Investment Decisions in Sound Data

Create an Engagement Culture

Communicate the value of employee engagement through your company mission statement and other executive communications

A Closer Look at Workforce Surveys

workforce surveys are used to gauge the intensity of employee engagement and assess the relationships between engagement and important business results. Findings from such surveys can shed light on which investments in engagement initiatives are paying off, which are not and how you might change your engagement-related HR practices and investment decisions.

The High Performance Model.

Leadership Practices Customer orientation Quality emphasis Employee training Involvement/empowerment

Business Performance Sales growth Market share Productivity Long-term profitability

Employee Results Information/knowledge Teamwork/cooperation Overall satisfaction Employee retention

Elapse d Time

Customer Results Responsive service Product quality Overall satisfaction Customer retention

Work Characteristi cs

Engagement Initiatives: Guidelines to Consider

Make Sound Investments Matching Engagement and Commitment Strategies to Business Conditions Craft Compelling Business Cases for Improving Engagement and Commitment Consider Unintended Consequences

Linking Customer Satisfaction to Employee Opinions

Craft Compelling Business Cases for Improving Engagement and Commitment Create an Engagement Culture

If You Are Facing This Business Condition. . .

Restructuring to flatter organization with broader job responsibilities

Change Your HR Practices in These Ways . . . Align job/work design to new roles/responsibilities. Recruit, select, train, compensate and manage accordingly. Outsource or automate simple or routine work.

To Enhance . . .

Engagement Short-term commitment Long-term commitment

Changing technology

If technology increases job complexity, train and compensate accordingly. If technology simplifies work, enlarge jobs or outsource. Recognize and reward voluntary contributions and proactive work behaviors. Redefine performance expectations. Provide supervisor/performance management support.

Engagement

Increasing customer focus, emphasis on quality

Engagement Short-term commitment Long-term commitment

Core employees: Increase job complexity and job security. Increasing reliance on contingent and contract Contingent employees: workers Emphasize pay-for-performance. Provide results-based incentives. Increase task identity. Broken employment contracts resulting from merger, acquisition or bankruptcy Confront the question, Commitment to whom? Earn credibility with realistic promises, avoiding promises that cant or wont be kept. Align compensation practices with new reality, emphasize pay-for-performance.

Engagement Long-term commitment

Engagement Short-term commitment

Engagement Short-term commitment

Conclusion
Engaged employees can help organization achieve its mission, execute its strategy and generate important business results. HR practices, including job design, recruitment, selection, training, compensation and performance management can enhance employee engagement..
The decision to invest in strengthening engagement or commitment (or both) depends on an organizations strategy and the makeup of its workforce. It is vital to consider an organizations view of engagement, as well as its strategy and workforce composition when deciding which HR practices will receive scarce investment dollars.