Employee Engagement - Employ. Engage. Engross

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee Engagement is the extent to which an employees’ personal goals and interests align with the vision and goals of the company.

Employee engagement would not have had any significance in the earlier days. However, to extract the best out of your employees and maintain an ideal work environment, employee engagement is essential. The relationship between an employee and the organization is mutual. As much as the employee works for an organization and organization gives back in return much more. Hence, employee engagement towards is crucial and picking speed in most organizations across the globe.

A research published in the Indian Journal of Science and Technology shows that effective employee engagement can help reduce employee turnover intentions and increase innovative work-related behaviour.

What exactly does Employee Engagement help achieve in an organization?

Higher levels of productivity

When employee goals are well aligned with an organizations mission and goals – putting in an extra hour at work comes effortlessly. The values that the organization imparts are well ingrained in the employee. Thus, the work generated reflects the organizations' culture. Culture – being intangible – is a feeling or vibe, and the energy that the employee brings in the organization. It is the language they use to communicate, the mindset they adopt, and the manner in which they solve problems. Thus any organization rooted strongly in its values will reap exclusive employees.

A boost to your bottom line

When you enter an organization, you are always starting from the bottom. To get to the top of the ladder is not cakewalk after all. At the bottom line, work may weigh you down multiple times. This leads to the increased attrition rate of most employees. Thus, organizations that devise an effective employee engagement strategy find that employees at the bottom-line and thoroughly motivated. No matter the workload or the challenges at the workplace – they have effectively learned to deal with it all. Employees are urged to think ‘Bottom-up’ rather ‘Top-down’. A greater commitment towards your work is achieved, when you know you’re on the right bus, in the right seat.

Better retention rates of your top talent

Humans are emotional creatures, and most managers hold the misconception that their team members are rational in their decision-making process. An employee deserves to be heard – at every step. ‘Employee voice’ – that constructs the opinions of every employee is essential for the growth of an organization. The key to an organization’s success is – when employees know that their work adds value to the organization.

This, in turn, creates a sense of commitment towards the company – and the employee stays loyal, no matter what the circumstance. In cases of a financial crisis, employers can ensure retention of top talents in an organization through employee engagement. The more a team asks about the employees' opinions – the more they feel empowered, trusted and respected. This ensures greater employee engagement.

An increased sense of health and well-being

Employee engagement involves continuous assessment of the employee’s feelings and emotions. Surveys and questionnaires are the best tools to ensure that every employee voices their feelings and emotions. In this manner, testing health and well-being of an employee. After gauging the responses, the employer takes careful measures according to the feasibility of the organization. Not every employee, in every instance, shares his/her grievance. Thus, employers can organize effective workshops to boost employee morale and mental health to keep employees engaged.

Decreased healthcare costs

More the engagement, lower the stress. Successful managers are transparent in their approach to improving engagement. They discuss it with their teams all the time. A collaborative team-work approach and involvements of every employee in the same reduce the work pressure on an individual employee. Thus, an organization that practices this, experiences lesser absenteeism due to health issues of the employees. Global organizations like Google take employee engagement to another level. They put up a healthy buffet, which involves a spread of nutritious food that guarantees the best health of their employees. What else does an employee want?

Employee engagement can be difficult to establish initially. Nevertheless, once worked on, can guarantee the above results in no time. All it takes is an effort from the organizations end to make every employee feel secure and valued.

“Create caring and robust connections between every employee and their work, customers, leaders, managers, and the organization to achieve results that matter to everyone in this sentence.” –David ZingerImage Credit: rawpixel on Unsplash