Project Report

On
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Submitted To: Prof. Nupur Veshne

Subject: Human Resource Management
Subject Code: 18MBA107

Submitted By:
Anusha Patil (06)
Manjunath Bhat (22)
Mitali Nevagi (24)
Srusti Kalaburgi (51)
Vinanti Majukar (53)

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WHAT IS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment employees feel towards
their organization and the actions they take to ensure the organization’s success;
engaged employees demonstrate care, dedication, enthusiasm accountability and
results focus.
Decision wise defines employee engagement as an emotional state where we feel
passionate, energetic, and committed toward our work. In turn, we fully invest
our best selves- our hearts, spirits, minds and hands-the work we do. When you
see engagement, you know it however it is often hard to put into words. Most
organizations attempt to create a culture and environment that reflect their
values, missions and goals and some actively focus on engaging their employees
as a key drive of success.
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment, employees feel towards
their organizations and the actions they take to ensure the organization’s success,
engage employees demonstrate care, dedication, enthusiasm, accountability and
results focus.
An employee is considered highly engaged if he is fully absorbed in his work or
encouraged to perform his task beyond what typically is expected in his job role.
These employees don't work just for a paycheck, or just for the next promotion,
but on behalf of the organization's goals.
Employee engagement is a term that has a different meaning depending on who
you ask. Some might say it means enthusiastic employees, whereas others are
adamant that it means happy or satisfied employees. In general, employee
engagement describes people who are committed to their work and the goals and
values of their company.

An organization is the collection of a large number of individuals striving towards

the accomplishment of a common objective. Ideally, every employee must work
to their full potential to further the organization’s reputation and interests, but
however this is not the case in most of the companies. Thus, on the basis of the
level of commitment, the employees can be classified into three categories:
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1. Actively Disengaged Employees: This is the first category of employees,
who are unhappy and resentful and spreads unhappiness in the organization.
Such employees are bad for the organization since they are always provoking and
convincing the other employees to leave their jobs and move out of the
organization. However, these employees last longer in the firm and remove the
prospective employees whom they perceive will attain higher position or move to
the next job level in the near future. They do so, to get ahead in their jobs by
removing the potential candidates.
2. Engaged Employees: The engaged employees are those who work with full
passion and are emotionally attached to the organization. They are innovative and
provide new ideas to move the organization forward. Such employees are
optimistic and spread positivity among the co-workers. They personalize the goals
and objectives and always work for the betterment of the organization.
3. Not Engaged Employees: This is the category in which majority of the
employees in the organization fall. These are the ones who seek directions from
their superior and do only that work which has been asked for. Such employees
do put in their time, but not passion and energy into their work. They like to
receive only one instruction at a time and lacks innovativeness. These employees
can hold either a negative or positive attitude towards the organization.

Thus, an employee can fall into either of these categories depending on his
emotional attachment to the firm. The emotional attachment refers to the strong
emotional bond employee shares with the organization.

5 reasons why employee engagement is important

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1. Engaged employees boost productivity

Engagement is, at best, a symptom of success. Employees who are succeeding

and feeling good about their contributions to your company are naturally more
likely to be proud to work for your company, be happy to come to work each day,
and feel valued.
Finding ways to engage your people, whether that means giving them a challenge
or more responsibilities, means you’re also finding ways to boost your
organization’s productivity. In short, it’s good for everyone involved.

2. Employee engagement increases customer satisfaction

People who are passionate about their work are often the best people to interact
with your customers because that passion is infectious and your customers will
take notice.

The most engaged employees are, “more inclined to put in the effort that
translates into buzzing productivity levels, a happier sales force, and a more
credible product pitch.” In other words, customers are treated to a better
experience when dealing with engaged employees.
Those who believe in the value of helping customers, and also feel valued by their
organization, are far more likely to deliver a better customer experience and
increase satisfaction.

3. You’ll retain your best people

Engaged employees are involved and invested in their roles and are therefore less
likely to leave their job. Sometimes your best people aren’t engaged—and you
may risk losing them. Keeping them engaged is absolutely essential to keeping
them at your organization doing their best work.

If your organization is dealing with low retention rates, it’s time to think about
why they're not engaged. Because when the best people at your organization
leave, the rest of your people will notice. And you don’t want a domino effect.

4. Employee engagement enhances company culture

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People who are engaged in what they do are, in general, easier to work with. And
not because they’re happier or more cheery, either. It’s because they exemplify
a culture of employee engagement.

Ideally, engaged employees are living your company’s values every day at work,
and being recognized across the organization for it. Celebrating your most
engaged people is one step towards creating a culture of engagement.

5. Engagement is a symptom of success

Engagement is a symptom of success. And this doesn’t necessarily mean a
business success (or a successful business, for that matter). Rather, engagement is
usually the result of a personal or team success.

In other words, engaged employees are engaged not because they’re productive
or easy to work with, but because they feel their work matters. They feel valued.
And when their successes are recognized, your people will feel like they’ve
succeeded in making a meaningful impact at work.
6 Benefits of Employee Engagement

1. Higher Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is key in any company, and when employees are not
satisfied with their job, they lack enthusiasm about the day to day of their role
and the growth of their companies at large.

Low job satisfaction becomes a drain on the company’s time and money.

When employees are engaged at work and feel satisfied with their position, they
feel a greater connection to the company and are therefore more likely to
produce quality work, which benefits the company as well as the customer.

2. Higher Retention and Lower Turnover

Another benefit of investing in employee engagement is that it will help you

retain your top employees and decrease your turnover rates by ensuring that
your team is happy.

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3. Higher Productivity

Engaged employees work faster, harder and stronger because they like what they
do. It’s a no-brainer; when you’re interested in and connected to what you’re
doing, you are more likely to do it well.

Furthermore, when employees are engaged and feel that they are treated well by
their managers, they will feel a sense of responsibility to reciprocate this respect
by putting in their best effort.

4. Increased Profitability

Of course, when your employees feel good at work, they work harder, and when
they work harder they produce more quality work which in the end points to a
happy customer. Happy customers keep coming back and they refer other people
to your company.

It’s such a simple way to increase your company’s profitability but so many
organizations keep looking outward instead of turning inward. Without a solid
foundation, no company can thrive and the best way to ensure this sturdy base is
to have an engaged team.

5. Less Absenteeism

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Engaged employees show up to work and once there, they get more work done.
The issue with disengaged employees is that they don’t feel a sense of
responsibility to the company they work for, so they don’t have a problem not
showing up.

Engaged employees feel that they are part of the organization they work for, and
therefore would not want to let them down.

6. Increased Employee Loyalty

A huge benefit of having engaged employees is that they are loyal to your
company and therefore act as company ambassadors.

Disadvantages of Employee Engagement Strategy:

If there are some advantages then there are also disadvantages of having
employee’s engagement. There are always some things which are to be said only
to the higher authority employees and not the subordinates. So, it somehow
reveals the secrets which are not meant to tell the subordinates. Some of the
disadvantages of employee engagement are as follows:

1. The top policies are revealed:

Sometimes there are some policies which are not to be discussed by the company
to the subordinates. Some things are to be kept in secrecy so in such a case, it is
not good to engage the subordinates into the major discussions or say into the
meetings or the workshops and so on.

2. The difficulty to match the IQ level:

The meetings in which high officials sit and discuss, it becomes difficult for the
members to match the discussion as per the subordinates. So, this way the
conversation gets imbalanced and the difficulty level increases to a larger extent
which is not a positive sign as it does not just waste time but also it wastes a lot of
energy.

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3. Security is at greater risk:

Sharing valuable information with a high chunk of employees in an organization

can term into greater risk as the chances of getting information leaked is more.
Not just this, it also wastes a lot of time and money which is a big disadvantage
for the company.

Also, you never know which employee would spread the word about the
important information and this is how the information gets leaked which is not
good for the health of a company.

4. Making them understand the thing sometimes is very difficult:

The content to be discussed in the meeting needs to be communicated to the

members. It is easy for the company to make the content easily understand the
other members who are regular participants of the meetings but it is very difficult
to make the subordinates understand the similar thing. It is because of the
position as well as the difference in the experience of the employees.

So, before making the subordinates participate in the discussions, the members
will have to make an extra meeting so as to make the concept clear to them.

5. Regular updates are to be given:

For the employees to be participative in the meetings and discussions, it is

important for the board of directors to let them know about the context. So, for
this reason, it is important to provide updates to the employees or they might act
as a deadpan during the meetings. Also, the meetings would not be interactive
enough which means the discussion goes in vain.

COMPANIES THAT GET EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT.

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COMPANIES SUCH AS GOOGLE AND VIRGIN ARE PRIME EXAMPLES OF
EXTRAORDINARY EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT REAPING REAL BENEFITS.
There is no such thing as perfection, which is true for employee engagement like
everything else. The reason is that we live in a changing world where new
challenges continuously require new thinking and actions. People are not all alike,
so employee engagement also requires you to see your employees, really see them
and get what makes them tick – and then to help them make themselves tick.
Because employee engagement is not just down to the leader or company – each
person is responsible for his/her own level of engagement.

Most companies that do it well have something in common – they understand that
it’s a driver of success and that it therefore needs to be a key business strategy,
which is everyone’s responsibility (not just HR’s or the leaders’ responsibility). This
strategy works best when it translates into behaviour and culture.

GOOGLE - TRANSPARENCY
Google have been very intentional about creating the culture they want. One
aspect of that culture is their focus on transparency. The idea is to break down
barriers, encourage creativity and collaboration. And employees, as a result, are
feeling empowered by that transparency. Culture comes down to behavioural
habits and Google, by creating a culture of transparency and freedom, creates
habits of creativity. Formalizing that people spend 20% of their time doing
something outside their normal work function, facilitates a creative culture.
Ultimately culture is about “how things get done” and should not be left to chance,
it’s too powerful a force not to take control over – and Google has done this well.

VIRGIN - LISTENING
This multi-industry organization has a habit of listening to its employees, to show
that they are valued, to listen to their opinions and take care of their ideas, to have
healthy debates and continuously innovate. It’s a win-win; the organization keeps
learning and employees feel important and engage with the organization.

Listening is at the heart of engagement. In our experience, everyone wants to be

seen and heard – it’s a minimum requirement of leadership, yet often overlooked
for the immense value it can bring. On top of it simply being the right thing to do.

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We see that employees who feel listened to, want to reciprocate, they want to do
their best, because they feel valued and important.

Conclusion
Employee engagement is attracting a great deal of interest from employers across
numerous sectors. In some respects it is a very old aspiration – the desire by
employers to find ways to increase employee motivation and to win more
commitment to the job and the organization. In some ways it is ‘new’ in that the
context within which engagement is being sought is different. One aspect of this
difference is the greater penalty to be paid if workers are less engaged than the
employees of competitors, given the state of international competition and the
raising of the bar on efficiency standards. A second aspect is that the whole
nature of the meaning of work and the ground rules for employment relations
have shifted and there is an open space concerning the character of the
relationship to work and to organization which employers sense can be filled with
more sophisticated approaches.
But there is reason to worry about the lack of rigor that has, to date, often
characterised much work in employee engagement. If we continue to refer to
‘engagement’ without understanding the potential negative consequences, the
core requirements of success, and the processes through which it must be
implemented, and if we cannot agree even to a clear definition of what people
are supposed to be engaged in doing differently at work (the engaged ‘in what’
question), then engagement may just be one more ‘HR thing’ that is only here for
a short time. On a positive note, there is now a wider array of measurement
techniques with which to assess trends in engagement and an associated array of
approaches to effect some change. Thus, aspiration can more feasibly be
translated into action.

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