INTRODUCTION

Employee engagement is one step ahead of employee satisfaction. Employee is not only satisfied with the management decisions, salary and things but also giving back to the organization in terms of commitment, dedication, and loyalty. Employee Engagement is the level of commitment an employee has towards the organization. The primary behaviors of engaged employees are: speaking positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees and customers, having a strong desire to be a member of the organization, and exerting extra effort to contribute to the organizations success. A fully engaged employee is intellectually and emotionally bound with the organization, gives 100 percent, feels passionately about its goals and is committed to live by its values. This employee goes beyond the basic job responsibility to delight the customers and drive the business forward. Moreover, in times of diminishing loyalty, employee engagement is a powerful retention strategy. Research shows that engaged employees: perform better, put in extra efforts to help get the job done, show a strong level of commitment to the organization, and are more motivated and optimistic about their work goals. Employers with engaged employees tend to experience low employee turnover and more impressive business outcomes.

Employee Engagement Definition

Employee engagement definitions vary from a positive emotional connection to an employees work to engaged employees are inspired to go above and beyond the call of duty to help meet business goals

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

IES defines engagement as: a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee. Engagement is the energy, passion, or fire in the belly employees have for their employer Stay Say : Desire to be a member of the organization : Speak positively about the organisation

Strive : Go beyond what is minimally required

Employee Engagement- Difference

The difference between employee satisfaction, employee effectiveness and employee engagement. Satisfaction, effectiveness, and engagement are all inter-related in an upward progression. Each item has different drivers, but they build on one another to increase performance in the workplace. Think about it, just because employees are satisfied with their job does not mean they are effective or engaged. It is possible for an employee to be completely satisfied with his or her job, and not be fully engaged. To further complicate matters, an employee can be both engaged and satisfied, yet not be effective. All three components work together to create an environment where employees are highly motivated and committed to giving their best performance.

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

ENGAGEMENT THE EVOLUTIONARY JOURNEY

Higher
Engagement
Business Performance Positive Correlation

How much people wantand actually do improve business results

With

Commitment

How much people want to improve business results

Satisfaction

How much people like it here

Lower

Employee Research over Time

Focus on employee engagement:

Current studies show that organizations are focusing on the meaning of employee engagement and how to make employees more engaged. Employees feel engaged when they find personal meaning and motivation in their work, receive positive interpersonal support, and operate in an efficient work environment. What brought engagement to the forefront and why is everyone interested in it? Most likely, the tight economy has refocused attention on maximizing employee output and making the most of organizational resources. When organizations focus attention on their people, they are making an investment in their most important resource. You can cut all the costs you want, but if you neglect your people, cutting costs wont make much of a difference. Engagement is all about getting employees to give it their all. Some of the most successful organizations are known for their unique work environments in which

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

employees are motivated to do their very best. These great places to work have been recognized in such lists as Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For. The concept of engagement is a natural evolution of past research on highinvolvement, empowerment, job motivation, organizational commitment, and trust. All of these research streams focus on the perceptions and attitudes of employees about the work environment. In some ways, there are variations on the same fundamental issue. What predicts employees giving their all? Obviously, all organizations want their employees to be engaged in their work. Several standardized tools exist for assessing employee engagement and providing feedback for making changes. These tools tend to have several common goals and characteristics: Create a simple and focused index of workplace engagement-Many organizations are using very short, simple, and easy to use measures that focus on the fundamentals of a great workplace. Instead of conducting broad culture/climate surveys with 100 or more questions, organizations are opting for a focused approach that measures fundamental qualities of the workplace that likely will be important 10 years from now (e.g., feedback, trust, cooperation). Allow for benchmarking-Most organizations want to know how they compare to other organizations. Using a standard measure of engagement allows organizations to see how they compare to other companies along a simple set of fundamental work qualities. Direct action-Engagement measures tend to be very actionable. This means that the organization can alter practices or policies to affect employees responses to every item in the measure. Show relationship to company performance-Without a link to company performance or other critical outcomes, measures of engagement have little value. The whole idea behind engagement is that it leads to enhanced performance. The link to performance outcomes is a necessary underlying assumption of all engagement measures.

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

Engagement Predicts Organizational Success

Many studies have shown that investments in people (i.e., HR-related practices) have a reliable impact on the performance of organizations. The Bureau of Labor conducted a comprehensive review of more than 100 studies and found that people practices have significant relationships to improvements in productivity, satisfaction, and financial performance. Research has shown that when engagement scores are high, employees are more satisfied, less likely to leave the organization, and more productive. Each organization is different and there are many factors that affect bottom-line outcomes; however, engagement scores can serve as meaningful predictors of long-term success. Some organizations use engagement scores as lead measures in their HR scorecards. When an organization can show the relationship between engagement scores and bottom-line outcomes, everyone pays attention to the engagement index. Establishing this critical link between people and performance helps HR professionals prove that people-related interventions are a worthwhile investment.

Elements of Engagement
Some researches conclude that personal impact, focused work, and interpersonal harmony comprise engagement. Each of these three components has sub-components that further define the meaning of engagement.

Personal Impact-Employees feel more engaged when they are able to make a unique contribution, experience empowerment, and have opportunities for personal growth. Past research (e.g., Conger and Kanugo, 1988; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990) concurs that issues such as the ability to impact the work environment and making meaningful choices in the workplace are critical components of employee empowerment. Development Dimensions Internationals (DDI) research on retaining talent (Bernthal and Wellins, 2000) found that the perception of meaningful work is one of the most influential factors determining employees willingness to stay with the organization.

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

Focused Work-Employees feel more engaged when they have clear direction, performance accountability, and an efficient work environment. Aside from the personal drive and motivation to make a contribution, employees need to understand where to focus their efforts. Without a clear strategy and direction from senior leadership, employees will waste their time on the activities that do not make a difference for the organizations success. Additionally, even when direction is in place, employees must receive feedback to ensure that they are on track and being held accountable for their progress. In particular, employees need to feel that low performance is not acceptable and that there are consequences for poor performance. Finally, employees want to work in an environment that is efficient in terms of its time, resources, and budget. Employees lose faith in the organization when they see excessive waste. For example, employees become frustrated when they are asked to operate without the necessary resources or waste time in unnecessary meetings.

Interpersonal Harmony-Employees feel more engaged when they work in a safe and cooperative environment. By safety, we mean that employee trust one another and quickly resolve conflicts when they arise. Employees want to be able to rely on each other and focus their attention on the tasks that really matter. Conflict wastes time and energy and needs to be dealt with quickly. Some researches also find that trust and interpersonal harmony is a fundamental underlying principle in the best organizations. Employees also need to cooperate to get the job done. Partnerships across departments and within the work group ensure that employees stay informed and get the support they need to do their jobs.

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

Making Use of Engagement

Measurement of employee engagement can have many applications in the organization. Earlier, it is mentioned that engagement could serve as a general index of HR effectiveness in an HR scorecard. Also, engagement measures serve as an easy way to benchmark the work climate against other organizations.

Other uses include:

Needs Analysis-The fundamental issues measured in engagement provide a quick index of what leaders and HR need to do to make things better. In addition, items in engagement surveys tend to be very actionable. This means that leaders or others in the organization can take action that will affect the score on a single item.

Evaluation-Many learning and performance interventions are designed to impact some aspect of engagement. When an engagement measure is used as a pre-implementation baseline, the impact of the intervention can be gauged by measuring post-implementation changes in engagement.

Climate Survey-Some organizations like to use engagement measures as simple indexes of the workplace culture. While more extensive surveys are valuable, sometimes its easier to focus attention on a few simple and proven factors.

Leader or Department Feedback-Depending on the demographic information collected when the engagement measure is implemented, one can create breakout reports by department or leader. This means departments and leaders can gain a better understanding of how engagement in their groups differs from the rest of the organization. This information can be used to create development plans or plans for larger-scale interventions.

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

Employee engagement is more than just the current HR 'buzzword'; it is essential. In order for organizations to meet and surpass organizational objectives, employees must be engaged. Research has proven that wholly engaged employees exhibit,

Higher self-motivation. Confidence to express new ideas. Higher productivity and Morale. Higher levels of customer approval and service quality. Reliability. Organizational loyalty; less employee turnover. Lower absenteeism. Increased passion for, commitment to and alignment with the organizations strategies and goals. Boosted business growth. Employees become effective brand ambassadors for company.

Diagnostic tool for employee engagement include the following

- training - development - career - performance appraisals - performance management - communication - equal opportunity - fair treatment - pay - benefits - health - safety
A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd 8

- cooperation - family orientation - friendliness - job satisfaction

There are three levels of Employee Engagement

1. Engaged employees 2. Not engaged employees 3. Actively disengaged employees Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward. Not Engaged employees are essentially checked out. Theyre sleepwalking through their workday, putting time but not energy or passion into their work. Actively disengaged employees arent just unhappy at work; theyre busy acting out their happiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.

KEY ORGANIZATION ENGAGEMENT OUTCOME METRICS -Employee Retention -Company Performance -Customer Satisfaction -Profitability

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

Conditions that prevent employee engagement seldom alleviate themselves. They should be assessed and addressed as soon as possible. Left to multiply, negative employee satisfaction issues can result in:

Higher employee turnover - Employees leave, taking their reservoir of Diminished performance - Competency of the workforce is reduced, at Lost training dollars - Time and money invested in training and

knowledge and experience to another workplace

least short term, until new employees are trained

development programs for departing workers is wasted Lower morale - Remaining employees can be overburdened with new duties, in addition the unresolved issues that already prevent their full engagement.

Exhibit: Engagement level of employees world wide

Country Mexico Brazil U.S. Belgium Canada Germany Ireland U.k. Spain Korea France Netherlands China Italy India Japan Global
www.towersperrin.com

% Engaged 40% 31% 21% 18% 17% 15% 15% 12% 11% 9% 9% 8% 7% 7% 2% 4% 14%

% Not Engaged 51% 62% 63% 67% 66% 70% 70% 65% 64% 71% 68% 73% 67% 64% 37% 57% 62%

% Disengage 9% 7% 16% 15% 17% 15% 15% 23% 25% 20% 23% 19% 25% 29% 56% 41% 24%

A Study on Employee Engagement in Aparajitha Corporate Services (p) Ltd

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