Fostering Employee Engagement

Through Effective Business Communication

Techniques

Umer Farooq
Muhammad Jarar Gul
Falak Sher
INTRODUCTION

Why Employee Engagement?

a) Reduced Cost and Improved Perrformance

b) Tapping into Employees Sense of Belonging
 What Employee Engagement Is?

• An engaged employee is one who produces results, does not change job
frequently and more importantly is the ambassador of the company at all
times.
• Robinson, defines engagement as “a positive attitude held by the
employees towards the organization and its values. An engaged employee is
aware of the business context, work with colleagues to improve
performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The
organization must develop and nurture engagement, which is a two-way
relationship between employer and employee”.
 What Employee Engagement Is?

• According to Haven, engagement refers to the level and extent of

interaction, influence, involvement and intimacy that an individual has with
an organization over time.

• Engagement also refers to an individual employee’s positive affectivity,

characterized by participation, attention, dedication, excitement,
absorption, pride and vigour involved in performing an organizational role.
 What Employee Engagement Is?

• More often, employee engagement has been defined as intellectual and

emotional commitment to the organization or the amount of unrestricted
effort that is exhibited by employees in their respective jobs in an
organization
 Constructs Similar to Employee Engagement
• Job Involvement
“Identification with the job, participation, and importance of performance
to self-worth”.

• Organizational Commitment
“Person’s attitude and attachment with the organization”.

• Orgganizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

“Voluntary and informal behaviors that can help co-workers and the
organization”.
 Effective Communication and Employee Engagement

• Research Studies Conducted By Watson Wyatt Wordwide

“Engaged employees are twice as likely to be top performers, have lower
turnover rates, and are more supportive and adaptive as compared to those
employees who are less engaged”.

• Another Study Conducted By White, Vance and Stafford

“nternal communication brought in a feeling of greater responsibility and
sense of community among organization employees, encouraging them to
become advocates at a personal level, for their organization”.
 Communication Variables
Transparen
cy The key variables of business communication
employed in this analysis are:

Feedback 1. Transparency
Mechanism Leadership 2. Feedback mechanism, and
Communicatio
n
3. Leadership communication
 1.Transparency

• Openly and honestly sharing of information throughout the organization to

all employees without any discrimination, is considered transparency in
communication.

• It is about information and sharing information that may be or may not be

welcomed. .

Business Dictionary defines transparency as the

“Lack of hidden agendas and conditions, accompanied by the availability of
full information required for collaboration, cooperation, and collective decision
making.”
 1.Transparency

Crumpton notes that “it is critical that leaders maintain the trust and
confidence of their staffs” and “to maintain this trust, leaders must be
transparent in how information gathering and decisions are made”

Crumpton further outlines that “the first important issue that drives
transparent behavior is communication and helping people get the facts straight
in the beginning and without emotional uncertainty.
Transparency contributes in:

• The betterment of work place

• As well as personal lives of employees.

In short, transparency in communication within an organization helps in

building:
• Trust,
• Enhanced decision making,
• Improved employees engagement, and
• Improved problem solving.
 2.Feedback Mechanism

• “Feedback mechanism in business communication refers to well-organized

processes and established channels within an organization for the purpose
of collecting, analyzing and acting upon information, opinions, suggestions,
or reactions provided by certain individuals or groups.”

• This is the foundation of any communication process.

 2.Feedback Mechanism
• Feedback is a response to a message.

• Feedback indicates to the person sending a message whether and how that
message was heard, seen and understood (Verderber, 1999).

• Feedback reverses the communication process (Nwabueze, 2004). It

means that receiver becomes the source or sender, while the receiver will be
waiting the message, which is the feedback. Verderber, (1999) explains that,
if the verbal or nonverbal response indicates to the sender that the intended
meaning was not heard, the originator may try to find a different way of
encoding the message in order to align the meaning that was understood
with the initiator’s original meaning.
 2.Feedback Mechanism

• Feedback could either be positive or negative

• Feedback is positive where the receiver shows understanding of the

message and gives a meaningful response to the sender,
•
• While it is negative where the receivers’ expression or response shows the
message was not understood requiring send the process afresh.
 2.Feedback Mechanism

• Purpose of feedback mechanism is continuous improvement

• It is essential for collecting information that helps in:

• Evaluation of current practices,
• Looking for areas of betterment, and
• Making informed decisions.
 2.Feedback Mechanism

•Feedback mechanism promotes:

• Participation,
• Builds strong relationship among employees, teams, and leaders, and
• Encourages open dialogue.

• Feedback mechanism also helps in:

• Performance evaluation of employees, teams and
• Guide professional development and goals alignment with organization's
overall objectives.
 2.Feedback Mechanism

Effective Feedback Mechanism:

• Key components of effective feedback mechanism includes: clarity of

purpose ( clear determination of feedback’ objectives and purposes),
timeliness( promptly responding to feedback), confidentiality and
anonymity( deciding whether feedback is effective publicly or privately),
and actionable insights.

• Effective feedback mechanism plays an important role in: developing a

transparent and communicative organizational culture, driving
improvement, growth and innovation.
 3.Leadership Communication

• Leadership communication refers to different methods, techniques,

approaches, and strategies developed to gather, interpret, and respond to
opinions, reactions, suggestions, or information provided by stakeholders
within or outside the organization.

• It can also be defined as a type of communication, commonly used by

leaders to communicate with their subordinates while delivering
organization’s core values, vision, mission, goals and objectives, and other
important messages to build trust among employees.
 3.Leadership Communication

• It involves delivering a shared vision and inspiring others to buy into that
vision.

• It can also be considered as the development and delivery of messages that:

• Inform, inspire, engage and unite employees of an organization behind a
common purpose and goal
 Multidisciplinary With Multicultural participants

• Some disciplines such as management tend to promote the psychological

perspective of leadership with individually centered communication, often
with formal position power and research goals that emphasize adding
organizational value

• In comparison, other disciplines emphasize discursive leadership, where

leaders emerge through socially constructed reality
 3.Leadership Communication
Leadership communication helps:

• Build trust within the organization, both between leaders and employees
and between employees and the organization itself.

• By clarifying company culture and structure, it helps employees to align

better within the organization. This communication then inspires open
dialogue throughout the company, promotes collaboration, teamwork, and
honest feedback.

Finally, it helps prevent miscommunications within the organization and

ensures that all employees are kept up to date with important information.
MODELS:

• The first model developed will analyze the impact of transparency in

communication on employee engagement.

• The second model will elaborate on the role of feedback mechanism in

enhancing employee engagement.
MODELS:
Impact of Transparency on Employee Engagement
Helps in Trust Building
Develops Sense of Ownership and Belonging
Enhanced and Effective Decision-making Processes
Results In Open-diaulouge Between Management and Employees
Positive Adabtability to Oraganizational Changes
Reduces Uncertaninty and Creates Stable Work Environment
Creates Organizational Culture of Honesty and Integrity
Makes Emplyees Aware of the Recognition and Reward Criteria
MODELS:
Role of Feedback Mechanism in
Enhancing Employee Engagement:
Helps to Improve Skills and Capabilities
Assist Employees in Setting Performance Goals
Leads to Professional Growth and Development
Makes Individuals Accountable for their Actions
Quick Fix of Isuues within an Organization
Develops a Culture of Continuous Learning and Development