Quadrant I

Module 10: Improving Employee Engagement

1. Learning Outcome

2. Introduction

3. Zinger Model of Employee Engagement

4. Methods to Improve Employee Engagement in the organization

5. Status of Employee Engagement in India

6. Some corporate examples of good employee engagement

7. Summary

Module 10: Improving Employee Engagement

1. Learning Outcome After completing this module the students will be able to:

• Learn about the meaning and significance of Employee Engagement.

• Learn about the Zinger Model of Employee Engagement

• Study the various methods of Improving Employee Engagement

• Understand the status of employee engagement in India

Source: https://clockit.io/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/employee-engage1.png

2. Introduction

Human Resource is one of the most valued and crucial resource for a business to sustain

in this highly competitive market. Acquiring and retaining talent in an organization is one

of the key concerns for the top management these days. In any organization, employees

play a very crucial role in increasing the organizational effectiveness and depict the real

picture of an organizations’ environment and culture. Productivity and Efficiency of

employees have become very important for all businesses to run efficiently and

sustainably in this fast growing business era. Employee engagement in this fast growing

business situation is of great significance. Engagement can be described as a two way

process that builds between the employees and the organization. It is a well adopted

strategy to increase the performance and productivity of employees. It is described as a

process to ensure the contribution, commitment and motivation of an employee towards

fulfilling the goals and values. Various researches show that employee engagement not

only enhances the nonmonetary performance (i.e. service proficiency, absenteeism and

retention etc.) but also the financial performance (i.e. real profit) of an organization.

Engagement is mainly about the responsibility of every employee to enhance team

building, group dynamics, cultural democracy and a great learning environment. The top

management must work to increase the engagement of employees which enhances and

motivates them to develop required behavior and positive attitudes which in turn will

enable employees to increase their efficiency to meet the objectives of an organization.

Employee Engagement is one of the trends which in past has proved very useful in

retaining employees for longer periods and also produce efficient results.

The changing scenario and the evolving market in the recent years have laid a great deal

of importance to the employees’ performance which in turn leads to higher performance

of the organization. The development in the IT industry has removed the barriers on the

working time and the employees are expected to work round the clock. The increased

competition has made an impact on the employees as they constantly feel pressurized to

perform at any cost. This results in the disturbance of work life balance of employees. In

the longer period, the effect on work life balance of employees lead to their disinterest in

work, absenteeism, lesser productivity and a stressful life. The employees’ psychological

well-being has been negatively affected due to lack of proper policy from management,

lack of a good work environment, communication gap between the management and

employees etc.

To come up with a solution to this problem, the term Employee Engagement has been

introduced. Initially in 70s and 80s, the focus was on Employee satisfaction but it did not

depict any relation with the performance and laid more focus on the employees rather

than organization or employees’ relationship with it.

Employee Engagement is a relatively new concept. It is defined as “An individual’s

involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, the work he or she does.”

(Source: Organization Behavior by Stephen P. Robbins) Or “Employee engagement is a

workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization

to give of their best each day, committed to their organization’s goals and values,

motivated to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own

well-being.” (source : http://engageforsuccess.org/what-is-employee-engagement.)

Employee engagement is driven by two primary factors:

i. Engagement with Organization

ii. Engagement with the Managers

Engagement with Organization measures the engagement of employees with the top

management and the organization as a whole. It relates with the confidence as well as

trust the employees develop in the top management resulting from the transparent system

full of values being followed in the organization.

Engagement with Manager relates with how the employees feel about their managers i.e.

their direct supervisors. Engagement at this level is of at most importance as employees

feel most committed to the organization when they are being valued, being treated fairly,

and receiving feedback and mentored by their immediate supervisor. A strong

relationship between the employees and their manager leads to better employee

engagement and satisfaction at work place.

The employees are divided into four major categories in terms of employee engagement.

Firstly are the Highly engaged comprising of the employees who are totally engaged,

Second are the moderately engaged employees who are nearly engaged followed by

passively engaged i.e. the employees who are almost disengaged and lastly are the

actively disengaged employees who are totally disengaged with the organization. The

engagement of workforce at work includes social, intellectual and emotional engagement

in the organization.

In the task of engaging employees, the management of the organization should take into

consideration the proper assessment of employees’ behavior, attitude, values and

priorities and address the problems being faced by the employees at workplace. The

process can be nurtured and produce the best results through a two way communication

process which motivates the employees to achieve their individual as well as

organizational goals. The organizations need to execute specific engagement plans and

create an inclusive environment to inculcate higher confidence level and enthusiasm to

learn and innovate for successful job roles. The various parameters of assessing

engagement can be: level of job satisfaction, commitment, involvement, emotional

attachment and feelings of empowerment.

3. Zinger Model of Employee Engagement David Zinger, a Canadian based management consultant combined the current researches

with practical approach to achieve substantial results. Based on his detailed work on

employee engagement, he produced a model that throws light on various aspects of

employee engagement, dedication and involvement.

The model lists down the 12 key factors that the managers and employers must adopt in

order to achieve significant results

Source: http://www.davidzinger.com/zinger-model/

i. Achieve Results: Achieving the desired results, i.e., higher levels of employee

engagement is the ultimate aim of the Zinger model; however, the process is

well supported by various other steps. The managers need to work on self as

well as the employees of the company through well crafted strategies.

ii. Craft Strategies: Devising appropriate strategies for the achievement of higher

levels of employee engagement is the most important task. It involves excessive

planning and considerations of employees and organizational requirements.

Managers generally seek help from professional management consultant for

preparing the effective strategies.

iii. Enliven Roles: Employees tend to love their work when it appears interesting and

creative to them. Managers should work on restructuring the tasks and

responsibilities in a way that eliminates boredom from employees’ job and keep

them interested in the work.

iv. Excel at Work: Motivating employees to excel in performing work pays off. An

organization must incorporate a system for recognizing and awarding those

employees in a better way.

v. Get Connected: Managers must maintain some kind of connect with their

subordinates so that employees can share their problems with managers and ask for

advice. Communication is the backbone of any and every managerial process.

vi. Be Authentic: Being genuine and real is what is expected from a manager. Top

management, HR people as well as line managers should show concern towards the

problems the employees are facing and make sincere efforts to help employees get

rid of it.

vii. Live Recognition: Recognizing the efforts of employees in front of all other

employers which will not only boost employees’ moral but also encourages them to

prolong their with the organization and perform exceptionally well always.

viii. Fully Engage: The organizations’ desired results can be achieved in the quickest

possible way only if employees are fully engaged. A comprehensive study detailing

about what engages or disengages the employees must be conducted. Designing and

implementing these strategies is the next step.

ix. Identify with Organization: Employees stay in organization for prolonged period

only if they feel some connected with the organization. Management should

understand that employees are their most important assets and organizations cannot

work without them.

x. Serve Customers: Only well engaged employees can successfully serve the

customers in the best possible manner. Making employees aware of the

organization’s tradition and culture from time to time can help a great deal.

xi. Develop Personally: Organization should not only keep their focus on attaining the

goal but also should focus on the overall development of its employee. Employees

who grow with the organization have a deep connect with their workplace and are

always ready to go an extra mile to achieve success for organization.

xii. Attain Happiness: Satisfied and happy employees are the important assets of an

organization. The secret behind the success of very efficient businesses is their happy

employees.

4. Methods to Improve Employee Engagement in the

organization In today’s job market, employees easily get bored or lose interest in their jobs and start job

hunting for a new job. This is not a very favorable scenario for an organization, so to avoid

such circumstances the management should employ various employee engagement activities

to help employees feel connect with the organization. Some of the activities include:

i. Introducing health and wellness programs in the organization: Instituting wellness

and health program is one very important factor for increasing employee engagement

at workplace. It not only improves the efficiency and productivity of the employees

but also reduces total turnover in the organization as it leads to reduction in the work

stress amongst the employees which is the highest reason for employees quitting

their job.

ii. Providing healthier food options to the employees: Employee engagement can be

increased by making available healthier food options at work place. About 75% of

the employees feel this is one of the main requisite but employers generally don’t

offer it as a benefit to their employees.

iii. Acknowledge Personal wins: Managers should acknowledge personal wins of the

employees no matter how small they are and also should try relating these wins with

the department or the teams. Announce such wins to the whole teams and then

celebrate it with a team lunch or informal outing with team.

iv. Increased importance to work life balance: This is one of the most important and

needed thing that the employers can do to their employees in todays highly

competitive work environment. Laying more focus in maintaining a balance between

and work and life help employees feel good which in turn empowers their

productivity and efficiency at work.

v. Introduce fun related activities in the organization: Various fun related activities

should be organized either on a weekly or fortnightly basis so that employees can

take some out of their busy work schedule and have some fun at work. Engage in

some outdoor activities like bowling or paint ball etc. Such activities lead to better

bonding between the teams and better engagement at workplace.

vi. Get informed about the employees’ passion: Knowing the teams and their passion in

a better way would help managers to connect with their team well and make them

feel that their managers are genuinely interested in their passion and value it as well.

vii. Ditch the concept of cubicles: Lately many organizations have started ditching the

ideas of cubicles and moving towards open office décor that promote collaboration

and comfort and avoid too much of privacy. Open desks promote a healthy

environment with more face to face communication and better engagement.

viii. Familiarize the fresh hires to the teams: When fresh recruitment takes place, make

sure to familiarize the new employees to all the teams. This way the employees feel

that they are cared about by the management and are likely feel more engaged and

happy at work.

ix. Provide freedom to the employees to move laterally in the organization: There are

many employees who are unsure about their career paths and are still figuring it out.

In such cases management should provide freedom to the employee to pursue what

they are passionate about and are interested in pursuing. Also management should

them in creating roadmap so that they can get there. This helps organizations retain

some young talent for longer times.

x. Apart from assigning more tasks, give the employees more responsibility as well:

Important projects as well as initiatives should be given to the employees so that they

can take ownership of the objectives. Employees exhibit goal-oriented behavior so

when they are given some tasks worth achieving, Employees would exhibit

exceptional behavior and perform them with full sincerity.

xi. Align your recruitment process with the company’s values and culture: Clearly study

the company’s value and culture and keep these in mind during the recruitment

process of the company. Only the employees who suit best to the culture and

environment of the organization should be taken onboard.

xii. Encourage the employees to volunteer: Encouraging employees by promoting

volunteerism by giving the employees some hours each month to leave their office

space and participate in the volunteer work with community.

xiii. Build bonds and trust amongst the peers: Bonds between the teams is one of the

important aspects of employee engagement. Also organization should show some

trust in the employees to complete the work that has been assigned without

constantly nagging them about 3-4 times a day.

xiv. Create a detailed roadmap to achieve employees’ professional goals: A detailed plan

should be laid out for all employees’ goals and also these goals should be properly

aligned with the organizations’ goal.

xv. Ban mailbox for a day every month: This practice should be followed by the

organizations, wherein mails are banned for a day every month. This would

encourage employees to interact more with peers and even if the interaction just for a

few seconds, face to face conversations are very good and leave an impact on

people’s mind.

xvi. Take proper feedback and act on the feedback on an immediate basis: Monthly

feedback should be encouraged in the organizations and the process should not stop

at this stage only. Proper procedures should be followed to act on these feedbacks so

that employees feel that their opinions are valued for the top management.

xvii. Provide creative space so that employees brain storm: Instead of having regular

meetings, engage employees to brain storm with each other and come up with

creative and more efficient ideas. Many organizations have separate creative spaces

where they encourage their employees to brainstorm with each other.

xviii. Engage employees in long term important projects: Include employees in the projects

that are important for the organization as this would lead to their engagement with

the higher management as well. The employees can learn new skills from one

another and also get to know people they won’t work otherwise on a daily basis.

5.Status of Employee Engagement in India

A recent report by Dale Carnegie Training shows that Indian employees are more engaged

than their global counterparts. The report states that the number of fully engaged working

professionals in the Indian workforce stands at 46% while the global average for the same is

34% and that of the US is at 30%.

The survey conducted by Dale Carnegie Training in conjunction with NHRDN, surveyed

more than 1200 executives, individual contributors, managers and chief officers across the

country in 2014. The key factors influencing the engagement levels in India were identified

as:

The relationship with the immediate Supervisor

Belief in Senior Leadership

Pride in the Organization

(Source:http://sapience.net/employee-engagement-india-tops-the-charts-but-that-s-not-the-

full-story/)

But there are certain challenges that are affecting the efficiency of the working population in

context with Indian companies and the competitiveness amongst the companies. About only

one third of the employees feel that they are very satisfied with the senior management

while one fourth are clearly very dissatisfied with the top management and this very clearly

depicts that the level of confidence that the employees have in their managers is very low

and this has emerged as one of the reasons which lesser the productivity of the organization

as a whole. The question which arises now is that what is holding the companies from

reaching the required level of engagement? The gaps need to be identified and target the

problem areas and work upon so that a trust is build amongst the employers and employees.

A complete and holistic approach needs to be followed and engagement solution should be

devised and better methods should be followed so that the charts are reversed and more and

more employees feel engaged with their employees as well as organization.

6. Some corporate examples of good employee engagement Top companies following best employee engagement practices all over the world according

to managers.org.uk are

American Express – Focus on Behavior

American Express follows a different approach in a world where even today the

companies are more focused on results and achievement goals and it had been this

way since last 25 years. The company gives equal importance to the achievement of

goals and how these goals are being achieved. It believes that it is just not possible to

achieve best results without considering the behaviors of the employees. Behavior

include how the employees conduct themselves, how they act and react to the

situations and people around them. It has been observed that the successful

companies have an understanding about how behaviors are leaving an impact on the

employees’ emotional level in the companies where much engagement with the

employer takes place.

John Lewis – Empowering

John Lewis expresses very strong focus on its employees; one way could be by

calling them partners instead of employees and it is not just a word, it’s a connection

that gets build with this word partner. By calling employees as partners, the company

also shares the responsibilities with them and make them more accountable and

responsible for the outcomes of the organization. This result in increasing the

engagement of the employees and making them feel more empowered.

Hyatt – Employee Development

The organization’s high employee retention and long employee tenures as compared

to its competitors speak clearly for its high employee turnover. The reason behind

the same is employee development and promoting from within in the culture.

Continuous development and clearer career roadmap is one of the best engagement

techniques present in today’s competitive market.

Southwest Airlines – Purpose

This airline sees their purpose as connecting people with what’s important to them.

They don’t just see themselves as transporters of people, but as enablers who help

people get to people or places they care about. This may be seen as a small

differentiation, but it can make a big difference in how important an employee

perceives his/her job. A strong, clear purpose connects emotionally with employees,

it engages.

In our experience, purpose is becoming more and more important to employees. To

see that you are doing something more profound than just selling a product or

service, makes you feel important. It’s no longer enough to “just do a job”, we’re

seeing that people want to make a difference, to contribute to something bigger than

themselves.

Virgin – Listening

The multi industry organization believes in listening to its employees which shows

that how much they value them. This practice also builds trust between the

employees and the employer and it is a win-win situation; the organization keeps on

growing and employees feel important and engaged with the organization.

Learning is the soul and heart of employee engagement, everyone wants to be heard

and keep its perspective forward and also it’s the minimum requirement of effective

leadership, yet often ignored by the employers and the top management.

7. Summary

Employee Engagement is a measurable construct. Organization should shift more and more of

their focus on the importance of engaging employees in a better and much efficient way.

Already many companies across India as well as around the world are following different

strategies to engage the employees in more effective ways. The various strategies used by

companies may or may not be same and the end results which are, better efficiency and

productivity will also vary with the method adopted. Some of them are highly efficient and

produce the end desired results whereas others might not be very effective and not produce

the desired results. Management should be very careful in adopting the different strategies

and should trust the ones that are already tried and tested. Apart from Employee Engagement

there is one more trend that is very common in the market these days- Post Offer

Engagement. After the recruitment and selection process is over and candidates are selected

and before the joining dates of the new employees are rolled out, companies have started

engaging them in some forms of engagement. This practice was adopted because the ratio of

number of employees selected to the number that actually joining the organization was

decreasing at a very pace. To curb this problem, several engagement activities like formal

dinners with the top management, making the new employees familiarize with the company’s

policies and culture, sending personalized merchandise to the employees etc has been adopted

by the companies.

As discussed earlier, Employee engagement is the most important factor in the process of

increasing the business performance. An Engaged Employee is someone who understands

his/her role in the business strategy, has a stronger emotional commitment and connection for

the organization, is more involved and also strives for great success and is also a very good

team person etc. Employee Engagement improves Competitiveness and this efficient duo of

Management and Employees can increase the productivity of the organization by great folds.

Despite various very traditional factors of improving employee engagement like Salary hike,

Opportunities, Training, Improving work environment etc. management should always check

the level of employee engagement from time to time. Appreciation, Respect or Value at work

and a Personal touch of Management motivates employees to engage with complete

commitment. Employees should be given various opportunities and training to improve their

skills and enhance their performance. Networking with Employees, Open communication,

Rewards, Talent Management, Recognition of their efforts and constant feedback encourages

employees to stay for a prolonged period with the organization. Employees learn to enhance

their skillset through different opportunities available for them and improve their

Performance accordingly without any sense of threat. Inclusion of employees’ opinion in the

decision making process is also a great factor in motivating them for working in alignment

with goal of the organization. Employees in reality are the actual Representatives and Brand

bearers of organization, their belief and strength in the organization creates value for it.