Drivers of Employee Engagement

There are some factors that affect employee engagement which is necessary to understand. Mainly there are antecedents and drivers which are given below (Crawford, et al., 2013). 


Job challenge - Challenging job provides an opportunity to strengthen, develop, and learn skills applicable to the work world and personal growth for an employee. 

Opportunities for development – Development opportunities make work meaningful to the employee because they provide pathways for growth and for fulfilling personal objectives (Penna, 2007). 

Autonomy – This provides the right or condition of self-government. Allow employees to schedule their work at their own procedures. 

Variety – Being able to perform different activities which required different skill levels makes the job interesting 

Feedback – Providing regular feedback to the employees about the effectiveness of their performance. 

Fit - The existence of compatibility between an employee and a work environment allows individuals to work in a confidant. 

Rewards and recognition - Incentives, rewards, and recognition are the major factors that impact employee motivation (Danish and Usman, 2010). Often, rewards and recognition take the form of extra compensation for employees who carry out the activities.

Figure 1.0 - The drivers of employee engagement is being explained through a diagnostic tool


Many researches have tried to recognize the factors leading to employee engagement and developed models to draw implications for managers in order to determine the drivers that will increase employee engagement level (Kompaso and Sridevi, 2010).

A strong manager-employee relationship is a crucial factor in employee engagement and retention formula (Penna, 2007).  Further Penna  (2007) states meaning at work has the potential to be a valuable way of bringing employers and employees closer together to the benefit of both where employees experience a sense of community, the space to be themselves and the opportunity to make a contribution, they find meaning.

Employees want to work in the organizations in which they find meaning at work (Penna, 2007).

What Great Managers Do to Engage Employees

When managers help employees grow and develop through their strengths, they are more than twice as likely to engage their team members. The most powerful thing a manager can do for employees is to place them in jobs that allow them to use the best of their natural talents, adding skills and knowledge to develop and apply their strengths. (Harter and Adkins 2015)

Development Dimensions International (DDI, 2005) mentions that a manager must do five things in order to create a highly engaged workforce. They are:

1. Align efforts with strategy

2. Empower

3. Promote and encourage teamwork and collaboration

4. Help people grow and develop

5. Provide support and recognition where appropriate.

Video 2.0 – This video elaborates how motivate and engage employees



Source: From the course: Motivating and Engaging Employees

References 

Crawford, E. R., Rich, B. L., Buckman, B. and Bergeron, J.(2013) Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

Danish, R. Q. and Usman, A. (2010) Impact of Reward and Recognition on Job Satisfaction and Motivation: An Empirical Study from Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(2), pp. 159-167

Development Dimensions International. (2005). (Predicting Employee Engagement MRKSRR12-1005 Development Dimensions International, Inc., MMV. [Online] Available:www.ddiworld.com (October 30,2008)

Harter, J. and Adkins, A, (2015) What Great Managers Do to Engage Employees Harvard Business Review

https://hbr.org/2015/04/what-great-managers-do-to-engage-employees

Kompaso, S. and Sridevi, M. (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(12 )

Matuson, R. Motivating and engaging employees (video) https://www.linkedin.com/learning/motivating-and-engaging-employees-2/how-managers-can-better-engage-employees

Penna (2007). Meaning at Work Research Report. [Online] Available: http:// www. e-penna.com/ news opinion /research.aspx (November10, 2008) proposalʹ, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1, 74–75

 

 

 


Comments

  1. Well explained. moreover, according to the Vance (2006) Job and task design, Recruitment, Selection, Training, Compensation, Performance management and Career development. will affect employees’ level of engagements.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Dilini for your comments on my blog. The organization has the responsibility to provide for the needs of employees by providing proper training and building a meaningful workplace environment; in turn, employees have the responsibility to provide a meaningful contribution to the organization. Many organizations perceive the importance of employee engagement; however, the issue of how to increase the level of employee engagement is not warranted (Wang & Chia-Chun, 2013).

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  2. Middle managers assume a critical part in employee engagement, making a conscious and confiding in relationship with their immediate reports, imparting organization esteems and setting desires for the everyday business of any association. Studies show that individuals leave managers, not organizations and guaranteeing managers are effectively partaking in and overseeing representative commitment is principal(Veraque, A, Sabado, G, 2012).HR practices has the key role in increasing employee engagement. Job enrichment, Recruiting, selection, training & development and strategic compensation are few that HR can provide to enhance engagement (Armstrong, 2014). Based on above background and support of HR practices middle managers need to be empowered by being given larger responsibilities, trained for their expanded roles and more involved in strategic decisions. If an organization's executives and HR professionals want to hold managers accountable for the engagement levels, they should:

    Make sure that managers and employees have the tools to do their jobs correctly.

    Periodically assign managers larger, more exciting roles.

    Give managers appropriate authority.

    Accelerate leadership development efforts.

    Ask managers to convey the corporate mission and vision and to help transform the organization.

    This is of empirical importance that employee engagement is heavily dependent on middle management involvement and that becomes a vital point to be considered by HR to streamline to avoid disengagement (Veraque, A, Sabado, G, 2012).

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  3. Employment is a combination of satisfaction, motivation and productivity. If an organization does not have any of these three, it will lead to a reduction in employee participation and therefore a decrease in product productivity. Therefore, job satisfaction, motivation, and effectiveness productivity are the three factors that influence employee employment (Gokula, 2013).

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Ranga for your comments on my post. I would further like to add, the management of people at work is an integral part of the management process. To understand the critical importance of people in the organization is to recognize that the human element and the organization are synonymous. An well-managed organization usually sees an average worker as the root source of quality and productivity gains. Such organizations do not look to capital investment, but to employees, as the fundamental source of improvement (Ayeni, 2007)

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  4. According to many authors, there are many key drivers of employee engagement and some are; Mani (2011) stated four drivers, namely employee welfare, empowerment, employee growth and interpersonal relationships as key drivers of employee engagement. Seijit (2006) point out the 10 Cs of Employee Engagement, namely Connect, Career, Clarity, Convey, Congratulate, Contribute, Control, Collaborate, Credibility & Confidence. The three elements of employee engagement as per Wallace et al (2006), were contributions, connections, growth and advancement.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Chamila for your comments on my post. Employee engagement is a vast construct that touches almost all parts of human resource management facets we know hitherto. If every part of human resources is not addressed in appropriate manner, employees fail to fully engage themselves in their job in the response to such kind of mismanagement. The construct employee engagement is built on the foundation of earlier concepts like job satisfaction, employee commitment and Organizational citizenship behaviour. Though it is related to and encompasses these concepts, employee engagement is broader in scope (Markos, 2010)

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  5. To engage a dedicated staff, management must have an inclusive and participatory approach and leadership qualities to meet the needs of employees and satisfy them in a timely manner and for that, management must integrate employee growth into their professional growth and handle grievances ethically and they must have the right skills to manage employees nutritiously including respectful, responsible, active, participatory, sociable and sensitive behavior towards employees (SHRM, 2007).

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  6. While agreeing with your statement wish to comment, according to the Vance (2006) Job and task design, Recruitment, Selection, Training, Compensation, Performance management and Career development. will affect employees’ level of engagements.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Sohan for your comment on my blog. SHRM research on recruitment unanimously showed that communication was the most valuable skill, aside from educational training, that organizations looked for in general job applicants. This finding reinforces the importance of communication skills in the workplace. Not only their interactions within a department or business unit critical, but being able to communicate and collaborate between departments or business units is essential to organizational success (SHRM, 2016).

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  7. The nature of a job may indirectly influence employee engagement (Abraham, 2012). For
    instance, it is shown that employee engagement is affected by the job factors including
    work environment, leadership, team and coworker, training and career development,
    compensation, organizational policies and workplace well-being (Anitha, 2014). Some
    studies point at the factors such as job fit, affective commitment and psychological climate
    as the influencing elements on employee engagement (Shuck et al., 2011). Others argue
    job characteristics and job resources are the forcing factors of employee engagement
    (Crawford et al., 2010; Mauno et al., 2007).

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks Surendra for your comment. I do agree to your comment. Adding more the research findings provided clues in identifying the needs and challenges leaders face while empowering employees. All participants indicated that employees desire a challenge in their work and want leaders to trust them in completing their assigned tasks. Further, all participants believed employees should receive the necessary training and resources to do their jobs. Deci and Ryan (1985) referred to competence as the effectiveness and the use of an individual’s skills, which allows him or her to work at high levels. Employees that are confident in themselves are confident in their daily work duties. Hynes (2012) suggested leaders employ processes that address employee needs and expectations’ concerns, such as corporate culture awareness, team skills development, incentives, and communication.

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  8. Great info! Digital employee engagement platform - SOS helped organizations to build a digital platform to help the corporate employees be more productive through positive engagement and brand connection.

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  9. We bring the best indoor employee engagement activities to help team employees get to know one another. These indoor activities not only boost employee morale but also essential for their team building as well.

    ReplyDelete

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