Employee engagement involves fostering a work culture that makes the employee feel valued and aligned with the organization such that they put in the maximum effort they can to work for the organisation, thus improving employee performance.

Just as each tiny, seemingly insignificant drop combines with billions of others to make the ocean, a single employee cohabits with thousands of others to create a company. It is needless to say, then, that employees are the building blocks of a successful company. A healthy, happy, engaged workforce forms the ladder of success which the company climbs. 

Their indispensability towards the future of a company makes its employees its most valuable investment. In this case, employee engagement is crucial to achieving better employee productivity.

• 65% of people surveyed said they got no recognition for good work last year
• 60% of Best-in-Class organizations stated that employee recognition is extremely valuable in driving individual performance
• 41% of companies using peer-to-peer recognition have seen marked increase in customer satisfaction
• Deploying strategic recognition resulted in employee turnover rate that is 23.4% lower than that at companies without any recognition program
• Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability but 85% of Employees Are Not Engaged in the Workplace
• Disengaged employees cost U.S. companies up to $550 billion a year

 

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Understanding Employee Engagement

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is one of the most recent, and most widely used indicators to measure how much employees enjoy their work. It is no secret that working without deriving satisfaction or pleasure from it can only lead to drudgery, and dread of work in the employee’s mind. It is an effort to create and maintain a workspace that aligns employees with the organisation’s more significant goals and makes them work in tandem with everyone else. 

Therefore, it is not only necessary for the company that employees are enmeshed in their tasks and find them fulfilling, but it also helps employees keep that spark of enthusiasm alive. 

Why is Employee Engagement Important?

The answer has been mentioned before, but let’s delve into some specifics this time. Employee engagement is essential in several aspects of the organisation, resulting in more excellent employee retention and productivity, translating into the efficient achievement of goals. 

The infamous “Monday blues” are a consequence of a disengaged workforce. When employees fail to find satisfaction in their responsibilities and task, work feels like a heavy burden. This subsequently finds an outlet in absenteeism, shoddy quality work, willingness to do only the bare minimum and carelessness – all of which can set a firm on a downward trajectory. 

How Is Employee Engagement Linked To Employee Performance?

Performance management is a rapidly growing field of study in managerial studies. While firms earlier had a product or cost-oriented approach towards making it big in the business, there has been a paradigmatic shift in recognising the softer aspects of employee’s journey and their impact on the overall performance. 

More and more firms are now investing in their employees, realising that a better working environment, fulfilment of personal goals, and self-actualisation can contribute significantly in making a company successful . 

Misconceptions Regarding Employee Engagement

A lot of new age companies offer multiple facilities and flexibilities to their employees, which would have been unimaginable a few decades ago. But employee engagement is more than just that. Yes, a massive campus with free Starbucks coffee might impress a new employee, but an myopic superior, who doesn’t understand the employees’ concerns and is not committed to the employees’ development and engagement will definitely spoil the taste of the best cappuccinos. 

Employee engagement rests on trust, faith, recognition, and equity in the workspace, rather than designated parking spots. 

Improving Employee Engagement

Organisations have to work actively to improve employee engagement. There are myriad ways of doing so. Many of them are cost-efficient, offer superb value evaluating employee performance, identify blind spots and roadblocks, and formulate better work policies. Others are some structural changes that the organisation need to undertake to make employees feel like a part of a vast family. 

• Prioritising Feedback: Feedback, of any kind, goes a long way in ensuring that employees and employers are on the same page. But to ensure that feedback actually works, there has to be an efficient, safe communication channel between workers and the manager. There can be free talks about goals and strategies, shortcomings on the part of firms and employees without jeopardising jobs in the firm. 
• Leading the Way: Either consciously or sub-consciously, role models play a significant part in how our life and work turns out to be. In order to inspire an engaged workforce, the management and leaders have to demonstrate the same energy and commitment that they seek from their workers. This downward flow of energy makes for greater employee engagement. 
• Prioritising Health: There’s nothing more pernicious for a company than a physically or mentally burnt out employee. Employers have to realise the importance of rest in life and have to create goals and timetables, which are conscious of the work-life balance that their employees want to achieve, else they will witness huge workforce turnovers. 
• Recognition: An open acknowledgment and expressed appreciation for employees’ contributions to their organization. It could be a high-five for a job well done, a special shout-out during an all-hands meeting, or even a bonus for meeting a monthly goal.

The Importance of Performance Management Systems

Performance management systems are handy softwares that streamline evaluation and communication between the workforce and management. These are usually designed on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, and used by HRs worldwide to improve employee engagement. 

An employee performance management software makes it easy for the organisation to collect useful data apropos employee engagement in the form of questionnaires and survey, and run quantitative as well as qualitative analysis on such data to extrapolate insights into the working of the firm. A good employee performance management software enables organisations to set up effective programs to improve overall employee engagement.

An efficient performance management software impacts employee engagement by:

1. Making a safe channel for communication and feedback
2. By recognising the efforts that employees put into their work, so that management can compensate them commensurately. 
3. Establishing clear, aligned performance objectives that the management demands from the workers
4. Providing mobility via growth opportunities
5. Ensuring evaluation and distribution of incentives in an equitable and efficient manner

In Conclusion

In this era, companies are achieving growth organically by enhancing their employees’ potential and making sure that they are committed to what they do by improving employee engagement. Though challenging to gauge, employee engagement is a crucial part of any firm’s success story. Communication, recognition, and alignment of personal and organisational goals are the three essential tools functional in increasing employee engagement.

Read the following blog posts to learn the best practices to develop, improve and sustain employee engagement in your organization.

• How to use Performance Metrics to improve Employee Engagement

• Strategies to Develop and Sustain Employee Engagement