What is Employment Engagement?
The employee engagement means involvement of employees in all the decision making processes like policy formation, changes in policies and so on.
The employee engagement activities is important because it helps not only the company to grow but also is very useful for the overall growth of the employees.
When the subordinates are given a chance to get involved in a process of making decisions at all levels, it is known as employee participation.
Also, it happens at a group as well as individual levels.
When the employees are allowed to participate, the common organizational goals are achieved in a better manner.
The limitations of employee engagement strategy or initiatives may arise externally or internally depending on the participation of the employees.
Importance of Employee Engagement:
“Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business. It’s as simple as that“- Richard Branson
The above mentioned is a key to success, which is believed by most of the top employers around the world. If your employees are happy working in your company, then you can surely see the company grow and prosper.
Though the employees will receive their pays and other perks for the job done, but the emotional attachments which include loyalty, commitment that they have towards their work and company cannot be weighed in any manner. It is something which is unmatchable and an alternate for it is impossible.
The ultimate purpose of employee engagement is to attract and retain top talent. As a stronger workforce leads to the stronger team which acts as an asset to the organization, thus helping the organization grow and develop.
Some of the important tried and tested employee strategies leads to,
- Decrease in employee turnover
- Better productivity
- Finer efficiency
- Retain the best of an employee at a higher rate
- Gain good profits
Steps for Creating an Engaged Organization:
- Have a dedicated employee handbook designed for them
- Prepare an employee engagement survey report regularly
- Provide better and updated engagement ideas
- Accept feedback from your employees
- Provide a safer working environment
- Understand and work on employee views
Employee Engagement Strategies:
Unlike earlier, the relation between employers and employees have been experienced a great change. The best part here is that the percentage of happy working employees is higher when compared to previous years.
The main reason for it are the best employee engagement strategies that are developed by employers for the sake of employee satisfaction and happiness. The main aim of employee engagement strategies are to make the employee feel important and engaged.
As per the survey done in 1990 by Professor William Kahn, employees feel engaged based on the 3 key elements, they are
1. If their work is felt meaningful and effective
2. Feeling confident and completely secured
3. If they are given due respect and are trusted
Best Strategies for Employee Engagement:
Here are a few strategies that are very much needed to improve employee engagement.
- Start from the basics
- Provide a platform for an employee to raise issues and give feedbacks
- Make them feel that they are heard
- Understand the employee’s comfort when working
- Show respect and feel them important
- Share their views and ideas among teams
Employee engagement programs have both advantages and disadvantages and they depend on the implementation of employee participation in different processes of policy and decision making. Now let us have a look at what are the benefits of employee engagement.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Engagement:
| S.no | Advantages of Employee Engagement | Disadvantages of Employee Engagement Strategy |
| 1 | Motivates the individual | The top policies are revealed |
| 3 | Expected output is good | The difficulty to match the IQ level |
| 4 | Creative work is delivered | Security is at a greater risk |
| 5 | Sense of superiority | Liberalizing them |
| 6 | Decision making becomes effective | Making them understand the thing sometimes is very difficult |
| 7 | No extra employees would be needed | Regular updates are to be given |
| 8 | Platform to prove potential | Providing them training |
| 9 | Employees get added value | Expensive procedure for the company |
| 10 | Increases their work capacity | The message turns into rumor very fast |
Advantages of Employee Engagement:
The following mentioned below are a few benefits of employee engagement activities in the workplace.
1. Motivates the individual:
The first and foremost advantage of employee participation is that it helps in motivating the employees. This is because when the employees are said to participate in important meetings they also feel special and get encouraged for delivering good work in the near future. This motivation is one of the best employee engagement benefits
2. Expected output is good:
The performance of the employees gets affected in a positive manner. The employees start performing better after getting motivated. Motivating employees is also very important because it helps in the growth of employees as well as the organization.
3. Creative work is delivered:
The more the participation, the more the work delivered is creative. The employees get a broader sense of perspective which also helps in increasing the creativity of the employees. That creativity is seen in the work though.
When a diverse group of employees will be there to participate in a discussion, it is obvious to get creativity in the work as every person would give his or her own idea and that ultimately will distinguish the work from others.
4. Sense of superiority:
The employees like the subordinate ones when getting a chance to engage in important business activities of the company will feel superior and important. This way the sense of inferiority vanishes and they also gain confidence at the workplace.
The hesitation of being inferior gets away and the confidence of working in the same work environment retains forever. This is one of the benefits employee engagement provides.
5. Decision making becomes effective:
The outlook of the employees get broadens which helps in effective decision making. The decision-making process is not everyone’s cup of tea but when the employees are exposed to the environment where they get motivated for their participation, the decision making ultimately gets strong.
So, the employee participation of engagement of employees in the decision-making process becomes strong and effective.
6. No extra employees would be needed:
When the work of superiors is given to others as well, the need of hiring the other or say extra staff gets vanished. The individual gets a chance to prove their potential as they get a good platform to perform.
So, in one way it also helps in providing a good platform.
7. Platform to prove potential:
The employees get a solid platform to prove their potential. Otherwise, it might be difficult to prove their might because it usually happens that the employees fail to get chances as the same are taken by the other superior ones.
So, for this reason, too it is important to give subordinates a chance to participate in policy making and so on.
8. Employees get added value:
The employees when participating in the different decision-making processes, they get the advantage of added value. Their value increases over the other people in the organization.
Their presence is felt and this is what makes them more happy and motivated. Their motivation ultimately helps in providing good outputs.
9. Increases their work capacity:
It is the motivational things that can help in increasing the capacity of working of the employees. The employees tend to work more as they also become part of the policy making process. The more work ultimately increases their capacity to work and is good for the company in fact.
10. Sense of responsibility increases:
The employees feel a great sense of responsibility when they are given responsibility. Responsibility goes along with the authority.
So, when they are given responsibility, they automatically feel authority to work which is again a sign of positivist.
It is beneficial both for the company as well as the subordinates participating in the decision-making process.
11. The employees are able to focus well:
When employees get more attention and are motivated through various measures, then the employees get happy and are able to focus more on the work.
The subordinate employees usually are not motivated or encouraged to do the work as more attention is paid to the superior employees and indeed naturally they gather more attention for even higher authorities.
So, for this reason, too it is important to let employees participate in the meetings, seminars and even workshops.
12. Novelty in ideas:
More the ideas more will be a great output. All the types of ideas are important to the company because more the ideas, more will the company be able to distinguish itself from the market competitors.
The subordinate can also have an exemplary idea but can only be bought forward when given a chance. So, if the company wishes to get something new, the engagement of subordinates is also important to get quality work.
More the participation more will be the list of ideas and then the work to implement in a manner will be left.
So, above are some of the advantages of having an employee’s participation in the process of decision making and policy formations. Not all organizations allow subordinates to participate due to which they also have to face consequences like all the employees in the company do not get to know the changes in the policies or the plans and they remain aloof from the said policies.
If the lower level employees remain unaware of the new policies then the foundation of the company would remain weak as the lower level employees form the concrete foundation and they are the ones from whom the policies are communicated to the higher levels.
Disadvantages of Employee Engagement Strategy:
If there are advantages then there are also disadvantages of having employee’s engagement. There are always some things which are to be said only to the higher authority employees and not the subordinates. So, it somehow reveals the secrets which are not meant to tell the subordinates. Some of the disadvantages of employee engagement are as follows:
1. The top policies are revealed:
Sometimes there are some policies which are not to be discussed by the company to the subordinates. Some things are to be kept in secrecy so in such a case, it is not good to engage the subordinates into the major discussions or say into the meetings or the workshops and so on.
2. The difficulty to match the IQ level:
The meetings in which high officials sit and discuss, it becomes difficult for the members to match the discussion as per the subordinates. So, this way the conversation gets imbalanced and the difficulty level increases to a larger extent which is not a positive sign as it does not just waste time but also it waste a lot of energy.
3. Security is at greater risk:
Sharing valuable information with a high chunk of employees in an organization can term into greater risk as the chances of getting information leaked is more. Not just this, it also wastes a lot of time and money which is a big disadvantage for the company.
Also, you never know which employee would spread the word about the important information and this is how the information gets leaked which is not good for the health of a company.
4. Liberalizing them:
The subordinates get enough freedom as they are somehow given freedom and authority like superior only. So, freedom should be given as per the responsibility and the authority of the individual.
If the subordinates are given more freedom, there are chances that out of freedom, they might not perform well thinking they are now no longer subordinates as they share equal space like other’s in the meetings and the seminars.
So, for this reason too, it is important not to engage the employees during the discussions.
5. Making them understand the thing sometimes is very difficult:
The content to be discussed in the meeting needs to be communicated to the members. It is easy for the company to make the content easily understand the other members who are regular participants of the meetings but it is very difficult to make the subordinates understand the similar thing. It is because of the position as well as the difference in the experience of the employees.
So, before making the subordinates participate in the discussions, the members will have to make an extra meeting so as to make the concept clear to them.
6. Regular updates are to be given:
For the employees to be participative in the meetings and discussions, it is important for the board of directors to let them know about the context. So, for this reason, it is important to provide updates to the employees or they might act as a deadpan during the meetings. Also, the meetings would not be interactive enough which means the discussion goes in vain.
7. Providing them training:
The subordinates are not always part of the meetings and the discussions, as at times it is difficult to make them understand the concept on which the discussion is to be done. It is possible to make the employees understand the concept one time but for every time it is not possible. So, for that the subordinates need proper training and only then engaging them to the important discussions will be fruitful.
8. Expensive procedure for the company:
Providing training to the subordinates can be an expensive procedure. The training involves proper involvement of money as the preparation of setup is required and also making invitations to invite the employees at the event and all that is needed for providing training to the subordinates. So, it shakes the budget of the company if the extras are invited for the events.
9. The message turns into rumour very fast:
The message given in the meeting to the employees turn into a rumour very fast as the discussion on the topic turns into grapevine communication. The grapevine communication is the one in which the message spreads like the branches of the grapevine and goes in almost every direction.
The message goes in varied directions and even the relevant message turns into the rumour which is not good neither for the company nor for the staff as the wrong message spreads.
10. Chaos and uncertainty increases:
As the traditional authority of management reduces, the uncertainty and chaos increases. This is because of the level of difficulty increases in recognizing the difficulty level between the management and the employees.
The company always has designated leaders to engage during the meetings and however, it is not essential to get the subordinates to do the same thing. So, for this reason, too, it is a disadvantage to engage the employees during the meetings and the vital discussions.
So, above are some of the reasons why employee engagement must be avoided by the company. However, everything has its advantages and disadvantages but the employee engagement has more of advantages than the limitations by improving employee engagement.
This is because the employee’s participation adds to the existing ideas which help in improving the standard and the quality of the work.
More the different ideas a company will generate, more the output and market demand will increase. So, for this reason having employee’s participation is a must and essential.
