Employee Engagement or Events Management ??

One of the important objective of HR is - Engaging Employees to have a sustain workforce - builds a talented employees committed to the growth of an organization.

Engaged employees are rare. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work

What is ?

Employee engagement first. No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it. That’s why you need to take the measure of employee engagement at least once a year through anonymous surveys in which people feel completely safe to speak their minds.

Jack and Suzy Welch

Why is it important ?

As a HR practitioner we all know the how valued our employees are and there are numerous occasions to celebrate these. Creating a Rewards & Recognition Programs are critical for enhancing the motivation levels of employees both at individual and team level.

When ?

1. Events and Occasions to celebrate
2. Individual Milestones - Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries, Womens Day, Fathers Day etc etc
3. Group Achievements - Team Work, Project Completion, Product Releases etc
4. Company Milestones
5. Large Contract Wins, Clients Appreciation, Turnover / Profitability Achievements

My interactions with HR folks handling employee engagement often reveal the more focus on making more and more events to "engage" employees. If we are to consider the costs and the results in reality they do not quite add up. Attrition continues to happen even in the best of companies who boast of carrying a year long list of activities just to keep the employees connected and engage.

Sadly many feel that employee event management = engaged employee which is a wrong notion. There is no guarantee that the so called parties / outdoor events will eventually culminate bonding between the employees and employer. They are essential but not the only solution to engage highly skilled work force.

Proactively Engaging employees :

Besides having a well thought our plan for events and activities, HR should more focus on how to make employees truly engage themselves and apply at work ! While the events do have a shorter memory lane, it is what the employee perform is more important than their participation in parties and picnics.

In my opinion Companies should provide

• Challenging Work
• Learning Opportunities
• Technical support
• Clearly defined tasks with timelines
• Constant Feed back - good or bad should be given without any hesitation.
• Reward and Recognition for the best performers

Various stages at which Employee Engagement can be implemented include :

• Recruitment
• Training & Learning
• Compensation & Benefits
• Performance Management

Measuring levels of Employee Engagement -

As per Gallup there are 3 types of employees and they fall broadly into -

(a) Engaged

(b) Not Engaged

(c) Highly Dis-engaged.

HR should focus more on how to convert the 2 categories which are not connected with the business objectives and lack a true engagement with the work. Sharing a sample of initiatives of IBM in the link -

http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/10/future-employee-engagement-ibm-triple-benefit-programs/

Infy - Employees Voice ?

Infosys Limited may not be your friendliest neighbour or the most employee-friendly IT company around. But they sure are making amends.

'Infy Bubble', their recently launched internal social networking site is supposedly a platform for disgruntled Infoscions to vent on. The site mirrors Facebook and allows employees to connect across borders with colleagues as well as bicker about anything they want, said Nandita Gurjar, Vice President and Group Head, Human Resources, Infosys Limited.

She added that the site doesn't encourage personal attacks but it does welcome negative feedback about their bosses and peers. The site also allows them to share photographs and other stuff just like they do on Facebook, thus giving them a platform to engage themselves with other employees.

This is one of the internal PR exercises Infosys is conscientiously indulging in to salvage their image. The company has been battling severe criticism and high attrition rates lately.

And, despite rising wages hurting the IT bellwhether's profit margins, it isn't stopping its hiring momentum. Infosys that plans to hire 12,000 employees this quarter has already added 9,992 employees this year.

When asked if this would further affect their revenues, the management strongly responded by saying that they are going as per their yearly target of 45,000 new additions. With the improving business sentiment and revival in IT spends , IT firms are stepping up hiring to meet demand for their services.

The company today posted a 15.72 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,722 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011. During the first quarter, Infosys and its subsidiaries saw over 7,000 employees leaving.

As we know, with increased hiring comes a high rate of attrition. But the company isn't really worried about it. Gurjar says, "This is the quarter when we normally expect employees to go for higher studies. 30% of the employees who have quit cited this reason."

She says, the company can't stop employees from pursuing higher studies. However, they are pondering on how to get them back with acquired skill sets. Gurjar says, "95% of the employees who quit to pursue higher studies actually want to come back. But since we have a structured process they have to undergo the complete interview cycle in the campuses. So may be in the near future we might have a policy where an employee can come back after getting MBA degrees or something else without getting into the complete interview cycle.".

But there is an interesting bit of information that Gurjar revealed. "34% per cent of our total employee workforce is woman. So in this quarter 32% of the woman employees who quit didn't cite any reason for quitting the job. They just wanted to take a break. Now this is something that we want to review."

While they ponder on what's working and what's not, the company is also planning an Infosys radio service through which the management will regularly interact with the employees. Looks like the company is engaging in some serious PR exercises with employees to build a few bridges. But will it curtail attrition? In true Infosys management lingo, "We might have to wait for the next quarter" for an answer.

Our Views :

Infosys has really set a trend which other companies are likely to follow. They are the first company to create a social networking platform to share everything about them, similar to the Facebook. This will increase the interactions between employees fostering better work relationships.

Raghav
Founder

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Why Employee Engagement is a must ?

‘Employee engagement’ has of late been the buzzword in HR corridors.

And rightfully so, as organisations are realising that nothing can be more damaging for any workplace than disgruntled or disengaged employees – and hence, the increased stress on employee engagement.

NS Rajan, partner, EMEIA Leader and National Head, people & organization, Ernst & Young states, “The term ‘employee engagement’ is an evolved version of ‘employee satisfaction’. While satisfaction refers to ‘contentment’, engagement refers to ‘commitment’ and the drive to go beyond the call of duty to work towards organisational goals.”

The performance of an organisation has a strong correlation with employee engagement. More enhanced the engagement levels of employees, better the organisation’s performance, in terms of revenues, profits, productivity, retention and customer satisfaction. Secondly, an engaged employee’s word of mouth creates a positive image of the organisation, thus attracting quality talent to the organisation.

KA Narayan, president HR, Raymond Group states, “The difference between a happening workplace and an uninspiring workplace depends on the levels of employee engagement. The success of an organisation revolves around the percentage of engaged employees.”

Employees in almost every workplace can be bifurcated into four categories: highly engaged, engaged, disengaged and actively disengaged. While engaged employees contribute to the optimum, the disengaged ones just follow the routine - and those who are actively disengaged, go to the extent of disrupting the normal functioning. Rajan believes that the focus should be on classifying issues that impact employee engagement. As per him, the key drivers/pillars can be categorised into:

Areas of Strength

Engagement levels above 80 per cent

Moderate levels of engagement

Engagement levels between 60-80 per cent

As per global studies, employee engagement depends on many factors. The most important among them are:

a. The employee’s own unique psychological makeup and experience

b. The employers’ ability to create conducive conditions enhancing employee engagement

c. Strong internal communication, both top down and bottom up.

Rajan points out that for each organisation, an employee’s needs may vary significantly. For example, in a very young organisation, the driver for employees may be fast career progression, whereas in an organisation with higher average age, the need may be for affiliation and relationships may be higher. In some organisations, due to the DNA of the organisation, quality of work and recognition may be more important than compensation. He adds, “The most commonly used engagement pillars are - job satisfaction, senior leadership, work culture, rewards, affiliation with co-workers, work-life balance, physical work environment, career growth and opportunities.”

Sushil Baveja, group HR head, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd believes that the factors impacting employee engagement can be bifurcated in two heads: professional and personal. He elaborates, “There can be many professional factors but some of the key ones include role and responsibility, development opportunities and growth, reward and recognition, work environment and value system of the organisation. On the personal front, some of the key ones include care and concern, relationships and respect and dignity.”

Source ET

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12 Qs to Measure Employee Engagement

12 Questions to Measure Employee Engagement

Do your opinions seem to count? Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important? Have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Five years ago, The Gallup Organization began creating a feedback system for employers that would identify and measure elements of worker engagement most tied to the bottom line--things such as sales growth, productivity and customer loyalty.

After hundreds of focus groups and thousands of interviews with employees in a variety of industries, Gallup came up with the Q12, a 12-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement. Results from the survey show a strong correlation between high scores and superior job performance. Here are those 12 questions:

Do you know what is expected of you at work?

Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?

At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?

Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?

Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

At work, do your opinions seem to count?

Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?

Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?

Do you have a best friend at work?

In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?

In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1992-1999 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved. Gallup and Q12 are registered trademarks of The Gallup Organization.