Home ›› 08 Nov 2022 ›› Editorial
Employee engagement is an approach at workplaces that motivates employees to stay committed to their organisational goals and to do their best at work. It can broadly be defined as the extent to which employees are invested in their job and put in the amount of effort that is needed to get a job done. Engaged employees are more motivated and productive than their counterparts. Employee engagement has a direct impact on the key business outcomes of an organisation. It helps in building a dynamic, focussed, and skilled workforce that is ready to take challenges head on. Furthermore, an engaged and happy workforce contributes to the brand building and makes it more attractive to job seekers.
There is no doubt that engaged employees are productive than their counterparts but they are also more happy and satisfied with their jobs. They tend to be more diligent, motivated, and passionate about their work . Focusing on employee engagement helps you create a positive workplace culture that drives organisational success and employee productivity. When employees are satisfied with their job responsibilities, they put extra effort into what they are doing and improve their overall performance.
Improved Customer Experience
A customer-centric approach always adds value to an organisation. Focusing on employee engagement helps you fill the gap between how the company treats its employees and how the employees treat their customers. Engaged employees tend to be happier and thus tend to provide a better Customer Experience. When the customers are happy with the service provided to them, it eventually leads to the success of your business.
Much research has shown the relationship between employee engagement and productivity. Organisations that are heavily invested in their employees reap multiple benefits. In the last two years, organisations have understood the importance of employee engagement in the workplace and have started focusing on inculcating engagement initiatives to increase employee productivity. By using employee engagement software, organisations can make a great impact on their workforce and can enhance their overall performance.A comprehensive definition of employee engagement is described as 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.” Employee engagement results in employees who are more committed to their jobs, will do their best even when the manager is not watching, and are willing to go the extra mile. This is why it is said that engaged employees lead to better business outcomes. The positive results of high employee engagement are supported by results from several other studies and surveys from reputable organizations, such as the Harvard Business Review and the American analytics and advisory company Gallup.The views and statistics above prove the role of employee engagement, but what factors should organizations, who are seeking to boost employee engagement, look at. We identify a few below:
The culture of any organization affects how the employees interact with the organization. Thus an important question to ask about the organization is whether a culture of engagement exists. This involves looking at the policies regulating motivation, respect, and empowerment of employees. Also, the organization needs to ensure that employees are clear about the organization's goals, and the role they can play to ensure that these objectives are met.
Managers play a huge role in determining whether employees are committed to the organizations they work for or not. To have a positive role, managers need to exhibit the behaviors and skills that encourage employees to go the extra mile.
Processes
To encourage employee engagement, every organization needs to create processes that make the employee's whole life cycle with the company as smooth as possible. For instance, employees are likely to be engaged when an organization has a seamless onboarding process.
Employees are likely to be enthusiastic if there are processes for sharing information, making resources available, and learning and development. These processes should also be clear about what is needed to progress through the company's ranks. Other important considerations include flexibility, particularly at this time of Covid-19. Apart from having initiatives for employee engagement is vital to ensure that talent is fairly compensated for their effort. People are likely to be less engaged if they believe that their organization is not recognizing their efforts.
To assure you don’t create reputation as a leader that doesn’t engage employees, here are six things to consider to more effectively engage your employees. These are fundamental tips that employees desire from their leaders, and if implemented properly, will stimulate employee engagement that’s been missing.
Stakeholder engagement is the process by which companies communicate and get to know their stakeholders. By getting to know them, companies are able to better understand what they want, when they want it, how engaged they are and how the companies’ plans and actions will affect their goals. Furthermore, they can improve their communication and rethinking their strategies and operations, having long-term benefits such as brand reputation or first mover advantage. Stakeholders are internal or external groups that can affect, directly or indirectly, the activities and performance of an organisation, or vice-versa.
The basic process for engaging with stakeholders is very simple – it consists of just five components. It is implementing the process rigorously that is hard work, and sometimes difficult.
Business people have and often state their professional values openly. By aligning your proposals to my values, you make it hard for me to reject them. Or even greed!
The WAM factor (What About Me?) is always present and, while it may not always be wholly self-serving, I will always want to understand where the benefit to me is in your proposals. Can they help me to further my career, better serve my customers or strengthen my network, for example? The shadow of the future is a powerful incentive to act. Be careful how you use this, but if a credible professional outlines the adverse consequences of one choice, this can make its alternative seem very appealing.
So how can you get started with your stakeholder engagement strategy? In this section, we will look at three simple steps to enhance your communication and ensure the stakeholders to your project are on board.
Most project managers should be able to resonate with this phrase – “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. When it comes to engaging with stakeholders, it’s important to take the time to analyse your stakeholders and consider what kind of communication method would suit them best.
For your project, think of all the different stakeholders involved. Now for each stakeholder, capture the following information:
Are they an internal or external stakeholder?
What are their expectations?
What are their key concerns?
What level of effort is needed? This could be one of four possible actions (adopted from Mendelow’s stakeholder matrix):
To be a sought after project manager, there are certain project management skills -that are a must have – ensuring good communication with your stakeholders is one of them.
Once you have taken the time to analyse your stakeholders, the next step in your stakeholder engagement strategy will be ensuring you’re aligned. Before the project commences take the time to set up a meeting to discuss the core objectives of the project:
What are we looking to achieve?
What are the benefits of the project?
What are the success criteria for the project?
What are each of our roles in supporting the delivery of the project?
What are some of the roadblocks that we anticipate?
Going through the above points collectively can help build a culture of “What’s right, rather than who’s right”, which is a crucial factor in aligning stakeholders.
Communication with your stakeholders works best by establishing key touchpoints for communication. For instance, while some stakeholders such as the project team may need to be updated weekly through face to face or video conferencing meetings, others such as senior executives or managers may prefer less regular updates through a fortnightly email or newsletter update.
This will make your communication more intentional, and your stakeholders will know what to expect, which is a great way to boost their engagement. Here are some questions to ask yourself to ensure you establish the right kind of engagement strategy with your stakeholders.
What aspects of the project does the stakeholder need to know about?
What is their desired frequency and medium of communication?
Are there any recurring meetings/catch ups to discuss key project reports?
How are project issues and risks communicated?
What is the escalation process to resolve any open concerns?
When it comes to ensuring effective engagement with your stakeholders, tailoring communication to each individual or group is essential. When drafting your engagement strategy, also ensure there are avenues available for any issues or problems to be raised.
The writer is MD and CEO of Community Bank. He can be contacted at masihul1811@gmail.com
