Employee Engagement in Organizational Development

 

Introduction

Employee engagement and employee happiness are two different concepts. So the happy employees do not necessarily be engaged employees. Employee engagement can be defined as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals” (Kruse, 2012). Therefore emotionally committed employees genuinely care about their work and goal achievement.

As engaged employees are an asset to every organization, the employee need to focus more on building a culture that enhances employee engagement. Engaged employees provide good quality service to all the stakeholders. and it resulting in higher stakeholder satisfaction. this leads to increase in sales and profits. According to Towers Perrin Research, ""companies with engaged workers have 6% higher net profit margins"(Kruse, 2012).

There are four main elements when concern about employee engagement

1. Commitment - how much an employee associates himself with the organization. They are fascinated by their work and passionate to achieve organizational goals.
2. Motivation - A motivated employee puts the best effort in performing his job role and on the other hand organization too could reward and recognize this effort to further motivate employees.
3. Loyalty - Loyal employees actively engage with the organization and are accountable for every task performed.
4. Trust - Trust prevails in an organization when both the employee and the employer share the same emotional bond to foster the organization. 

(source:Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014)

Employee engagement has emerged as one of the greatest challenges in today’s organizations. With complexities and various regulations in many organizations, employee engagement will continue to challenge organizations. This aspect challenges management because engagement is a vital element in maintaining the organization’s vitality, survival, and profitability. Organizations that have highly engaged employees have greater profits than those that do not have employee engagement. Organizations with highly engaged employees experience increased customer satisfaction, profits, and employee productivity as well.

Conclusion

Employee engagement and organizational performance are significantly inter related. Management and human resource professionals need to grasp the importance of employee engagement for the betterment of the organization and find way of enhancing employee commitment as well. Employee engagement will ultimately result in creating a workforce that genuinely foster success and wellbeing of an organization. Organization with engaged employees have higher employee retention as a result of reduced turnover and productivity, profitability, growth and stakeholder’s satisfaction.

Refernces

Kruse, K. (2012). What Is Employee Engagement. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#5fd451b7f372 [Accessed 1 May 2021].

Osborne, S. and Hammoud, M., 2017. Effective Employee Engagement in the Workplace. [online] Scholarworks.waldenu.edu. Available at: <https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1239&context=ijamt> [Accessed 1 May 2021].