Report on Contemporary Issues on Human Resource

Management

Topic: Employee Engagement

Submitted to: Submitted By:

Mr.pankaj upadhaya amit raj sethi

Roll no.4

Isbe-aSec:fd1

1

SR. NO. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1 Objectives of the study

Introduction to Employee engagement

Employee Engagement Facts

Communicating Employee Engagement: The Three Workers Story

Aspects of Employee Engagement

Categories of Employee Engagement

Importance of Engagement

Factors Leading to Employee Engagement Employee Engagement Model

Benefits and Importance of Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement and Absenteeism -

Understanding the Reasons Behind Absent

Employees

Why Employee Engagement is really Important

Strategies to Improve Employee Engagement and

Productivity

Beliefs About Employee Engagement

Key Drivers Of Employee Engagement

The Four Intrinsic Rewards That Drive Employee

Engagement

Misconceptions About Employee Engagement

1

2

3

4

7

7

8

10

15

17

24

26

29

31

32

33

38

2 Review of Literature 42

3 Current Scenario: How Various Organizations are

Adopting Employee Engagement Practices

Google

50

50

2

Sun Microsystem

Tata Consultancy Services

3M

eRevMax

54

55

60

62

4 Research Methodology 65

5 Best Practices for Employee Engagement 66

6 Recommendations 68

7 Bibliography 69

3

ABSTRACT

Employee Engagement is a barometer measuring the association of the person in the

organization. There was always being people who never give their best efforts no matter how HR

and line managers try to engage them. It‟s the practice done in organizations from years itself.

“But for the most part employees want to commit to companies because doing so satisfies

powerful and a basic need in connect with and contribute to something significant”

Physical, cognitive and emotional involvement in a role.

Related construct to engagement in OB is Notion of Flow. Flow is a holistic sensation‟

that, people feel when they act with total involvement. Flow is the state in which there is

little distinction between the self and environment.

Employee Engagement which is more on cognitive side whereas engagement is built on

emotions at work place and how one is treated in the organization.

Level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and

its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context. Works with team to

improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization.

The organization must nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship and

thus different from Organizational Citizenship.

4

Objectives of the Study

The main purpose behind making this report is to collect the secondary data and understand the

contemporary issues related to EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT. This topic was allotted to me

by my teacher Mr.Pankaj Upadhayay and I thank her sincerely for giving me this opportunity to

learn more about this topic. The various objectives behind studying the concept of Employee

Engagement are:

To understand the meaning and the whole concept of this contemporary HR issue i.e.

Employee Engagement.

To know what are te various factors which lead to happy and committed workforce and

hepls to keep them engaged.

To know how employee engagement is related with employee absentism,

To study the various prior researches which have been done on this topic and to find out

the various issues related with this concept.

To know what are the benefits and the importance of employees rather engaged

employees in an organization and how they are an asset to an organization.

To discover what is the extent of employee engagement practices in the various top

organizations around the world i.e. what theya re doing to engage their workforce and

how it is benefitting them. It means to find out what is the current scenario in the industry

Give various recommendations which the companies can do in order to engage its

employees.

5

INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

“When they are there, they are there.”

Employee engagement, also called work engagement or worker engagement, is a business

management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic

about, his or her work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests.

Definition: 

Definition Employee engagement involves commitment, loyalty, pride in the organization, a

willingness to advocate for the organization, and a sense of personal responsibility. Like

satisfaction, employee engagement is changeable. It is capable of being greatly influenced and

thus can vary considerably among organizational units, among companies, and over time.

Engagement is defined by the state in which individuals are emotionally and intellectually

committed to the organization or group, as measured by three primary behaviors:

6

ENGAGEMENT IS

‘a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation

and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context,

and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job

for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to

develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way

relationship between employer and employee.’

Say—The employee consistently speaks positively about the organization to coworkers

and refers potential employees and customers;

Stay—The employee has an intense desire to be a member of the organization, despite

opportunities to work elsewhere; and

Strive—The employee exerts extra effort and exhibits behaviors that contribute to

business success.

By understanding what drives engagement and the relative impact each factor has on improving

(or lowering) the current engagement level, organizations can plan how to best allocate resources

to motivate talent to continually excel.

Employee Engagement Facts

1. Engagement is consistently shown as something given by the employee which can benefit

the organisation through commitment and dedication, advocacy, discretionary effort,

using talents to the fullest and being supportive of the organisation’s goals and values.

Engaged employees feel a sense of attachment towards their organisation, investing

themselves not only in their role, but in the organisation as a whole.

2. Engaged employees are more likely to stay with the organisation, perform 20 per cent

better than their colleagues and act as advocates of the business. Engagement can

enhance bottom‐line profit and enable organisational agility and improved efficiency in

driving change initiatives. Engaged individuals invest themselves fully in their work,

with increased self‐efficacy and a positive impact upon health and well‐being, which in

turn evokes increased employee support for the organisation.

3. Engagement levels can vary according to different biographical and personality

characteristics. Younger employees may be positive when they first join an organisation,

but can quickly become disengaged. Highly extravert and adaptable individuals find it

easier to engage. Engagement is a choice, dependent upon what the employee considers

is worth investing themselves in.

7

4. Engagement levels vary according to seniority, occupation and length of service in an

organisation but not by sector. The more senior an individual’s role, the greater the

chance of being engaged. Presidents, managers, operational and hands‐on staff tend to be

the most engaged, professionals and support staff the least, but this varies between

organisations.

5. There are seven commonly referenced drivers of engagement: the nature of the work

undertaken, work that has transparent meaning and purpose, development opportunities,

receiving timely recognition and rewards, building respectful and assertive relationships,

having open two‐way communication systems and inspiring leadership.

6. There are a variety of measures of engagement available. However, the lack of a clear

definition of employee engagement and the differing requirements of each organisation

means there is likely to be considerable variation in what is measured in these surveys.

7. Being satisfied at work is a weaker predictor of business outcomes than engagement and

lacks the two‐way reciprocal relationship characteristic of engagement. There is a very

strong relationship between organisational citizenship and engagement, as both focus

upon going beyond the expected. Both engagement and the psychological contract have a

cognitive and emotional element and can depict the two‐way employee‐employer

relationship.

Communicating Employee Engagement: The Three Workers Story

"What are you doing?" A passerby asked of three workers working on a building under

construction.

The first worker, looking tired and drained, replied, "I'm just cutting stone."

8

The second worker, looking resigned to his ordeal, answered, "I’m just making a living. I have to

put food on the table everyday for my family."

The third worker, who was singing, looked up to the sky and shouted, "I'm building a cathedral!"

Are you just cutting stone at work? Is that why you're often drained of energy and void of

enthusiasm?

Are you just trying to make a living? Is that why you find no excitement or larger

meaning in what you do?

Or are you building or doing something great, and in the process getting consumed by the

passion and promise of doing something bigger than yourself?

This simple story demonstrates the meaning of employee engagement and its effect on attitude

and performance. It also shows the importance of committing to an inspiring vision and the

power of purpose

INTRODUCTION

Engagement at work was conceptualized by Kahn, (1990) as the ‘harnessing of organizational

members’ selves to their work roles. In engagement, people employ and express themselves

physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. The second related construct

to engagement in organizational behavior is the notion of flow advanced by Csikszentmihalyi

(1975, 1990). Csikzentmihalyi (1975) defines flow as the ‘holistic sensation’ that, people feel

when they act with total involvement. Flow is the state in which there is little distinction between

the self and environment. When individuals are in Flow State little conscious control is necessary

for their actions.

Employee engagement is the thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee has

towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context,

and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the

organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a

9

two-way relationship between employer and employee.’ Thus Employee engagement is a

barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization

Engagement is most closely associated with the existing construction of job involvement (Brown

1996) and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Job involvement is defined as ‘the degree to which the

job situation is central to the person and his or her identity (Lawler & Hall, 1970). Kanungo

(1982) maintained that job involvement is a ‘Cognitive or belief state of Psychological

identification. Job involvement is thought to depend on both need saliency and the potential of a

job to satisfy these needs. Thus job involvement results form a cognitive judgment about the

needs satisfying abilities of the job. Jobs in this view are tied to one’s self image. Engagement

differs from job in as it is concerned more with how the individual employees his/her self during

the performance of his / her job. Furthermore engagement entails the active use of emotions.

Finally engagement may be thought of as an antecedent to job involvement in that individuals

who experience deep engagement in their roles should come to identify with their jobs.

When Kahn talked about employee engagement he has given important to all three aspects

physically, cognitively and emotionally. Whereas in job satisfaction importance has been more

given to cognitive side.

HR practitioners believe that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels

about the about work experience and how he or she is treated in the organization. It has a lot to

do with emotions which are fundamentally related to drive bottom line success in a company.

There will always be people who never give their best efforts no matter how hard HR and line

managers try to engage them. “But for the most part employees want to commit to companies

because doing so satisfies a powerful and a basic need in connect with and contribute to

something significant”.

10

Aspects of Employee Engagement

Three basic aspects of employee engagement according to the global studies are:-

The employees and their own unique psychological make up and experience

The employers and their ability to create the conditions that promote employee

engagement

Interaction between employees at all levels.

Thus it is largely the organization’s responsibility to create an enviro nment and culture

conducive to this partnership, and a win-win equation.

Categories of Employee Engagement

There are three basic categories in which the employees are categorised on the basis of their

commitment, loyalty, pride in the organization and the ability to do work. These categories are:

Engaged- "Engaged" employees are builders. They want to know the desired expectations for

their role so they can meet and exceed them. They're naturally curious about their company and

their place in it. They perform at consistently high levels. They want to use their talents and

strengths at work every day. They work with passion and they drive innovation and move their

organization forward.

Not Engaged- Not-engaged employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals and

outcomes they are expected to accomplish. They want to be told what to do just so they can do it

and say they have finished. They focus on accomplishing tasks vs. achieving an outcome.

Employees who are not-engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their

potential is not being tapped. They often feel this way because they don't have productive

relationships with their managers or with their coworkers.

11

Actively Disengaged- The "actively disengaged" employees are the "cave dwellers." They're

"Consistently against Virtually Everything." They're not just unhappy at work; they're busy

acting out their unhappiness .They sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. Every day,

actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. As workers

increasingly rely on each other to generate products and services, the problems and tensions that

are fostered by actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization's

functioning .

Importance of Engagement

Engagement is important for managers to cultivate given that

disengagement or alienation is central to the problem of workers’ lack of

commitment and motivation (Aktouf). Meaningless work is often associated

with apathy and detachment from ones works (Thomas and Velthouse). In

such conditions, individuals are thought to be estranged from their selves

(Seeman, 1972) .Other Research using a different resource of engagement

(involvement and enthusiasm) has linked it to such variables as employee

12

turnover, customer satisfaction – loyalty, safety and to a lesser degree,

productivity and profitability criteria (Harter, Schnidt & Hayes, 2002).

An organization’s capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to

achieve high performance levels and superior business results. Some of the advantages of

Engaged employees are:

Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its

products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success.

They will normally perform better and are more motivated.

There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability.

They form an emotional connection with the company. This impacts their attitude

towards the company’s clients, and thereby improves customer satisfaction and service

levels

It builds passion, commitment and alignment with the organization’s strategies and goals.

Increases employees’ trust in the organization.

Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment.

Provides a high-energy working environment.

Boosts business growth.

Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company.

A highly engaged employee will consistently deliver beyond expectations. In the workplace

research on employee engagement (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002) have repeatedly asked

employees ‘whether they have the opportunity to do what they do best everyday’. While one in

five employees strongly agree with this statement. Those work units scoring higher on this

perception have substantially higher performance.

Thus employee engagement is critical to any organization that seeks to retain valued employees.

The Watson Wyatt consulting companies has been proved that there is an intrinsic link between

employee engagement, customer loyalty, and profitability. As organizations globalize and

become more dependent on technology in a virtual working environment, there is a greater need

to connect and engage with employees to provide

13

them with an organizational ‘identity.’

Factors Leading to Employee Engagement

Studies have shown that there are some critical factors which lead to Employee engagement.

Some of them identified are:

Career Development- Opportunities for Personal Development

Organizations with high levels of engagement provide employees with opportunities to develop

their abilities, learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and realise their potential. When

companies plan for the career paths of their employees and invest in them in this way their

people invest in them.

Career Development – Effective Management of Talent

14

Career development influences engagement for employees and retaining the most talented

employees and providing opportunities for personal development.

Leadership- Clarity of Company Values

Employees need to feel that the core values for which their companies stand are unambiguous

and clear.

Leadership – Respectful Treatment of Employees

Successful organizations show respect for each employee’s qualities and contribution –

regardless of their job level.

Leadership – Company’s Standards of Ethical Behaviour

A company’s ethical stand ards also lead to engagement of an individual

Empowerment

Employees want to be involved in decisions that affect their work. The leaders of high

engagement workplaces create a trustful and challenging environment, in which employees are

encouraged to dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy and to input and innovate to move the

organization forward.

Image

How much employees are prepared to endorse the products and services which their company

provides its customers depends largely on their perceptions of the quality of those goods and

services. High levels of employee engagement are inextricably linked with high levels of

customer engagement

Other factors

Equal Opportunities and Fair Treatment

The employee engagement levels would be high if their bosses (superiors) provide equal

opportunities for growth and advancement to all the employees

15

Performance appraisal

Fair evaluation of an employee’s performance is an important criterion for determining the level

of employee engagement. The company which follows an appropriate performance appraisal

technique (which is transparent and not biased) will have high levels of employee engagement.

Pay and Benefits

The company should have a proper pay system so that the employees are motivated to work in

the organization. In order to boost his engagement levels the employees should also be provided

with certain benefits and compensations.

Health and Safety

Research indicates that the engagement levels are low if the employee does not feel secure while

working. Therefore every organization should adopt appropriate methods and systems for the

health and safety of their employees.

Job Satisfaction

Only a satisfied employee can become an engaged employee. Therefore it is very essential for an

organization to see to it that the job given to the employee matches his career goals which will

make him enjoy his work and he would ultimately be satisfied with his job.

Communication

The company should follow the open door policy. There should be both upward and downward

communication with the use of appropriate communication channels in the organization. If the

employee is given a say in the decision making and has the right to be heard by his boss than the

engagement levels are likely to be high.

Family Friendliness

16

A person’s family life influences his wok life. When an employee realizes that the organization

is considering his family’s benefits also, he will have an emotional attachment with the

organization which leads to engagement

Co-operation

If the entire organization works together by helping each other i.e. all the employees as well as

the supervisors co-ordinate well than the employees will be engaged.

The Principles of Employee Engagement for Change  

1. People Are Not Assets or Resources

In its essence, Employee Engagement is a "People-First" way of working and

managing. It must not be viewed as a process to achieve some financial gains or goals

for the organization. Turning the process away from a focus on people-first will

ensure failure.

People are not "assets" or "resources" the organization owns or manages.

People are the organization. The Organization is nothing but people. People manage

the organization. The organization does not manage people.

This qualitative shift in the way we view the organization and the people who manage

it is necessary for the success of any employee engagement initiative.

Change is about people, not process, technology, or numbers. Financial results do

not engage people. Engaged people achieve financial results, and every other

worthwhile value for the organization.

2. We must become the change we want to see in the world 

This is what Gandhi, the great leader of India's independence, said. Our Employee

Engagement for Change Program puts this powerful concept to work by asking people to

become the change they are talking about. People are asked to take a pledge to refrain from

17

three negative behaviors (complaining, criticizing, and gossiping) in the first three weeks of

the program.

After experiencing the power of change first-hand in themselves, people then move to make

the changes needed in their workplace.

3. Change Is Positive and Carries Its Own Rewards

Employees do not resist change. They resist the way some in management try to

change them. Employees embrace the change that they participate in making.

The Employee Engagement for Change Program is designed to make organizational change a

positive and exciting process. It integrates fun and camaraderie in every aspect and every step

of the process. People don't have to be dragged to participate. They ask for it and invite others

to join in. There is nothing as powerful and meaningful for people as the feeling that they are

the ones in control of their own change and of the changes they create for the organization.

4. Work Outside the Box with a Bias for Action

The Employee Engagement for Change Program puts creativity in the change process: The

activities and exercises we use as part of the Change Program are designed to push

participants beyond their comfort zone of traditional thinking and business-as-usual

limitations. We invite participants to think and work outside the box. And they invariably do.

In the Employee Engagement for Change Program, we have a bias for action. We don't

submerge people in weeks and weeks of writing a detailed "strategic plan" that ends up

collecting dust on executives' desks. We involve people to quickly experience the power of

change first in themselves, in their own behavior.

People then move, with their just acquired self-confidence and sense of success, to confront

the aspects of the business that need to be changed. They learn on the job. They gain from

experience. They grow and achieve dramatic results.

18

Employee Engagement Model

Employee Engagement Model shows how to unleash productive energy with inspirational

leadership.

A variety of engagement models have emerged over the years, yet many of them broadly define

engagement and thereby use measures that do not differ much from the traditional assessments of

satisfaction that have existed for decades. These measures focus heavily on attachment issues –

intent to stay, pride in the company, overall satisfaction – which can produce misleading results

and leave organizations with a false sense of employee engagement.

19

Employee Insights believes the essence of engagement is productive energy, not attachment,

with inspirational leadership at all levels as the key driving force behind unleashing this power

from employees. Employees exhibiting productive energy are willing to “go the extra mile” to

move the organization forward. They demonstrate behaviors that lead to powerful organizational

outcomes such as increased productivity and innovation, greater customer satisfaction, improved

work efficiency, higher retention rates, and ultimately, better financial performance.

Approach includes a full range of engagement drivers

To help you increase engagement, we must understand not only the drivers that are common

across organizations and industries (inspirational leadership), but also those factors unique to

your business (work environment/cultural attributes). These drivers span the full range of

organizational and managerial practices and include topics such as the work itself, interpersonal

relationships, growth and development opportunities, communication, rewards and recognition

and respect.

By measuring a wide range of attributes, you can identify the most powerful predictors of

engagement for your organization and focus your efforts on those actions that will have the

quickest and greatest impact. 

Employee Engagement Begins from Day 1

Research has proved that employee engagement begins from day one. Preparing employees for

their new roles and communicating how they can help the firm meets its goals can go a long way

toward determining whether new employees ultimately succeed. The main requirement is to

focus on improving communication, both to managers who do hiring and to employee's

themselves. Thus for this their should be structured inductions.

Organizations seeking ways to build a motivated, satisfied and engaged workforce should start

by putting in place structured and well-planned orientation programmes for their new

employees.

Satisfied workforce and the engaged workforce

20

 A person who is engaged may not be satisfied while a person who is satisfied may not be

engaged. There's lot of difference between an employee being satisfied and employee being

engaged. An employee may be satisfied with the facilities that he is getting and that would be

sufficient enough to continue with the organization. On the other hand an employee may be

100% engaged to his work yet may not be satisfied one of the reason could be that he does not

have a supportive boss.

Benefits and Importance of Employee Engagement

Increasing competition from current competitors and new market entrants, cost pressures,

innovations in products and technology, emerging brands, globalisation, changing consumer

buying patterns and service expectations, shareholder value and City expectations. These are just

some of the challenges facing every business and most will be on your senior team's agenda in

some form or other right now.

Many organisations struggle with both the range of challenges and need to adapt quickly to an

ever-changing business environment. This often leads to many initiatives being run

simultaneously. This usually results in disjointed and conflicting initiatives that confuse

employees and deliver little real improvement.

So how can employee engagement help?

Employee engagement is the sum total of the work place behaviour demonstrated by the people.

Such behaviour is characterised by:

Belief in the organisation

Drive to work to make things better

Understanding of business context

Respect and support for others

Desire to learn new skills.

21

The level of employee engagement affects key results such as sales, customer satisfaction,

innovation and employee turnover. An engaged workforce is capable of delivering sustained

differentiation and a significant competitive advantage.

Key benefits of employee engagement:

Better performance. Engaged employees work smarter, not harder. They keep looking

for ways to improve performance and they keep finding them. This means more sales,

lower costs, better quality and innovative products.

Better communication. Engaged employees communicate – they share information with

colleagues, they pass on ideas, suggestions and advice and they speak up for the

organisation. This leads to better performance, greater innovation and happier customers.

Greater customer satisfaction. Engaged employees go out of their way to meet

customers’ needs. Customers aren’t slow to notice and this leads to higher levels of

repeat business, at a lower cost to the business than that of acquiring a new customer.

Better team-working. Employee engagement is about increasing the employees

connection with the principles, strategies, processes, culture and purpose of the

organisation. It is a matter of commitment and encouragement. It is a matter of focusing

on business results, and the employees having a clear sense of responsibility for

delivering on the business agenda.

Greater commitment and team working. Engaged employees really care about the

future of the organisation they work for, they feel proud to work for the company and

they get on better with their colleagues.

Lower employee turnover and greater ability to recruit great people. Engaged

employees don’t leave, despite offers to work elsewhere and they actively seek out new

people who they believe can help the company get even better.

Now, the benefits and the importance of Employee Engagement has been broadly classified into

two major heads i.e. what are the benefits and the importance of employee engagement to the

organization and on the other hand what are the various benefits to the various employees and

the individuals in the organisation.

22

Value Added to the   Company

Increased productivity - employees return refreshed and inspired. Line managers report

greater productivity in returning employees.

Improved employee compentency - the experience can build 'soft skills' that simply

cannot be taught in a training room environment. Participants report an increase in

confidence across all aspects of their lives, making them more effective at their jobs.

Improvements are common in areas such as team building, communication, analytical

thinking, leadership, diplomacy, flexibility, conflict resolution, change-readiness,

problem solving, and listening.

Recruitment - research indicates that if faced with a decision between two equal

companies, highly qualified staff will opt for the one with the better environmental

performance/stance. The programme forms part of value proposition to graduate recruits

(CPI Shell Research 2005).

Retention - Demonstrating commitment to corporate citizenship is likely to be a string

factor in retaining staff. Aligning individual's personal values with those of the company

is a powerful motivator.

Enhanced corporate pride - through demonstrating a commitment to sustainable

development, partners engender a feeling of corporate pride amongst their employees.

Investing in the programme also sends a clear message that staff development is high on

the organisation's agenda. 

Integrate fellowship into HR practice - when programmes are embedded in the

partner's HR strategy, they can become an important part of professional development

plans. 

Motivational driver - placements can be used as a reward for employees in a way that

pay does not. 

23

Identify internal champions for change - employee engagement programmes help CR

practitioners to identify and develop internal 'champions' who can be a driving force for

change within the organisation. 

Attrition is the number of people leaving the organization and it's a well-known fact that

is one of the major problem being faced by the organizations be it any sector. An engaged

workforce definitely has less chances of leaving the organization, a person who is

engaged in his work is likely to stick to the company as he offers his best and as result of

which the organizations takes due care of him in the form of hike in salary by way of

incentives and bonus. Attrition is likely to come down in the organization, which have

engaged workforce and this will get in the likely benefits for the organization.

Productivity is the output of the workers in the form of work done by them its not the

quantity that matters it's the quality that is of importance for the organization. An

engaged workforce has an understanding of what is expected of them at work so thus

they are able to carry on their task effectively and efficiently thus adding to the

productivity of the organization and thus adding to the growth and success of the

organization.

Profitability is the ability of a company to earn a profit. It is a relative measure of

success for a business. Research has proved that an engaged workforce is likely to result

in an increase in the profitability of the concern as they have complete dedication and

commitment to their work and thus this is likely to result in an increase in the profit of the

concern and thus ensuring the success of the organization. The organizations now days

take all reasonable steps to ensure that they have engaged workforce like organizing

birthday bashes, talent shows, sports activities and many other things. They want their

employees to be committed to their work fully besides all the above activities they also

make sure that the employees have role clarity, get all the material and equipment they

require to perform their work efficiently etc. 

The employee must feel that there is somebody in the organizations who

cares for him and wants his success and growth. 

Benefits to The Individual

24

Learning about sustainability - discover more about the challenges that the natural

world faces and learn what sustainability means to you and your workplace.

Professional development - enhanced by learning and applying new skills.

Broadening perspectives -  meet people from different nationalities, backgrounds and

cultures and form lifelong bonds.

Lead the way - first step to becoming an internal environment champion within your

organisation.

Be part of the solution - enjoy a hands-on, pro-active experience, rather than hearing

about the issues through the news.

See something different - a refreshing and stimulating change of scenery for desk bound

employees.

Employee engagement activities / programs

Picnic at regular intervals

Movie at interval of 2 months

A daily column, written by CEO, on the intranet with company announcements /

programs etc.

Update via an overhead paging system, which is used to recognize employees for

significant business achievements.

Employee suggestion systems / quick responses.

Replay on the intranet about the president’s / CEO’s press conference.

Live version of internal house magazine.

CEO spending time in face to face communication with staff.

CEO based FAQ questions on company business.

ONLINE “ask the CEO” mailbox.

Monthly staff awards

25

Annual staff awards

Weekly blog related to serious business issues and staff to read / comments.

Appointment of disaster management team

Appointment of emergency management team

Problem solving committee.

Quality assurance committee.

Conducting soft skills training program as well as required training programs

Online real-time tracking of progress. Employees can view company progress towards

targets / goals.

Provide long term strategic vision for business growth.

Indoor Games as well as Outdoor games, like Chess, Cricket, Badminton etc..

Celebration of Employees Birthday

9 Ways to Keep Employees Engaged

1. Let go of any negative opinions you may have about your employees. Approach each of

them as a source of unique knowledge with something valuable to contribute to your

company. Remember that you're co-creating the achievement of a vision with them.

2. Make sure your employees have everything they need to do their jobs. Remember when

you started a new school year and you'd prepare by getting all new school supplies? Why not

build just such an opportunity into your department by simply asking each staff member, "Do

you have everything you need to be as competent as you can be?" Remember, just as

marketplace and customer needs can change daily, so can your employees' needs.

3. Clearly communicate what's expected of employees, what the company values and

vision are, and how the company defines success. Employees can't perform well or be

productive if they don't clearly know what it is they're there to do and the part they play in

the overall success of the company. Be sure to communicate your expectations--and to do it

often.

4. Get to know your employees, especially their goals, their stressors, what excites them

and how they each define success. I'm not suggesting you pry too deeply or start counseling

26

your staff. What I'm suggesting is that you show an interest in their well being and that, when

appropriate, you do what it takes to enable them to feel more fulfilled and better balanced.

5. Make sure they're trained--and retrained--in problem solving and conflict resolution

skills. These critical skills will help them interact better with you, their co-workers,

customers and suppliers. It's common sense--better communication reduces stress and

increases positive outcomes.

6. Constantly ask how you're doing in your employees' eyes. I know it can be difficult for

managers to request employee feedback, and it can be equally if not more challenging for an

employee to give the person who evaluates them an honest response. To develop this skill

and model it for your employees, begin dialogs with employees using such conversation

starters as, "It's one of my goals to constantly improve myself as a manager. What would you

like to see me do differently? What could I be doing to make your job easier?" Be sure to

accept feedback graciously and express appreciation.

7. Pay attention to company stories and rituals. Are people laughing ateach other or with

each other? Do they repeat stories of success or moments of shame? Stay away from

participating in discussions that are destructive to people or the organization, and keep

success stories alive.

8. Reward and recognize employees in ways that are meaningful to them. This is another

reason why getting to know your employees is so important. Remember to celebrate both

accomplishments and efforts to give employees working on long-term goals a boost.

9. Be consistent for the long haul. If you start an engagement initiative and then drop it, your

efforts will backfire, creating employee estrangement. People are exhausted and exasperated

from program du jour initiatives that engage their passion and then fizzle out when a business

owner gets bored with it. There's a connection between an employee's commitment to an

initiative and an owner's commitment to supporting it. An owner's ongoing commitment to

keeping people engaged, involved in and excited about the work they do and the challenges

they face must be a daily priority.

Ultimately, you must keep in mind that employees are a company's greatest assets. Their

collective ideas, feedback and enthusiasm for what they do can help your business grow and

succeed. Some people are naturally wired to give their all and do their best no matter where they

work. But the majority of people require the guidance of skilled managers who welcome their

27

ideas, ask for feedback and generate enthusiasm in order to have a sense of purpose and energy

about what they do.

Employee Engagement and Absenteeism - Understanding

the Reasons Behind Absent Employees

An engaged employee is less likely to be habitually absent. Absenteeism is an organizational,

and possibly a managerial, leadership issue that can undermine productivity and morale of

present employees. Be sure, however, that the absent employee isn’t also a very results-driven

employee. If they are able to be absent and be effective, it is likely their strengths are not being

utilized. An engaged employee is involved in and enjoys their work. There are a variety of

organizational development theories on how to improve employee engagement. Several will be

examined here.

Identifying the Effects of Absenteeism and Lack of Engagement: There are numerous ways

that absent, disengaged employees affect the workplace:

Decreased Productivity. A team is composed of people doing interrelated tasks. If one fails to

deliver, it creates a domino effect on productivity. When a person is absent and is integral to

daily work functions, others take their place and their own primary responsibilities and

motivation suffer.

Demoralized Employees. Those same employees who are at least present, even if not fully

engaged, lose enthusiasm for their work and respect for the organization’s leadership if

absenteeism is not corrected. Additionally, if the reality that they are compensating for the

missing employee is not recognized, morale, engagement and retention are also at further risk.

Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction. It’s obvious, but employees are the backbone of any

organization and its customer service. As productivity and morale decline, so too will customer

loyalty and satisfaction.

Ways to Engage Employees and Reduce Absenteeism

28

1. Ask employees what they want and need. Suggestion boxes, town halls, and surveys that

seek anonymous feedback about the workplace provide information about interest and

engagement among employees. Be prepared for surprises. What management thinks is

most important to employees isn’t always.

2. Implement the items that are possible. Many of these suggestions are free or

inexpensive. Research shows that most employees struggle with a work/life balance and

any concessions or programs that can be offered for workplace flexibility will likely be

appreciated.

Casual Fridays or a spontaneous jeans day, allowing interested employees to cross-train in

other departments is engaging and succession planning, conducting meetings outdoors when

possible on nice days-these are all free. Time off for community involvement, additional

education, and recreational events can be inexpensive ways to make employees feel involved

with their organization. Engaged employees are absent less often.

3. Spontaneously and religiously reward great results! Recognition of good work should

not be saved for annual merit increases and performance reviews. Recognition does not

have to be monetary. In fact, some studies show that monetary rewards are less effective

than verbal praise, particularly in front of peers. All employees provide some benefit to

the organization. Take time to note a particularly well-worded memo, a project completed

under budget, a kindness extended from one employee to another. Be aware of the team!

Additional types of recognition can include small bonuses, gift certificates for goods or

services, an afternoon off. A recognized employee is less likely to be absent.

4. Be aware of employee’s life issues. Human Resources can guide managers on what types

of life events are protected by law, but also be aware and as cooperative as possible when

employees are undergoing significant personal life issues: illness, death, divorce, care of

an older parent. Enforce absenteeism policies, but do so effectively and judiciously.

Other employees are watching how someone struggling is treated and it will impact their

impression of the organization. However, the employee who is clearly just disinterested

and disrespectful does need to be disciplined and/or dismissed to eliminate the many

issues above.

29

5. Leaders are role models. Employees model their behavior on their managers’ more than

the employee handbook. Managers should be on time but not expect entry level

employees to put in the same 10-12 hour work days they might. Those expectations breed

resentment and a lack of understanding about the differences between employees and

management.

6. Provide a good working environment. As much as possible, make sure the environment

employees work in is clean, technologically updated and pleasant with ergonomically

correct office furniture or machinery.Providea lounge where they eat or relax, a television

for break time and give them input on what they need.

7. Keep the lines of communication open. If an employee seems disengaged or is habitually

absent, having the proper communication relationship in place in advance is imperative.

While maintaining appropriate boundaries, a strong leader is able to address issues

directly as they happen and coach an employee safely to a more engaged place at work.

Be flexible and proactive in devising short-term solutions like working from home, non-

traditional hours or a reduced work week.

The key to an engaged work force that is present and invested in the success of the organization

is consulting them routinely on what they need to be engaged. Address issues early and directly

while building an environment that employees are more likely to care about.

Why is Employee Engagement Really IMPORTANT???????

The fact is that if people are not fully engaged they are leaving something on the plate. This is

waste and, with surveys showing levels of employee disengagement running at around 80%, is

clearly significant and creates a 'black hole' of unrecognised and hidden costs. The whole

concept of lean management is about eliminating waste and yet this waste - the waste of human

economic potential - is rarely considered.

But, before delving into the implications of this, let's take a moment to ensure we share a

common understanding of the term 'employee engagement'.

30

The term can best be summed up by the story of President JF Kennedy asking a NASA janitor

what he did and being told, "I help put people on the moon." That janitor was engaged, and thus

a fully engaged employee is someone who: 

Gives 100% effort;

Is intellectually and emotionally bonded with the organisation;

Feels passionate about the organization's goals and values.

From this it is self-evident that if you don't have engaged employees you are wasting a portion of

your salary costs. However, the problem runs much deeper than that because there are additional

consequential costs that arise from people not giving it their all. This is not the time and place to

try to produce an exhaustive list, and I am sure you could create a list of your own if you really

thought about it.

Suffice to say that employee disengagement is estimated to have cost the UK economy £59.4-

64.7 billion in 2008, which seems to be consistent with earlier estimates that placed the drain on

the US economy at around $300 billion. This is clearly why government is taking a greater

interest in the subject, especially in the current economic climate. And, while your business may

not be as bad as employee engagement surveys indicate, it could still be a problem that is causing

you to hemorrhage hidden, unnecessary costs. So whether you are going through tough times, or

not, this is certainly an issue that you need to be giving your full attention.

If, however, you are not convinced, let's look at it from two other perspectives.

Firstly, let us assume that: 

You employ 100 people; and

Your business conforms with the results of the latest employee engagement survey and

thus has only 20% of your people engaged.

The average disengaged employee contributes 60% of what they are truly capable of

contributing to their work effort.

For the purposes of this exercise, there is a standard measure of human power that

equates to 1% engagement.

31

This means that people efficiency is effectively as follows:

20 x 100% = 2,000 'manpower units'

80 x 60% = 4,800 'manpower units'

Total 6,800 'manpower units'

Possible total = 10,000 'manpower units'

The simple arithmetic suggests that you are only getting 68% value for your total wage bill and

are operating at a 68% efficiency level. Now of course the figures have no empirical value, but

the logic does and has profound implications. Can you imagine what the effect on your bottom

line would be if you could increase that figure?

Now let's take it a stage further and answer the following questions for your business. 

How many executives does your business employ?

How much time do these executives spend with your customers?

How much time do these executives spend on day-to-day operational problems?

How many people do you employ?

How much time do they spend on the day-to-day operational problems?

What is the proportion of executives to employees?

Now, when you have those figures in front of you, ask yourself who is expected to drive the

business forward? If, like most organisations, you drive things from the top, ask yourself just

how much resource you are wasting? And if you are, it is hardly any wonder that engagement

surveys indicate employee engagement is running at only 20-25%.

Let's hypothetically assume your organisation comprises the 100 people we identified

previously, of whom 5 are executives. If you are expecting those 5 people to lead the way and

develop the answers to all the strategic and tactical problems and come up with all the new ideas

to move your business forward, you are effectively reducing your capability by 95%. That is

worse than trying to fly across the Atlantic in a jumbo jet with only one engine operating!

32

However, it doesn't just end there. Ask yourself how much management time is taken up with

such issues as: 

Trying to improve productivity

People related problems

Resolving operational problems

Trying to improve performance

Now ask yourself how effective your efforts really are? (And be sure to answer honestly -

anything less is simply deluding yourself.) Then just imagine, how much executive time - and

how much personal frustration - you would free up if you let go the false-responsibility and

allowed people more freedom to resolve their own problems and come up with new ideas of their

own. How much more successful do you think you business would be?

The key thing you need to understand here is that it creates a real win-win situation. People who

are not allowed - implicitly or explicitly - to be responsible for shaping their own environment,

will never be engaged. Consequently if you redress this latter scenario you will automatically

simultaneously improve your employee engagement. The ability to bring the full intellectual and

emotional power of your people will make your other challenges less daunting and place your

business in a position where the risks of failure are considerably reduced and the prospects of

sustained success dramatically improved.

Strategies to Improve Employee Engagement and

Productivity

When your top employees show signs of disconnect it is time to take some action to turn that

around. The action you take will retain those committed high performing employees that may be

going through a slow spell but you can also expect to make decisions about those that do not or

are unable to improve. Below are five strategies you can implement to improve engagement and

productivity.

33

Encourage the employees' involvement in company wide initiatives. It may be that

they no longer feel challenged in their current position. This is a very common reason for

disconnect and when there are currently no opportunities for promotion, getting involved

in the bigger picture will provide new challenges that keep the job interesting.

Encourage creativity and innovation. Have you ever seen a toddlers face after they

figure out a way to get something done? For example, using a toy to turn on a light they

couldn't otherwise reach or using the mouse on a laptop to point and click? Its amazing!

Adults are the same way. Our challenges are much bigger but when we figure out a way

to overcome them, we could almost skip with glee. Encourage creativity and innovation.

It provides new insights and a sense of accomplishment.

Encourage open communication. You can get insight into what things are important to

the employee by using surveys, suggestion boxes and team meetings. Be open-minded

and encourage them to express their ideas and perspectives without criticism. This means

putting into practice everything you have learned about effective listening. Address their

concerns in the best way you can.

Provide educational opportunities. Do not allow the employee to feel as if there is

nothing more for them to learn in their current position. Provide inter-departmental career

development plans that includes certifications, seminars and/or workshops intended to

provide both career and personal growth. This is an action that also helps to increase

retention.

Share information. Let them in on what is going on within the company as well as how

their jobs contribute to the big picture. When you keep you employees informed they

tend to feel a greater sense of worth. Keep communication hopeful and truthful - do not

be afraid to share bad news, instead be more strategic about how you deliver it. For

example if there are no opportunities for advancement, then learn to use the words

currently, in the future, new technologies, job rotation; words that give hope. Be sure to

follow through when opportunities become available. Remember you are working to

retain your top performers.

34

Beliefs About Employee Engagement

Building higher levels of engagement is based on a number of fundamental beliefs, many of

which were formed by our more than three decades of research and experience.

1. Engagement is the primary enabler of successful execution of any business strategy.

An engaged workforce is your only true competitive advantage. It is almost impossible to

copy and, without it, execution of most corporate initiatives becomes difficult, if not

impossible.

2. Engagement is not a short-term initiative. Because engagement is simple in concept

but difficult in execution, it is never achieved or finished—only improved. It might take

years of steady progress to build high levels of employee engagement, and without the

proper care and feeding, these gains can wither and fall away surprisingly quickly.

3. Engagement must be driven from the top. Engagement is a business imperative, not an

HR initiative, though HR should be a key player in driving higher levels of engagement.

Support from the top also means senior leaders must be highly engaged themselves.

Believe it or not, only one in four senior leaders—and only one in six frontline leaders—

is highly engaged. It’s hard to imagine highly engaged employees without highly

engaged leaders.

4. One of the best ways to have highly engaged employees is to hire them! Certain

people have a set of characteristics or attributes that increase their propensity for

engagement (for example, some employees are more likely to have higher levels of

engagement than others, regardless of the jobs they choose or assignments they receive).

Companies should pay close attention to these characteristics in their hiring process.

5. Engagement is all about fit. People are more likely to be engaged if their jobs and the

culture of the organization match both their abilities and skills, and their motivation and

values. Most organizations hire or promote only for the ability and skill match, ignoring

the motivation and value match.

6. No one impacts the state of engagement more than an employee’s immediate leader.

While this might be a slight exaggeration, we believe most people do not leave their jobs;

they leave their bosses. Show us a highly engaged team, and there’s a strong likelihood

35

we can show you a leader who is coaching for success, setting clear goals, empowering

others, providing open and honest feedback, and making the winners feel valued.

7. Measuring engagement and demonstrating its business impact is crucial, but it’s

only a small part of winning the battle. Far too many organizations pour hundreds of

thousands of dollars into measuring and remeasuring engagement, leaving little energy or

budget for actually improving engagement levels. Keep your engagement measures

simple and cost effective. Instead, spend your resources and energy moving the needle in

the right direction!

8. Engagement means reaching the heart. Highly engaged employees give that extra

effort because inside they care. And, they care because they feel someone is caring for

them. A vice president for customer service at Progress Energy, for example, insists that

his managers really get to know the individuals on their teams as people, not just

employees. He wants to know about their aspirations, interests, and families. The

recognition of the “whole person” sends a powerful message to employees that the

organization understands and appreciates that they have a life outside work.

Key Drivers Of Employee Engagement

The key drivers of employee engagement are:

Type of job: The job should be challenging enough to motivate the employee. The

employee should be interested in his/her job.

Relationship between employee and organizational performance: The employee

should know how he and his work are contributing to the organization’s goals.

Growth opportunities: The employee should have ample opportunities for his career

development and growth.

Brand name: The employee should feel proud of being associated with the

organization.

Coworkers: The nature and type of co workers also influences the employee

engagement level.

36

Skills enhancement: Employee should get ample on-the-job opportunities to develop

their skill set.

Relationship with the boss: Employee should value his relationship with his boss.

Trust and integrity: how well managers communicate and ‘walk the talk’.

Line of sight between employee performance and company performance: Does

the employee understand how their work contributes to the company’s performance?

The Four Intrinsic Rewards That Drive Employee

Engagement

Extrinsic rewards—usually financial—are the tangible rewards given employees by managers,

such as pay raises, bonuses, and benefits. They are called “extrinsic” because they are external to

the work itself and other people control their size and whether or not they are granted. In

contrast, intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that employees get from doing meaningful

work and performing it well.

The intrinsic rewards in today’s work

The following are the four intrinsic rewards and how workers view them:

Sense of meaningfulness. This reward involves the meaningfulness or importance of the

purpose you are trying to fulfill. You feel that you have an opportunity to accomplish

something of real value—something that matters in the larger scheme of things. You feel

that you are on a path that is worth your time and energy, giving you a strong sense of

purpose or direction.

Sense of choice. You feel free to choose how to accomplish your work—to use your best

judgment to select those work activities that make the most sense to you and to perform

them in ways that seem appropriate. You feel ownership of your work, believe in the

approach you are taking, and feel responsible for making it work.

Sense of competence. You feel that you are handling your work activities well—that

your performance of these activities meets or exceeds your personal standards, and that

37

you are doing good, high-quality work. You feel a sense of satisfaction, pride, or even

artistry in how well you handle these activities.

Sense of progress. You are encouraged that your efforts are really accomplishing

something. You feel that your work is on track and moving in the right direction. You see

convincing signs that things are working out, giving you confidence in the choices you

have made and confidence in the future.

Building a high-engagement culture

In our work with managers, change agents and training specialists, we have developed seven

guidelines for building a culture that supports high levels of engagement and intrinsic rewards:

1. Begin with a meaningful purpose.

Unlike financial rewards, you simply can’t task the Human Resources Department with

developing an “intrinsic reward system.” Building intrinsic motivation is largely a line

management responsibility, although HR can offer considerable help. That responsibility begins

with spelling out a meaningful purpose for the organization. To be meaningful, this purpose

usually needs to involve more than profit, tapping directly into the contribution that the

organization’s work makes to its customers—the contribution that allows it to earn a profit.

Again, it is largely that sense of contribution to something of value that drives the entire self-

management process.

2. Build intrinsic motivation and engagement into management training and executive

coaching.

Managers tend to recognize the role of intrinsic rewards in their own motivation, but often

underestimate their importance for other people. To build a culture of engagement it is important

to incorporate training on intrinsic motivation and employee engagement into management

development programs. Managers are more credible and effective in promoting the value of

engagement when they first learn how to better understand and manage their own intrinsic

38

rewards. Training typically begins by getting managers in touch with their own intrinsic rewards

and then shifts to learning how to support the intrinsic rewards of their direct reports. At

executive levels, the four intrinsic rewards also provide a useful framework for executive

coaching. Training and coaching, then, are an important part of embedding intrinsic motivation

and engagement into the organization’s culture.

3. Focus conversations on meaningfulness, choice, competence and progress.

Leaders from the top down need to convey the same message—that the organization stands for

doing work that matters and doing it well. When approaching any work project, leaders can

underline the importance of contribution by focusing discussions on the basic questions in the

self-management process:

What can we do here that is meaningful?

What creative choices can we think of to accomplish this?

How can we make sure we’re doing this work competently?

How can we make sure we’re actually accomplishing the purpose?

These questions bring employee contributions to the foreground and highlight the intrinsic

rewards.

4. Engage the “middle.”

Pay special attention to building intrinsic motivation for people in the middle ranges—the large

group that is only somewhat engaged. If you are able to move their intrinsic rewards to the high

range, they will combine with the people who already highly engaged to form a large majority of

highly engaged, energized people—the critical mass needed to support a culture of high

engagement.

5. Measure intrinsic reward levels.

Without some way of assessing the state of intrinsic rewards in your organization, you will be

flying blind. We use the Work Engagement Profile for systematic measurement, though with

experience it is possible to get a rough sense of reward levels from everyday conversations with

39

employees. Measuring the reward levels will show you the overall level of engagement in your

organization and allow you to recognize improvement. It will also allow you to determine if any

rewards are at lower levels than others. Because self-management requires all four reward levels,

the lowest rewards will tend to act as a drag on overall engagement over time—so that they

deserve special attention.

6. Provide missing building blocks for intrinsic rewards that you need to bolster.

Each reward has its own unique building blocks. Building a sense of competence involves

actions that are different than those used in building a sense of choice, for example. The

following is a list of key building blocks.

Sense of Meaningfulness:

A non-cynical climate—freedom to care deeply

Clearly identified passions—insight into what we care about

An exciting vision—a vivid picture of what can be accomplished

Relevant task purposes—connection between our work and the vision

Whole tasks—responsibility for an identifiable product or service

Sense of Choice:

Delegated authority—the right to make decisions

Trust—confidence in an individual’s self-management

Security—no fear of punishment for honest mistakes

A clear purpose—understanding what we are trying to accomplish

Information—access to relevant facts and sources

Sense of Competence:

Knowledge—an adequate store of insights from education and experience

Positive feedback—information on what is working

40

Skill recognition—due credit for our successes

Challenge—demanding tasks that fit our abilities

High, non-comparative standards—demanding standards that don’t force rankings

Sense of Progress:

A collaborative climate—co-workers helping each other succeed

Milestones—reference points to mark stages of accomplishment

Celebrations—occasions to share enjoyment of milestones

Access to customers—interactions with those who use what we’ve produced

Measurement of improvement—a way to see if performance gets better

7. Adopt a change and implementation process that is itself engaging.

You could try to build intrinsic rewards using a centralized, top-down decision process. But its

found that it makes more sense to use the change process itself as a means of fostering high

levels of engagement. That was the genius of the Work Out process used by Jack Welch to help

change the culture at GE. Similar processes are now used for planning and change in a number of

organizations. In these applications, participatory processes allow teams of employees to identify

meaningful work-related problems, recommend solutions that make sense, apply their diverse

competencies, and experience a rapid sense of progress. When these processes address the

building of intrinsic rewards and engagement, they not only yield workable solutions but also

produce their own sense of excitement— which often serves as a significant turning point in the

organization’s culture.

41

Misconceptions About Employee Engagement

Misconception No. 1: It's the same as satisfaction. Having experienced two recessions in the

past decade, most managers have had to let go of this one, but it still persists, even in HR circles.

The reality: Employee engagement is more about the productivity that comes from enthusiasm,

energy, and commitment. The business world is filled with contented employees who are less

than productive.

Misconception No. 2: Employees don't want to be engaged. This cuts to the core of a basic

belief that many managers and executives hold about employees/humans-that they are lazy,

untrustworthy, uninterested in excellence, and must be micromanaged.

The reality: Even when they take jobs just to survive and have low expectations, most

employees secretly harbor the hope of enjoying the work and performing it well. The vast

majority of employees begin their jobs with enthusiasm, but in all too many cases, they quickly

realize they are not trusted, and respond in kind--by withholding effort they would otherwise

have willingly expended.

Misconception No. 3: It's all about hiring engaged employees. If we just focus on recruiting

and selecting only employees who are already motivated, we won't have to spend all our time

keeping them motivated and engaged.

The reality: There's truth in this one: as football coach, Lou Holtz, famously said, "I don't

motivate my players...I just recruit players who are already motivated." The problem here is that,

after making the hire, many managers abdicate their responsibility to coach and manage well...or

at all. Keeping employees engaged is the job of leaders and managers, a job that is equally

shared by employees themselves.

Misconception No. 4: Once engaged, always engaged. This is a corollary to the one above-that

engagement is an innate, unchanging state. Again, there is some truth in this-some employees

have better work ethics, more enthusiasm, and more natural energy levels. The misconception is

that employees can be counted on to sustain high levels of engagement despite poor leadership,

42

undependable coworkers, disruptive change, broken promises, unclear expectations, and a host

of other such triggering events.

The reality: Engagement is fluid, elastic, and changeable, not static. It must be monitored,

maintained, and renegotiated.

Misconception No. 5: It's all about the immediate manager. For years, the conventional and

prevailing belief has been that employee engagement is the exclusive province of direct

managers.

The reality: Our recent analysis of 2.1 million engagement surveys (reported in our new book-

Re-Engage!) revealed that senior leadership practices are even more critical since they create the

culture from which middle managers take their cues (not to downplay the huge role that

immediate managers play in keeping employees engaged). It is also essential to acknowledge the

responsibility that employees have for keeping themselves engaged, and the role of leaders and

managers in challenging them to do so.

Misconception No. 6: Engagement is enough. Many leaders understand the importance of their

role in keeping employees engaged by assigning them engaging work, soliciting their ideas,

giving them autonomy, and recognizing their contributions, but fail to keep employees' efforts

aligned with organizational goals.

The reality: Engagement is necessary, but not sufficient. Managers must also make sure they

clearly understand organizational and team objectives so they can tie them to the individual

talents, expectations, and objectives of the individuals they supervise.

Misconception No. 7: Fear promotes engagement. Recently one manager responded this way

to an online article encouraging managers to make employee engagement more of a priority in

2010: "There's one sure way to engage employees-simply tell them if they don't get engaged,

we'll replace them with someone who is!"

The reality: Most employees these days don't need reminding that they could lose their jobs.

Some do need to be challenged in a positive way and confronted when their effort is lacking. But

43

to adopt an "engage, or else" stance ignores and denies the manager's own role as an inspiring

agent of engagement (see Misconceptions 3 and 4 above).

Misconception No. 8: Paying more increases engagement. This is a popular belief because, if

it were entirely true, it would largely absolve managers from having to attend to the difficult

"soft stuff" of people management.

The reality: Pay, like praise and other forms of recognition, is a motivator when it is linked to

measured performance or a specific contribution. More often, employees experience pay as a de-

motivator when there is no link, or pay inequity, or there's excessive secrecy about pay decisions.

The most effective drivers of employee engagement have to do with the trust, challenge, respect,

recognition, understanding, and honest communication we nurture daily...or not.

Misconception No. 9: All employees are engaged equally by the same drivers. Believing that

all employees have the same hot buttons is a simple and comforting notion. It's also not

uncommon for managers to assume that what motivates their direct reports are the same ones

that motivate them.

The reality: The research findings we report in our new book, Re-Engage (McGraw-Hill,

February, 2010), identifies six universal drivers of employee engagement that all employees need

and seek. However, different employees need some of the six drivers more than others and it's up

to the manager to find out who needs what and to make sure they get what they need.

Misconception No. 10: All organizations need to focus equal efforts on the same

drivers. Many studies, including our own, have identified a specific set of universal engagement

drivers. It is understandable that a reader might assume they all apply equally in driving

engagement at his or her business.

The reality: Though highly engaged workplaces focus on providing plenty of all six drivers,

they tend to emphasize those that fit their cultures and will help achieve their business objectives.

For example, one of the winning workplaces we interviewed, Joie De Vivre Hospitality, runs a

chain of boutique hotels that depends on exceptional service to hotel guests. To differentiate

themselves in the market, they have chosen recognition and valuing of hotel staff as their

44

"signature" driver. This means company leaders go out of their way to notice and express

appreciation for "above-and-beyond" service, and have remained committed to hosting the end-

of-the-year annual employee appreciation banquet, even as other employers were cancelling such

parties in December of last year.

Misconception No. 11: Those who stay are more engaged. If employees stay, that must mean

they are happier and more engaged.

The reality: Those who stay may be the least engaged. As we know, the best performers have

the most options and are more likely to move on, especially as the economy improves. Smart

managers focus on making sure their top performers stay engaged. They also confront, re-

engage, coach, or, when all else fails, dismiss, their poorest performers.

Misconception No. 12: Benchmarking engagement scores with other companies is the most

meaningful and actionable way to assess and track your progress. Business leaders who

authorize engagement surveys understandably want to know how engaged their workforces are

compared to other companies.

The reality: Some 93 percent of high-performing companies utilize employee engagement

surveys compared with 78 percent of lower performers according to a survey conducted by the

Institute for Corporate Productivity. Comparing your scores to other companies in your industry

is worth doing, but what really matters is comparing this year's scores to next year's and noting

the impact on business results-the only true way to see if your employee engagement initiatives

are making a difference.

45

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Kahn (1990): defines employee engagement as “the harnessing of organization members’ selves

to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically,

cognitively, and emotionally during role performances”. The cognitive aspect of employee

engagement concerns employees’ beliefs about the organisation, its leaders and working

conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors

and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organisation and its leaders. The

physical aspect of employee engagement concerns the physical energies exerted by individuals to

accomplish their roles. Thus, according to Kahn (1990), engagement means to be

psychologically as well as physically present when occupying and performing an organisational

role.

Engagement vs Other Constructs1

It would appear that there are sufficient grounds for arguing that engagement is related to, but

distinct from, other constructs in organisational behaviour (Saks 2006). For example, Robinson

et al (2004) state that:

“…engagement contains many of the elements of both commitment and OCB

but is by no means a perfect match with either. In addition, neither

commitment nor OCB reflect sufficiently two aspects of engagement - its twoway

nature, and the extent to which engaged employees are expected to have

an element of business awareness.”

Saks (2006): argues that organisational commitment also differs from engagement in that it

refers to a person’s attitude and attachment towards their organisation, whilst it could be argued

that engagement is not merely an attitude; it is the degree to which an individual is attentive to

their work and absorbed in the performance of their role.

1 Sarks; Robinson and May Et Al has contributed to this study of the other organisational

behavior constructs.

46

In addition, while OCB involves voluntary and informal behaviours that can help co-workers and

the organisation, the focus of engagement is one’s formal role performance rather than purely

extra-role and voluntary behaviour.

According to May et al (2004) engagement is most closely associated with the constructs of job

involvement and ‘flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Job involvement is defined as ‘a cognitive or

belief state of psychological identification’ (Kanungo 1982:342). This differs from engagement

in that it is concerned more with how the individual employs him/her self during the

performance of his/her job. Furthermore, whilst the focus of job involvement is on cognitions,

engagement, according to most definitions, also encompasses emotions and behaviours.

Csikszentmihalyi (1975): The second related construct, the notion of ‘flow’, is defined as the

“holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement” .It is argued

that individuals in a flow experience need no external rewards or goals to motivate them, as the

activity itself presents constant challenges. However, whilst flow is primarily the cognitive

involvement of the individual in an activity on a momentary basis, definitions of engagement

imply a longer-term and more holistic involvement in work tasks

Kahn (1990): found that there were three psychological conditions related with engagement or

disengagement at work: meaningfulness, safety, and availability. He argued that people asked

themselves three fundamental questions in each role situation: (i) How meaningful is it for me to

bring myself into this performance; (ii) How safe is it to do so?; and (iii) How available am I to

do so? He found that workers were more engaged at work in situations that offered them more

psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety, and when they were more

psychologically available.

Holbeche and Springett (2003), said people’s perceptions of ‘meaning’ with regard to the

workplace are clearly linked to their levels of engagement and, ultimately, their performance.

They argue that employees actively seek meaning through their work and, unless organisations

try to provide a sense of meaning, employees are likely to quit. The research findings suggest

that many people experience a greater search for meaning in the workplace (70 per cent) than in

47

life in general. There are numerous possible reasons for this, for example, it may be because

people generally spend longer at work than on other parts of their lives. They argue that high

levels of engagement can only be achieved in workplaces where there is a shared sense of

destiny and purpose that connects people at an emotional level and raises their personal

aspirations.

The Gallup Organisation (2004) found critical links between employee engagement, customer

loyalty, business growth and profitability. They compared the scores of these variables among a

sample of stores scoring in the top 25 per cent on employee engagement and customer loyalty

with those in the bottom 25 per cent. Stores in the bottom 25 per cent significantly under-

performed across three productivity measures: sales, customer complaints and turnover. Gallup

cites numerous similar examples. The International Survey Research (ISR) team has similarly

found encouraging evidence that organisations can only reach their full potential through

emotionally engaging employees and customers (ISR 2005).

Ott (2007): cites Gallup research, which found that higher workplace engagement predicts

higher earnings per share (EPS) among publicly-traded businesses. When compared with

industry competitors at the company level, organisations with more than four engaged employees

for every one actively disengaged, experienced 2.6 times more growth in EPS than did

organisations with a ratio of slightly less than one engaged worker for every one actively

disengaged employee. The findings can be considered as reliable as the variability in differing

industries was controlled by comparing each company to its competition, and the patterns across

time for EPS were explored due to a ‘bouncing’ increase or decrease which is common in EPS.

ISR’s (2004) study, identified four issues as global factors in managing engagement; career

development, leadership, empowerment, and image (which refers to the company’s image to

customers and the public). Career development was found to influence engagement for

employees in each of the ten countries studied, with the key message being organisations with

high levels of engagement provide employees with opportunities to develop their abilities, learn

new skills, acquire new knowledge and realise their potential. The logic behind this is that when

companies invest in their people in this way, their people invest in them. The research also

48

identified the need for empowerment; employees want to be involved in decisions that affect

their work. It was found that leaders of high-engagement workplaces do not create fear or blame

cultures, where employees are reluctant to express their ideas or exercise their initiative. Instead,

they create a trusting and challenging environment, in which employees are encouraged to input

and innovate to move the organisation forward.

Engagement and Individual Differences

Here, we turn our attention to how engagement levels may be linked to individual differences by

examining literature from the psychology field.

Portello (1996) argued that psychological differences may impact on individuals’ ability to

engage or disengage in their role performance, just as they shape a person’s ability and

willingness to be involved or committed at work. Accordingly, people would engage differently

“given their experiences of psychological meaningfulness, safety and availability in specific

situations” . For example, when people experience situations as unsafe, it is a matter of

individual difference what coping strategies they deploy, and the extent to which they engage or

disengage

Bowditch and Buono argued that individual differences play a vital role in determining an

employee’s potential level of engagement. The process of perception is a key factor in individual

behaviour. They suggested that, “our personality acts as a kind of perceptual filter or frame of

reference which Influe ces our view of the world”. Therefore, it is argued that it is our personal

perception of our social and physical environment that shapes and directs how engaged an

employee is, rather than some objective understanding of an external reality.

The Towers Perrin (2003) study of engagement identified both emotions and rationality as

core components. They found that emotional factors are linked to an individual’s personal

satisfaction and the sense of inspiration and affirmation they get from their work and from being

a part of their organisation. For example, a key element here is having a sense of personal

accomplishment from one’s job. By contrast, the rational factors generally relate to the

relationship between the individual and the broader corporation, for instance the extent to which

49

employees understand their role and their unit’s role, relative to company objectives. It was

found that scores for key aspects of rational engagement (such as I ‘understand how my role

relates to company goals and objectives’ and ‘I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond

what is normally expected’) are generally higher than those for emotional engagement (such as, I

‘would say my company is a good place to work’ and ‘am proud to work for my company’).

Rothbard (1999): Gender differences have also been found, such that men experience

enrichment from work to family, while women experience depletion from work to family. While

women experience enrichment from family to work, men experience no links from family to

work. Women tend to find more fulfilment in their jobs and are more engaged than men are.

Truss et al,( 2006): Observed a difference between employees who are single and those who are

married. It was found that married employees tend to have a higher level of engagement than

those who are single. This suggests that these employees have come to point where they are

more settled in both their personal and professional lives. Another difference related to gender is

that female managers or supervisors tend to have a higher percentage of actively disengaged

workers than male managers do. Differences of health and personal values may also impact

employee engagement such that some people ‘work to live’, while others ‘live to work’.

Differences of skills, ability and dispositional variables are also expected to impact levels of

employee engagement. However, the most critical finding is that it is the way in which people

are managed that has the most significant impact on engagement levels.

West (2005): According to him employee engagement can be achieved through the creation of

an organisational environment where positive emotions such as involvement and pride are

encouraged, resulting in improved organisational performance, lower employee turnover and

better health. He argues that when individuals feel positive emotions, they are able to think in a

more flexible, open-minded way and are also likely to feel greater self-control, cope more

effectively and be less defensive in the workplace.

50

Schaufeli and Bakker (2004): The experience of engagement has been described as a fulfilling,

positive work-related experience and state of mind, and has been found to be related to good

health and positive work affect. These positive experiences and emotions are likely to result in

positive work outcomes. An individual’s expressed intention to leave their organisation is

generally regarded as an important measure of how they are feeling about their work. As noted

by Schaufeli and Bakker (2004), engaged employees are likely to have a greater attachment to

their organisation and a lower tendency to quit. They found that, overall, engaged employees are

less likely to leave their employer. However, the longer employees stay with an organisation the

less engaged they appear to become.

Buckingham (2001), identified three discrete groups of employees; engaged employees, non-

engaged employees and actively disengaged employees. The findings indicated the majority (63

per cent) of employees fell into the ‘non-engaged employees’ category. These employees were

characterised as being productive in the sense of doing what was asked of them but were not

psychologically bonded to the organisation. Furthermore, employees in this category were

instrumentally motivated; they could be tempted by job vacancies elsewhere and were responsive

to financial incentives, but cynical about higher-order appeals to loyalty. Of the sample, 17 per

cent fell into the ‘engaged employees’ category; these employees were characterised as being

loyal, committed, productive and task-effective. Actively disengaged employees formed the

remaining 20 per cent of the sample and comprised employees who were physically present, but

psychologically absent. These employees demonstrated behaviours and attitudes that were

negative, unco-operative and even hostile.

Engagement and Employee Imvolvement

Beardwell and Claydon ( 2007): suggests there is considerable evidence that many employees

are greatly under-utilised in the workplace through the lack of involvement in work-based

decisions. Employee involvement is seen as a central principle of ‘soft’ HRM, where the focus is

upon capturing the ideas of employees and securing their commitment. The concept of employee

involvement is strongly grounded in unitarist views of organisations, as it assumes that managers

51

and employees have the same interests. Critics have argued that employee involvement has

management firmly in control and very limited real influence is given to employees.

Hyman and Mason (1995) argue that employee involvement schemes “extend little or no input

into corporate or higher level decision making” and generally do not entail any significant

sharing of power and authority. They argue that employee involvement is ‘soft on power’. The

study found involvement in decisions affecting the job or work to be an important factor, which

was strongly associated with high levels of employee engagement thus demonstrating it is an

important driver.

Fox (1974) argued that despite an elaborate external controlling structure being in place, no role

can be totally diffuse or totally specific; even in jobs which are tightly controlled, some

outstanding element of discretion always remains. In cases where employees have been given

some control over how they do their jobs, positive benefits have appeared to emerge. For

example, previous research in the UK has looked at job redesign and the impact this has had on

engagement. It was found that, after the workers were given the training and freedom to make

repairs to their own equipment rather than having to call a supervisor every time they

experienced a problem, they reported fewer occupational injuries. This would suggest that

workers who feel they have control over their destiny at work, a key aspect of employee

engagement, are more likely to stay focused and less likely to make preventable mistakes.

Robinson et al (2004) identified key behaviours, which were found to be associated with

employee engagement. The behaviours included belief in the organisation, desire to work to

make things better, understanding of the business context and the ‘bigger picture’, being

respectful of and helpful to colleagues, willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ and keeping up to date

with developments in the field. Furthermore, the research found that employee engagement was

closely linked to feelings and perceptions around being valued and involved, and that the key

drivers of engagement included effective leadership, two-way communication, high levels of

internal co-operation, a focus on employee development, a commitment to employee wellbeing

and clear, accessible human resources policies and practices to which managers at all levels were

committed.

52

Lawler and Worley (2006), said for a high-involvement work practice to be effective and for it

to have a positive impact on employee engagement, employees must be given power. They argue

this will lead to employees having the ability to make decisions that are important to their

performance and to the quality of their working lives, thus engaging them in their work.

Furthermore, they contend that power can mean a relatively low level of influence, as in

providing input into decisions made by others or it can mean having final authority and

accountability for decisions and their outcomes. Involvement is maximised when the highest

possible level of power is pushed down to the employees that have to carry out the decision,

resulting in gaining the maximum level of engagement possible from employees.

Purcell et al’s (2003) study found a number of factors to be strongly associated with high levels

of employee engagement. The one thing all of these factors had in common was that they were

connected with an employee’s involvement in a practice related to their work. For example,

effective communications was found to be a factor as engagement levels were affected by the

amount of information employees received about how well the company was performing and

how they contributed to the company achieving its business objectives. Furthermore, employees

having involvement in decisions’ affecting their job or work was also associated with high levels

of engagement.

In summary, the literature surrounding employee involvement suggests that the root of employee

disengagement is poor management, whereby employees do not have good working relationships

with their managers and are denied the opportunity to communicate and have some power in

decision-making, let alone receive information from their managers. Employees are in need of

managers who care and who are seen to be committed to their organisation. Only then can

managers lure employees into putting discretionary effort into their work. However, the problem

is that managers themselves need to be engaged before they can engage their subordinates; it is

evident that levels of engagement must rise in management before they can be expected to rise in

employees given the impact management can have on employees.

53

Current Scenario: How Various Organizations are Adopting

Employee Engagement Practices

Employee Engagement has become a serious issue of concern for almost all the major

organizations around the world. By engaging its workforce they are making them committed not

only towards their work but also towards the organization. The various major companies which I

studied who are following this employee engagement practices are:

1. Google

2. Sun Microsystems

3. Tata Consultancy Services

4. 3M

5. eRevMax

GOOGLE

The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) of Google says, "Involve Your Employees"

A culture of involvement drives employee engagement and success

The employees of Google are committed and engaged due to the following strategies of Google

and also the kind of rationale thinking that Google posses.

To achieve high levels of employee engagement, you need to first understand what employees

are thinking. One way to do this is to collect employee feedback through regular employee

surveys. However, successful companies don't just rely on surveys as an event, but also steadily

maintain communications and actions throughout the year to continually involve employees in

driving positive change. One progressive and admired company leading the way is Google.

54

Google firmly believes that feedback and discussion are an important part of doing business, and

finds avenues for "Googlers" (as Google employees are called) to not just raise problems but

help solve them. Google's annual survey is critical in gathering employee feedback on what is

working well and what can be improved. Beyond the survey, Google uses a variety of regular

feedback channels to encourage employee involvement and leverage its philosophy that more

minds on an important issue are better than one.

Strategy 1: Create a two-way dialogue on the most important issues on people's minds.

Open dialogue between employees and leaders has always been an important part of Google's

business operations. Every Friday, Google holds a forum called "Thank goodness it's Friday"

(TGIF) to have an active conversation and answer questions ranging from product decisions and

external news to internal people-related policies and decisions.

This program initially started small with a few employees asking the founders questions on a

Friday afternoon. As it evolved, TGIF now occurs almost every Friday, and the notes are

distributed broadly across the company. Googlers use Google Moderator, an online tool to

submit and vote on questions, and the top-voted questions are directly answered by Google's

founders and executives.

TGIF also includes live questions. High levels of employee and executive participation in TGIF

contribute greatly to the culture of transparency and create a more intimate atmosphere despite

the company's size of 20,000 employees.

Strategy 2: Engage employees in solving problems, not just raising them.

Google encourages employees to attend problem-solving sessions designed to resolve business

challenges. Appropriately called "Fixits," these sessions can invite a specific group of employees

or be open to anyone. One recent Fixit addressed particular concerns regarding career

development in a growing business unit.

For one week, suggestions for how to improve career development were collected via Moderator.

Googlers submitted 51 ideas, in total receiving 5,615 votes, and the best three ideas were

implemented. As employees were involved in the solutions, satisfaction in many areas in the

annual employee survey improved one year later, including double-digit increases in the

favorability scores on two career development items.

As demonstrated by CLC Genesee research, increasing employee engagement has clear business

benefits. Following the lead of companies such as Google, organizations can creatively find new

ways to encourage and collect employee input on important issues to achieve measurable

55

business outcomes. It's not about making employees feel involved; it's actually involving them.

The result is more informed leaders, more engaged employees, and ultimately better decisions

for a stronger business.

Google has become an employer-of-choice and succeeded financially and this is possible only if

the employees of the organization are engaged. The reasons why Google is the choice of the

employees which also make the company’s employees more engaged are:

1. Practical experimentation is encouraged - Engineers are given 20 percent of their

time to pursue projects they are personally interested in. Several company products

including Google News and Adsense have come from this. Note that is only engineers,

the employees most likely to develop innovative offerings, and the most valuable talent to

attract, that are given this privilege.

2. A higher purpose - At Google, the mission is "to organize the world's information and

make it universally accessible and useful." That means that the job is never done, there is

always more information to gather and ways to make it easier to find. That could mean

cataloging every book in the world, developing a better blog search tool, or making it

easier for individuals to create Web sites - all of which Google is working on. This

ambitious and aspirational mission ensures that employees will always be driven to

accomplish more and see the company as able to play in different spaces. Google is not a

search company - They are an advertising agency, a media provider, a publisher, a

finance company, a social networker. They are whatever they want and need to be. This

also means, with an array of integrated products, they can go after any market and any

competitor they choose.     

3. The leaders have control - When Google went public, there was fear that the pressures

of shareholders would force the company to abandon much of its unique culture.

However, Google's founders - Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page - retained voting

control over the company and vowed to adopt a long-term approach to business strategy

saying in the IPO letter, "A management team distracted by a series of short-term targets

is as pointless as a dieter stepping on a scale every half hour." The result is that Google

can take more chances than peers and bet on potentially huge payoffs down the road. It

56

also means that they do not have to deal with calls from activist shareholders to trim

overhead and administrative costs associated with employee benefits.

4. Culture is designed to increase discretionary effort - Why provide food, laundry

services, doctors and entertainment on-site? Why provide free wi-fi-enabled shuttles to

work? Why let people wear what they want? Because when you make "work" a desirable

place to be, it is more likely that people will want to be there - and it is no surprise that

Googlers willingly work late into the night on projects.

5. Employees reap the rewards of success - Yes, Google pays competitive wages for

computer engineers, but it is the stock options that really matter. For those who have been

in the company and whose options are vested or near-vested, this means a lot of new

multi-millionaires. However, new employees will benefit rom Google'sinnovative new

stock-option plan that potentially increases the value of options for people who missed

out on the initial boom.

6. Good ideas win - Google employees are smart - the luxury of being the best is you get to

pick the best - and come up with a lot of ideas. If an employee can come up with a sound

business case for an idea, whether it is related to his      specific project or not, it will be

heard. Executives hold office-hours where employees can make their case for a project,

and if they are convincing, resources will be given to develop the idea. One of Google

vice-president Marissa Mayer's "Nine Notions of Innovation" is "don't politic, use data."

7. Get the best and the brightest, and keep them - Over the past few years, Google has

used its leadership position and reputation for allowing creative freedom to attract some

of the legendary minds in the field of computer engineering - including former employees

of Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco and several top academics. The company, which has always

had a low turnover rate, around 5 percent, is now focusing on retaining high-value

employees.

57

SUN MICROSYSTEM

Employee engagement becomes that much more critical in such a virtual or global environment.

Employee engagement is imperative for an organisation like Sun as they operate in virtual

teams across the world: At Sun the virtual nature is partly due to flexible working practises.

While flexible working arrangements are a plus for many employees and reduces facility costs

for the organisation, that flexibility comes with some downsides like; isolation, loneliness and

an increase in personal distractions Isolation, especially when paired with the demands of work

in an increasingly competitive environment, can wear down the sense of connection,

commitment and excitement about any job. Thus a critical challenge for managers of virtual

teams is how to keep remote employees engaged.

At Sun, the concept of employee engagement starts right from the top:

Scott McNealy, the CEO, interacts with Sun employees through WSUN, a forum on Sun’s

intranet. He uses this to sustain an active an ongoing dialogue on the corporate goals and

direction. Through this interactive on-line resource he also solicits their feedback and

opinions

Other senior management members like Jonathan Schwartz, the COO, engages with

employees on technology directions through his personal blog.

58

Business Unit Heads and Executive Vicepresidents have a target of holding six ‘town halls’

with employees every year across the globe.

At the country level, Senior Management is tasked with constantly engaging employees

through various forums, communication media and events to build excitement and passion

including some that also reach out to the employees’ families.

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

‘PEEP’—that’s the latest buzzword in Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) corridors. In a bid

to strengthen its communication processes, the software major has introduced a new HR

practice called ‘Proactive Employee Engagement Program (PEEP).

TCS Gets A Peep Into Employee Minds

Prior to this, the company introduced yet another HR initiative titled ‘PROPEL’ a global

associate engagement program initiated by Tao Consultants. And to popularise these two

initiatives at TCS, the company has put up colourful banners and fliers to catch the attention of

its employees.

What exactly is ‘PEEP’ all about? These are individual employee meetings across functions and

grades. In this programme, associates get to talk directly one-on-one with the senior

management.

59

“It is not the impersonal e-mail or memo, or the public nature of an open-house session. There is

no specific agenda for these meetings. If they have a suggestion that they want to share, an

opinion to express, a problem that they want advice on but never got that face-to-face

opportunity, this is the forum for that,” explains the company’s official spokesperson.

In essence, the aim of ‘PEEP’ is to provide employees a platform to voice their problems. As for

reporting heads, it’s a platform to get to know their team members as well. “Employees can talk

one-on-one with the senior management at TCS. Associates can have their own sessions with the

management and get to know the management’s perspective on things,” adds Ms Chaudhary.

Interestingly, these one-to-one meetings can be conducted by any of the following cadre namely

CEO, EVPs, VPs, regional managers, business RMs, HR heads, delivery centre heads, practice

heads and group leaders.

As a first step, before the meeting, the senior management person the employee will be talking to

is given a brief background on the employee’s function, grade, years of services, places travelled,

achievements and hobbies so that the associate and the senior manager do not waste time getting

to know each other.

And to ensure that these interactions have the desired results, the partner uses a feedback form

where he/she records the suggestions, comments, problems, solutions—in short, a sort of

‘minutes’ of the meeting.

As for its other HR initiative PROPEL, the objective behind the introduction of this practice is to

promote the culture of ‘share-care-grow’ at TCS. Employee’s issues and ideas are discussed in

this forum and people take ownership in promoting their ideas and resolving issues at their level

itself. This helps the organisation in creating the ‘ownership’ culture and improves retention and

sourcing.

Incidentally, this people engagement movement covers all associates across TCS. Further, camps

and confluences are conducted for problem-solving, discovery of new ideas, dialogue, reflection

and plain fun. PROPEL stands for Professional excellence, Role enhancement, Ownership

culture, Personal growth, Employee involvement and Learning.

60

PROPEL is championed by TCS associates, project leaders and group leaders from across

functions. And these associates are exposed to personality feedback instruments.

How is PROPEL propagated across TCS? By means of two types of events—Confluences and

Camps.

* A Confluence is a space and forum for sharing and listening. Normally the duration of

Confluence is 3 to 4 hours. It is conducted by two or more propellers, where maximum 40

associates from different functions/groups get together to explore, discuss, reflect and share their

views on a particular theme. Sharing, fostering ‘friendliness’ and ‘role-taking’ is the agenda for a

Confluence.

* Camp: A Camp is a forum for improvement nitiatives on specific Voice of Associate themes.

Employees who are satisfied with their organisation's commitment to social and

environmental responsibility are likely to be more positive, more engaged and more productive

than those working for less responsible employers.

Corporate Sustainability at TCS

TCS Maitree

Maitree was started with an objective of bringing TCS associates and their families closer and

making them feel a part of the TCS extended family. Soon after, with a view to carry on the

TATA tradition of enabling the community, the scope of Maitree was enhanced to include

socially relevant activities and endeavors.

Maitree and the TCS Community:

Even while at work, you're never away from life. TCS-Maitree was established with an intention

to strengthen the bond between TCS employees and their families, as well as provide a platform

to encourage hidden aspirations and talents. It lends a deeper and broader dimension to the work

culture at TCS. Over the years, Maitree has become a part of every TCS employee's life. From

61

cracking quizzes to conquering tall peaks, from shaking a leg to bending it like Beckham,

employees have reveled in the excitement and fun of all Maitree events. And that's not all.

Workshops on theatre, yoga, origami, flower arrangement, chocolate making, and a host of

others have allowed the employees to learn and know about things they always wanted to. All in

all, Maitree provides everyone at TCS the opportunity to establish relationships that extend

beyond work and thereby, help build bonds that makes work so much more fun.

 

Advanced Computer Training Centre for visually impaired

TCS pioneered an Advanced Computer Training Center (the first of its kind in India) for the

visually impaired. This center, launched at the MN Banajee Industrial Home for the Blind at

Jogeshwari, Mumbai, offers courses that are in sync with industry requirements, providing the

visually-impaired with life-affirming employment opportunities.

TCS-Maitree has pro-actively worked towards providing an inclusive environment for the

differently-abled. With the belief that people with disabilities offer incredible reserves of

untapped potential and an alternative talent pool, TCS-Maitree has recruited more than 30

differently-abled people in various branches of TCS.

Rural Development Initiative (at Panvel)

Wazapur (Raigad district of Maharashtra) is a village just off the Mumbai-Pune highway, near

Panvel. In spite of being so close to the city, the village is devoid of even the most basic

infrastructure and amenities. TCS-Maitree has been working at the ground level over the last

three years to bring about development in the village. A sustainable model has been built to

improve education, healthcare, and the environment in the area.

 

What started off as a children's education program has today grown into a larger movement with

developmental activities in the areas of water supply, illiteracy, and women empowerment in

addition to the focal point of education. Apart from setting up a primary and a secondary school,

some other highlights of the education initiative are:

Mid-day meal scheme for Balwadi kids

Computer literacy program

A state-of-the-art science lab

62

Taking up the cause of women empowerment, TCS-Maitree launched the WEP (Women

Empowerment Program) where the women of the village were taught basic arithmetic and

created awareness in health and hygiene. More than 25 women from three villages in the area

have been trained in embroidery, stitching, and other textile craftwork over the last one year with

help from the Women's India Trust. A new Gram Vikas Abhiyaan Kendra was recently

inaugurated to facilitate income generation for the women.

TCS-Maitree has also made strides in the area of health, conducting HIV/ AIDS sensitization

sessions as well as health check-up camps for the villagers and school children.

 

Thalassaemia Drive

TCS-Maitree is organizing lectures, poster displays, and voluntary blood donation drives across

TCS offices to support those who suffer from Thalassaemia. In a partnership with Red Cross,

TCS embarks on periodic blood-donation drives towards the treatment of Thalassaemia.

mKrishi is an agro advisory system developed by TCS.

It connects farmers to their own eco-systems through specially developed applications on

mobile phones. The application can support interactive and multimedia content to provide

farmers the required information. In mKrishi, data from a farmer reaches the central server

through a cell phone. Experts access this information on their PC and reply with their advice in

the native language using Roman script. mKrishi’s features include: weather forecasts, pesticide

and fertiliser advice, and market information.

Employees

All TCS employees should be concerned about the environment. TCS will make all its

employees aware on how work practices affect the environment. For example, wasteful use of

electricity or paper at work place depletes natural resources and adds to pollution caused by the

generating/manufacturing units. Similarly safe work practices protect the environment by

mitigating health risks and accidents. As members of the TATA family, and responsible citizens

of the country, TCS employees should observe environment- friendly behaviour, both in and

outside the work place.

63

3M

3M stands for  Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. It is an American Multinational

conglomerate. The culture and the practices adopted by 3M makes its employees engaged and

committed towards not only the work they do but also the organization. The major reason for the

commitment of the employees is that the company lays a strong emphasis on “INNOVATION”.

3M expects leaders to foster a work environment that builds trust with employees through open

communication. This work environment promotes both employee engagement and innovation

that makes 3M a great place to work, a claim consistently supported by the Standard Opinion

Survey process.

How Employees are Engaged at 3M??

Standard Opinion Survey (Global Business Unit Survey)

It is corporate policy that every business unit worldwide surveys their entire organization once

every two years using the Standard Opinion Survey. The survey allows employees to candidly

express their views about 3M, their business unit and their jobs in complete confidentiality.

An Emphasis on Innovation

The key to innovation is coupling 3M's highly diversified and differentiated technology to high

growth market space opportunities to create new-to-the-world product platforms.

"Giving people room" to innovate is a 3M tradition, exemplified by the "15% culture" which

encourages technical employees to spend 15 percent of their time on projects of their own

choosing and initiative.New Product Forums are regularly held, where divisions can share their

latest products and developers can solicit support for a new product, idea or technology.

64

Researchers can apply for Genesis Grants. The grants provide significant funding to individuals

or teams to pursue embryonic new product ideas or concepts.

"Dual Ladder" System

3M has two parallel career paths in the technical organization known as the "dual ladder" system.

In addition to a management career path, there is a technical career path. This technical path

honors the prestige 3M scientists have enjoyed during 3M's history. It also allows employees to

advance in position and compensation consistent with contributions, all without abandoning what

they do best: research and development.

Genesis Grants

Grants, such as Genesis Grants, give employees dedicated funding and resources to pursue an idea.

Reputation3M has a worldwide reputation for innovative, high quality products. We are a company that

values science and innovation, a combination that attracts the best and the brightest in the fields

of technology and science. We are a responsible, ethical company, underscored in our core

corporate value of "respecting our social and physical environment."

"Promote from Within" Culture

3M fosters a "promote from within" culture, where individuals can achieve career development

and advancement consistent with their initiative and work contributions. Movement within the

company is encouraged and expected.

Communication with EmployeesCorporate business goals and objectives are communicated regularly in real-time worldwide to

engage employees in our common mission, including:

o A Dedicated Intranet

An extensive company-sponsored intranet provides global access to valuable work-

related information, including business policies, work force directory and other business

tools.

65

o Employee Publications

Company publications such as the Stemwinder (3M St. Paul, Minnesota), 3M Mascotch

(3M Brazil), Enlace (3M Mexico) and numerous others help to educate, connect and

motivate employees at 3M locations around the world.

eRevMax

“At a time when employees exit their present organization in search of better prospects in their

jobs, eRevMax is one organization which is boasting of their employee loyalty and

commitment”

eRevMax has been instrumental in engaging its employees by placing importance to the

employee’s individual goals and aligning it to organizational goals in a seamless manner. The

belief that ‘employees are the biggest strength of the company’ has kept eRevMax in good

stead. Making an employee feel as an important part of the organization is the first step that an

organization should take in order to win employee loyalty. eRevMax has been doing just this

ever since its inception. Appreciating employee achievements and standing by them in times of

grief are just the small gestures showed by the organization that has helped them win over the

66

trust and loyalty of its employees. Apart from this, the thrust is paid on employability of

employee through various skill development workshops, assessment centers and competency

development activities. Focus is placed on team work to achieve organizational goals through

process labs, action research workshop and corporate social activities. To strengthen long term

employee engagement, eRevMax conducted workshop with Prof. Udai Pareek on Extension

Motivation. It was the first time that such a program was organized in the corporate sector in

India. eRevMax with its following innovative HR practices has been able to enhance employee

loyalty and dedication.

Inclusive Learning -With people development being the objective, the HR team has laid

down an extensive year-long training calendar for each member. Equal focus has been

placed on imparting functional/technical as well as soft skill training.

Leadership Development Program – An exclusive time bound leadership development

plan for Team Leads and Department Heads has been implemented to meet the eRevMax

Competency Development Model. Leadership circles have been formed which aims at

regular interaction between team leads to track the program for efficient execution and

progressive results.

Experiential Learning Workshops – The HRD at eRevMax conducts various workshop

and programs for all members wherein motivational speakers/facilitators, the likes of

Paul Shiromani, Udai Pareek are invited. The workshop are experiential in nature and

include role-play, activities etc.

Organizational Development Plan – OD intervention designed by the organization has

been given full support by the senior management. It is aimed at bringing change and is

driven by the Change Management Team or CMT (a unique concept initiated at

eRevMax), which was formed based on rigorous selection process. The team underwent a

comprehensive development procedure to increase Employee engagement and

satisfaction, to thereby help the organization to move towards achieving Human Sigma.

Rewards & Recognition (R&R) – eRevMax encourages the recognition of excellent

performance and achievement through use of rewards that are creative, flexible and

meaningful. The R&R program aims at enhancing employee performance and potential

by systematically recognizing their efforts and achievements. Monthly, quarterly and

annual rewards have been comprehensively designed.

67

LEISURE AT WORK

Tiger Rocks – To celebrate the achievements and present monthly awards, regular month

end parties are organized where in the Tigers at eRevMax party together.

Team Activity Fund – Objective is to encourage the dept/vertical manager in motivating

his team members through approved Team Activities and help foster better team bonding.

Hence this fund is allocated, wherein, the team can go out for any constructive activity, it

can be buying books, attending seminars, plays, cultural shows, films, sporting events or

for a day out.

Tiger Talk – eRevMax quarterly newsletter, by and for the members. Various sections

allow members to be creative, giving scope for interesting articles, travelogues, recipes,

new innovations and great pictures. In all, a satisfying piece of team work.

Monthly Events – A monthly event chart is maintained to keep track of the activities.

This gives eRevMaxians scope to celebrate all major festivals spread over different

months, whether it be Holi, Poila Baisakh, Pujas, Diwali, Id, Christmas, New Year etc.

And when there is no such festival in a particular month, they create festivity through

sporting events like football match, cricket tournament or TT championship.

At times, living up to the expectations of the employees proves to be a tricky situation.

eRevMax understands the importance of on-the-job counseling and takes care to duly address

employee grievances, thereby making it a positive working experience for all. It may be

surmised that eRevMax is one of the top drivers of workforce commitment recognizing the

importance of an employee’s personal and professional life, providing growth opportunities

and uplifting employee morale through a host of motivational initiatives.

68

Research Methodology

Research means a search for knowledge or gain some new knowledge and methodology can

properly refer to the theoretical analysis of the methods appropriate to a field of study or to the

body of methods and principles particular to a branch of knowledge. A Research Methodology

has a specified framework for collecting the data in an effective manner. Research Methodology

means a process of “defining a problem, defining the research objectives, developing the

research plan, collecting the information, analyzing the information and presentation of

findings.” Such a framework is called “Research design”.

The research design contains various components like defining research, data design, nature of

data , type of research, sampling design including universe, sample unit, sample size and sample

method.

Since this curriculum of seminar did not require us to go out in the world and collect information

so whole data used doing this research work is secondary data. Various research papers have

been studied in order to make this report. All possible sources of secondary data were contacted

in order to get as realistic and practical life data as possible. And then I used my mental skills to

analyse the data available and present it in a concise manner that is easily understandable for the

readers.

Various sources of secondary data used for making this project complete are as follows:

Text Books

Internet Sites

Newspaper Articles

Brochures

69

Best Practices for Employee Engagement

Studies show that engaged workers are over 40% more productive and effective than their

unengaged counterparts. At the same time a whopping 70% of the workforce is at best

complacent and at worst actively disengaged.

Companies that have realized the most significant benefits from Employee Engagement have

made it an organizational discipline. The following 4 Best Practices in Employee Engagement

will help you do the same and ensure that your company’s investment in Employee Engagement

produces a meaningful return:

1. Identify Employee Engagement’s Role in Your Business Strategy

Clearly identify what you want people to engage in and the role of Employee Engagement in the

company’s business strategy. Connecting people with the organization’s business strategy is a

key foundation for Employee Engagement. This role should be a central focus in the design,

execution, and measurement of your Employee Engagement program.

2. Focus on Implementation First, Then the Survey

Look for a solution that provides a breadth of training and support around methods, practices,

and tools that have a track record for increasing engagement. Too often companies jump into

selecting “the right survey” without considering solutions that will support effective

implementation and attainment of engagement results. The extent of implementation for most

survey companies is a generic PowerPoint presentation on what to do with the results.

3. Select a Survey Tool that Enables Management Action

Customize your survey to answer important organizational questions and identify engagement

drivers that are most important to your people. Standardized or abbreviated surveys will require

additional information gathering before your organization’s leaders can consider action.

70

4. Make the Employee Engagement Index a Key Performance Indicator

Your engagement index is the equivalent of your company’s stock price and market

capitalization for people. It is the cumulative result of leading and managing people in a way that

produces higher performance and should be used as an annual litmus test to judge the

effectiveness of HR programs, particularly your Employee Engagement initiative.

71

Recommendations

To bring in high level of association among the crew, it is recommended.

Educate the crew about the rich history, culture, and products of the company.

Conduct welfare activities/training for the spouse too aimed at enriching their family life

by personal development. This enhances emotional attachment.

Always support the employees during difficult times, both financially and emotionally.

Build emotional connect by involving families through functions like family day, picnic

with families and say granting scholarships to wards of employees. Managers to know

their man!!!

Create a culture of transformational leadership impart leadership training as habits to all

managers.

Team leader to encourage involvement of his team in decision-making. The employees

feel able to voice their ideas and managers listen to these views and value employees

contributions, make a significant contribution towards how employee perceive their

managers.

Implement suggestion scheme, along with the reward framework.

All managers to create Win-Win and synergies through ideation sessions.

Workshop on people management as holding critical conversations as well as coaching.

This is to enhance the performance management by clear goal setting ongoing coaching

and mentoring.

Promote and map out career pathways and development opportunities. Make this a part of

an attraction and retention strategy.

KPI for the managers-development of his Direct Reports. The opportunities and support

employees have from their managers to develop their jobs is key to a positive perception

of managers among the individuals.

Create a transformational leadership culture, where individuals become well connected to

the organization‟s purpose and overall mission through Open Forums.

Remain competitive with salary. Do industry benchmarking and compensation survey.

Job rotation and multi skilling to avoid boredom.

Show concern with employee‟s health and well-being. Make them feel valued.

72

Bibliography

Journals Employee Engagement towards Retention: HRM Review The ICFAI University Press

March 2009; Vol. IX ; No. 3

Employee Engagement: HRM Review Icfai University Press; July 2009, Vol. 9, No. 7

What engages employees the most: By Gerard H. Seijts and Dan Crim March/April 2006

Reprint # 9B06TB09

Text Books

HRM by Dipak Kumar Bhattacharyya; 2nd Edition

Human Resource Management by John. M Ivancevich, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi,

2008

Human Resource Management by Gary Dessler, Pearson Education, New Delhi

Web Links

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Holly_Green

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kim_A._Page

http://www.blessingwhite.com/EEE__report.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement

http://retention.naukrihub.com/increase-employee-engagement.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JbWInqfKLk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-e02N1OUqw

http://www.davidzinger.com/humor-information-overload-employee-engagement-6346/

http://www.youtube.com/lifeatgoogle#p/c/547D2215A04A1231

http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/managingemployees/

motivationandretention/article77158.html

73

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/global/sustainability/our-people/

employee-engagement/

http://www.davidzinger.com/a-true-story-transforming-disengagement-into-employee-

engagement-676/

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2009/ca20091211_675764.htm

http://employeeengagement.ning.com/profiles/blogs/1986438:BlogPost:217

http://mystrategicplan.com/resources/googles-answer-to-unhappy-employees-may-miss-

the-mark/

http://mystrategicplan.com/resources/googles-approach-to-employee-engagement-

surprise-its-an-algorithm/

http://insidethecubicle.blogs.com/blog/2007/01/why_google_is_n.html

http://www.davidzinger.com/zinger-model/

http://www.humanresources.hrvinet.com/employee-engagement/

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/tcs-gets-a-peep-into-employee-minds/106967/2

http://www.karmayog.org/csr501to1000/csr501to1000_21977.htm

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/ites/Josh-pill-to-fight-attrition-Wipro-

BPO/articleshow/1963172.cms

http:// www.mydigitalfc.com /2008/ wipro’s -pap-bridge-hr-gap

http://www.earthwatch.org/europe/get_involved/involved_corporate/

employee_engagement/employee_engagement_benefits/

http://www.blessingwhite.com/EEE__report.asp

http://www.humanext.com/employee-engagement-for-change.html

http://www.management-issues.com/2006/5/25/opinion/employee-engagement-the-what-

why-and-how.asp

http://www.foresightint.com/en_US/engagement-model.html

http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=408

http://retention.naukrihub.com/employee-engagement-drivers.html

http://www.insightlink.com/Employee-engagement-customer-satisfaction.html

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/education/2009021819959.htm

http://www.contentwriter.in/articles/hr/employee-engagement.htm

http://www.contentwriter.in/articles/hr/employee-engagement.htm

74

http://www.purposetoprofit.com.au/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=13480

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/tcs-gets-a-peep-into-employee-minds/106967/2

http://www.karmayog.org/csr501to1000/csr501to1000_21977.htm

75