Companies with a greater number of engaged employees typically have lower operating costs, higher customer satisfaction and higher profits. There is a tangible monetary benefit to companies investing time and resources in fostering higher engagement within their employees. Employee engagement is associated with many desirable outcomes, such as job satisfaction, intention to stay and job performance. The task of precisely defining employee engagement is still ongoing, but it is most often defined in terms of behaviours exhibited in the workplace.
Employees are ambassadors for their organizations, who will speak highly of the company and its people, even when they are not in a work setting. An engaged employee is identifiable by workplace behaviours such as losing track of time as they are so absorbed in the task at hand. Engaged employees are prepared to go the extra mile in pursuit of workplace excellence.
Academics would say that not enough is understood about what drives employee engagement as most research in the area has tended to focus on business outcomes without investigating underlying causes. As the impact of engagement on business has been positive and has been linked with higher profitability, practice has raced ahead of the underpinning research in pursuit of creating a more engaged and hence profitable workforce.
I undertook research to aid understanding of the area by investigating the relationship between employee engagements on business performance.
At the same time, I looked at the interplay between individual differences and engagement levels of the organization. I hoped to discover best practices of the organizations and the individual’s expectations from such strategies.
Why Research:-
Success today requires a good bit more than good attendance. Yet, multiple studies in different countries and across industries show that employees who are passionate about their jobs and the organizations in which they work are in the minority. Some of the Survey conducted by some organizations revealed that approximately 19% of the employees are highly engaged. The Corporate Executive Board, looking at levels of engagement across 50,000 employees around the world, placed only 11 percent in what they dubbed “true believer” category.1 Towers Perrin’s recent “Talent Report” is slightly more optimistic, finding just 17 percent of the 35,000 employees surveyed to be highly engaged. 40 to 70 percent of employees can be classified as neutral, middle of the road, or agnostic. Worse yet, an alarming 10 to 20 percent of employees are actively “disengaged”—just putting in their time or, worse yet, undermining or badmouthing their organizations and bosses. The economic impact of low engagement can be staggering.
The objective of the Research:-
- To find out the employee engagement strategies in an organization.
- To benchmark the employee engagement practices adopted in the company.
- To study the correlation between the employee engagement practices and its impact of the business performance.
The significance of the Study:-
People often lie in exit interviews about why they are leaving. Managers should, of course, know in advance who is leaving and why. A comprehensive list like this is of little value unless used as a guide to gathering information as to how to engage the employees so that to retain the talents in the organization.
We will be publishing the research as an E-book, and please do write to us if you are interested to get a copy as complimentary. You can email us at support@themachinemaker.com
