An ‘engaged employee’ is one who is fully involved in the work and is always ready to work for the betterment of the organisation. To keep the employees engaged, different activities can be carried out such as:
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• Engaging the staff in social activities helps in refreshing the staff from regularly assigned jobs. Emotional attachment towards society through organisations helps retaining employees.
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• Providing all the facilities required for the work on the first day of joining the organisation helps employees get motivated towards work. Furthermore, pay and benefits provided to the employees play an important role in making employees motivated and engaged.
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• It does not matter in which area or level an employee is working, it’s the commitment that matters. The employees should have the self-realisation that their activities are vital for the development of the organisation.
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• If management clears the company’s values, vision and mission to the employees and is open for new ideas, employees can be engaged round the clock. At the same time, the organisation can ensure that the employee’s job satisfaction is maintained.
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• In most of the organisations, employees seems to be engaged but the ‘we’ factor is missing as a result of which they are not serious about their position. For such ‘disengaged’ employees, the management must make them feel important and praise their contribution towards the organisation. Hence employee recognition is an important aspect for engaging the staff.
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• Observing each employee enjoying the job is the most important factor to make the employees engaged and retain them in the organisation. Different activities like certificates and awards distribution appreciating the work of the employees, organising parties and picnics, celebrating employees’ birthdays and anniversaries etc helps in making the employees feel that they are special to the organisation and makes them emotionally attached.
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• Rather than analysing the weaknesses of their employees, the management needs to highlight their strengths and empower them in their work. This engagement technique would make employees feel that they are valued and respected which will ultimately motivate them to perform better.
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• As an individual’s interest changes over time, promoting the performers and revising their job description gradually helps to keep them motivated. But there is a trend that new employees are hired at a higher level rather than promoting the existing employees. This practice should be changed in order to retain the employees. Depending on the existing employees’ competencies, they should be promoted as far as possible. Besides, the management should create a positive wave in the organisation, encourage the employees regularly and create opportunities for career growth and development.
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• Induction is also very important to retain the employees. Conducting induction at regular intervals and reminding the employees about the vision and mission of the organisation is very important for employee engagement.
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The management should work hard and research market trends and issues to update themselves on engaging the staff and to explore new ideas. Besides, hiring the right candidate also plays a vital role in ensuring that the employees do not leave the organisation without completing their contract. However, deciding at the indicators for hiring the right candidate is a difficult task.
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Employee engagement should be a continuous process of learning, improvement, measurement and action. However, the management should encourage employee engagement practices such as recognition, career development, motivation and analysing the strength of the employees. These practices result in job satisfaction and employee retention as well as organisational development.
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(The write-up is based on an ‘HR Kurakani’ discussion on “Employee Engagement- an Emerging Retention Conceptâ€, on 30 March 2011 conducted by Real Solutions Pvt Ltd. The participants at the discussion included representatives from commercial banks, INGOs, IT organisations, automobile companies, advertising agencies and freelancers. Shailendra Raj Giri, the Managing Director of Real Solutions acted as the moderator for the discussion.)
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