A minor project report

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A MINOR PROJECT REPORT

ON

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN STRATEGIC

DECISION MAKING

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement of Bachelor of

Business Administration (B.B.A) General

BBA III Semester (Morning) (A)

Batch 2011-2014

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. Ruchi Singhal Narendra Barwal

Designation 01714101711

JAGANNATH INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL,

KALKAJI

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STUDENT’S UNDERTAKING

I hereby certify that this is my original work and it has never been

submitted elsewhere.

Project Guides:

By Narendra Barwal

Faculty

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CONTENTS

Description Page No.

Contents with page no. (i)

Acknowledgment

List of tables

List of figures

Executive Summary

Certificate of completion

Introduction to topic

Objectives

Literature review

Company Profile

Research Methodology

Analysis & Interpretation

Findings & Inferences

Limitations

Recommendations and Conclusion

Appendices

Bibliography

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Acknowledgement

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List of Tables

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Executive summary

Employee Engagement: fact or fad? If you are reading this executive

summary you are no doubt already aware of employee engagement becoming

an ever more important priority for business. The vital lessons learned by some

of the world’s leading businesses in creating, implementing and measuring there

employee engagement programs provide benchmark data to ensure that the

reader is well-informed about this critical topic.

The Hay Group defines engaged performance as “a result that is achieved

by stimulating employees’ enthusiasm for their work and directing it towards

organization success. The result can only be achieved when employees offer an

implicit contract to their employees that elicit specific positive behavior aligned

with organization’s goals”.

Employee engagement is associated with many desirable outcomes, such

as job satisfaction, intention to stay and job performance. Companies with a

greater number of engaged employees typically have lower operating cost,

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.

We also explore the specific roles and responsibilities of the workforce in

building a more engaged organization. Our focus: individual employees,

managers, and executives. These three roles are incremental, depending on

someone’s level in the organization: Everyone is accountable for his or her own

engagement; anyone with direct reports much coach team members to higher

level of engagement and manages his or her own engagement; and executives

set the tone for an engaged organization plus shoulder the responsibility of

individuals and managers.

Everyday Activities Leading To Greater Engagement

There some everyday activities that can lead to greater employee engagement. It

begins with looking at the experience of new employee, and continues

throughout the employee experience.

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Some examples of activities that can assist new employees feel engaged

include:

Providing the new employee with a realistic preview of the job

Considering ways to welcome them on the first day of work, and in

advance some workplace have current employees send emails to

welcome new employee prior to the first of work

Having through orientation that includes information about the job, and

also information about how people treat each other and the climate to

which every employee is expected to positively contribute

Considering the employee development plan from day one- what would be

helpful for every employee to know? Who would be useful for the new

employee to connect with in the first couple days?

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Certificate of completion

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

There is no single method to engaging employees in their work and in the

organization. Instead, there are a number of critical components that contribute

to engagement. These critical components include: workplace relationships, the

workload, the amount of control within the workplace, the reward/ recognition

structure, support, perceived fairness in the workplace, and ability to have

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meaningful and valued work. One approach to creating engagement is that there

is a level of reciprocal interdependence necessary for the individual to engage

and for the organization to success.

Engagement, represented here as a two-way relationship between employee and

employer where engaged employees are expected to also have an

under0standing of the unit and work to be done, has to do with how individuals

employ themselves in the performance in their job and involves the active use of

emotions and behaviors in addition to what they know about their jobs.

Engagement is realized through a series of interactions between the employee

and the manager or supervisor (representing the organization). The goal would

be to create interaction that would evolve into trusting, loyal, and mutual

commitments leading to full engagement in the workplace. It was best state by

Saks (2006), “when employee believes that their organization is concerned about

them and cares about their well-bring, they are likely to respond by attempting to

fulfill their obligation to their organization by becoming more engaged.”

Management behavior plays a key role in developing engagement through the

relationship they build with employees, and behaving in a way that they are

supported and play a critical role in the success of the unit. The application of

these principles to developing a process for employees to be involved in

decisions related to the workplace, and to the unit, provide a significant

opportunity to that end. It is imported to note that employee engagement is a

long-term and ongoing process that requires continued interaction over time in

order to generate obligation and a state of reciprocal interdependence.

Define “Engagement” and why the “Old Definition” Need to be

changed

The original definition of employee engagement focused on the tools used to

make employee feel engaged and encourage employee engagement.

One tool used to determine a company’s level of employee engagement is

surveys. Surveys are a great way to measure employee engagement level. They

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provide an idea of how satisfied employees are, and how to increase their job

satisfaction. However, surveys have their flaws. Take for example a case where

a survey is used to evaluate factors in employee engagement. An employee who

might be very comfortable in the current job and not want to be promote might

give a low rating for satisfaction within opportunity for advancement since the

employee has no interest in advancing. The overall impact on the employee’s

engagement may not be affected yet the survey might misattribute a result that a

low satisfaction score in this case leads to less employee engagement. Because

of these ambiguities surveys can often be misleading.

Some example include interviews, confrontation meeting and reward system.

These are all great tools, but they too can have their flaws. For this reason a

definition for employee engagement should encompass more than just the tool it

takes to make employee feel engaged. Definition should also include condition

which lead to employee engagement as well as what it takes to create an

environment where employee feel engaged.

The “New Definition” for Engagement

Redefining engagement as a heightened emotional connection that an employee

feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater

discretionary effort to his or her work” provides the framework In which

engagement activity operates.

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Employee Engagement Defined By different companies

CORPORATIONS

Caterpillar

Engagement is the extent of employees’ commitment, work effort, and desire to

stay in an organization.

Dell Inc.

Engagement: To compete today, companies need to win over the MINDS

(rational commitment) and the HEARTS (emotional commitment) of employees in

ways that lead to extraordinary effort.

Intuit, Inc.

Engagement describes how an employee thinks and feels about, and acts toward

his or her job, the work experience and the company.

CONSULTANTS and RESEARCHERS

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Corporate Leadership Council

Engagement: The extent to which employees commit to something or someone

in their organization, how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of

that commitment.

Development Dimensions International

Engagement is the extent to which people enjoy and believe in what they do, and

feel valued for doing it.

The Gallup Organization

Employee engagement is the involvement with and enthusiasm for work

Hewitt Associates

Engagement is the state of emotional and intellectual commitment to an

organization or group producing behavior that will help fulfill an organization’s

promises to customers – and, in so doing, improve business results.

Engaged employees:

Stay – They have an intense desire to be a part of the organization and

they stay with that organization;

Say – They advocate for the organization by referring potential employees

and customers, are positive with co-workers and are constructive in their

criticism;

Strive – They exert extra effort and engage in behaviors that contribute to

business success.

Institute for Employment Studies

Engagement: A positive attitude held by the employee toward the 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

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organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement,

which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.

Kenexa

Engagement is the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to

organizational success, and are willing to apply discretionary effort (extra time,

brainpower and effort) to accomplishing tasks that are important to the

achievement of organizational goals.

Towers Perrin

Engagement is the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their

work, beyond the required minimum to get the job done, in the form of extra time,

brainpower or energy

CHAPTER 2

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Companies with high employee engagement have profit margins nearly three

times larger than that of organization with disengaged workers, according to a

study by Towers Watson.

Employees who believe that their companies are high-performance deliver

sustainable engagement scores 16 percentage points higher than the overall

country norm, found the Global workforce study, which surveyed 32,000

employees globally – 1,000 of which were from Canada.

However, more than two-third (67 per cent) of Canadian workers are not fully

engaged in their work and are frustrated by insufficient support from their

organizations.

"When workers are not fully engaged, it leads to increased risk for employers. It

makes companies more vulnerable to lower productivity and higher inefficiency,

greater rates of absenteeism and turnover and increased costs for chronic

illnesses," said France Deferens, leader of Towers Watson's talent and rewards

practice in Montreal. "Without more attention to the fundamentals of sustainable

engagement — including improving on-the-job support for employees and

increasing efforts to deepen employees' sense of attachment to the organization

— employers will have a harder time generating growth and returns."

The Global Workforce Study breaks new ground in understanding and measuring

what contributes to sustained employee engagement, said Towers Watson. The

equation for sustainable engagement is the sum of three distinct elements:

•Traditional engagement: Employees' willingness to give effort to their

employer.

•Enablement: Having the tools, resources and support to get work done

efficiently.

•Energy: A work environment that actively supports physical, emotional and

interpersonal well-being.

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"Enablement and energy are the really critical factors in this equation," said

Ofelia Isabel, Towers Watson's Canadian leader for talent and rewards. "It's only

in the last few years, when we've seen more pressure in the system, that the

importance of enablement and energy has risen to the forefront."

Companies have known for years that engagement is important to performance,

what's now clear is the significance of effective workplace resources and

interpersonal well-being, along with an understanding of the role that senior

leadership plays in sustaining that well-being, said Julie Naismith, a senior talent

and rewards consultant at Towers Watson.

According to the study, virtually all (95 per cent) of highly engaged Canadian

employees believe that that they have the work tools and resources they need to

achieve exceptional performance — compared to only 20 per cent of disengaged

employees.

Similar disparities appear with regard to the ability to sustain energy throughout

the workday (97 per cent versus 32 per cent) and sense of personal

accomplishment at work (99 per cent versus 33 per cent).

However, amongst all Canadian survey participants, only one-third (38 per cent)

believe that their organization and senior leaders encourage and support a

healthy workforce and just 39 per cent think that senior leaders have a sincere

interest in their well-being, found the survey.

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Over the past decade, the way in people are managed and developed of work

has comet be recognized as one of the primary factors in achieving improvement

in organizational performance. This reflected by popular idioms such as “people

are our most important assets”. Back in the good old days of cooperate world,

things were pretty simple. Companies put people on career tracks straight out of

college; they gave employees a job for life and waved them good bye with a gold

watch at retirement. The promise of the stable life as a company employee kept

both morale and productivity high. Then things changed. Competition increased,

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margins shrank and shareholder got more demanding. Suddenly, company staff

were finding the very job security they’d counted on was disappearing, and at

speed. This upheaval meant companies had to find new ways to motivate their

employees in order to make them more productive since, without stability,

employees were looking for something else from their employers. And thus,

Engagement was born. In itself, engagement isn’t really a new idea; owners and

managers have been talking about engagement, in one form or another, for

centuries… they just used different words to express it. In former times,

engagement focused more on productivity and achieving results through threat of

punishment or by means of reward. But common sense- and good

communication- eventually won out and, today organization everywhere are

spending serious money on all forms of employee engagement. Boiled down, it

simply means ‘developing a happy and loyal workforce’. Enlightened managers

now realized that any company as a whole will benefit when its employees know

what’s going on and they feel defining what makes a workforce happy, and in

understanding how this good will translates into company success. From the

extant literature review, it is acknowledged that successful organizations share a

fundamental philosophy of valuing and investing in their employees. In fact many

research studies have described human resources management as a means of

achieving competitive advantage. Consistent with this it is an equally important

issue for the organization to retain their critical (core) employees. Most

organization today continues to struggle with retention because they are relying

on salary increase and bonuses t prevent turnover. Essentially more organization

is now realizing that relation is a strategic issue and continues to be competitive

advantage. The term “engagement” stems from the work of Kahn (1990) who

distinguished between being engaged and disengaged at work. Putting the

humanistic factors together, bear, spectre, Lawrence, Quinn-Mills and Walton

(1984) created the ‘Harvard Business School’ model of HRM which focused on

people in an organization to be the key resources. In light of such critical

emphasis being placed on human capital, Paula Ketter has aptly noted.

“Engagement is all about creating a culture where people do not feel misused,

overused, underused or abused”. At a very basic level, employee engagement

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draws from the tenets of the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ as conceptualized by Maslow,

the highest stage of which is self-actualization; the pinnacle of an individual’s

fulfillment of talent and potential. The theory of ‘higher order needs’ was largely

overlooked in the heydays of scientific ‘assembly line’ manufacturing.

10 Common Themes: How Companies Measure Engagement

Employers typically assess their employees’ engagement levels with company-

wide attitude or opinion surveys. (See “Employee-Engagement Survey Items:

Samples.”) A sampling of the criteria featured in such instruments reveals 10

common themes related to engagement:

1. Pride in employer

2. Satisfaction with employer

3. Job satisfaction

4. Opportunity to perform well at challenging work

5. Recognition and positive feedback for one’s contributions

6. Personal support from one’s supervisor

7. Effort above and beyond the minimum

8. Understanding the link between one’s job and the organization’s mission

9. Prospects for future growth with one’s employer

10. Intention to stay with one’s employer

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Employee Engagement: Five Companies That Get It

1. Make it Strategic: Intel Corporation

Set the stage for employee buy-in by sharing a vision that ties engagement

Efforts to your core vision and larger business strategy—something Intel does by

Calculating each employee’s annual bonus according to sustainability results. By

Challenging all departments to improve their processes and products with

sustainability in mind, Intel celebrates the diversity of its professionals while

increasing accountability for multiple dimensions of value creation and impact.

2. Make it Personal: Hyatt Hotels & Resorts

Issues like climate change and biodiversity are complex, but framing these big

issues in relatable terms is not impossible. Take inspiration from Hyatt: The

hospitality company’s corporate responsibility platform, Hyatt Thrive, leverages

the power of peer-to-peer influence and social networking to connect and

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empower 300 Green Teams worldwide. Employees use a Facebook-like interface

to post photos, questions, and even presentations about their local sustainability

efforts.

3. Make it Flexible: Wal-Mart

While top-down leadership is important, the best employee engagement

programs are co-created and co-owned by employees themselves. Wal-Mart’s

global engagement platform, My Sustainability Plan (MSP), was created with the

goal of helping more than two million associates in 28 countries take everyday

steps to live healthier, greener lives. The program encourages associates to

choose goals most relevant to their own lives and break those goals into small,

doable everyday actions—whether that’s eating a salad every day or biking to

work.

4. Make it Easy: Google

To encourage involvement, chunk your program into easy steps that’ll let all

employees participate. Google—a company already known for employee perks

like free laundry and locally sourced meals—educates associates about the

impact of simple actions like turning off their computers at night. Micro-kitchens

built throughout the workplace are designed to encourage the use of reusable

dishes and flatware (employees can even leave their dirty dishes in the sink).

5. Make it Last: Cliff Bar

Creating an effective program is just the beginning. To encourage ongoing

success, you’ve got to treat employee engagement as an ongoing campaign.

Sustainability is such a big part of CLIF Bar’s culture, for example, that it’s

embedded in employees’ benefits package, including incentives for actions like

purchasing a fuel-efficient car and making eco-friendly home improvements.

Momentum is ensured at weekly staff meetings, where employees share

practical tips for living greener, and at yearly award ceremonies, where

individuals are recognized for excellence according to the company’s values.

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A great engagement program is a guaranteed way to recruit and retain top talent

and drive productivity. But, even more important: Engaging employees and

encouraging their input builds trust, drives innovation and inspires co-creativity

from the inside out.

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Is there a crisis in employee engagement?

We believe that executives must be concerned about the level of engagement in

the workplace. For example, the Gallup Management Journal publishes a semi-

annual Employment Engagement Index. The most recent U.S. results indicate

that:

o Only 29 percent of employees are actively engaged in their jobs. These

employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their

company. People that are actively engaged help move the organization

forward.

o Fifty-four percent of employees are not engaged. These employees have

essentially “checked out,” sleepwalking through their workday and putting

time – but not passion – into their work. These people embody what Jack

Welch said several years ago. To paraphrase him: “Never mistake activity

for accomplishment.”

o Seventeen percent of employees are actively disengaged. These

employees are busy acting out their unhappiness, undermining what their

engaged co-workers are trying to accomplish.

A Towers Perrin 2005 Global Workforce Survey involving about 85,000 people

working full-time for large and midsized firms found similarly disturbing findings.

Only 14 percent of all employees worldwide were highly engaged in their job. The

number of Canadians that reported being highly engaged was 17 percent. Sixty-

two percent of the employees surveyed indicated they were moderately engaged

at best; 66 percent of employees in Canada were moderately engaged. And 24

percent reported that they are actively disengaged; the corresponding number in

Canada was 17 percent. (See article by Towers Perrin authors elsewhere in this

issue.)

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The survey also indicated that on a country-by-country basis, the percentages of

highly engaged, moderately engaged, and actively disengaged employees varied

considerably. And the results showed some interesting, perhaps counter-intuitive,

results. For example, Mexico and Brazil have the highest percentages of

engaged employees, while Japan and Italy have the largest percentages of

disengaged employees. In their report, the authors interpreted these and other

findings as and indication that employee engagement has relatively little to do

with macro-economic conditions. Instead, it is the unique elements of the work

experience that are most likely to influence engagement.

Does engagement really make a difference?

Should executives be concerned about these findings? Perhaps a more

interesting question to executives is: “Is there a strong relationship between, say,

high scores on employee engagement indices and organizational performance?”

It seems obvious that engaged employees are more productive than their

disengaged counterparts. For example, a recent meta-analysis published in the

Journal of Applied Psychology concluded that, “… employee satisfaction and

engagement are related to meaningful business outcomes at a magnitude that is

important to many organizations.” A compelling question is this: How much more

productive is an engaged workforce compared to a non-engaged workforce?

Several case studies shine some light on the practical significance of an engaged

workforce. For example, New Century Financial Corporation, a U.S. specialty

mortgage banking company, found that account executives in the wholesale

division who were actively disengaged produced 28 percent less revenue than

their colleagues who were engaged. Furthermore, those not engaged generated

23 percent less revenue than their engaged counterparts. Engaged employees

also outperformed the not engaged and actively disengaged employees in other

divisions. New Century Financial Corporation statistics also showed that

employee engagement does not merely correlate with bottom line results – it

drives results.

Employee engagement also affects the mindset of people. Engaged employees

believe that they can make a difference in the organizations they work for.

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Confidence in the knowledge, skills, and abilities that people possess – in both

themselves and others – is a powerful predictor of behavior and subsequent

performance. Thus, consider some of the results of the Towers Perrin survey

cited earlier:

o Eighty-four percent of highly engaged employees believe they can

positively impact the quality of their organization’s products, compared

with only 31 percent of the disengaged.

o Seventy-two percent of highly engaged employees believe they can

positively affect customer service, versus 27 percent of the disengaged.

o Sixty-eight percent of highly engaged employees believe they can

positively impact costs in their job or unit, compared with just 19 percent of

the disengaged.

Given these data, it is not difficult to understand that companies that do a better

job of engaging their employees do outperform their competition. Employee

engagement can not only make a real difference, it can set the great

organizations apart from the merely good ones.

Leading the turnaround

Consider the words of Ralph Stayer, CEO of Johnsonville Sausage. In the book,

Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead, he

writes.

I learned what I had to in order to succeed, but I never thought that learning was

all that important. My willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed is what

fueled Johnsonville’s growth. In 1980 I hit the wall. I realized that if I kept doing

what I had always done, I was going to keep getting what I was getting. And I

didn’t like what I was getting. I would never achieve my dream. I could see the

rest of my business life being a never-ending stream of crises, problems, and

dropped balls. We could keep growing and have decent profits, but it wasn’t the

success I was looking for.

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The CEO observed that his employees were uninterested in their work. They

were careless – dropping equipment, wasting materials, and often not accepting

any responsibility for their work. They showed up for work, did what they were

told to do, and, at the end of their shift, went home; the same routine would be

repeated the next day. An employee-attitude survey showed average results. To

Stayer, it appeared that the only person who was excited about Johnsonville was

himself. He began to feel like a baby-sitter for his executives and staff. Stayer

also realized that he could not inspire Johnsonville to greatness and as a result,

the business he was running was becoming vulnerable.

Stayer found solutions to these problems in a meeting with Lee Thayer, a

communications professor. Thayer explained to Stayer that a critical task for a

leader is to create a climate that enables employees to unleash their potential. It

is not the job of a CEO to make employees listen to what you have to say; it is

about setting up the system so that people want to listen. The combination of the

right environment and a culture that creates wants instead of requirements

places few limits on what employees can achieve. Thayer’s message resonated

with Stayer, as it should among business executives.

Stayer began to recognize the difference between compliance and commitment,

and that an engaged workforce was what he needed to help improve

organizational performance. He also learned that he needed to change his own

leadership behavior first. Leaders cannot “demand” more engagement and

stronger performance; they can’t stand on the sideline and speak only “when the

play goes wrong” if an engaged workforce and great performance are what they

desire. But what should leaders do, or consider doing, to increase the level of

engagement among employees?

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The ten C’s of employee engagement

How can leaders engage employees’ heads, hearts, and hands? The literature

offers several avenues for action; we summarize these as the Ten C’s of

employee engagement.

1. Connect: Leaders must show that they value employees. In First, Break All

the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman argue that managers trump

companies. Employee-focused initiatives such as profit sharing and

implementing work–life balance initiatives are important. However, if employees’

relationship with their managers is fractured, then no amount of perks will

persuade employees to perform at top levels. Employee engagement is a direct

how employees feel about their relationship with the boss. Employees look at

whether organizations and their leader walk the talk when they proclaim that,

“Our employees are our most valuable asset.”

One anecdote illustrates the Connect dimension well. In November 2003, the

CEO of WestJet Airlines, Clive Beddoe, was invited to give a presentation to the

Canadian Club of London. Beddoe showed up late, a few minutes before he was

to deliver his speech. He had met with WestJet employees at the London Airport

and had taken a few minutes to explain the corporate strategy and some new

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initiatives to them. He also answered employees’ questions. To paraphrase

Beddoe, “We had a great discussion that took a bit longer than I had anticipated.”

Beddoe’s actions showed that he cares about the employees. The employees,

sensing that he is sincere, care about Beddoe and the organization; they

“reward” his behavior with engagement.

2. Career: Leaders should provide challenging and meaningful work with

opportunities for career advancement. Most people want to do new things in their

job. For example, do organizations provide job rotation for their top talent? Are

people assigned stretch goals? Do leaders hold people accountable for

progress? Are jobs enriched in duties and responsibilities? Good leaders

challenge employees; but at the same time, they must instill the confidence that

the challenges can be met. Not giving people the knowledge and tools to be

successful is unethical and de-motivating; it is also likely to lead to stress,

frustration, and, ultimately, lack of engagement. In her book Confidence: How

Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, Rosabeth Moss Kantar

explains that confidence is based on three cornerstones: accountability,

collaboration, and initiative.

3. Clarity: Leaders must communicate a clear vision. People want to understand

the vision that senior leadership has for the organization, and the goals that

leaders or departmental heads have for the division, unit, or team. Success in life

and organizations is, to a great extent, determined by how clear individuals are

about their goals and what they really want to achieve. In sum, employees need

to understand what the organization’s goals are, why they are important, and

how the goals can best be attained. Clarity about what the organization stands

for, what it wants to achieve, and how people can contribute to the organization’s

success is not always evident. Consider, for example, what Jack Stack, CEO of

SRC Holdings Corp., wrote about the importance of teaching the basics of

business:

The most crippling problem in American business is sheer ignorance about how

business works. What we see is a whole mess of people going to a baseball

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game and nobody is telling them what the rules are. That baseball game is

business. People try to steal from first base to second base, but they don’t even

know how that fits into the big picture. What we try to do is break down business

in such a way that employees realize that in order to win the World Series, you’ve

got to steal x number of bases, hit y number of RBIs and have the pitchers pitch

z number of innings. And if you put all these variables together, you can really

attain your hopes and dreams … don’t use information to intimidate, control or

manipulate people. Use it to teach people how to work together to achieve

common goals and thereby gain control over their lives.

4. Convey: Leaders clarify their expectations about employees and provide

feedback on their functioning in the organization. Good leaders establish

processes and procedures that help people master important tasks and facilitate

goal achievement. There is a great anecdote about the legendary UCLA

basketball coach, John Wooden. He showed how important feedback – positive

and constructive – is in the pursuit of greatness. Among the secrets of his

phenomenal success was that he kept detailed diaries on each of his players. He

kept track of small improvements he felt the players could make and did make. At

the end of each practice, he would share his thoughts with the players. The

lesson here is that good leader’s works daily to improve the skills of their people

and create small wins that help the team, unit, or organization perform at its best.

5. Congratulate: Business leaders can learn a great deal from Wooden’s

approach. Surveys show that, over and over, employees feel that they receive

immediate feedback when their performance is poor, or below expectations.

These same employees also report that praise and recognition for strong

performance is much less common. Exceptional leaders give recognition, and

they do so a lot; they coach and convey.

6. Contribute: People want to know that their input matters and that they are

contributing to the organization’s success in a meaningful way. This might be

easy to articulate in settings such as hospitals and educational institutions. But

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what about, say the retail industry? Sears Roebuck & Co. started a turnaround in

1992. Part of the turnaround plan was the development of a set of measures –

known as Total Performance Indicators – which gauged how well Sears was

doing with its employees, customers, and investors. The implementation of the

measurement system led to three startling conclusions. First, an employee

understands of the connection between her work – as operationalized by specific

job-relevant behaviors – and the strategic objectives of the company had a

positive impact on job performance. Second, an employee’s attitude towards the

job and the company had the greatest impact on loyalty and customer service

than all the other employee factors combined. Third, improvements in employee

attitude led to improvements in job-relevant behavior; this, in turn, increased

customer satisfaction and an improvement in revenue growth. In sum, good

leaders help people see and feel how they are contributing to the organization’s

success and future.

7. Control: Employees value control over the flow and pace of their jobs and

leaders can create opportunities for employees to exercise this control. Do

leaders consult with their employees with regard to their needs? For example, is

it possible to accommodate the needs of a mother or an employee infected with

HIV so that they can attend to childcare concerns or a medical appointment? Are

leaders flexible and attuned to the needs of the employees as well as the

organization? Do leaders involve employees in decision-making, particularly

when employees will be directly affected by the decision? Do employees have a

say in setting goals or milestones that are deemed important? Are employees

able to voice their ideas, and does leadership show that contributions are

valued? H. Norman Schwarzkopf retired U.S. Army General, once remarked:

I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw

was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44

individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each of

whom wants to do well.

A feeling of “being in on things,” and of being given opportunities to participate in

decision making often reduces stress; it also creates trust and a culture where

people want to take ownership of problems and their solutions. There are

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numerous examples of organizations whose implementation of an open-book

management style and creating room for employees to contribute to making

decisions had a positive effect on engagement and organizational performance.

The success of Microsoft, for example, stems in part from Bill Gates’ belief that

smart people anywhere in the company should have the power to drive an

initiative. Initiatives such as Six Sigma are dependent, in part, on the active

participation of employees on the shop floor.

8. Collaborate: Studies show that, when employees work in teams and have the

trust and cooperation of their team members, they outperform individuals and

teams which lack good relationships. Great leaders are team builders; they

create an environment that fosters trust and collaboration. Surveys indicate that

being cared about by colleagues is a strong predictor of employee engagement.

Thus, a continuous challenge for leaders is to rally individuals to collaborate on

organizational, departmental, and group goals, while excluding individuals

pursuing their self-interest.

9. Credibility: Leaders should strive to maintain a company’s reputation and

demonstrate high ethical standards. People want to be proud of their jobs, their

performance, and their organization. WestJet Airlines is among the most admired

organizations in Canada. The company has achieved numerous awards. For

example, in 2005, it earned the number one spot for best corporate culture in

Canada. On September 26, 2005, WestJet launched the “Because We’re

Owners!” campaign. Why do WestJet employees care so much about their

organization? Why do over 85 percent of them own shares in the company?

Employees believe so strongly in what WestJet is trying to do and are so excited

about its strong performance record that they commit their own money into

shares.

10. Confidence: Good leaders help create confidence in a company by being

exemplars of high ethical and performance standards. To illustrate, consider what

happened to Harry Stone cipher, the former CEO of Boeing. He made the

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restoration of corporate ethics in the organization a top priority but was soon after

embarrassed by the disclosure of an extramarital affair with a female employee.

His poor judgment impaired his ability to lead and he lost a key ingredient for

success – credibility. Thus the board asked him to resign. Employees working at

Qwest and Continental Airlines were so embarrassed about working for their

organizations that they would not wear their company’s uniform on their way to

and from work. At WorldCom, most employees were shocked, horrified, and

embarrassed when the accounting scandal broke at the company. New

leadership was faced with the major challenges of regaining public trust and

fostering employee engagement.

Practitioners and academics have argued that competitive advantage can be

gained by creating an engaged workforce. The data and argument that that we

present above are a compelling case why leaders need to make employee

engagement one of their priorities. Leaders should actively try to identify the level

of engagement in their organization, find the reasons behind the lack of full

engagement, strive to eliminate those reasons, and implement behavioral

strategies that will facilitate full engagement. These efforts should be ongoing.

Employee engagement is hard to achieve and if not sustained by leaders it can

wither with relative ease.

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Employer Practices

Job Performance

Employee Engagement and

Commitment

Business Results

The Link between Employer Practices and Employee

Engagement

How does an engaged workforce generate valuable business results for an

organization? The process starts with employer practices such as job and task

design, recruitment, selection, training, compensation, performance management

and career development. Such practices affect employees’ level of engagement

as well as job performance. Performance and engagement then interact to

produce business results. Figure depicts these relationships.

Figure . Employer Practices Ultimately Influence Business Results

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN INDIA

The recent work ASIA research study by Watson Wyatt worldwide indicate that

India has highest percentage of highly engaged work at 78% in Asia as compare

to Japan, which has the lowest employee engagement at 39%. Head to head

with China, the engagement level of the Indian worker is 20% more than his

Chinese counterpart. These are all encouraging signs- but the challenges and

the opportunity ahead are manifold. The imminent US slow down, shrinking of

talent pool, slowdown in hiring, large employee expectations are all challenges

for internal communication to cope with. The Gallup organization describe

employee engagement as the “the involvement with and enthusiasm for work”.

The challenges faced by organizations in India are around attrition, career

development and engagement while trying to keep pace with the explosive

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growth. Outsourcing outfits have the highest attrition rates losing staff at a rate of

between 100% and 200% a year. It is widely believed that organization spend an

average of 36% of their revenues on their employees but do not have a tangible

way to measure its Impact. A mercer study ‘What’s working’ – a series of national

research on worker insights, highlights factors that make different to employee

engagement. The survey’s 125 questions elicit views in the areas defined by

Mercer’s Human Capital Strategic Model and cover training and development,

work environment, leadership, performance management, work/life balance,

communication, compensation, benefits, and engagement. The India study

throws up some fascinating directions for Hr and internal communication

professionals. Employee engagement is no more just about the employee’s

intent to leave. The employee’s commitment to the organization and motivation to

contribute to the organization’s success plays a significant role. The top three

drivers in India are trust in senior management, how the organization is

perceived for customer service and fair pay. Surprisingly, from an Indian context,

the least valued factors in the continuum were benefits, compensation and

performance management. In India, having a long-term career is considered

positive and stable. Frequent job changes are viewed negatively and therefore

the high scores around the commitment count are in line with the mind set.

Internal communication and HR professionals need to take note of the

employee’s need for giving feedback and to observe action taken from this.

Employees seem to be getting very little information on the organization’s vision

and future plans, a cause of concern. Other areas for action include the

organization’s reputation in the market – congruent to other research in this

space which believes that organization’s which are socially responsible are

considered better places to work. In the talent management bracket, managers

fare poorly for their involvement, understanding and support as well as for merit

based appraisals.

In India, with a large number of global players entering the market, the talent pool

has now a plethora of choices and even these multinationals are finding it tough

to retain staff. The Canadian HR Reporter writes that employees want to know

where their careers are heading and that is a critical component of the talent

retention strategy organizations need to focus on softer styles of leadership have

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a better impact in India and china leaving organization to develop or seek leaders

who can fill this need.

10 Steps That Ensure Employee Engagement Success

Improving Employee Engagement is not the product of one initiative.

Organizations need a framework to achieve significant improvement in

engagement. Sequencing and content of the initiative are critical, as is

communication.

There have been many traditional approaches to improving Employee

Engagement, including Leadership Training, Company-wide ‘Programs,’

Learning & Development and other such initiatives.

Given the experiences of the traditional approaches outlined above, most

organizations struggle to shift Employee Engagement more than a couple of

percentage points. In discussing this with CEOs, as well as Human Resources

and Organizational Development Executives, it became clear that new

approaches were required to create a significant shift in Employee Engagement.

With old or new approaches, the factors that need to be addressed remain the

same:

Job Importance: An employee needs to know how their job is important to

the organization.

Clarity of what is expected of them: Employees need to know what their

manager expects of them.

Career Advancement: Employees want to know that there is a fair and

equitable system for career advancement and that, if they perform, they

will be considered for advancement.

Improvement and Reward: Employees want to make improvements to the

organization and, if they do, would like to be compensated where possible

(a reward and a sincere thank-you).

Regular Feedback: Employees want to know when they, the department

and the organization are doing well (or not so well).

Good Relationship: Employees want to communicate with their manager,

even if the news is not good.

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Clear values: Employees want to know the values and behaviors that will

be looked upon favorably; they don’t want to be left in a vacuum to guess.

Good Communications: Employees want to know what is happening so

they’re not the last to find out important information.

In order to address the above needs, the solution needs to incorporate all

of the above factors – and then some. The following is a 10-point outline

of a comprehensive solution that addresses each of the major influencers

outlined above.

1. Define and Map the Strategy

Organization leaders need to be clear on what they are trying to achieve before

they communicate this to the organization. If the Level 1 Strategy (Organization

Level) is not well defined, then leaders need to conduct a Strategy Workshop

where Executive Management defines and refines a clear strategy. The Strategy

needs to be converted into a Strategy Map. This Map is a pictorial representation

of the Strategy showing dependencies and relationships of the major parts of the

Strategy. Most people understand a picture far better and have much more

information than from a complicated, written strategic plan.

2. Define Values, Behaviors and Measurement Criteria

The Executive and Management teams need to determine the values and

behaviors they believe are important to the organization. These need to be

clearly defined and unanimously supported, as well as clearly articulated so that

they can be readily understood. Executive Management needs to define what

part values and behaviors will play in employee evaluations or reviews. If

employees aren’t going to be evaluated on these values and behaviors, then

management is wasting its time defining them. The Executive Management team

needs to decide on the weighting for these values and behaviors in employee

reviews.

3. Conduct Strategy Mapping in Every Major Business Unit

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Each Department must complete a Strategy Map with each employee being

allocated a part of the Strategy. This might sound difficult, but in practice it’s not.

Once you complete Strategy Mapping in each department or work unit,

employees know their part of the plan. You have now achieved the first

influencing factor of Employee Engagement – Job Importance. Each employee

now knows what is important and his or her part of the plan.

4. Create a Performance Management/Talent Management System

Set up an automated Performance Management and Development system.

Ensure the system has the capability for regular feedback, at least monthly. This

is the platform that will deliver the clarity of role and communications aspect of

Employee Engagement. The Talent Management component should enable an

objective way of short-listing potential candidates for promotion. This is also the

platform that will deliver the Career and Succession Planning component of

Employee Engagement.

5. Link Incentive Compensation to the Outcomes of Performance

Management

To achieve the Reward component of Influencing Improvement and Reward, link

compensation to Performance. Whether it’s a salary increment, bonus, or some

other compensation consequence, there needs to be some linkage to

compensation to achieve and satisfy this component.

6. Set Objectives Based on the Department Strategy Map

Each Manager should sit down with their team and discuss each employee’s role

in achieving the Strategy Map. Objectives are set with each employee and each

employee understands his/her part of the Strategy, how their work is important

and how other employees and managers rely and depend upon their work.

7. Make Every Manager Accountable

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If your Performance Management system is capable of delivering a quick touch-

base progress review each month, this becomes easy. Managers sit down with

employees for 10-15 minutes each month and do a quick update. The

Performance Management system should restate a summary of the employee’s

objectives and values and behaviors. After the meeting, managers should record

progress in the system. Note that Communication will require more than just one-

on-one meetings with the manager or CEO. Internal communications will need to

be planned at regular scheduled intervals as well.

8. Conduct Career/Succession Planning

Design a communications program that will advise all employees that Succession

Planning will now be based on merit, not just who someone knows or who plays

golf with whom. This Talent Management System should be able to produce a

short list of employees based on objective criteria, for example:

Career Aspirations Match Qualifications

Historical Performance Rating

Potential Rating

Competencies Match/Rating 

Mobility

Age-Based Retirement

9. Foster Positive, Supportive Relationships

This is a factor that is not as easily achieved by any single initiative except that

improvements will have been made through: :

Clarifying purpose – managers will interact with staff in the Strategy Mapping

phase.

Setting Objectives – Managers will spend time with their staff while setting

objectives. They can no longer avoid staff contact.

One-on-One Meetings – Managers should be required to conduct 10-15 minute

touch-base meetings to share progress on projects. This ongoing communication

helps to improve relationships between employees and managers.

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10. Communicate Constantly and Consistently

At every step along the way, employees must be clear on how they are

connected to the organization strategy. They specifically need to know their part

of the plan and they need to see that their part of the plan is important to the

organization.

The following are a few basic steps in this process based on the

best industry practices.

1. The specific requirements of your organization and deciding the priorities.

Prepare and Design: The first step in the process is about discovering

after that a customized design of carrying the whole process can be

designed. It is recommended to seek advice of expert management

consultant in order to increase the chances of getting it done right at the

first attempt.

2. Employee Engagement Survey: Design the questions of the employee

engagement survey and deploy it with the help of an appropriate media. It

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can be either in printed form or set online depending upon the comfort

level of the employees and your questionnaire evaluation process.

3. Result Analysis: It is the most important step in the entire process. It is

time when reports are to be analyzed to find out what exactly motivates

employees to perform their best and what actually disengages them and

finally compels them to leave the organization. The results and information

can then be delivered through presentations.

4. Action Planning: ‘How to turn the results of the survey in to an action’ is

a challenging question that organizations need to deal with the utmost

care. Coaching of line managers as well as HR professionals is very

important in order to tell them how to take appropriate actions to engage

employees. They should also be told about do’s and don’ts so that they

can successfully implement the changes.

5. Action Follow-up: Action follow up is necessary in order to find out if the

action has been taken in the right direction or not and if it is producing the

desired results.

Strategies to improve Employee engagement

Managers may take up following steps for creating and sustaining employee

engagement:

1) Let go off 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 the company. Remember that you are co-creating the

achievement of a vision with them.

2) Make sure employees have everything they need to do their jobs.

Why not build just such an opportunity into your department simply by asking

each staff member, or the team as a whole, "Do you have everything you need to

be as competent as you can be?" Remember, just as marketplace and customer

needs change at daily, so do your employees' needs change.

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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. Show an interest in their well

being and that, when appropriate, you do what it takes to enable them to feel

more fulfilled.

5) make sure they are trained - and retrained - in problem solving and

conflict resolution skills.

These critical skills will help them interact better with you, their teammates,

customers and suppliers. Its common sense - better communication reduces

stress and increase positive outcomes.

6) Constantly ask how you are doing in your employees' eyes.

Although 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 get strong at this skill and to model it for

employees, begin dialogues with employees using conversation starters such 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 to express appreciation.

7) Reward and recognize employees in ways that are meaningful to them

That's why getting to know your employees is so important. And remember to

celebrate both accomplishments and efforts to give employees working on long-

term goals a boost.

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8) 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

the manager gets bored, fired or moved to another department. There's a

connection between an employee's commitment to an initiative and a manager's

commitment to supporting it. A manager'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

How to keep employee happy and engaged

But exactly how do that? Here in one handy chart is a summary of approximately

85,927 hours of engagement research — something we call THE MAGICAL

WHEEL OF ENGAGEMENT:

Employees desperately want their leaders to:

ENVISION a bold, clear and inspirational future;

EMPATHIZE with them to understand their motivations and strengths;

ENHANCE their skills through education, exposure and experience;

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EMPOWER them to do meaningful work;

EVALUATE them on a truthful and timely basis;

ENCOURAGE them as much as humanly possible

To help you understand your company-specific objectives, here are some

general objectives of employee engagement:

A Workplace With Involvement – Perhaps the most important objective

of employee engagement is to create a workplace with involvement of

employees.  This means that when you have a company picnic or quality

circle meeting, you should have employees that want to be there and

contribute.  This desire to participate is a sign that you have actively

engaged employees.

Pride In Work – Employees should be proud of what they do and how

they do it.  A sense of pride in big projects shows that employees actually

care about what they are doing.  This pride is a sign of employee

engagement and involvement with business decisions.

A Sense Of Community – Employees should feel a sense of community

in the workplace.  This means that rather than viewing co-employees as

just co-employees, your employees should view everyone working around

them as a crucial part of the team.  When your employees value each

other, they will strive to make decisions that will benefit the organization as

a whole.

CHAPTER 3

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Analysis and Findings

Q1. Do you know what is expected of you at work?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

Figure 3.1

68% of the sample agreed to the fact that they are aware about the work which

they have to perform while 32% are strongly agree on this fact.

Q2. At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

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d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

Figure 3.2

Majority (53%) of the employees get the opportunity to do best of work every day

while 29% of them disagreed on this and 18% of them strongly agreed.

Q3. In the last three months, have you received recognition or praise for doing

good work?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

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Figure 3.3

84% of the employees have received recognition or praise in the last three

months for doing good work while 11% of the employees are highly satisfied with

recognition in their organization and 5% of them have not received any praise in

the last 3 months.

Q4. Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

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Figure 3.4

Generally people feel sense of belongingness when someone is there at their

workplace to support them and 84% of the employees agreed on this fact while

8% have strongly agreed and the other 8% disagreed.

Q5. At work, do your opinions seem to count?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

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Figure 3.5

Employee’s participation in decision making is again a criterion of measuring

employee engagement. 87% of the employees have agreed that their decision

seems to count, 10% strongly agreed to this and only 3% have disagreed.

Q6. Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

 Analysis:

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Figure 3.6

79% of the sample agreed that their fellow employees are committed to do

quality work while 11% have disagreed on this fact. 5% of them have chosen

strongly on this and the other 5% has given no comments on this.

Q7. In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Application

Analysis:

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Figure 3.7

Learning and development is one of the most important aspects to find out the

employee engagement in the organization. 66% have agreed that they get the

opportunity to learn and grow in the organization while 21% of them have

strongly agreed on it. 8% of the employees have not given any reply and 5%

were disagreed.

Q8. Are the pay and benefits in your organization comparable to similar

companies?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

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Figure 3.8

42% of the sample is satisfied with pay and packages of their organization while

32% are highly satisfied with it. 16% disagree on the competitive pay and

benefits packages.

Q9. Are job promotions in this organization fair and objective?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

51

Figure 3.9

Half the percentage (50%) of the employees believes that the promotions are

done objectives, 31% strongly agree to the fairness of the same while 13% doubt

the fairness and objectivity of the process.

Q10. Are organization policies clearly communicated in the organization?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

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Figure 3.10

47% of the sample has agreed to be clear on the policies that prevail in their

respective organization. A good proportion of 425 strongly agreed on the clarity

while only 11% reported ambiguity on the policies.

Q11. Do you see yourself continuing to work for this organization two years from

now?

a) St rong ly Agree

b) Agree

c) D isagree

d) S t rong ly D isagree

e) Not App l i cab le

Analys is :

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Figure 3.11

A majority of 50% has agreed to continue to serve in the same organization for

next two years, 24% are very much willing to do the same whereas a striking

26% of the employees are those who are on the verge to leave the organization

since they are not even committing for next two years.

Q12. Do you recommend your friends/relatives in your organization?

a) Strongly Agree

b) Agree

c) Disagree

d) Strongly Disagree

e) Not Applicable

Analysis:

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Figure 3.12

24% of the sample surveyed strongly believes in recommending friends and

relatives to their organization, 63% agreed to this while 13% has disagreed the

option.

Q13. Select and rank the following engagement tools applicable in your

organization. Please rate the options, from 1-8(being the lowest and 8 being the

highest).

a) Stress Management

b) Work Life Balance

c) Career Development

d) Employees Participation In Decisions Making

e) Counseling/ Feedback

f) Rewards And Recognition Schemes

g) Employee Referral Scheme

h) Retirement Plans

Analysis:

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Figure 3.13

Reward and recognition schemes to be the most popular engagement toll

amongst the employees, next is efforts on career development. Employee

participation in decision making and counseling/feedback seems to be equally

effective, next in line is Employee referral scheme. Stress management is then

regarded as important but Retirement plans and work life balance surprisingly

seem to be least effective.

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