Human Resource has been recognized as one of the contributing factors for economic growth of a nation. Realizing the importance of human resources, industrial enterprises have set a new trend by evaluating workforce as assets. Twenty first century is characterized by the new age of ever growing information and communication technology leading to widespread revolution in all spheres of life, including Human Resource Development.
Technology is driving the organization in the dynamic environment. At the same time, the importance of human element cannot be ignored. The energetic performance and effective utilization of human resources for the success of the organization requires no second thought.
There is a paradigm shift in human resource and management practices from job satisfaction, job selection, selection and recruitment process, employee engagement, and employee involvement. Employee engagement is relatively new concept. The traditional concept of employee retention has made a shift to employee engagement. The purpose of human resource practices is now focusing on employee engagement and involvement through job satisfaction and organizational commitment towards retaining the employees. It is based on the axiom; people are the most important asset. Therefore, employee engagement is about building a great relationship with the workforce. Management practices on employee engagement are employee satisfaction, employee commitment, employee retention, employee involvement, and employee trust and employee loyalty. Organizations have become increasingly aware of the need to involve people through participation, empowerment, better access and opportunity.
Employee engagement refers to positive feelings of employees about their jobs and the organizations. It is a real time effort they put into their work. It is a real time effort by the organization to effectively use the services of human resource to achieve its objectives, generating positive behavior among employees in a competitive environment. The contractual relationship between employee and employer limiting the motivation to “how much I get” has been shifted to “how much we gain” due to effective strategies for employee engagement. It is no more a concept limited to employee retention, but the organizers attempt to engage their employee’s by creating the situation where employees become emotionally and intellectually committed to the organization, where they not only speak positively about the organization, but also develop the desire to continue with it and put extra efforts for its success. Engaged employees identify themselves with the organization and care for its success willingly contributing their discretionary efforts.
Employee engagement can be thought of as a potential outcome of a work culture. It is a state in which the employee feels an affinity for the organization, feels that they belong to and are appreciated and are part of something worthwhile. Engagement also implies an alignment with the organization and a level of commitment. Employee engagement is developed when business values the employees and vice versa. A culture that facilitates employee engagement, accommodate employee needs, and ensures employee effectiveness and growth, will set the foundation in place for long term success of the organization.
Engaged employees create winning organizations that are more profitable, a fun place to work and offer better customer services and other solutions for which the organization exists. The concept has thus made headlines and becoming popular among major world class organizations be they in the private or public sector.
Today, however, there is clear evidence that business leaders are not simply saying this – they are actually experiencing it too with the employee engagement tools. Companies who are able to better engage their people also deliver better business performance and maximize the shareholder value. Now almost all the organizations are investing money towards people. So that it creates value for organizational performance. Increasing employee engagement is highly dependent on the leadership and establishes two way communications where people work and views are valued and respected. Employee engagement is about building truly great relationships with the workforce. Employee engagement is the key driver to which employees are fully involved in their work, committed to their work, care about their organization and colleagues and are willing to go the extra mile for their organization to ensure its success.
An organization should thus recognize employees, more than any other variable, as powerful contributors to its competitive position. Engaged employees can help the organization achieve its mission, execute its strategy and generate important business results. Engaged employees give their companies crucial competitive advantages – including higher productivity, customer satisfaction and lower employee turnover. The relationship between employee engagement and organizational outcomes would be stronger if better measures were used.
Realizing the above, companies are developing strategies for employee engagement to generate the willingness among employees to contribute towards company’s success through commitment, loyalty and belongingness. These strategies include creating positive work culture, transparent communication system, better work relationship, effective incentive, opportunities for growth, freedom at work and effective leadership. The objective is to help the engaged employee to enjoy the work and be involved in the process and on the organization.
IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employee engagement is to stimulate the employees’ creative quotient, indulge in employee re-deployment, and to provide an open environment for communication openly and clearly about what is expected of employees at all levels. An engaged employee is aware of the organization and its goals, works with colleagues to improve the performance for the benefit of the organization. It is a positive attitude of the employees towards the organization and its values. In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during their role performances. It is clear that employee engagement involves the relationship between the employer and the conditions, teamwork, proper treatment of employees increasing growth opportunities and flexible working practices. Employee engagement is very vital for the success of any organization as it enables to find and retain its talented employees who may be an easy target by other similar organizations. Thus, employee engagement is a parameter that determines the association of a person with the organization.
SIGNIFICANCE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
An organization’s capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to achieve high performance levels and superior business results. 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 form an emotional connection with the company. This impacts their attitude towards the company’s clients, and thereby improves customer satisfaction and service levels.
A highly engaged employee will consistently deliver beyond expectations. Researches 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 them with an organizational ‘identity’.
NEED FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Today banks are operating in a highly competitive scenario; it is pertinent to note that they need to differentiate themselves from each other. They need to have employees who are passionate about their work and strive to take their organization to greater heights. The banking sector was chosen for the study because of the sheer dynamism and the tremendous challenges that it has been witnessed in the recent years. This is primarily attributed to changing and ever increasing needs of customers as well as immense competition in the banking sector. For sustaining these challenges it is imperative to have engaged employees.
Engaged employees will stay with the banks, be an advocate for its services and contribute to bottom line business success. They will be motivated to perform better. Since there is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability – they will help their organizations tide overcomes challenges both in the short and long run. They will form an emotional connection with their respective banks, which in turn will impact their attitude towards clients and improves customer satisfaction and service levels. By enhancing passion, commitment and alignment with the organizations strategies and goals, they will enable their organizations to reach new heights of excellence. Engaged employees will demonstrate increased trust in their organization and foster a sense a loyalty in a competitive environment.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Employee engagement is closely linked to organizational performance outcomes, companies with engaged employees have higher employee retention as a result of reduced turnover and reduced intention to leave the company, productivity, profitability growth and customer satisfaction. Employee engagement is a vast construct that touches almost all parts of human resource management facets we know hitherto.
Employee engagement is a stronger predictor of positive organizational performance clearly showing the two-way relationship between employer and employee. Engaged employees are emotionally attached to their organization and highly involved in their job with a great enthusiasm for the success of their employer, going the extra mile beyond the employment agreement. It is the synergy that comes from people working and gathering creative ideas that leads to long-term organizational wealth creation.
Employee engagement, is thus, the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. Job involvement results from a cognitive judgment about the need satisfying abilities of the job. It is concerned more with an individual’s perception about the job, whereas, engagement entails the active use of emotions. Engagement may be a thought of an antecedent to job involvement. It is their experience in deep engagement of in their roles to identify their job.
For Citing this article use:
- Gummadi, A. (2017). A study on employee engagement and job satisfaction among employees of public and private sector banks belonging to krishna and guntur districts Andhra pradesh.
