Management Chapter 9 PDF

In this chapter we will cover the following topics: Topic 9.1 – Employee Engagement Overview Topic 9.2 – Creating a Positive Culture through Employee Engagement Topic 9.3 – Key Drivers of Employee Engagement Topic 9.4 – Key Steps Required to Implement Employee Engagement Imagine having a job with a...

In this chapter we will cover the following topics: Topic 9.1 – Employee Engagement Overview Topic 9.2 – Creating a Positive Culture through Employee Engagement Topic 9.3 – Key Drivers of Employee Engagement Topic 9.4 – Key Steps Required to Implement Employee Engagement Imagine having a job with a company where you look forward to going to work each day! You like your boss and your co-workers. You trust the senior leaders in the orga-nization. You feel like your work is making a difference and you are constantly think-ing of new ways to do your job better and to make the business more successful. You hope you will be able to work at this organization for a long, long time. You are satis-fied with your pay, but you don’t keep working here just because you are paid well. More importantly, you know you are being paid fairly for your work and the company is helping you to develop more skills so you can qualify for even higher paying roles. Everyone likes working here and there are no politics or unfriendly alliances. It is an open and sharing community and management frequently seeks your input on a variety of topics while also empowering you to create better ways to get work done. Is this a dream job? Do jobs like this really exist? In organizations that have mas-tered the art of creating high levels of Employee Engagement these jobs do exist! In these organizations everyone wins. Employees enjoy their jobs and feel they are being treated fairly. Employers benefit from high impact employees who give added discretionary effort to make the organization successful. As a result, these busi-nesses tend to outperform their rivals. Unfortunately, there are only a few orga-nizations today with high levels of Employee Engagement. Understanding how to create a culture of Employee Engagement is a significant opportunity and soon will become a competitive necessity as more organizations realize the value of engaging their employees. Employee Engagement is the state of mind the employee has towards their job and their employer, combined with the level of posi-tive and productive behavior exhibited by the employee on behalf of their employer. LG 9-1 therefore, there are two key aspects of Employee Engagement: First, is the state of mind or outlook employees have toward their organizations and their jobs. For an employee to have a high level of Employee Engagement, the state of mind of the employee should be highly positive, pro-active, appreciative, and supportive of their organization, their co-workers, and their work role resulting in a high-level of self-esteem and self-satisfaction. Second, is the extent to which the employee takes positive and productive actions to support their organization. the employee’s actual behavior should be consistent with their positive mindset and include discretionary, self-initiated, extra effort in support of their organization. It is important to understand that Employee Engagement goes beyond efforts to achieve high levels of employee loyalty, motivation, or satisfaction. Employees may not want to leave a job (loyalty), even if they dislike their job. this may be because the pay and benefits are good and/or they like the hours, or they don’t have the motivation to go through the hassle to find a better job. Likewise, an employee may be “motivated” and have good intentions but never convert that motivation into action (behavior). Even though they may want to help the business do better, they may not know what to do or how to do it. Finally, employees may be “satisfied” with their employment, but this may be because their job doesn’t require them to work very hard or because they have friends that work at the same place and not neces-sarily due to any sense of self-esteem or well-being associated with the organization or their job itself. In each of these scenarios (loyalty, motivation, satisfaction) only a partial positive state of mind is being created, and consequently, it is not resulting in positive and productive behavior as demonstrated by discretionary effort put forth by the employee. While loyalty, motivation, and satisfaction may be desirable goals, given the examples above, they may not provide the same benefits to employees, or the orga-nization, that Employee Engagement does. this is why Employee Engagement has become a priority over other employee-oriented initiatives. It has become a primary focus of many organizations looking to improve the cultures in their organization. Trends and Benefits of Employee Engagement While the levels of Employee Engagement in the United States have been increas-ing in the last several years, a 2018 gallup poll found that only 34% of employees are actively engaged in their work. this means that well over half of workers in the United States are not fully engaged. Employee Engagement surveys in other coun-tries report similar results. So, what are the benefits to an organization of having high Employee Engagement levels? gallup reports that organizations that are best in engaging their employees achieve earnings-per-share growth rates “that are more than four times that of their competitors”. their analysis also finds that “Compared with business units in the bottom quartile, those in the top quartile of engagement realize substantially bet-ter customer engagement, higher productivity, better retention, fewer accidents, and 21% higher profitability. Engaged workers also report better health outcomes.” Aon Hewitt, a major consulting firm specializing in human resource management, has conducted analysis using their client base and reported similar positive results, “In our database of over 8 million employees across organizations, we find that the companies with top quartile engagement levels (72% or above) have 50% higher total shareholder return (tSR) than the average company”. thus, achieving higher levels of Employee Engagement leads to better outcomes for the organization as well as the employee. When employees feel a commitment towards their employer, that commitment often translates to: Less absenteeism Lower turnover More willingness to offer constructive suggestions More likelihood of sharing favorable commentary about the company with coworkers and others More willingness to engage in training and self-development activities More of a desire to contribute discretionary effort in support of the organization. Discretionary effort is going above and beyond the requirements and usual expecta-tions of the job in order to further support the company’s success. this can take the form of: Putting in extra time and effort to complete tasks Offering innovative and/or constructive solutions to challenges facing the organization Volunteering for additional work assignments Mentoring others in the organization Other activities not normally expected of the employee that are beneficial to the organization and its members. When multiple employees share similar levels of commitment and they all engage in positive and productive behaviors like those listed above, the cumulative effect is to help create a successful organization in which employees support each other and their organization. this behavior becomes embedded in the organization and becomes a part of the culture as it continues to be reinforced by management and employees alike. the result is a positive and productive culture. gallup has collected employee engagement data on over 80,000 work units including nearly 1.8 million employees and compared that data to key performance outcomes. the following chart compares the work units in the top quartile on Employee Engagement levels to the work units in the bottom quartile based on the results of these surveys. As can be seen from this chart, high Employee Engagement organizations significantly outperform low Employee Engagement organizations in every key performance metric. this data further supports the theory that achieving high levels of Employee Engagement helps to create a positive and productive culture. We will learn how organizations create this type of culture in the next topic. Is achieving high levels of Employee Engagement an outcome that an organization can create or is it some-thing that just happens spontane-ously? If an organization has low levels of Employee Engagement can they take steps to become a highly engaged organization? the good news is that organi-zations can improve the levels of Employee Engagement and can improve those levels significantly! gallup cites an example of an organization that started with only 20% of its employees engaged and was able to improve this to over 70% through active efforts of the organization’s leaders working with the employ-ees in a deliberate effort to make improvements. What are the steps and actions that organizations take to improve the levels of Employee Engagement? there are two things organizations need to do. the first is to identify and understand the key drivers of Employee Engagement. the second is for the organization to take a proven approach for enhancing the levels of employee engagement. Let’s look at each of these elements further: Key Drivers of Employee Engagement: LG 9-3 Key drivers of Employee Engagement include: 1. Leaders who are committed to making their organizations great places to work and who make it clear they greatly value their employees. they reinforce this by linking the employee’s future success to the organization’s future success through meaningful investments in their employee’s development and growth. In addition, the leaders earn the trust of their employees who believe the organization is headed in the right direction and that they will be treated fairly. Managers who engender good relationships with their subordinates and provide them with meaningful, well-designed job roles. they also provide the authority, autonomy, resources, training, and support to accomplish those jobs well and provide appropriate recognition and rewards for doing so. 3. Culture in the organization is cultivated to create a positive environment based on trust and respect, collegiality, open communication, pleasant working conditions, flexibility, collaboration, and a positive reputation. 4. Human Resource Practices that ensure fair performance review processes, fair compensation and benefits, work/life balance policies, employee support programs, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and a safe work environment. Based on success in addressing these drivers of Employee Engagement, Aon Hewitt identifies three observable employee behaviors – Say, Stay, and Strive. Say: Employees speak positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees, and customers Stay: Employees have an intense sense of belonging and desire to be part of the organization Strive: Employees are motivated and exert effort toward success in their job and for the company It is clear to see why understanding and focusing on these drivers of Employee Engagement will encourage the positive employee behaviors that lead to the sig-nificant benefits described in topic 9.1 for both the employee and the employer. Now let’s discuss how organizations manage an initiative to improve their levels of Employee Engagement. Managing an Employee Engagement Improvement Initiative: LG 9-4 the following steps describe a typical approach for an organization to improve Employee Engagement levels - Step 1 – Define and communicate what Employee Engagement means for the organization and why it is important to increase the levels of engagement (identify the benefits employees and the organization can expect from this initiative). Step 2 – Measure the current level of Employee Engagement. Based on measurement results and an understanding of the key drivers of Employee Engagement, identify and prioritize the initiatives that are most likely to improve employee engagement levels. Set improvement goals for each ini-tiative and for overall Employee Engagement levels. Note: to do this properly, both employee attitudes and employee behav-iors must be measured. this requires multiple methods of measurement be used to get a comprehensive understanding of current levels of Employee Engagement including employee surveys, focus groups, and observations of employee behaviors. Step 3 – Develop the action plan for improving each identified priority based on proven approaches for effecting the known key drivers of Employee Engagement. Routinely monitor progress and make any necessary correc-tions. Confirm that the improvements implemented are resulting in achieving the target improvement goals established in Step 2. Confirm the organiza-tion is realizing the expected benefits of an increased level of Employee Engagement overall as a result of the collective improvement efforts. Step 4 – Reward and recognize those involved in the improvement initia-tives and communicate to the organization the progress that was made to improve Employee Engagement levels. Note: It is important to communicate and discuss the success of the improve-ment initiatives with the organization. By taking this last step, leadership reinforces the value and importance of improving Employee Engagement for both employees and the organization. google was rated the #1 company in Fortune Magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” from 2012 to 2017. google takes Employee Engagement seriously start-ing with a sophisticated tool called “gDNA” that is used to collect feedback from google’s employees and to monitor employees’ views on various company initiatives. google’s employment practices are legendary including flexible work schedules and incredible on-site benefits such as free lunches, massage, haircuts, gaming rooms, pools, etc. that are available for use throughout the workday and after. Diversity is not just an HR priority at google. they use in-depth analysis to understand the composition of their workforce and factors that are limiting advancement of vari-ous categories of diverse workers into more senior roles. Once issues are identified they use a program called Diversity Core to address those impediments often with positive results. google stumbled onto an understanding of the importance of manager/employee relations for achieving high levels of Employee Engagement when the founders (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) questioned whether the organization should adopt a very flat structure with few managers. In Project Oxygen they discovered that high quality managers had direct reports who exhibited the positive behaviors of an engaged employee. they took what they learned from this project to develop management training programs to help all their managers to become high quality managers. Other programs at google that support Employee Engagement include “20% time” given to employees to work on projects that inspire them. In addition, google has a variety of employee development incentives including stipends, tuition reim-bursement, mentorship programs, and more. Career guru is a program that pro-vides access to company leaders who explain what their roles are like and what is necessary to qualify for their type of job.