Staff Engagement: Levels of Commitment

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Involvement of the personnel of the organization in recent years has become an increasingly significant indicator of the success of the enterprise. The subject of the theory of employee involvement is the search for ways for the company to achieve its strategic goals and at the same time create a special climate for its employees, in which all of them (both ordinary employees, and managers, and the head) will be interested in maximum returns.

What is Engagement Theory

In fact, it is quite difficult to give any exact definition or clearly formulate the postulates of this theory, since it is based on elementary common sense. The difficulty is also related to the fact that for a long time, often incorrect, inefficient methods and theories were used to organize management activities. Today, the development of practices and theoriesengagement is finally oriented towards reality and common sense.

A brief description of the theory is as follows: the main task of the leader of the organization is to create such an atmosphere in the enterprise in which employees could demonstrate maximum productivity, that is, they would be present at their workplaces not only because they are obliged, but also because own desire. Employee Loy alty and Engagement (OL) means employees are interested in the work process, their dedication, initiative and responsibility.

For every leader, employees who treat their duties in the same way as an entrepreneur treats his business or as every person treats personal matters are extremely useful. In other words, employee engagement characterizes how much employees are personally interested in the activity that completely occupies their attention, and whether they are ready to make every effort to carry it out.

Why we need a theory of involvement

Perfect, productive employees are the desire of almost any employer, but few know how this can be achieved. A theory describing employee engagement and methods to improve it is needed as a tool to eliminate inefficient management practices that have taken root over the centuries.

Statistics show that a very small number of employees are fully involved in the work process. A study of employee engagement in Foggy Albion shows that on averageonly twelve percent of employees in most companies are really interested in their activities. When it comes to European enterprises, the percentage is even lower.

In addition to defining the concept of involvement, the theory allows you to identify the means and course to raise this indicator. According to many modern leaders, the success of an organization largely depends on the creation of a corporate culture. This is a system in which the involvement of staff at all levels is maintained automatically.

Meaning

To illustrate the importance of employee engagement, a company can be compared to a football team. What would be the results of games with 12% player involvement? There can be no question of any success in this area if the players are not busy with what is happening on the field, but with upcoming dates, upcoming vacations, news from the Internet and other things. It is clear that when running football teams effectively, the principles of engagement are invariably applied, although they go by different names.

What employee engagement really is

Personnel engagement management is a set of principles, activities and methods, a peculiar approach. With its help, the company's management receives a staff of competent, responsible, proactive and active employees. Each of the involved employees shows sincere concern for the enterprise where they work. He devotes himself entirely to workprocess and makes every effort to achieve high work efficiency.

You should be aware that staff involvement is always a mutual interaction, the participants of which are the employer and the employee. This type of relationship becomes possible when there is trust and respect between them. In striving for a high VP, the head or manager of the enterprise must engage in the formation of a clear and broad communication system. He should also clearly indicate to the employees their tasks, provide them with those powers that correspond to their competence. In addition, increasing employee engagement is inseparable from comfortable working conditions and an appropriate corporate culture.

The difference between company satisfaction and engagement

Since the 70s of the last century, management theory has been constantly updated with new developments designed to improve and optimize the process of personnel management. The following theories have become the most interesting and widespread:

• Job satisfaction.
• Employee loy alty.
• Powers of employees.

Their main idea is the motivation and interest of the employee in a particular company. Often these theories are confused with the VP theory. This is not to say that they have nothing to do with her at all. Combined and supplemented by newer ideas about management, they can be elements of a fairly robust theory of engagement. The main difference between these concepts is that, in contrast to high satisfactioncompany, loy alty and motivation, increasing the involvement of staff leads to an improvement in the following indicators:

• Quality of service and customer service.
• Product quality.
• Labor productivity.

There is also a significant reduction in absenteeism, tardiness and unauthorized absence from the workplace, which means an increase in employee retention.

Engaged employee: who is he?

So, the involvement, motivation of the staff make employees not just people who are present at the workplace, but conscious and responsible participants in the work process. They prefer to look for new methods and ideas to improve their operations, rather than accept existing rules and established ways of working as the only possible.

It can be argued that a truly engaged employee has the following qualities:

• Absorption at work. The work day goes by quickly for him.
• Maintain concentration for extended periods.
• Feeling a strong emotional connection to the company.
• Passion for work (enthusiasm).
• Striving to expand the scope of its activities (flexibility).
• Adapting to changing circumstances.
• Striving for the development of work skills.
• No need for reminders and orders.
• Completing tasks on time.
• Persistence.
• Initiativity.
• Orientation tofulfillment of plans, goals.
• Integrity.
• Responsibility and commitment.
• Dedication to work.

In many ways, nurturing employees with such qualities becomes possible with the help of an appropriate corporate culture.

How to measure employee engagement

In order to improve any indicator, it must first be measured. When evaluating phenomena that are influenced by the human factor, it can be extremely difficult to obtain reliable and objective data.

Evaluation of personnel involvement is carried out by specialists based on the study of the general principles of the formation of involvement. Knowing how this phenomenon occurs, you can evaluate it and calculate the engagement index (II).

This technique is based on the fact that VP includes three components:

• Participation in solving problems of corporate importance.
• The level of interest in the work in general.
• Orientation to increase your productivity, as well as the level of initiative.

All of these employee engagement factors go a long way in calculating IQ. However, their share in the numerical indicator calculated for different companies will differ. For example, for the IW of an organization with ambitious corporate goals, the value of the first factor will become decisive. This is due to the fact that such enterprises seek to involve the majority of their employees in solving common problems. However, subtletyis that the optimal value of this factor in IW will not be more than 50 percent, since good ordinary employees are involved in their own work process.

As a rule, the value of the third factor in the assessment of VP is minimal. Of course, it is taken into account, but rarely exceeds 20 percent. This is not surprising, since the effectiveness of innovations depends on how they are implemented and used during the workflow.

Questioning: the essence of the reception

The main source of information about the level of VP is a survey of company employees in some way. The most informative is the survey, which can be open or anonymous at the request of the employer.

Depending on the size of the company and the scale of research, questionnaires may contain completely different numbers of items. Questions are formulated in the traditional way or offer to agree / disagree with the thesis.

The answer form may contain options (tests) or questions remain open. The nature of the answers gives an idea of the extent to which the staff is committed to the organization.

Examples of key questions

There are several universal questions, the answers to which can provide general information about the level of RH:

• Do you know what results your manager expects to see?
• Do you have the materials and equipment you need for your work?
• Do you have the opportunity every day during your working day to do something that you are very good at?
• During the past week, have you received any praise or awards for a job well done?
• Does your manager or employee show concern for your personal growth?
• Do you have a colleague who encourages you to grow professionally?
• Do your employees and manager take into account your professional opinion?
• Do you think the statement is true: thanks to the goals of the enterprise, I realize the importance of my work?
• Are your employees interested in doing high quality work?
• Do you have a friend at work?
• Have you discussed your progress over the past six months with anyone at work?
• Did you learn anything new and grow professionally in the last six months?

After analyzing the data received, the company's management decides to make changes to the corporate culture and determines what methods of personnel involvement will be used (more precisely, to increase it).

What can be done to increase engagement

There are several universal techniques that allow you to achieve impressive results fairly soon after implementation:

1. Maintaining engagement during team building. Having a choice, it is better to give preference to those candidates who are loyal to the enterprise and would like to use the product being produced. Being familiar with the products, they will be able to more flexibly and unconventionallyto approach the solution of unusual situations and contribute to the improvement of its quality. Active and engaged employees have an impact on their colleagues.
2. Setting specific and clear goals. Employees who know the composition and purpose of their work duties work with the greatest productivity. In this case, the general wording will not have the desired effect. That is, the call to be the best will not work: it should be clarified what privileges will follow the achievement of the result. You also need to initially inform the team about the company's standards, algorithms of its work and norms of behavior.
3. Timely encouragement. Something as simple and cheap as non-monetary incentives can be an extremely effective leverage to increase engagement. Recognition of the merits of the employee and his contribution to the common cause must be marked with praise, as this has a great effect on the mood of employees and their desire to work. Of course, this should not be a substitute for traditional awards: prizes, bonuses, diplomas.
4. Giving every employee the opportunity to develop. In order to maintain the interest of employees in work activities, as well as to demonstrate to them the general course of the enterprise, experts recommend organizing trainings, seminars and other public events.

At such meetings, it is recommended to pay attention to voicing the company's focus on the future, its plans and achievements. By the way, this is where you can get good feedback from the state.

Indicatedthe methodology of personnel involvement is far from a complete list, since each enterprise chooses a strategy taking into account its own capabilities and tasks, since each organization has different levels of personnel involvement.