AC 1.1 Analyse the meaning, principal dimensions and components of ’employee engagement’ and compare with other related concepts.
Meaning
Employee engagement is the emotional attachment employees feel towards their place of work, job role, position within the company, colleagues and culture and the affect this attachment has on wellbeing and productivity. (HRZone, 2018) An engaged employee buys into the culture and goals of the organization and cares about the physical, mental and emotional efforts they make to align their own goals with those of the organization. Engaged employees exhibit organizational citizenship behaviour by taking ownership of their contribution to the success of the organization.
(State of Employee Engagement in 2018, Report by Glint)
Dimensions
CIPD proposes three dimensions that make up employee engagement – intellectual, affective and social engagement.
• Intellectual engagement reflects the employees’ desire to deliver to the role expectations and the efforts they make to increase their own efficiency
• Affective engagement refers to the emotional investment of the employees and the extent to which they expect achieving organizational goals as a means to achieving their own goals too.
• Social engagement reflects appreciating the contribution of one’s colleagues and the effort one makes towards team work and collaborative efforts.
Components
Institute of Employment Studies (IES) has proffered that the main driver of engagement is a sense of feeling valued and involved. The main components of this are:
• involvement in decision-making
• freedom to share ideas
• feeling enabled to perform well
• having opportunities to develop the job
• feeling the organisation is concerned for employees’ health and well-being.
Comparison
Engagement Commitment Involvement Job satisfaction Motivation
Refers to the desire of the employees that encourages them to go above ; beyond the call of duty to further the causes of the organization Refers to the employee’s identification with the goals of the organization Entails involving the employees by giving them a chance to participate in decisions that impact them, process improvement plans & exercises Mean less investment into the goals of the organization, but more focus on oneself with respect to the job/role at hand Often motivated by a reward or desired result. Mayor may not be aligned with the organizational goals
Measures affiliation and effort High accountability for success Employees may not be giving their best Deals with how happy people are in the office Based on getting something in return for one’s efforts
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AC 1.2 Justify the need for alignment between engagement practices and other corporate components if the full benefits of high engagement are to be realised.
Engaged employees think and feel positively about the organization and have a greater propensity to engage in discretionary efforts designed to achieve organizational goals. Research clearly shows that levels of employee engagement are directly proportional to better business performance across a variety of indicators.
Some of the key metrices that substantiate the need or alignment between employee engagement and business success are:
Employee satisfaction ; job performance
A fortune 100 company study found that disengaged employees measured a 1,000% percent increase in errors compared to engaged employees. (Source: Gonring)
Increased productivity ; employee retention
37% of engaged employees are looking for jobs or watching for opportunities, as are 56% of not engaged and 73% of actively disengaged employees. (Source: Gallup, Knurr, 2018).
Disengaged employees actually cost organizations between £330 – £400 billion annually. (Officevibe, 2018)
In the UK, disengagement has been calculated to cost £2,048 per employee. ((Hive.HR, 2018))
Reduced sickness, absenteeism and turnover
Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave an organisation than the disengaged. (Source: Corporate Leadership Council)
In the UK, engaged employees take 2.7 days off per year compared to 6.7 days for disengaged employees. (Source: CBI)
Better customer service ; retention
70% of engaged employees indicate they have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs; only 17% of non-engaged employees say the same. (Source: Wright Management)
Customer retention rates are 18% higher on average when employees are highly engaged (Source: Cvent)
Improved Innovation ; Creativity
Higher levels of engagement are strongly related to higher levels of innovation. 59% of engaged employees say that their job brings out their most creative ideas against only 3% of disengaged employees. (Source: Gallup)
Increased Profitability
Companies with engaged employees generate up to 2.5 times more revenue in comparison with competitors with lower engagement levels, and up to 26% higher revenue per employee. (Themuse.com, Knurr, 2018)
A study of 64 organizations revealed that organizations with highly engaged employees achieve twice the annual net income of organizations whose employees lag behind on engagement. (Source: Kenexa)
