IR 201 Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement
Alfredo V. Primicias III

Employee Engagement
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 3
The Concept of Engagement ............................................................................................................... 3

THE NEED FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT .................................................................... 5
DRIVERS OF ENGAGEMENT................................................................................................ 6
FRAMEWORKS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT .............................................................. 9
Framework 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Framework 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Framework 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Framework 4 ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Framework 5 ..................................................................................................................................... 14

WHAT DO SURVEYS SHOW? ............................................................................................. 16
WHAT DO WE DO THEN? ................................................................................................... 18
Creating a Culture of Engagement .................................................................................................... 18

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 21

In partial completion of IR 201: Introduction to IR by Alfredo V. Primicias III for Dr OFRENEO

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Employee Engagement

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INTRODUCTION
This reporter started to manage project teams that concentrated on employee engagement in the
late 1990s. During that time, the organization this reporter was working for was trying to study
the relationship between motivation (satisfaction, morale and happiness) and employee
productivity. The very dictum of top management was, “if our employees are happy, they see
the need to come to work each day.” In fact in the first call center- BPO company this reported
worked for has a “Happiness Officer” whose only duty was to ensure that people programs (a)
decrease attrition rate and (b) increase employee satisfaction rate each time the organization
conducted the survey. So, a legitimate question to ask is, “What is Employee Engagement?”
According to a US-based think-tank Scarlett Survey International, Employee Engagement “is a
measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job,
colleagues and organization which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform
at work.”1 They further assert that, “Employee engagement is essential to succeed in business,
yet few organizations successfully define measure or manage this leadership model.”2

The Concept of Engagement
From the lectures in IR 201- Introduction to Industrial Relations, Scientific Management of
Frederick Taylor was discussed wherein the following items were given importance3
1.
2.
3.
4.

Plan and develop scientific methods for doing work
Establish goals for productivity
Establish systems of rewards for meeting the goals
Train the personnel in how to use the methods and thereby meet the goals.

Therefore, drawing from the perspective above, engagement to a certain degree “is the process of
leading people by enabling them to want to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continuous
high performance and success of the business.”4 From the employees' point of view,
“engagement is their attitudinal and emotional state developed from experiences perceived to be
controlled by management. These experiences or "drivers" determine engagement level. By
managing these drivers to be positive experiences, leaders can stimulate an intrinsic desire for
employees to consistently do their best work.”5
The emergence of ‘employee engagement’ was described in the academic literature by Schmidt
et al. (1993). A contemporary version of job satisfaction, Schmidt's influential definition of
1

http://www.scarlettsurveys.com/papers-and-studies/white-papers
Ibid
3 http://www.skymark.com/resources/leaders/taylor.asp
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement
5
ibid
2


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Employee Engagement
engagement was "an employee's involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with work.
Employee engagement is a part of employee retention." This integrates the classic constructs of
job satisfaction (Smith et al., 1969), and organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991).
Harter and Schmidt's (2003) most recent meta-analysis can be useful for understanding the
impact of engagement. Linkage research (e.g. Treacy) received significant attention in the
business community because of correlations between employee engagement and desirable
business outcomes such as retention of talent, customer service, individual performance, team
performance, business unit productivity, and even enterprise-level financial performance.
CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) in its work with the Kingston Engagement
Consortium, has defined employee engagement as “being positively present during the
performance of work by willingly contributing intellectual effort, experiencing positive emotions
and meaningful connections to other.”6
This definition gives three dimensions to employee engagement:
1.
2.
3.

Intellectual engagement – thinking hard about the job and how to do it better
Affective engagement – feeling positively about doing a good job
Social engagement – actively taking opportunities to discuss work-related improvements
with others at work

These three dimensions are meaningful to organizations when they design survey forms that will
capture the very essence of employee engagement.
Finally, Brad Federman, author of a 2009 book on Employee Engagement defines employee
engagement as, “the degree to which a person commits to an organization and the impact that
commitment has on how profound they perform and their length of tenure.”7
Therefore this term paper aims to provide answers to what is Employee Engagement and
approximate its significance to business success.

6
7

http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/employee-engagement.aspx
Page 22, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT by Brad Federman


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Employee Engagement

THE NEED FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
The business climate nowadays has become more intricate. Competition has become fiercer.
Even the old titans would have become obsolete unless they try to either have a merger and
acquisition (Nokia with Microsoft8) or totally diversify and change core business (IBM and
Lenovo9). That’s why having a unique and high-performing business culture is a competitive
advantage today. The relationship and expectations between employers and employees also have
drastically changed. Companies expect each employee to maximize their daily production (be it
in the form of product or service) because essentially, each employee brings with him his set of
attitude, behavior, knowledge and skills which can then either build, transform and make the
company’s business culture stronger or weaker. Consequently, the employees seek to find
fulfillment and better meaning in what they do, to a point that brand equity10 is a major
consideration. Brands like McKinsey, Accenture and Ericsson are able to attract applicants by
virtue of their own corporate identify. As a result the employer needs the employee more than
the other way around. As the world shifts from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy11,
and as employees are increasingly valued for what they know as much as for what they produce,
the employer's power of absolute control has been reduced.
The question now is pretty clear, how do we manage people for success and harvest high levels
of productivity in the new economy? In the past, several organizations have built several
management models namely TQM12, Quality Circles13, and many more. The assumption is that
managers have the power to control each aspect of the value chain in the company-- but that is
no longer always the case. Business leaders and corporate architects now articulate the need for
employee engagement, “as an engaged employee is involved, committed, passionate and
empowered and demonstrates those feelings in work behavior.”14 To put it in another way, it is
the ability to capture the heads, hearts, and souls of the employees to instill an intrinsic desire
and passion for excellence. This reinforces the fact that engaged employees want their
organization to succeed because they feel connected emotionally, socially, and even spiritually to
its mission, vision, and purpose. Furthermore, engaged employees are a company's most
productive and efficient workers. Reality is employees may choose to work for a company for
several reasons -- the high-minded and the practical. They may be attracted to its mission and
purpose and its stature in the marketplace or by a belief that by working there, they can make a
difference in the world. They may also be attracted by the promise of a regular income,
8

http://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-acquire-nokias-handset-business-7-2-billion-031642910--finance.html;_ylt=AwrTWfw83kxS0nIAcVTQtDMD
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/us/en/pcannouncement/
10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_equity
11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_economy
12 http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/total-quality-management/overview/overview.html
13 http://www.economist.com/node/14301388
14
Preface, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, Edward Mone and Manuel London
9


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Employee Engagement
reasonable working hours, and good benefits. Whatever the motivation is for joining the
company, the local work environment either energizes and nourishes them and fosters their
learning and growth or starves them and frustrates their development. When this happens, they
will leave the company -- or worse – would hang around doing the minimum needed until it's
time for retirement. Engaged employees, in contrast, are involved and enthusiastic about what is
happening in their local work environment.

DRIVERS OF ENGAGEMENT
For companies who have started reading, measuring and making interventions to ensure high
engagement rate, the journey would have been both a struggle and rewarding. The journey may
be a struggle essentially because the very framework of engagement is not as decipherable as
common alphabets, whereas, it is rewarding particularly when business goals are achieved by a
workforce that is purely passionate, empowered and engaged. So, how then can managers drive
employee engagement? Authors Edward Mone and Manuel London on their book Employee
Engagement presented eleven approaches:
1. Establish a foundation of trust and empowerment with your employees.
2. Ensure your employees have challenging and meaningful work and that you clarify its
importance to your organization.
3. Establish clear performance goals for your employees that are challenging and aligned
with overall workgroup and organizational goals.
4. Establish clear development goals for your employees and help them understand the
career growth opportunities available to them.
5. Communicate regularly with your employees about their goals and the organization’s
goals to help ensure their work is aligned with corporate objectives and to help them
recognize that their efforts are meaningful and valuable.
6. Provide ongoing coaching and feedback to your employees to ensure performance and
development are on track.
7. Recognize and reward your employees for their achievements and successes.
8. Encourage your employees to be innovative and creative.
9. Conduct fair and effective performance appraisal discussions and write effective
appraisals.
10. Foster team-level learning and development in support of group-level engagement and
performance.
11. Monitor the overall climate and efforts of your employees and teams, ensuring that
organization demands do not lead to burnout.
The emphasis of Mone and London is that a robust performance management and learning and
development systems are institutionalized in order for employee engagement to become
successful. It is always possible to measure engagement drivers, especially if the organization
knows what these are, through surveys; however a common mistake is that not all organizations
are equipped to interpret the results most importantly on identifying areas for improvement
within organizations. There are a range of factors, known as drivers that are thought to increase
overall engagement. By managing the drivers, an organization can effectively manage


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Employee Engagement
engagement levels of its employees. With this reporter’s previous company, examples of
engagement drivers are:








Communication
Job performance clarity and feedback
Culture of the organization vis-à-vis living the core values
Rewards and recognition
Leadership Styles and relationships with managers and peers
Career development opportunities
Organization’s vision, mission and business goals vis-à-vis business or market
performance

*Employee perceptions of job importance.
This reporter was working for a global
telecommunications company when after one of its pulse surveys the result that came out as to
why employees were not ‘highly engaged’ was because they don’t see what they do as an
integral factor to the success of the organization. This showed that an employee's attitude toward
job's importance and the company had the greatest impact on loyalty and customer service than
all other employee factors combined.
*Employee clarity of job expectations. Normally, expectations are skewed especially when
interpretations are largely different by two different people (manager and employee) and worse
between teams (manager and team members). That’s why during goal setting15, one of the most
important steps in the performance management process, goals must be specific and measurable.
If expectations are not clear and basic materials and equipment are not provided, negative
emotions such as boredom or resentment may result, and the employee may then become
focused on surviving more than thinking about how he can help the organization succeed.
Performance Management is an “ongoing process that includes16 Goal Setting, Feedback,
Development, Recognition, Coaching and Performance Appraisal as built on a foundation of
trust and empowerment, with constant focus on communication.
*Career advancement and or improvement opportunities. Innovation has become an operative
word for most companies who are realizing that unless they change, they will become obsolete
(e.g. Nike, Amazon, Samsung, Google, etc.)17. Mostly now that technology has opened several
doors and just keeping to how things are would no longer be the best alternative. Plant
supervisors and managers indicated that many shop improvements are made outside the
suggestion box system. Employees initiate changes in order to reap the bonuses generated by the
subsequent cost savings.
*Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors. Communication is fundamentally a basic human
need, hence when managers satisfy this, then common results are collaboration and teamwork.
With this reporter’s previous company, communication is truly a way of life as manifested on
several coaching sessions, town hall meetings, team meetings, etc. Each meeting is suitably
15

http://performanceappraisal.biz/performance-appraisal-process/
Preface, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, Edward Mone and Manuel London
17 http://www.fastcompany.com/section/most-innovative-companies-2013
16


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Employee Engagement
planned as outcomes are appropriately calculated so that feedback, partnership and sense of
worth are achieved. Feedback is key to giving employees a sense of where they’re going,
unfortunately many organizations are remarkably bad at giving it.
*Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates. There is no reason for
managers to build walls with their team members. That’s why, with this reporter’s previous
company, physical walls were taken down creating an open-space work environment. This
somehow provided more avenues for managers and employees to talk and interact face-to-face,
than by communicating through emails or SMS. This too have enriched the working relationship
between and among team members. Basically, if the relationship of the employees with their
managers is fractured, then no amount of perks will persuade the employees to perform at top
levels. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of how employees feel about their
relationship with the boss.
*Perceptions of the ethos and values of the organization. This reporter’s previous company
preaches the unique Pilipino value called Malasakit, and this value is particularly exhibited by
almost all of the senior leaders of the organization. In fact, whenever a serious business decision
is to be made, the final test is, “Will we honestly display the value of Malasakit if we do this?”
This example in itself projects an awesome sense of inspiration and dedication to live the core
values which in a way can truly make people engaged because the anchor is apparent.
*Effective Internal Employee Communications. As earlier stated, communication is a basic
human need, and in this particular point, conveys a comprehensible description of "what's going
on". Organizations must accept the fact that employees want to be involved. Before
implementing a new policy or procedure or work methodology, involve the employees at the
very beginning. This trend is plain, if top management does not get the support of its workforce,
it may only have to improve the process of internal communications.
*Reward to engage - Look at employee benefits and acknowledge the role of incentives. "An
incentive to reward good work is a tried and test way of boosting staff morale and enhancing
engagement." There are a range of tactics you can employ to ensure your incentive scheme hits
the mark with your workforce such as: Setting realistic targets, selecting the right rewards for
your incentive program, communicating the scheme effectively and frequently, have lots of
winners and reward all achievers, encouraging sustained effort, present awards publicly and
evaluate the incentive scheme regularly. This further tends to improve the overall productivity.


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FRAMEWORKS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Framework 1
Edward Mone and Manuel London, authors of the Employee Engagement views this as “a
construct that is relatively complex.”18 To which these authors created a model to measure
engagement:
1.

Involvement (for example, by feeling engaged, challenged by the work, energized to perform at your
best and feeling good about the future)

2.

Commitment (for example, to a long-term career at the company, to the company’s success and to
consistently working with a high level of focus and energy)

3.

Meaningfulness (for example, by finding your work meaningful and understanding how you contribute
to the success of your company)

4.

Empowerment (for example, by feeling empowered to do your job, having the necessary resources to
do your job effectively and holding a well-structured job)

5. Manager Support (for example, for your career development efforts, for job-related training and
recognition for a good job and for feeling valued for your contributions)
6.

Loyalty (for example, by intending to remain with your company, being proud to work for your
company and recommending your company as a place to work)

Framework 2
Similarly, Brad Federman, author of the book Employee Engagement, presented a similar
model19:
18
19

Page 4, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, Edward Mone and Manuel London
Pages 21 and 22, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT by Brad Federman


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Employee Engagement
1.
2.
3.
4.

Focus on getting the job done
Feel part of a team
Feel sharp and have less pressure to make employment jumps
Work through change and approach fear in a mature manner

Federman continued to assert that in understanding employee engagement, designers and
architects of survey questionnaires must categorize all of the engagement drivers into two
distinct factors (Federman gives tribute to Herzberg’s two-factor model), to which he calls as20:
1. Core Factor- primary or essential factors in engagement; basic necessities that must exist
for employees to be productive in the work environment; reflect the idea that my
manager, team and organization provide me what I need to be successful
a. Information and training
b. Tools
c. Supplies
d. Policies and procedures
e. Capable managers
f. Reasonable benefits
g. Compensation
2. Enriching Factor- highly motivational and are value driven
a. Believing in what I do
b. Believing in whom I work for
c. Feeling that I make a difference
d. Having a sense of trust
e. Participating in customer centric culture
f. Enjoying an innovative environment
g. Experiencing a long-term career opportunities

20

Pages 55 and 56, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT by Brad Federman


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Framework 3

Hewitt’s 3 S of Engagement: Say, Stay and Strive.21

The above diagram is the popular Three S of Hewitt (now called as Aon Hewitt), a US-based
consulting firm. This consulting firm has challenged several global organizations by asking22





Why do employees stay with organizations and why do they leave?
Why do some employees give significantly greater effort in support of their company's or
team's success than others?
Can employees' behavior be predicted and influenced?
What allows organizations to create a competitive advantage through their people?

Business leaders are consciously concerned on how to rightfully and strategically motivate and
engage their employees. In effect, consulting firm Hewitt has pioneered the measurement of
Employee Engagement—shifting the focus from “employee satisfaction” to “employee
engagement” back in 1994. They have defined engagement as the energy and passion employees
have for what their employer is achieving in the market that has a much stronger connection to

21
22

http://sustainabilityadvantage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Employee-Engagement-Defined.png
http://www.hewitt.com.cy/english/Consulting/TalentManagement/engagement.html


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business results. Significantly, companies must now ensure that employees are actively working
toward company goals.
The “Say” behavior helps to attract top talent to the organization through word-of-mouth.
The “Stay” behavior mitigates attrition of top talent who are already working in the company.
The “Strive” behavior augments engagement and productivity as employees “strive to achieve
above and beyond what is expected in their daily lives.” It’s the “Strive” engagement behavior
that interests us today.23
In 2010 Hewitt Associates partnered with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR)
to understand the relationships between employees’ perceptions of their companies’ CSR efforts,
their engagement, and other work-environment factors. Building on data from Hewitt Associates
Best Employers in Canada studies, Hewitt and CBSR gathered opinions from over 100,000
employees and 2,000 leaders from more than 230 workplaces. The study reinforces the
connection between the “Engage employees in CSR programs” strategy and how it energizes the
“Employee Engagement, Productivity, and Innovation” link.

Framework 4

Bersin’s Engagement process24 typically surrenders to the drudgery of enforcing engagement
surveys. As experienced by this reporter, it takes a long deal of planning and hard work just to
get a decent number of employees to answer the questionnaire. In fact, in my previous company
with hundreds of local employees, we and my team have spent months in designing the correct
survey form, doing a beta-test on the survey instrument, adapting this to potential multiple media
23
24

Ibid
http://www.bersin.com/News/Details.aspx?id=15511


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presentations, fielding help-desk scripts for possible questions, then waiting for several weeks
just to collate results, then spend another month in survey reporting and communicating the
results. The initiative is often expensive, time consuming, and for HR truly exhausting.
This reporter has experienced where engagement initiatives have become bi-annual events.
When the survey is completed and results have been communicated, then the next level
realization-to-analysis comes in where each people program is reviewed and weighed if the
impact has truly been manifested in making the workforce truly engaged. Determining if there
are changes in behavior that raised engagement scores.
Understanding the diagram above, the green box at the bottom of the cycle calls out the
foundational nature of learning and continuous improvement cultures for engagement
programs.25 The cycle demonstrates the importance of having a strong culture of learning and
continuous improvement. The efforts become futile if an organization deliberately implements
an engagement survey/ program but does not try to realize the importance of the results drawn
thereafter. The organization, in starting the engagement process, assumes that something needs
to be fixed. In the case of a learning culture, employees seek to close a developmental gap in
order to improve job performance. In a continuous improvement culture, the organization seeks
to fix quality issues and improve efficiencies of work processes. Similarly, to improve
performance and work processes, and as the organization measures engagement then the
organization must accept that work practices and cultures must be changed order to raise
engagement levels.
Next, as the organization emphasizes the importance of performance feedback (be it through
formal performance meetings, coaching sessions or mentoring schedules) employees within a
learning culture readily accept these on regular basis and incrementally adjust the way they
work, as employees do with work processes and systems within continuous improvement
cultures. Similarly, as the organization endeavors to improve employee engagement, the
organization chooses the engagement drivers that will have direct impact to business growth. In
other words, when organization has built a culture that is open and transparent in communicating
performance then this organization, by leveraging this culture, can achieve better results in
employee engagement since a supportive behavior has already been imbedded at the very core of
business.
The top of the cycle, as explained, features the relevance of strategy and values as threads to
weave a high-impact engagement initiative. This further illustrates a visual that “engagement is
fuel – the fuel that will propel the organization to reach its business objectives.”26 The vital
achievement of making engagement as a fuel happens when business strategy and values are
used by business leaders to motivate the workforce that results to mobilizing the workforce more
towards the various functions and tasks that are most critical to strategy execution.
After formulating a well-aligned engagement program strategy, an organization starts to move
around the engagement program cycle. The organization will eventually measure engagement

25
26

Ibid
Ibid


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Employee Engagement
and teach the employees about what needs to change through the initiative’s feedback reports
and presentations.
Finally, the organization must try to look for opportunities to integrate engagement-supportive
behaviors into people programs, practices, managerial styles, and work processes and systems.
The regular performance appraisal tool must be re-wired to reflect the very gains of the
employee engagement process.

Framework 5

Four Dimensions of Employee Engagement27

Work units that meet these conditions of engagement perform at a higher level than work units
that fail to meet them. Primary within these conditions are emotional elements that reveal our
basic human needs: to be recognized as individuals and to contribute. At a local level, managers
can influence employees' most basic needs by setting clear expectations and providing needed

27

http://media.gallup.com/DataViz/GMJ/images/4_dimensions.gif


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resources. This fundamentally challenges Douglas McGregor’s Theory X28, “Management
assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently
dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised
and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with
narrow span of control at each and every level.”
However, bottom line is that management has the ability to energize their employees by showing
them that they care -- personally and professionally:



28

Personally, managers can create meaningful relationships within workgroups and position
employees so that they can do what they do best.
Professionally, managers can provide challenging work and opportunities to learn, grow,
and make significant contributions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_theory_Y


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Employee Engagement

WHAT DO SURVEYS SHOW?

http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/163130/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx

The big picture – Entirely consistent with other employee engagement surveys. Gallup’s data
shows




30% of employees Engaged
52% Disengaged
18% Actively Disengaged

These latest findings indicate that 70% of American workers are ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively
disengaged’ and are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be
productive,” states the report. “Gallup estimates that these actively disengaged employees cost
the U.S. between $450 billion and $550 billion each year in lost productivity. They are more


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Employee Engagement
likely to steal from their companies, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and
drive customers away.”29
More educated, but not more engaged – Though higher education generally leads to higher
earnings, it by no means guarantees higher engagement. Consider the data:
College graduates in the survey were




28% Engaged
55% Not Engaged

High school graduates were




32% Engaged
49% Not Engaged

Reasons weren’t explored in the study, but a hypothesis is that higher education levels bring with
them higher expectations – which are often not being met when one is underemployed in a weak
job market.
Women are more engaged than men – A surprising finding, in light of well-known “gender
equality” issues involving pay and glass ceilings.
Women were




33% Engaged
50% Not Engaged





28% Engaged
53% Not Engaged

Men were

For this survey, 33% versus 28% is a statistically significant difference.
Employee engagement’s overall effect on the bottom line – Gallup’s research notes that work
units in the top 25% of their engagement database have considerably higher productivity and
profitability ratings, for example, combined with less turnover and absenteeism. “Organizations
with an average of 9.3 engaged employees for every actively disengaged employee in 2010-2011
experienced 147% higher earnings per share (EPS) compared with their competition in 201129

Ibid


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Employee Engagement
2012,” the report states. “In contrast, those with an average of 2.6 engaged employees for every
actively disengaged employee experienced 2% lower EPS compared with their competition
during that same time period.”

aaa

WHAT DO WE DO THEN?
Creating a Culture of Engagement
What then must organizations do? How can organizations actually unearth and understand
employee engagement? The challenge is for organizations to create a system by realizing that
engagement drivers are different from one industry to the next, from one location to the next, and
so on. Moreover, organizations are now fairly educated to discern that employee engagement is
largely about social connections happening in organizations and aligning work experiences with
employees’ cultural needs. For example, research shows North American and Eastern European
workers place high priority on financial rewards in relation to how satisfied they are at work30,
but elsewhere it’s about simple connections and involvement, meeting the more altruistic and
basic human needs of feeling connected and being an important part in something bigger.
Following below are some best practices made by global brands:
Google has created an environment for employees to thrive that goes beyond stocking its
kitchens with free gourmet food and on-site laundry service. Its corporate culture is one of the
reasons it is consistently ranked a great place to work. Google GOOG +1.23% values the
opinions of employees and hires new associates by committee. It communicates an environment
of playfulness from whimsical doodles to April Fool’s Day jokes.
DHL Express takes employee engagement seriously in the office, on the roads and in the air. It
has an incredible culture of thanking employees, whether that’s through monetary rewards,
honoring top performers at its annual Hollywood-style black-tie event or pinning notes of
appreciation on the company corkboard.
30

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=different+regions+employee+engagement&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2


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At SAP, communication is core to the culture. Employees understand the “why” behind their
jobs – what they’re expected to achieve and why it’s important to the greater good of the
organization. Collaboration is valued and teams communicate globally to get projects
accomplished. Leaders listen to employee feedback and encourage it.
Southwest Airlines has a reputation for outstanding employment branding. Being fast, fun and
friendly is part of their DNA. Even those who don’t work for the organization have the
perception that it’s an innovative, fun and cool place to work. A strong employment brand that
offers clarity on the organization culture and what it stands for ensures that the right people are
attracted to the organization and the wrong people apply elsewhere.31
These examples only reinforces that it can be done. Organizations who are serious on taking it to
the next level can rightfully understand the drivers most meaningful to employees that can result
to a more motivated and high-performing workforce. Organizations that commit to an intentional
culture that is open, transparent, and enable employees to thrive is crucial to retain top
performers. Whether it’s participating in community events, celebrating coworkers or fostering
more open communication, organizations that build a culture where employee involvement
matters can simply engage employees engagement and create a great place to work.

31

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Employee Engagement

http://www.temkingroup.com/research-reports/the-five-is-of-employee-engagement/


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Employee Engagement

REFERENCES
1. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT by Brad Federman; Jossey- Bass © 2003 by John Wiley
& Sons. Inc.
2. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT by Edward Mone and Manuel London; © 2010 by Taylor
and Francis Group
3. MANAGING EMPLOYEE RETENTION by Jack Phillips, Ph.D. and Adelle Connell,
Ph.D.; Society for HR Management © 2003 by Franklin Covey
4. MOTIVATION by John Houston; © 1985 by Macmillan Publishing Company
5. THE THREE LAWS OF PERFORMANCE by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan; © 2009
by Jossey- Bass


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IR 201 Employee Engagement

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IR 201 Employee Engagement