Importance of Building a strongworkforce

 Importance of Building a strong workforce

In today's business world, every organization has adopted a system-wide goal of employee engagement which yields tangible and intangible benefits to the overall business entity.

The engaged employee is a passionate employee, who is totally immersed in his or her work, energetic, committed and completely dedicated " (Truss et al., 2006)

According to Harter et al., 2002 engagement was ‘the individual’s involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for work’. 

The components of employee engagement

Engagement can be explained as having three overlapping components as listed below (Armstrong et al., 2010).

 Components of employee engagement (Storey, 2007; Macey et al., 2009)

Drivers of employee engagement

It is necessary to understand the following antecedents and drivers that affect employee engagement.

 Drivers of employee engagement (Crawford et al., 2013)

Achieving and enhancing employee engagement

According to Towers Perrin, (2003) enhancing engagement rests on the foundation of a meaningful and emotionally enriching work experience and it is a process which never ends. 

Employee engagement can be enhanced by addressing issues concerning both aspects of engagement – job and organizational engagement by employers. Since they are interrelated any actions taken to enhance either aspect will be mutually supporting. 

Outcomes of engagement

According to Stairs & Galpin, (2010) and Alfes et al., (2010) high levels of engagement results following:

Burnout / Disengagement

According to Maslach & Jackson, (1981) Burnout - the negative side to engagement is ‘a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism’.

Management need to ensure that employees are not under too much pressure and provided them with support when required to avoid the disengagement.

Measuring engagement

Engagement surveys provide the basis for the development and implementation of engagement strategies. According to Armstrong, (2014) triple-A’ approach: Analysis, Assessment and Action is the best. It is also important to inform employees of the results of the survey in full.

Conclusion

Employee engagement is all about developing passion and commitment while building positive working relationships. When employees feel that they are being treated well and valued by their employer, they are more likely to respond by exerting effort on behalf of the employer in the form of raised levels of engagement.

In conclusion, a responsible approach to engagement requires a work environment that does not just demand more but fosters a balance in people’s lives.

References

Armstrong, M, Brown, D and Reilly, P (2010) Evidencebased Reward Management, London, Kogan Page.

Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice.

Harter, J K, Schmidt, F L and Hayes, T L (2002) Business-unit level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, pp 268–79.

Stairs, M and Galpin, M (2010) Positive engagement: from employee engagement to workplace happiness, in (eds) P A Linley, S Harrington and N Garcea, The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work, New York, Oxford University Press.

Storey, J (2007) What is human resource management?, in (ed) J Storey, Human Resource Management: A critical text, London, Thompson Learning, pp 3–19.