CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee

has towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business

context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of

the organization. It is a positive attitude held by the employees towards the organization and

its values. The paper focuses on how employee engagement is an antecedent of job

involvement and what should company do to make the employees engaged. The paper also

looks at the Gallup 12 point questionnaire, twelve-question survey that identifies strong

feelings of employee engagement and the steps which shows how to drive an engaged

employee.

Introduction

Engagement at work was conceptualized by Kahn, (1990) as,

‘Harnessing of Organizational Members selves to their work roles’

In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and

emotionally during role performances.

The second related construct to engagement in organizational behavior is the notion of flow

advanced by Csikszentmihalyi (1975) defines flow as

‘Holistic Sensation’ that, people feel when they act with total

involvement. Flow is the state in which there is little distinction between the self and

environment. When individuals are in Flow State little conscious control is necessary for their

actions.

Employee engagement is the thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee has

towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context,
and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the

organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires

a two-way relationship between employer and employee.’ Thus Employee engagement is a

barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization

Aspects of the Study

Three basic aspects of employee engagement according to the global studies are:-

 The employees and their own unique psychological make up and experience

 The employers and their ability to create the conditions that promote employee

engagement

 Interaction between employees at all levels.

Thus it is largely the organization’s responsibility to create an environment and culture

conducive to this partnership, and a win-win equation.

Categories of Employee Engagement

According to the Gallup the Consulting organization there are there

are different types of people:-

Engaged--"Engaged" employees are builders.

They want to know the desired expectations for their role so they can meet and

exceed them. They're naturally curious about their company and their place in it. They

perform at consistently high levels. They want to use their talents and strengths at work every

day. They work with passion and they drive innovation and move their organization forward

Not Engaged--- “Not-engaged” employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals

and outcomes they are expected to accomplish.

 They want to be told what to do just so they can do it and say they have finished.

They focus on accomplishing tasks vs. achieving an outcome. Employees who are not-

engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being

tapped. They often feel this way because they don't have productive relationships with their

managers or with their coworkers.

Actively Disengaged--The "Actively disengaged" employees are the "cave dwellers." They're

"Consistently against Virtually Everything."

They're not just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness.

They sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. Every day, actively disengaged workers

undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. As workers increasingly rely on each

other to generate products and services, the problems and tensions that are fostered by

actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization's functioning.

The 10Cs of Employee Engagement

 Connect – Connect is termed as the relationship between the employees and the
management. If this connect got fractured, then no kind of financial incentive or perks
will persuade the employee to perform the best job.
 Career- Managers should give employees the work that they love to do and that
challengs their skill sets and ultimately lead to various growth opportunities. No one
likes to do the same job repetedly. Therefore, rotating the jobs can create more
interest and enhance the confide4nce of the employees.
 Clarity- Leaders must make the employees clear about their jobs. They should be
aware of their duties and responsibilities and also know about the goals,mission and
vision of the organization and also the goals that department heads have for the
division or unit.
 Convey- leaders should properly convey and c;earify their expectations from the
employees so that they can work accordingly. The leaders should also give timely
feedback that encourages them to master important tasks facilitating goal
achievement.
 Congratulate- Congratulate is giving feedback to the employees in both the cases-
when their performance is low & also when they perform above the expectations.
 Contribute- People want to know that how their input is affecting the revenue growth
of the organization. It can be easily viewed in hospitality industries but not in
 industries like retail. So, Performance Indicators i.e. how well the company is doing
with its employees, customers and investors is important to take into account. The
employees should have a clear cut connection between their work and the objectives
of the company. They also possess positive attitude attitude towards their work.
 Control- Employees value control over the flow and pace of their jobs and leaders
can create opportunities for employees to exercise this control. Do leaders allow their
employees to take part in setting goals for the organization & making important
decisions? Do employees have a say in organization? A feeling of being involved in
the organization creates trust and a best work culture, it also have a positive effect on
engagement & performance of the organization.
 Collaborate- When employees work in teams & have a good bonding with their team
members, they excel individuals & team that lacks good interpersonal relationships.
Surveys indicate that being cared about by colleagues is a strong predictor of
employee engagement.
 Credibility- It is the duty of the leader to maintain company’s reputation and ethical
standards. They should make the employees proud of their jobs, their performance so
that they love the organization.
 Confidence- A leader should create confidence in the company by maintaining the
performance and ethical standards. Gaining competitive advantage also results in
engaged workforce.

Importance of Employee Engagement-

For the past few years now, workers lucky enough to have a job hunkered
down to ride out the economic storm. They did more with less and often had to accept salary
freezes, time off without pay, or cutbacks in hours in exchange for continued employment.
Uncertain about how long the recession would last and not willing to be a victim of “last one
in, first one out,” they also stopped looking for that next great job at a competitor down the
street. As a result, employee retention rates soared and not surprisingly, employee
engagement suffered.

Moreover, employee engagement increases performance (P), productivity (P) and

profitability($) in organizations.

Therefore, EE = P+ P+ $

The general ideal goal of every organization to have 100% motivated and engaged employee
but the actual scenario is 20-60-20 i.e.

 20% of employees are ‘noxious’ or actively disengaged.

 60% are retained or ‘self satisfied’, they haven’t received a good reason to leave yet.
 20% of employees are actively engaged or ‘busy bee’ of the organization, they love
working in the organization and because of them the organizations earns profit.
METHODS
There are 3 ways to engage with employees, each of which has its own strengths.
 Informative Engagement − One-way information.
 Reciprocal Engagement − Two-way information.
 Dynamic Engagement − Real-time and intelligent use of information.
Let us break these down a bit further to understand what effect each one can have
and why they are all needed.

Informative Engagement
This is naturally the most traditional method, being the one-way information about company
benefits and the present/future situations for employees.
This is done through –

 Paper documents
 Electronic documents
 Verbal education
The emotional response from this process is relatively low, as it does not require the
employee to fully digest the information or more importantly, understand its meaning in the
context of their lives. It is a one-way information which will usually is speed-read and then
filed away. But this information typically carries long-term important content, particularly as
reference material for when it suddenly becomes high priority, such as a Healthcare benefit
in a time of illness. Hence its monetary value to the employee can be high, but the emotional
engagement value can be low for employee retention.

Reciprocal Engagement
This is a natural environment for companies that genuinely mean well for their staff. Most of
the profitable companies are in this zone as they want to retain their staff and will ensure
they provide enough conversation and open-door policies for all aspects of employment to
feel they’re providing a positive workplace.
Particularly for large companies, the latter half of the 20th Century majored strongly on this
with even greater emphasis put on it now. There are many business support companies that
run a two-way communication and training sessions for staff, covering topics such as −

 Employee Assistance Programs

 Buddying and Mentoring
 Open Floor Suggestions
 Feedback Surveys and Polls
 Management Tutoring
 Skills Development Courses
 NLP Training

Dynamic Engagement
An excellent manager will primarily have leadership attributes that they instinctively want to
pass on to their staff. Once those staff have progressed within the company, they will
provide the same leadership to their teams and so on as the company grows through time.
To achieve this, the leaders need to fully understand how their team members work and
what drives them personally. They must do more than communicate benefits or ask for
feedback on what the company could be doing better. If they know the specific personal and
professional goals of each of their team members, then they can respond with relevant and
timely information that helps the employee to achieve those goals.
As mentioned in reciprocal engagement, this is not always possible, particularly if the leader
has a very large team, they simply don’t have time to do their main job whilst seeking to
understand every nuance of their employees. This is where technology can help.
Until now, technology has been limited to factors as explained in Informative Engagement
and Reciprocal Engagement above. But now we are in an era where real time information
can be integrated with personal preferences. With the growth of Social Networking Tools
and “Big Data”, we can start to automate the process of specific and individualized
engagement. It will always need human interaction to apply the wisdom of understanding
and building relationships, but the gathering of user habits and preferences is quite normal
now.
For example −
 We often see online forms pre-populated for us.
 We receive targeted online advertisements that are relevant to our web browsing.
 We can see a breakdown of our spending habits through online banking.

TYPES
Employee Engagement is a concept that has begun to grab the attention of the corporate
world for the past few years. In general, higher levels of employee engagement mean higher
profitability of the organization.
The future business performance and revenues and profitability of an organization no longer
depends on the traditional capital management, investment and portfolio management. But
the success of any organization in this constantly changing world of work depends on
human capital management. The companies that understood this fact long before are the
most successful and highly productive organizations of the currents times. Those who have
just realized it are still struggling to establish a reputation in the industry.
There is a clear link between organizational performance and employee engagement, every
organization seeking sustenance and growth in the ever-changing world of work quickly
responds to the needs of the employees along with designing and implementing a
customized process to increase the levels of employee engagement.
Following are a few basic steps in this process based on the best industry practices. We can
segregate the entire process of Employee Engagement into the following five categories −
Prepare and Design
The first step in the process is about discovering the specific requirements of your
organization and deciding the priorities. After that, a customized design of carrying the
whole process can be designed. It is recommended to seek advice of an expert management
consultant to increase the chances of getting it done right at the first attempt .

Employee Engagement Survey

Design the questions of the employee engagement survey and deploy it with the help of an
appropriate media. It can be either in printed form or set online depending on the comfort
level of the employees and your questionnaire evaluation process.

Result Analysis

It is the most important step in the entire process. It is the time when reports are to be
analyzed to find out what exactly motivates employees to perform their best and what
disengages and compels them to leave the organization. The results and information can
then be delivered through presentations.

Action Planning
‘How to turn the results of the survey into an action’ is a challenging question that
organizations need to deal with utmost care. Coaching of line managers as well as HR
professionals is very important to tell them how to take appropriate actions to engage
employees. They should also be told about the do’s and don’ts, so that they can successfully
implement the changes.

Action Follow-up

Action follow up is necessary in order to find out if the action has been taken in the right
direction or not and if it is producing the desired results.
Communication and project management processes are the backbone of the entire Employee
Engagement Process. Communication involves plan follow-up, providing timely
information and involvement of each level of organizational hierarchy.

ADVANTAGES

the major benefits that employee engagement offers.

Employee Satisfaction

Research indicates that if employees are engaged with the company, their job satisfaction
levels increase. Employees that are engaged and satisfied are very invested in the success of
the business and have a high level of commitment and loyalty.
Satisfied employees play a key role in your organization, as the ambassadors of the
company. They promote and support the company’s mission, strategy and brand.
Productivity

Engaged employees are often top performers, those committed to ‘Going the Extra Mile’ to
achieve business success.
As an employee becomes more engaged their absenteeism lowers and their motivation
increases leading to increased productivity. What this means is that the more engaged the
employee is the more efficient and driven to succeed they become. As per a research done
by the Hay Group ‘The offices with engaged employees were as much as 43% more
productive’.

Retention & Recruitment

Retaining good employees is a key to the success of every business. Employees who are
engaged significantly lower the risk of turnover for the company.
As engaged employees are more invested in the success of the company, they also become
more loyal. Simply put, when employees are satisfied and engaged they are far more likely
to stay with the organization. Coupled with retention, businesses that have a highly engaged
workforce have an increased ability to attract new, qualified employees.

Innovation

There is a close relationship between innovation and employee engagement. Engaged

employees perform at a higher level and bring passion and interest to their job, which often
leads to innovation in the workplace.
As highly engaged employees feel they have a real stake in the organization, they strive to
efficiently create new products, services and processes. Collaboration in the workplace
amongst engaged employees and top management also leads to overall organizational
growth.

Profitability

Companies with more engaged employees tend to have higher profitability rates. When the
employees are engaged, they become more productive and efficient, positively affecting the
company’s bottom line.
Increased performance and innovation can also be a factor in improving the work and
organizing it in a way that everything gets done.
There are some clear business benefits from employee engagement, but it is vital to
remember that in building an engaged and happier environment, you don’t put extra pressure
on your employees to increase the benefits. By successfully implementing an employee
engagement strategy, the benefits should come as a part of the outcomes of the strategy.
DISADVANTAGES

When employees are engaged, they adopt the vision, values and purpose of the organization
they work for. They become passionate contributors, innovating problem solvers and
stunning colleagues. But what does it mean to be a disengaged employee? Well, disengaged
employees are “not poised to put in extra effort for success. They don’t like going to work
most days. They are unlikely to recommend the products of, or employment with, their
employer.”
It may be difficult for employers to pinpoint disengaged employees because they don't
necessarily create problems in the workplace and they generally do their jobs. Still,
disengagement can spread throughout the workplace as even talented employees find their
work uninteresting and see no room for advancing their careers.

Signs of Employee Disengagement

Let us now discuss regarding the most significant signs of Employee Disengagement in most
of the companies.

No Initiative

An employee may feel disconnected from your organization, but might still perform because
of a personal work ethic. Or maybe their job is too easy and they are not being challenged.
Don’t be fooled that everything is okay simply because the person is producing results.
Instead, look how motivated the person is in a different context.
Stage a voluntary hack-day for the company. Make it fun and offer great prizes. Does your
top performer choose not to participate? If there are no other matters taking up their time,
you may have a disengaged employee.

Unhealthy Activities

How often does an employee go to the break room for a coffee or a snack? How often do
they head out for a cigarette? Of course, your employee may just be hungry, tired or
addicted to nicotine, but sometimes people over-indulge in unhealthy behaviors to fill a void
in their personal or professional lives.
People who are truly motivated by purpose often derive fulfillment simply by working
diligently at their desks. They may even have to be reminded by a grumbling belly that they
haven’t eaten lunch yet.

Silence

Ok maybe you just have an introvert on your hands. Some people feel their batteries
recharge when they have their own space. But, when the entire company or specific teams
are experiencing a win and a select few show no excitement or celebration, that is an
engagement issue.

Lack of Learning

When is the last time that a quiet employee shared an article of interest about your company,
marketplace trends or an interesting research dealing with their role? When is the last time
they shared anything at all? Curiosity is a good sign that an employee cares about the bigger
picture. They want to learn and grow in their role and share that with others. When you
encourage learning and growth as a company value and employees don’t share your
enthusiasm, it is time to take a closer look.

Cost of a Disengaged Workforce

Let us look at the cost of a disengaged workforce to better understand the significance of
employee engagement. The engaged employees believe they can contribute to the
company’s growth, the disengaged employees believe otherwise, i.e. their job does not
contribute to the organization. This belief of the disengaged employee creates a negative
spiral that affects his work, co-workers, customers, productivity and eventually both
happiness of the employee and company performance.
Some of the significant effects are explained below −
 Effect on Work − The disengaged employee tries to evade work, struggles to meet
deadlines and is reluctant to accept additional responsibility.
 Effect on Co-Workers − The negativity of a disengaged employee, demonstrated
either through raves and rants or complete withdrawal from participation, affects the
team morale. After all who has not heard of the proverb - One bad apple can spoil
the whole bunch.
 Effect on Customers − Every employee, whether an organization likes it or not,
becomes its ambassador. And a disengaged employee either by actively de-selling
 the organization, or by complete apathy towards their work, product, process,
organization help create disengaged customers.

 Effects on Productivity − Disengaged employees seldom push themselves to meet

organizational goals let alone contribute to innovative practices at workplace. Since,
they do not believe that their work contributes to the organization; they evade
completing tasks thereby affecting team productivity.
 Effect on Company Performance − In the corporate world, time is money and
organizations must innovate to stay relevant. A disengaged workforce by the virtue
of delay in completion of tasks and inability to improvise and innovate costs the
company dollars which ultimately affects the bottom line.
Last but not the least, disengagement can have a very detrimental effect on the personal life
of an employee. A disengaged employee is seldom able to shake off the lethargy and
perform in the current organization or land a job of preference. This leads to increased
frustration which may ultimately affect personal and family life.