Issued by: CRF South Africa


She says any manager worth their salt will only ignore this function at their own peril, because employee engagement is not a Human Resource (HR) fad that will lose currency with the passage of time. Rather it has become a business imperative that is generating research interest, as well as HR and management attention in organisations that truly value employees.

"When CEOs state at every opportune occasion that employees are their most important assets, they do not do this as a public relations exercise, but this can always be backed up by hard evidence to that effect," explains Tsukudu.

The Institute of Employment Studies (IES) defines employee engagement as "a positive attitude by employees towards an organisation and its values". The engaged employee understands the business context of a company and works well with colleagues to improve general performance of their organisation."

According to the Gallup Organisation, the success of a company does not depend on the understanding of economics, organisational development or marketing. Rather this depended quite simply on your understanding of psychology, which is how each individual employee connects with your company and how they subsequently connected with your customers."

Employee engagement is, therefore, a measurement of emotional and intellectual commitment to an organisation and this has a direct link to productivity. It is a step-up from commitment and overlaps with both commitment and a positive psychological contract between employer and employee, according to Tsukudu.

Why is employee engagement important?
When the concept first emerged, there was apprehension among HR professionals, line managers and researchers over the connection between the levels of engagement of an employee and the quality of their work. The notion is no longer shrouded in mystery but now a fact.

Says Tsukudu, "We know that employee engagement is a step-up to employee commitment, therefore, we can convincingly conclude that it is employee engagement that serves as a true differentiator," she explains.

Employee engagement requires a realistic employee value proposition from the Human Resource function in an organisation, because HR's value-add is integrally linked to or influenced by its employee value proposition. BEST Employers™ South Africa researches the employer value proposition. Using the HR Benchmark™, the project assesses those areas that attract and retain talent to and within various organisations i.e. training and development opportunities offered by organisations; rewards, recognition and incentive programmes for high achievers; mentorship, coaching and promotion opportunity as well as diversity, innovation and knowledge sharing.

"Employee value proposition is defined as the holistic sum of everything people experience and receive while they are part of an organisation," explains Tsukudu.

Human Resources' value- add will certainly be judged by how it builds and maintains employee engagement and commitment, and how it positions itself as a key driver in this process. It is therefore, the role of HR to understand and determine what drives this engagement.

The exercise of being researched by the HR best practice research survey: The HR Benchmark™ is a good way for companies to assess their employer value proposition relative to the general market, and their industry. This in turn allows participating companies to adjust their HR strategy in line with what is needed to fully engage employees.

From this, organisations are accredited with a third-party endorsement of their employer value proposition. This BEST Employer™ accreditation stamp visibility communicates to talent, both externally and internally, that they are working for an organisation that has their best interests at heart – indeed a solid step toward boosting engagement and therefore a productive and profitable return from employees to the organisation.

Employee Engagement: A catalyst for change
International research undertaken by Gallup, the pioneers of this concept, revealed that employee engagement can be a catalyst for change and transformation. This is in large part due to its link to business outcomes such as:

• Retention
  
• Productivity
• Effective service delivery or profitability
• Customer engagement, and
• Safety orientation

According to international research commissioned by Robinson, Perryman and Hayday (2004), engaged employees generally displayed the following behaviour patterns:

• Belief in their organisation
• Desire to work towards making things better
• Understanding of business context and the bigger picture
• Respectful of and helpful to their colleagues
• Willingness to go the extra mile
• Keeping up to date with developments on the ground

Tsukudu explains that because of this positive linkage, it is, therefore, in the best interest of managers and employees to raise the levels of engagement among employees. She says there are no quick-fix solutions to building and maintaining employee engagement, given that it is a two-way process.

According to the Chartered Institute of People Development (CIPD), employee engagement is not something that can be factored into one's contract, but rather a quality that employees have to offer and are, therefore, at liberty to decide what levels of engagement they render.

Employee engagement strategy:
The Times of India published results of a survey in October 2007, which highlighted that only one in five global workers felt engaged.

This is consistent with research findings which depict that only between 17% and 29% of employees in any organisation, are actively engaged in their work. It is a frightening statistic that poses serious challenges to HR professionals. This means that barely 250-350 employees out of a workforce of 1000 are actively engaged.

Alluding to the fact that employee engagement is a matter of choice, Tsukudu points out that it remains in the best interest of managements to work harder in raising this awareness. She says employee engagement is not about the employee but about effective leadership and good management.

Critical to this employee engagement strategy are the key engagement drivers that happen to be specific and particular for any organisation. Each employee is engaged to a greater or lesser extent by a set of key drivers.

These may differ from one organisation to the next and even for different sub-groups in the same organisation. In this vein, it is incumbent upon managers to see to the following:

1. Determine and understand what drives employee engagement in their organisation
2. Identify what gets the right things done in a company

Despite the uniqueness of these drivers in each company, central features to engagement are the ability to attract the right people and retain them through the following:

1. Capacity and willingness to create an environment where employee motivation keeps rising
2. Scope and enough flexibility to respect and listen to employees and being able to take advantage of their initiatives
3. Building a strong employer brand which employees will proudly associate with

Tsukudu says organisations have come to understand that their people are a key differentiator and a source of competitive advantage. But significantly, it is the commitment of staff that can transform an organisation into outperforming competitors.


This article is written as part of the BEST Employers™ South Africa human capital management accreditation and public relations project, now open for participation. For more information: t: 021 425 0320 / e: samantha.crous@crf.co.za / w: www.bestcompaniestoworkfor.co.za

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[19 Mar 2008 11:07]

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