Feature

An engaged employee is more productive

Employee engagement is vital for building a high performance culture—to drive the business forward, writes Vinita Gupta.

Employee engagement is about building a truly great relationship with the workforce and in ensuring that the bond lasts. Any organisation that embraces fine employer principles, recognises an employee’s talent and potential, and is committed to providing an enriching professional experience, is bound to succeed.

Prashanth LJ, Assistant VP and Global Marketing Head, Infinite Computer Solutions, says, “Engaged employees work with passion and have a visceral connection to their company. They drive innovation and move their organisation forward. They perform better, stay longer, act responsibly, and advocate their company’s values and hence investing in an employee’s growth leads to productivity and profitability for the organisation thereof.”

According to Sampath Shetty, VP, Permanent Staffing Business Unit, TeamLease Services, engaged employees work with passion and feel connected to the company’s overall objectives. Such positive linkage has employee’s engagement with performance scaling up to the business needs.

“Engaged employees are committed and loyal and bring in valuable referrals into the organisation. For them, the organisation is family and not just a part of their lives, but something more than that,” says Kalpana Srinivasan, HR Head, Aspire Systems.

Increases productivity

Employee engagement is directly related to the growth of the company. If an employee is not engaged enough the first thing that gets affected is his productivity.

Prashanth LJ believes that while employee turnover can be forcibly controlled, productivity cannot be. A committed and loyal employee automatically becomes a high performer which results in a positive bottom line for the organisation.

He asserts that when an employee is kept motivated, both professionally as well as personally; he automatically feels that he is a part of the company. Hence they make it a point to invest in the development and training of their people. Prashanth adds, “At Infinite, we have innovative training programmes for our employees. We also organise fun activities, both outdoors and indoors, to encourage our employees to develop their personal skills and hobbies. We feel a healthy mix of official and non-official activities contribute to the happiness and security of every employee and make them more productive and committed at the workplace.”

Shetty feels that an employee looks for clear road map/career path, personal development, training towards enhancing their skills (reskill or upskill) to take new responsibilities in his employment. All these elements ensure and result into engagement of employees resulting in productivity outcome.

“The more engaged an employees is, the more is his commitment level towards making a plan successful. Each one of us should think like the CEO of our company, because each one of us run the company we work in within our own boundaries. Therefore, its success is very important for our own growth and that of our company. The day we think like a ‘CEO’ of our roles, there’s nothing that can stop us from reaching the top,” says Nagdev Bindiganavale, HR Director, Network Appliance Systems (NetApp).

Engaged employees do not look for organisational support every step of the way. They are self-starters and believe in supporting the organisation in all its endeavours.

Srinivasan believes that engaged employees are always willing to put extra efforts to get things done. They showcase the organisation in the best manner to the outside world—be it customers, potential employees, family, friends, investors—whoever it may be. All these intrinsically translate to overall greater levels of productivity and cost savings for the organisation. He adds, “The longer an employee remains with an organisation, the more they are able to understand organisational philosophies and strategy. They are able to get better aligned to organisational goals and hence can get all the more engaged.”

Creating an engaged workforce

Engagement is not about driving employees to work harder, but about providing the conditions under which they will work more effectively. This is more likely to result from a healthy work-life balance than from working long hours. Organisations focussing on emotional engagement, cognitive engagement and physical engagement see a lot more of employees engaged. Employers/managers should encourage employee feedbacks and participation to organisation’s key deliverables would be critical. The most important thing is communicate to find out how their work adds to the bottom line of the company.

“Employee engagement is all about giving an employee a bonded eco-system to work in, wherein he shares a common goal, belief and values with the team, with each member having a clear understanding of the goals. Emplo-yees should get opportunities to put their skills and talent to use. It’s about giving employees a work culture where they are free to take up initiatives,” says Bindiganavale.

Srinivasan explains that firstly the managers need to understand that employee engagement is the key to an organisation’s success. They need to constantly have feedback and interaction cycles with their people and get them to partake in the organisational initiatives, voluntarily or involuntarily. She adds, “Managers need to keep their people updated all the time on the organisational vision and mission. They need to act as a bridge that can connect organisational values and goals to those of individual values and goals.”

Business managers should pay more attention to creating an engaged workforce. The relationship requires regular attention and maintenance but, if not carefully managed, HR business partnering can lead to neglect and damaging impact on engagement.

Shetty explains, having fair, transparent management processes are important in driving up levels of performance. Organisations should review their communications and particularly their arrangements for listening to employee opinions. He adds, “Employees are engaged with the immediate work at hand and are positioned to leverage their individual strengths in their work. Coaching also becomes imperative for their managers and executives. Companies ensure the right employees are placed in the right jobs of their organisations and that they are developing an emotionally-engaged workforce.”

Infinite offers flexible work hours, career growth, recognition, leadership and job enablement as the company believes that it is the intangibles that make an employee stay engaged with the organisation. They also invest time in designing and implementing a career development programme that is in tune with the employee’s expectations so that he develops a certain sense of ownership of his targets.

“We make sure our managers maintain a clear communication channel with every employee so that they can concentrate on what they do best, and are encouraged to do more of it at every stage,” adds Prashanth LJ.

Communication is crucial

Engaged employees feel a strong emotional bond with the organisation that employs them. They demonstrate a willingness to recommend the organisation to others and commit time and effort to help the company succeed. Hence it’s very important for an organisation to take immediate steps when they spot this engagement level slipping.

Through dialogues and one-on-ones NetApp tries to figure out the reasons that had led to the fall in engagement and later thinks about the kind of resources would an employee need to engage himself better with the job. Based on the feedback provided by the employee, the company ensures that he gets what he wants in order to engage better. Following this, they track the definite productivity milestones of the employee in question. Bindiganavale agrees that it is about communicating well to team members. Each employee should be told that he is an essential part of the team and the company at large and that his contribution is critical to the company’s success.

He adds, “Most employees leave because they are not given the work content required for their progression. Mostly people are tired of the monotony of their work. A good way to avoid this is job alteration within a particular department, wherein the employee gets introduced to every work process within that department.”

Infinite also encourages the employee to see how his work contributes to the organisation’s future. The company holds workshops and overall development programmes regularly for every employee and encourages his interaction and participation, so he builds his talents into strengths and also develops a sense of loyalty to the organisation and stays engaged at all times.

“We invest a great deal of time in conversations with our employees about their expectations for their roles. We also challenge the employee to think creatively and in an out-of-the-box manner so he is exposed to different scenarios at the workplace and his intellect is stimulated at regular intervals,” says Prashanth LJ.

Thus it is these initiatives that escalate an employee’s engagement at the workplace, which in turn will lead to the financial growth of the company.