People resourcing
Introduction.
In organizations where employees are committed to doing their works, they have a competitive advantage which includes high productivity and the reduce turnover of employees. Through this, many organizations and companies have engaged in building up policies which foster well employee engagement.
Employee engagement definitions vary from one organization to organization. Its definition can be placed in three contexts.
- Job engagement
It can be defined as an individual’s engagement and been satisfied with the place of work they work. an engaged employee is one who is fully aware of the business of the company he/she is working in, engages other colleagues well and thus through this improves performance in the workplace which is of benefit to the organization (Gallup, 2009).
- Organizational engagement
It focuses on the attachment of the organization as a whole. It is when an employee as a positive attitude towards the working place, the employee wants to remain to be part of the organization, beliefs strongly towards the goals and values of the organization and is ready to act on behalf of the organization (Mowday, 1982)).
- General definition.
It can be described as creating opportunities through which employees connect with other employees of the organization, managers and the entire company. And can also be described as having a better environment of work in which employees feel motivated and desire to be back for the work the following day (Truss, 2006).
- Analytical definitions
In this employee engagement is said to happen when employees are committed to their work, and they are motivated to achieve the goals of the organization (Balain and Sparrow, 2009).
Benefits of employee engagement.
Many organization are now encouraging employee engagement because it makes an impact to the overall goals of the organization. The following can be seen as the benefits of good employee engagement.
- Morale
Morale can be defined as positive health, perceptions and work-related attitudes. Employees who are greatly involved are usually more satisfied with the jobs they are currently in, and they are also less likely to have symptoms of stress or showing emotional exhaustion, they also achieve high abilities that enable them to complete tasks that they are given, and finally have high levels of satisfaction and they do not experience ill health, problems with their mental or depression. Good employee engagement can lead to high and better levels of commitment of workers to their works and there is a less probability that they will be looking for a different better job and then hand in a resignation letter (Vance, 2006).
- Performance
Many good employee engagements show that the performance of the company improves drastically well. Well engaged employees prove that they can work when pressed harder without complaining and volunteering to do works which they are not accustomed to doing. Still, they do for the benefit of improving the performance of the company. Impacts also of good engagement of workers to performance are that they will not go against decisions that will be made by executives of the organization, they will not be involved in bad behaviours which can damage the organization and finally they will not resist change. It is also likely that this workers will work harder because they love what they are doing (Vance, 2006).
- Higher retention and lower turnover.
This means that many of the employees if they are well engagement they will remain in their jobs because they are highly satisfied. Thus the company will not spent a lot of money when it comes to hiring and having interviews for new employees which consumes a lot of time and also money that could be used in improving the organization.
- Increase profitability
When the employees are happy in their work places, they work harder and produce better and quality goods which satisfy customers. if customers are happy they keep on coming back for the same products and also refer other customers to the same products because they are quality and self-satisfactory (Kumar and Pansari, 2015).
- Less absenteeism.
Well engaged workers show commitment to their place of work and avail themselves each and every day because they have feel that they have a sense of responsibility for the organization they are working for. Employees who are less engaged do not have that feeling therefore they do not have a problem if they do not show up for work. Reducing absenteeism also improve on the performers of the company.
- Increase the loyalty of the employees.
This has benefit in that if employees are engaged well, then they become the ambassadors of the company. They ensure that the end products of the company have customers by inviting their friends and relatives to buy them even if they do not work in the sales and marketing department of the company.
- Better customer service.
Benefit of engaged employees is that they serve customers of the organization well because they care much for the customers and thus many customers will always be happy to come back to your organizations to buy product from there (Karanges, Johnston, Beatson, and Lings, 2015).
Guidelines to consider in initiating employee engagement.
When an organization is need of engaging their employees well it should have the following measures in mind.
- Make your investments sound.
As an employer ensure you should ensure that you foster better human resource practices which are designed to improve engagement and commitment. Make sure that if your organization only needs commitment without engagement then you use the specific human resource practices that ensure that and the vice versa.
- Craft good compelling business cases which improve commitment and engagement.
In order to obtain funds that can be used in engagement and commitment practices, then one may need to apply much powers of persuasion. Creating good initiatives can be of great importance in building the success of the company.
- Have ground investment decisions in sound data.
Whenever an employer need to incorporate the engagement and commitment initiatives to his or her employers, this decisions must be put on a sound data. In order to ensure that this data is sound, make sure that employees are engaged at least once per year.
- Create a culture of engagement in the organization.
For this to be active, employers need to incorporate the value of engaging employees in the company’s mission statement and also follow up on different units of your organization and make sure that each is engaging all the employees in that unit. One should monitor all the progress that are put for employee engagement efforts and constantly change on the policies, strategies and plans of the organization whenever they are needed (Markos and Sridevi, 2010).
Challenges which organization face when trying to promote employee engagement.
The following will be in depth discussion of the challenges organization face and how they can overcome them.
- Lack of clarity.
This is the first barrier that is seen between the members of staff and the management of the organization. Employees are not well clarified on what to do and what not to do and also not shown on how they should conduct themselves in their work places. This makes them to fear when they are working and this can lead to low performances.
For an employer to overcome this ensure that employees are educated well about the company upon hiring, organize for seminars and training sessions.
- Lack of commitment from top management.
An organization has different levels and information from the top level towards the lower levels of the organization. If the top executives of the organization lack commitment this will lead to poor engagement of the lower staff. It is also very difficult to engage employees if the top management is not also well engaged.
To overcome this one needs to align the leadership in a well-structured strategy having in mind the concept of employee engagement all through.
- Generalization
Employers use one main method of approach in every situation that may occur in the organization and also at different levels. This is very wrong because all problems that arise in an organization require different approaches.
To overcome this ensure that as an employer you understand different problems and have in mind how they can be approached and solved.
- Lack of balancing work-life balance.
A lot of organization fail when it comes to work-life balance, they need their employees to be always at work and do not take care of their life. Organizations should understand this and ensure that they facilitate for working hours that are flexible, off days and work towards ensuring that their employees are recognized in their places of work.
- Recognizing growth.
Many employees quit their jobs because of lack of appreciation. Organization also have the same line of work for employees which is so monotonous thus making employees to quit and many do not promote rewards if their employers perform well.
As an employer to overcome this ensure that there is an engaged workforce that is through promoting recognition and rewarding employees who performed well and this will lead to better engaged with the members of staff (Jenkins and Delbridge, 2013).
Functions of human resource.
Human resource has a couple of important information in an organization. The following are the main functions of HR.
- HR planning.
This is the first and main role of human resource, this is always about knowing what the company needs in the future. This is in terms of personnel required and how they will be hired and paid.
- Recruiting employees.
Human resource has a function of attracting people in the organization and selecting the best from all of the attracted workers. For a company to attract many employees then the human resource must put a better reputation of how the company is and how it has good relationship with its employees (Obeidat, 2012).
- Managing performance.
This is an essential in ensuring that workers remain productive and well engaged. This involves having good leadership, having a good goal setting and open feedback. Good management of performance tools include having annual performance review and having 360-degree feedback tools. This is also an essential element in closing the gap between workers and employers.
- Learning and development.
Human resource department is required to analyze the future of the company and know what developments will be needed and how they will educate their employees to cope up with the changes occurring either through technological advancements (Lawler and Boudreau, 2009).
- Career planning.
Another function of HR is guiding employees on career planning and development. This helps in retaining employees in the organization.
- Function evaluation.
This is a more technical role which involves comparison of different terms of quality, qualification, location of job, availability of workers and show value of their jobs and what they add to the organization.
- Rewarding
Employees who perform well in their works are rewarded and this is the function of human resource department in identifying the best workers and then rewarding them. This rewards may be in form of increase of salary, bonuses, helping in balancing their work-life and career opportunities.
- Industrial relations.
Human resource department function is maintaining and having good relationships with unions of labor. This helps in solving conflicts which occur in organization or when the organization decides to layoff in difficult economic times.
- Wellbeing of employers.
This is also a function of HR in that they are supposed to assist and take care of employees when they run into difficulties concerning personal status.
- Health and safety.
Health and safety in an organization is a key function of human resource, this is also a major factor that keeps workers in an organization because they know their safety is well taken care of (Gospel and Sako, 2010).
Ways through which Human Resource assist in employee engagement.
Human resource as department is expected to engage employees of the organization inorder to ensure that there is high performance and provision of quality products. This department enables engaged through the following:
- Communication and feedback.
It is always important to understand the problems that are within an organization which make employers not to be engaged. Once the problem it is always good to give solutions and feedbacks to the affected employees. Interacting with employees one on one helps in analyzing this problems and also makes employees to know that you as an employer you really care of them. Communication can serve as a bridge btween employees and employer. This is the work of HR in ensuring that all employees are well satisfied with their work and also they are supposed to know what has been the root cause of underperformance and lack of motivation within employees of their organization (Fairlie, 2011).
- Continuous support and learning.
What employees need in an organization is often getting support either through technological support or human support. This needs aspects like sending them to seminars, conferences and workshops that will make their skills remain relevant with the current situation. This are functions that the human resource is supposed to do in order to ensure that employees are happy with their jobs. Well engaged employees will always be happy to come back the following day and perform their daily chores. Employees are also happy when the organization is making efforts to improve on their abilities (Vance, 2006).
- Recognition and incentives.
For an organization to perform well, it is essential for the employer to provide incentives to his or her workers. Recognizing better performed workers and rewarding them not only encourages them but provide a climate of competition between the workers so that each one needs to be recognized next time and rewarded. Human resource has the purpose of going into depth into analyzing employees who performed well and engaging them with their employers for them to be rewarded. Reward do not only mean that it is by money but it can also be through a word of mouth or by showing the results that the employee has generated (Alfes, Shantz, Truss and Soane, 2013).
Conclusion.
in organizations employers are concerned much about the performance of their employees and also they are in need of better quality of work to be done, if its production they need their products to be the best in the market and so on. For this to be able and achieved employee engagement is supposed to be done. This ensures that employers get the best from their workers. Employee engagement can be through been too close with the workers in order to understand problems in the organizations that affect them, rewarding them whenever they perform well, ensuring that they have a balance in their work and life, educating them and increasing their abilities, increasing their ranks and salaries. Through employee engagement an organization can benefit in good performance of their employees, they have high retention of workers, have high profits and maintains customers of their products.
References.
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Balain, S and Sparrow, P (2009) Engaged to Perform: A new perspective on employee engagement, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster
Fairlie, P., 2011. Meaningful work, employee engagement, and other key employee outcomes: Implications for human resource development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13(4), pp.508-525.
Gallup (2009) Workplace Audit, Gallup Inc, Washington, DC
Gospel, H. and Sako, M., 2010. The unbundling of corporate functions: the evolution of shared services and outsourcing in human resource management. Industrial and Corporate Change, 19(5), pp.1367-1396.
Jenkins, S. and Delbridge, R., 2013. Context matters: Examining ‘soft’and ‘hard’approaches to employee engagement in two workplaces. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(14), pp.2670-2691.
Karanges, E., Johnston, K., Beatson, A. and Lings, I., 2015. The influence of internal communication on employee engagement: A pilot study. Public Relations Review, 41(1), pp.129-131.
Kumar, V. and Pansari, A., 2015. Measuring the benefits of employee engagement. MIT Sloan Management Review, 56(4), p.67.
Lawler, E. and Boudreau, J.W., 2009. Achieving excellence in human resources management: An assessment of human resource functions. Stanford University Press.
Markos, S. and Sridevi, M.S., 2010. Employee engagement: The key to improving performance. International journal of business and management, 5(12), p.89.
Mowday, R, Porter, L and Steers, R (1982) Employee-Organization Linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism and turnover, Academic Press, London
Obeidat, B.Y., 2012. The relationship between human resource information system (HRIS) functions and human resource management (HRM) functionalities. Journal of Management Research, 4(4), pp.192-211.
Truss, C, Soane, E, Edwards, C, Wisdom, K, Croll, A and Burnett, J (2006) Working Life: Employee attitudes and engagement, CIPD, London.
Vance, R.J., 2006. Employee engagement and commitment. SHRM foundation, pp.1-53.