The new dynamics of employee engagement

Keeping the workforce engaged is now a collaborative initiative that demands the participation of the organisation and employees

Employee engagement surveys have the potential to deliver valuable insights by providing overall strategic guidance coupled with specific inputs to leaders and managers. 

However, having studied employee engagement surveys across organisations in India for over a decade, what surprises me most is how little significance is given to the results of these surveys and its impact on business. Very few organisations are actually able to take meaningful action on the results while they have mastered the art of collecting feedback.

A recent Willis Towers Watson study that drew responses from over a hundred of India’s top organisations and senior management leaders, 86 % respondents believe that employee engagement is a strategic priority in their organisation yet only 49% believe this is actually happening in their organisations. Is this is a sign for the alarm bells to start ringing? If India is to assert its rightful place in the global economy, our most critical asset — human capital — is going to have to play a pivotal role. Human capital is the fulcrum of all the efforts that the Government is undertaking to spur economic growth through initiatives like Make in India, Digital India and Start up India. Given the role that people are going to play in the success of India’s economic efforts, it is critical for India Inc. to determine whether engagement delivers what it promises in terms of superior results.

A constant tussle

Three quarters of respondents from our study indicated that employee engagement initiatives are driven by top management. CEOs and other senior leaders have a major role to play in creating a high-performing culture and positioning the company as a great place to work. But if a company’s leadership is unable to ‘walk the talk’, the job of HR becomes that much harder.

Historically, organisations (management) and HR have put forth the managers to shoulder the responsibility for driving employee engagement without providing the necessary ecosystem or skill set required to succeed. This has led to a constant tussle between the people manager and the organisation.

Even if managers somehow engage people, the flip side to such a scenario is that these employees are loyal to the manager and not the organisation. Leaders have to set the right culture, vision and be role models in driving overall performance of the company.

While analysing the role of leadership in developing, sustaining and nurturing engagement, the study found a distinct gap between perception and reality.

Just as a doctor would first check a patient’s vitals to gauge health status, CEOs similarly track 3 business vitals: revenue, customers and employees. While there is a tendency for CEOs to disproportionately focus on the revenue aspect of their business, they run the risk of becoming role models for managers who are usually made to bear the burden of driving employee engagement.

Future of employee engagement

The good news is, progressive Indian companies are seeing engagement surveys and the implications for employee wellness as part of a broader strategic landscape. While research shows that the more successful approach is multi-faceted, however the role of leadership is the one that sets the tone of organisational alignment and change. Employee engagement as a concept is shifting from being a one sided initiative to a more collaborative one, where both the organisation and the employee are responsible.

And in all fairness, companies in India are recognising the strong need for ‘specialists’ to address this transition — a trend that it is likely to shape the future of employee engagement and productivity going forward. Progressive organisations that are able to make the 4 key stakeholders in the engagement debate — leadership, HR, managers and most importantly employees — accountable, will surely see improved engagement levels and business performance

Source | The Hindu | 15 June 2016

Regards

Pralhad Jadhav

Senior Manager @ Library

Khaitan & Co

Blog | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/

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