Human Resource and Employee Engagement - Coursework Example

Human Resource and Employee Engagement Name Institution Human Resource and Employee Engagement Introduction Human resource management practice is more concerned with various aspects. For instance, how organizations manage and employ people (Armstrong 2010). Therefore, the included activities in the human resource management practice are such as knowledge management, management of human capital, organization development, reward, development and learning employee well-being, employee relations, resourcing which includes human resource, recruitment, selection, and management of talent. In summary, human resource management can be termed as the coherent, integrated, and strategic approach through which the well-being, development, and employment of people is done in various organizations. Hence, the paper aims to document the significance of human resource management and employee engagement. Human Resource Management and Employee Engagement As a factor that is significant, employee engagement has attracted the attention of both academic researchers and business entrepreneur in the contemporary business environment. The major objective of all organizations is to exhibit a competitive advantage in the market. The perfect tool in achieving all this is through employee engagement. This is because the company vigor is best measured using employee engagement (Baumruk 2004). Engagement as a factor provides human resources an opportunity to engage with the organization, colleagues, as well as their managers. Its major objective is to encourage employee motivation as well as connect with their job with an aim of increasing performance. As a perception, engagement places constant flexibility, change, and improvement in the organization. Therefore, it is mandatory for both human resource managers and employees to comprehend the workplace requirements in the 21st century (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD 2009). It is stated by Cindy (2008) that, engagement is the employees’ ability to work, ambitions, and commitment that withstands in a business. Additionally, it is an emotional pledge and intellectual conditions to an organization or group with an aim of developing conduct. The conduct will be essential in accomplishing organizations promises to its client by ensuring business results improvement (Konrad and Alison 2006). Career development and training are significant engagement components. The two comments play a role that is significant in engaging employees. Thus, the need for organizations to come up with diversified policies for conflict management. The engaged employee performance result in customer satisfaction whose outcome is profit maximization (Bassi and Laurie 2010). It is argued that contemporary businesses expect their employees to take responsibility and be positive while establishing their expertise. Their major focus should be towards achieving performance appraisal standards that are excellent. Each and every organization yearns for employees who are enthralled, committed, and active in their jobs. It is promulgated by Ruth and Ruth (1998) that effective management incorporates employees in their daily routine activities and fosters performance among organization employees. Management efficiency can only be achieved if an organization selects right candidates, ensure power sharing, proper training, knowledge, well-information sharing, or performance rewards, and employee skills system (Armstrong and Murlis 2007). From the studies conducted by Konard (2006), it was evident that work practices that were highly involving contributed to successful employee engagement. Additionally, a company that channels its focus towards customer satisfaction triggers employee engagement. In companies where there exists no or limited advancement opportunities carrier wise or career progression, the company employees becomes disengaged at various levels. Similarly, their morale of being committed to the organization becomes affected. In summary, employee engagement is build by various factors. The factors include resource availability, effective communications regarding organization vision, and organization reputation (Andrew 2008). Literature Review Currently, employee engagement is viewed as a mixture of attributes that are unique by organization employees (Frank et al., 2004). Employee engagement is also viewed as an approach through which employee pay back to the organization (Saks 2006). Engagement of workers in an organization occurs in distinct degrees of commitment with reference to the acceptable income (Kahn 1990). Workers portray their engagement through devoting all their energy towards achieving organization goals. When employees are not suppressed by the organization system and are open with their human resource manager, voluntarily, they offer their services by putting in extra effort as well as working overtime without expecting any pay (Richman 2006). Organizations boost employee engagement by availing the needed resources needed by employees in order to perform efficiently in their jobs. On the contrary, if there exist any failure in the part of the organization, then employees will become disengaged. Accordingly, if the company is unable to satisfy employees’ requirements, the consequence is the withdrawal of staff energies from engagement in the job. The underlying reason is that there will be transformation in their roles with regards to their emotional and physical attachments (Frank et al. 2004). High level of engagement is characterized with energy, passion, and enthusiasm towards achieving superior outcomes in business as well being the top performer (Miller 2002; Benson 2006). Human resource management in the contemporary world offers long lasting solutions to issues influencing work capability by providing individual growth. The responsibility of the human resource manager is to hire, orientate, select, develop and train, as well as handle issues concerning performance appraisal. All these are conducted to ensure employee engagement. As an activity that is sensitive, human resource management handles issues regarding employees and employers by finding adequate solution (Purcell and Boxall 2003). Companies that maintain highly qualified workers are often praised by employees (Andrew 2008). As an extremely comprehensive logic, human resource management incorporates line management and top management in carrying out the engagement construct. The construct triggers the capability and commitment of business personnel towards achieving competitive advantage. Human resource verdict theory is of great strategic and commercial significance. This is because; it encourages organization culture, commitment, flexibility, and consensus growth. Human resource management can either be soft or hard. The culture of soft human resource management refers to that condition in which employees are perceived to be a resource of creative vigor. Additionally, there is participation of all organization employees in the process of decision making whilst keeping in mind organization profitability on a basis that is long term. On the other hand, the culture of hard human resource management is whereby importance highly depends on the strategy and structure arrangement. The arrangement centers on organization alertness, productivity, and control (Lafferty and Pinnington 2003). Given the fact that human resource management practices is gaining a lot of attention as well as being implemented in various organizations, there is need to involve employees directly in organization activities. This is through coming up with employee engagement schemes. Through these schemes, employees will develop more positive liberation and understanding by experiencing various opportunities. The opportunities will enable them contribute in the implementation of organization goals (Guest et al. 2003). For organization to grow and be sustainable, they should recognize human resource as a significant variable. This can only be achieved through the recruitment of quality employees as well as choosing of right individuals for the right roles in the organization (Hunter and Schmidt 1983). If organizations learns to engage its employees in the decision making process, it will be able to achieve its goals as well as gain competitive edge in the market (Iaffaldano and Muchinsky 1985). In order to encourage employee engagement, organizations need to invest in developing and training its employees (Andrew 2008). Training helps in improving service performance by enhancing employee skills, thinking, decision making, and problem solving abilities (Keaveney 1995). Training is not only essential for current organization managers but also for the future organization managers. According to the studies conducted by Denison (1990), it was concluded that organizations that incorporates their employees in the process of decision making exhibited higher performance in comparison to their competitors. Any company financial assets have often viewed engagement as a central component of the organization whenever it came to making critical decisions. The recent world financial crisis has made people to view engagement from a distinct perspective. For instance, organization decision making significance has been raised to a critical level. As a result, the financial sector, to be precise, the banks have been affected directly. Given the fact that external environments cannot be controlled by organizations in times of financial crisis, more focus has been channeled towards internal environment management. This has been done in terms of coordinating all organization levels and their inclusion in the decision making process (Huseid 1995). As a result, employees’ value and engagement is increased. It is also noted that organizations should not disregard there human resource. The underlying reason is that they enhance organization competitive advantage. Thus, the management of human resource should be given equal attention like other business functions (Ganzach 2002). As implied by (Herman and Gioia 2000), the key issues valued by organization employees are the financial rewards. Therefore, employees’ engagement cannot be satisfied with pay alone but in conjunction with financial rewards. Therefore, rewards can be impressively harmonized via a combination of bonuses, pay, and other existing financial rewards in the organization. Organizations should not only focus on financial rewards in enhancing employee engagement, but also in nonfinancial rewards such as voucher schemes and extra holiday (Bruce 2002). Employee Engagement Drivers Researchers have channeled all their focus towards the identification of factors that enhance employee engagement. As a result, they have come up with models for drawing implications for business managers. According to the 2007 Penna research report, meaningful work brings employees and employers closer for the benefit of the organization. The report has also developed a model labeled as “Hierarchy of engagement” equated to the hierarchy of needs by Maslow. In the lowest level of the hierarchy, we have the basic needs which include benefits and pay. Once organization employees get satisfied with the basic needs, they search for development opportunities, leadership styles, and promotion possibilities. According to studies conducted by BlessingWhite (2006), it is evident that sixty percent of organization employees desire for more opportunities and satisfaction in their jobs. Employee-manager relationship that is remarkably strong is an ingredient that is crucial in the retention and employee engagement. It is stated by the Development Dimensions International(DDI 2005) that organizations’ manager need to perform the following five things in order to establish a workforce that is highly engaged. The things are such as empowering of employees, aligning efforts with organization strategy, encouraging and promoting collaboration and teamwork, helping employees develop and grow, and finally, providing the needed recognition and support whenever appropriate. The top recognized workplace characteristics as outlined by the Towers Perrin Talent Report (2003) are the interest of the senior management in the well-being of employees, authority in decision making, and challenging work. Employee engagement essential driver is the employee feeling of being involved and valued. The two values encompass various components such as their participation in the process of decision making, opportunity available for organization employees to establish their jobs as well as voice their ideas, and the degree to which the company is anxious about the well being and health of employees. Engagement can be effectively achieved through effective communication in the organization. Through communication, employees can air their opinions and views regarding company issues thus playing a significant role in promoting employee engagement. Majority of employee engagement drivers in nature are non-financial. All it takes is for organizations to emphasize on their leadership styles. However, this does not necessary mean that organization employee financial aspect should be ignored. As a matter of fact, rewards need to be linked with performance. This statement has been confirmed by Buckingham and Coffman (2005). The authors contend that benefits and pay are essential to each and every employee regardless of whether they are bad, or good. Organization success and Employee Engagement People often ask themselves why it is good for organizations to spend on employee engagement. The underlying reason is that employee engagement determines the outcomes of any business. There exists positive correlation between company success and employee engagement; customer safety and loyalty, retention of employees, profitability and productivity. Subsequently, it is indicated by researchers that organizations that focus on employee engagement always satisfy their customers (Heintzman and Marson 2005). On the other hand, disengaged employees result in wastage of talents and efforts on roles that adds no value to an organization. Strategies of Ensuring Employee Engagement The discussions above have highlighted the meaning of employee engagement, its significance in organizations, and factors that enhances employee engagement. In summary, the following strategies need to be applied in organizations in order to boost employee engagement. To begin with, employee engagement in an organization should start the moment employees are hired, it should also commence from organization top management, utilization of two-way communication in order to improve employee engagement, avail opportunities that are satisfactory for employee advancement and development, ensuring the provision of all resources required by employees in order to excellently perform in their jobs, provide organization employees with adequate and appropriate training, exhibit a feedback system that is remarkably strong, use rewards such as incentives in order to enhance employee engagement, establish a corporate culture that is different, and finally focusing on employees who are top performers. Employee Engagement Problems Some of the employee engagement problems identified by little and little (2006) are such as; its definition is not clear because people do not comprehend whether it is a behaviour or an attitude, a phenomenon linked to a particular group or an individual. In addition, engagement definition does not illustrate clearly its link with other accepted and well-known constructs. Finally, there exist measurement issues that hide the true definition of engagement as a construct. Majority of authors who have conducted studies on engagement do not differentiate behaviour and attitudes rather use both terms in their engagement definitions. For instance, the concept is mixed by Robinson et al. (2005, p.125) to mean” individual’s involvement and satisfaction as well as enthusiasm for work.” In this statement, the attitude is the desire of employees to work extra hard to improve organization performance whilst the behavioral concept comes in by the intention of employees to work for extra hours as well as speak positive things about the company. Conclusion Currently, there exists no employee engagement accepted definition. However, authors have come to a conclusion that employee engagement as a construct is different from management concepts including job satisfaction, organizational behaviour, and employee commitment. Therefore, employee engagement is a reflection of efforts exerted between employers and employees. Most literatures argues that the top most employee engagement drivers are their well-being, effective communication between employees and management, the interest of a manager towards his or her employees and availability of numerous opportunities for the advancement of employees. However, majority of engaged employees never pay attention to benefits and pay. According to various literatures, it is true that employee engagement is highly correlated with performance outcomes of an organization. Organizations exhibiting engaged employees are characterized with high level of employee retention. This is owed to the fact that there is declined turnover and limited intention of employees to vacate the organization. Other attributes of organization having engaged employees is customer satisfaction, profitability, growth, and productivity. On the contrary, companies exhibiting disengaged employees suffers greatly. For instance, the employees bleed talent and waste most of their efforts, the employees’ show less commitment to the organization, there is increased rate of absenteeism, are less productive, lack of customer orientation and decline profit and operating margins. Therefore, there is need for researchers to focus on the significance of employee engagement in relation to outcomes of the business. Reference List Andrew, P 2008, ‘Influences Engagement’, Training & Development, pp54-59 Armstrong, M 2010. Armstrong's essential human resource management practice: a guide to people management. London, Kogan Page. ARMSTRONG, M., & MURLIS, H 2007. Reward management: a handbook of remuneration strategy and practice. London, Kogan Page. Bassi, L., & McMurrer, D 2010, ‘Does Engagement Really Drives Results’, Talent Management Magazine, pp42-48 Baumruk, R 2004, ‘The missing link: the role of employee engagement in business successes’, Work Span Journal, vol. 47, pp 48-52. 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