Benefits On Employee Engagement Management Essay
In the current fast growing world, organisations are so focused to perform well and pushing themselves hard to make their employees engaged in order to have a good growth whilst for the individual growth hence organisations plays a pivotal role in understanding, adopting and implementing various strategies.
Organisation needs engaged staff to make the organisation as a destination for other people Truss, et al. (2006). Although there are several strategies present for directing both the employees and the employers in a focused path, this research proposal concentrates on one of the important strategies which will create and improve the productivity of an employee and it is known as Employee Engagement.
The key to a successful organization in many ways is motivation. It is one of the most difficult tasks that a manager faces because everyone is different. The methods that are used to motivate employees must be tailored to fit each one. Every organization should have motivation plans in placed to show how they value employees. Some of the most effective way for managers to motivate staff is employee engagement which includes employee involvement (communication activities), giving rewards, recognition and positive feedback. Motivation is the responsibility of all supervisors.
The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a motivation plan by doing the employee engagement in Google Hyderabad, which can be used to implement in any organization to build commitment to the company’s goals from employees.
Aims, Objectives & Research Questions
Aim –
The aim of the report is to investigate the impact of employee engagement on staff motivation during recession in the perspective of 20 employees at Google Hyderabad.
Objectives –
The objectives of the research project are to:
Identify factors that affect employee engagement
Examine the relationship between employee engagement and motivation
Review the benefits of employee engagement in the views of 20 employees by using closed and open-ended questionnaire.
Identify the best practices of employee engagement which can be used to implement in any organization
Literature Review
3.1 Employee Engagement
According to Robbins and Judge (2009), employee engagement is defined as “An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he or she does”.
Employee engagement is personified by the commitment and enthusiasm employees have to provide their strengths to the organisation in order to achieve its goal. Engagement is all about the right temperament and “can do” attitude to help the organisation succeed. EE is something the employee has to provide. Engaged employees feel that they are responsible for customer’s well-being and cares about the future of the organisation. Engagement can be classified by employee’s perception of how positively he/she thinks and feels about the organisation and how actively looks to achieve the organisation’s goals (Cook, 2008).
3.2 Benefits of Employee Engagement
The key benefits of EE from a CIPD’s discussion paper June (2010) are
Employees will have good upbeat than those of who are not much engaged.
More likely to work efficiently.
Less likely to be sick.
Less chances of leaving the organisation.
Finds the work to be more meaningful.
From Saks (2006) findings the further benefits are
Increase in optimism towards work-related experience and energetic mindset.
Can maintain a high and trustworthy relationship with the employer resulting in positive attitude and mindset towards the organisation.
3.3 Factors that affect employee engagement
There are several factors that affect employee engagement which are listed below according to Beardwell and Claydon (2010).
Immature decision making by the front line employees.
Non stability in the management style.
Unclear communication from top to bottom of the hierarchy.
Difficulty in approaching the senior management.
Imbalance in work-life due to long hours of work.
Few chances for leadership development tending in restricted internal growth.
Furthermore, from MacLeod and Clarke (2006) perceptions, the other barriers of EE are as follows.
Ignorance of EE by some leaders while the others showing pessimism in considering EE or do not anticipate the goodwill that it could fetch to the organisation.
People who are interested have lack of clarity to address the issue.
Pessimism by the frontline employee though the leaders shows optimism in the engaged workforce resulting in bad delivery engagement. However, leaders may also be less committed towards EE. “For some, engagement is an annual staff survey whose results may be acted on; for others a survey is no more than one tool in an overall approach that places employee engagement at the core of the organisation’s strategy.”
Design and Methodology of the Research
Academics are agreed, that choosing a research philosophy is often subjective, Saunders et al., (2007) warned researchers not to fall into a ‘trap of thinking that one research approach is better than another’. Fisher (2007) agreed and said that ‘in practice you can use any of the research methods in any of the approaches’, a viewpoint endorsed by Easter-Smith et al (2002).
Barnes (2001) concluded this argument in saying that the selection of an appropriate methodology was fundamental to the success of any research project, but asserted that it was unlikely that there was one best way, citing Silverman (1993: 42): ‘methodologies, like theories, cannot be true or false, only more or else useful’.
Paradigm
Based upon the research aim, it was decided that a phenomenological (qualitative) approach was the most appropriate for the following reasons.
Phenomenological research lends itself most appropriately to qualitative research, where the qualification of the research is words rather than quantification in the analysis of data.
Simple flexible structure to react to changes in emphasis as research ensues.
Level of access permitted collection of a substantial amount of qualitative data.
The research process can be controlled by appropriate phenomenological techniques.
Facilitated an inductive approach of gaining an understanding of human meanings.
Approach
Saunders et al., (2007), suggested that it can often be advantageous to combine the two, but that it may be more appropriate to work inductively by generating data and analyzing and reflecting upon what theoretical themes the data are suggesting.
Deduction can be defined as arriving at a conclusion through the use of logic, and has its academic bases in scientific principles. Induction is when a conclusion is drawn from past experience or experimentation (Fisher, 2007).
According to the research aim and objectives, inductive approach is the more appropriate process for generating and analyzing data. According to Saunders et al., (2007) Inductive approach emphasises
Gaining an understanding of the meanings human attach to events
A close understanding of the research context
The collection of qualitative data
A more flexible structure to permit changes of research emphasis as the research progresses
A realization that the researcher is part of the research process
Less concern with the need to generalise
Strategy
A survey method will be conducted as a research method for making this project. Survey can be defined as a method of primary data collection in which information is collected by email and analyzed (Janes, 1999).
To do this study, a questionnaire contains questions designed in the way that helps to achieve my study objectives will be used. The study conducted to investigate the impact of employee engagement towards staff motivation. The study should be conducted with people from different departments in Google Hyderabad.
The questionnaire survey was e-mailed to 20 employees in Google Hyderabad who working in various departments with different job responsibilities and organisation position.
Survey can be classified as an Internet Surveys. For much research, data collection using the internet is often an efficient and effective method. Survey using Internet is easy to get the respondents feedback in short period of time without costing them anything.
Questionnaire Survey:
Question
Findings
Do you feel the approach your organisation takes towards motivating you is largely right?
Yes
No
Do you know what is expected of you at work?
Yes
No
Have you ever received recognition or praise for doing good at work?
Yes
No
In the last six months, has someone talked to you about your progress?
Yes
No
At work, do your opinions seem to count?
Yes
No
Please describe what your organisation does that motivates you?
What else could your organisation do to motivate you?
Describe anything that your organisation does which demotivates you?
How easy is it to motivate the staff that report to you? And reasons.
Focus group meeting is a form of qualitative research in which group of people is asked about their attitude towards a particular issue. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members (Fisher (2007), Saunders et al., (2007)).
Focus group meetings, a panel of 10 employees were selected and to be invited to the focus group meeting. This selection was designed to include representative from various departments in Google Hyderabad.
Krueger and Casey (2000), cited from Saunders et al., (2007), described focus groups as being very useful because the researcher can learn a lot from the participants, who they described as being ‘information rich’.
Methods
This research followed the primary data route of research method, as it is sometimes believed to be more accurate than secondary data according to Schmidt and Hollensen (2006). Methods of primary data collection include questionnaires and focus groups.
The data collection undertaken within this relativist research supported a qualitative (interpretative) research method. Qualitative research took the view that it’s difficult for researchers to stand back and be objective, since they are really part of the process being researched and supported Gilberts (2001) belief that qualitative research did not support no single or truth or assumption. Therefore it can be determined whether employee engagement within organisation is in fact a series of multiple and subjective realities, enabling a clear strategy to be developed and adopted.
Research Limitations and Ethics
Ethics –
The research was undertaken in a manner which ensures that participants are able to be confident that their privacy and confidentiality will be properly protected.
Saunders et al (2003) identify participant’s rights as being
Not to participate.
Not to be harassed or offered inducements beyond the scope of participation.
To be contacted at reasonable times.
To determine, within reason, when they will participate in the data collection process.
To expect the researcher to abide by the extent of the consent given.
Not to be subject to any attempt to prolong the duration of an interview.
Not to answer any question, or set of questions.
Not to be subjected to questions that creates stress or discomfort.
To expect agreed anonymity and confidentiality to be observed strictly both in relations to discussions and during the reporting of the data.
Hence, before gathering the data, it is a good practice for a researcher to make sure that the participants are aware of these ethical considerations.
Limitations –
Focus groups also have disadvantages like the researcher has less control over a group than a one-on-one interview, and thus time can be lost on issues irrelevant to the topic. Moreover the number of members of a focus group is not large enough to be a representative sample of a population; thus, the data obtained from the groups is not necessarily representative of the whole population.