Employee Engagement With Reference To Automobile Industries Management Essay

Employers play a major role in engaging their employees in the organization. It is the responsibility of HR managers to engage and retain employees of the organization. HR practitioners believe that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels about the organizational work experience and how he or she is emotionally tuned with the organization. Emotionally charged employees can improve the bottom line success of the organization.

In this paper, attempt was made to found out whether employees’ job activities are aligned with organizational activities, Are employees satisfied with present system of the organization, Whether employee’s job is stressful, Is employee’s work getting recognized?

The paper focuses on how employee engagement is done in Automobile industries. Questionnaire was used to carry out survey for 30 employees using convenient sampling method.

The results of survey revealed that Majority of employees are doing their jobs in line with organizational activities. Employees felt that their work has been recognized in automobile industries. Employees expect flexible timing and Good Compensation for better engagement. Training may help them to enhance their knowledge and skills which is essential for effective engagement in today’s competitive environment.

Key words: HR practitioners, engagement challenge, work experience,competitive advantage

Introduction

HR practitioners believe that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels about the work experience and how he or she is treated in the organization. Well treated and emotionally charged employees can improve the bottom line success of the organization.

Employers play a major role in engaging their employees in the organization. Engagement would be possible if employees stay in the respective organization for longer duration. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization.

Review of Literature

Engagement at work was conceptualized by Kahn, (1990) as the ‘harnessing of Organizational members’ selves to their work roles. In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. Employee engagement is thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.’ Thus Employee engagement is a barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization. Engagement is most closely associated with the existing construction of job involvement (Brown 1996) and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

Importance of Engagement

Engagement is important for managers to cultivate good results. Disengagement or alienation is central to the problem of workers’ lack of commitment and motivation (Aktouf). Meaningless work is often associated with apathy and detachment from ones works (Thomas and Velthouse). In such conditions, individuals are thought to be estranged from their selves (Seaman, 1972) Other Research using a different resource of engagement (involvement and enthusiasm) has linked it to such variables as employee turnover, customer satisfaction – loyalty, safety and to a lesser degree, productivity and profitability criteria (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002).

Categories of Employee Engagement

According to the Gallup the organization there are different types of people:-

Engaged–“Engaged” employees are builders. They want to know the desired expectations for their role so they can meet and exceed them. They’re naturally curious about their company and their place in it. They perform at consistently high levels.

Not Engaged—Not-engaged employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals and outcomes they are expected to accomplish. They want to be told what to do just so they can do it and say they have finished. They focus on accomplishing tasks vs. achieving an outcome. Employees who are not-engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped. They often feel this way because they don’t have productive relationships with their managers or with their coworkers.

Actively Disengaged–The “actively disengaged” employees are the “cave dwellers.” They’re “Consistently against Virtually Everything.” They’re not just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness .They sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. Every day, actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. As workers increasingly rely on each other to generate products and services, the problems and tensions that are fostered by actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization’s functioning.

Some of the advantages of Engaged employees are

Engaged employees will stay with the company.

They will normally perform better and are more motivated.

There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability.

Increases employees’ trust in the organization

Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment

Provides a high-energy working environment

Boosts business growth

Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company

A highly engaged employee will consistently deliver beyond expectations. In the workplace research on employee engagement (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002) have repeatedly asked employees ‘whether they have the opportunity to do what they do best everyday. It is observed that one in fiveemployees strongly agree with this statement. Those work units scoring higher on this perception have substantially higher performance.

Employees are the biggest asset to any company. It is major task for CEO and HR executives to look after the engagement of employees of the organization in turn to maintain the existing manpower for longer period.

Objectives

1. To study whether employee’s job activities are aligned with organizational activities

2. To know whether employees work gets recognized

3. To understand whether employees are satisfied with present system of the organization

4. To assess whether employees’ job is stressful

5. To understand the necessity of relationship between boss and employees for the engagement of employees

Hypothesis

H0: Null Hypothesis- Employees are not satisfied with present system in the organization

H1: Alternative Hypothesis- Employees are satisfied with present system in the organization

H0:Null Hypothesis -Employees dis-agreed that relationship between boss and subordinate is vital

H1; Alternative Hypothesis – Employees agreed that relationship between boss and subordinate is vital

Field Survey

In order to find answers to the above objectives, a survey was carried out for 30 respondents from Automobile industries in Pune. Data was collected through convenient sampling method.

The respondent’s profile and replies to various questions are outlined below-

Respondents profile is given below in Tables a, b, and c:

Table A: Age of the respondents

Age Years

Respondents

20to 30yrs

31 to 40 yrs

41to 50yrs

51yrs& above

Total

Majority of respondents are below 50 Years

Table B: Gender of the respondents

Gender

Male

Female

Respondents

Maximum respondents are male candidates

Table C: Experience of the respondents

Experience

3Yrs to 10yrs

11to 20yrs

21to 30yrs

31to 40yrs

Total

Respondents

Fig. 1: Experience of the respondents

Majority of respondent’s experience is below20 years

RESPONSE TO VARIOUS QUESTIONS

Q1. My job activities are aligned with departmental /organizational activities

Table 1: Alignment of job activities with departmental /organizational activities

Alignment of Job Activities with dept

Strongly Agree

Agree

Don’t know

Disagree

strongly Disagree

Total

Respondents

Fig.2: Alignment of job activities with departmental /organizational activities

Findings: Majority of respondents feel that they are doing their jobs in line with organizational activities

Q2. I am satisfied with the present system and working conditions in the organization

Table 2: Satisfaction with the present system and working conditions in the organization

Present system

Recognition

Yes

Can’t say

Respondents

Findings: Majority of respondents state that their work has been recognized in the industry.

Q8. How would you expect recognition for the work done in the industry?

Table 8: Expectation about recognition

Recognition

Face to face

Informal

Formal

Respondents

Fig. 8: Expectation about recognition

Findings:1.Overwhelming Majority of respondents (100%) feels that the company should adopt either face to face or formal recognition.

2.Formal recognition is preferred over face to face recognition.

Q9. What type of recognition would be most meaningful?

Table 9: Expectation about recognition

Recognition

Acknowledge

Monetary

Promotion

Respondents

Note: As respondents had multiple choices the number of responses is more than the sample size

Fig,9: Expectation about recognition

Findings:1. All respondents expect recognition either monetary or in the form of promotion

2. Amereacknowledge or recognition is not expected by employees;

Q10. Do you get stress while working in the industry?

If yes, please give reasons____________________

Table 10: Stress while working in the industry

Stress

Yes

Can’t say

Respondents

Fig.10: Stress while working in the industry

Findings:Majority of the respondents get stress in the organization.

Reasons for getting stress are urgency of work, no clarity in communication, changes in priority of work and Absenteeism and Excessive responsibility and strained inter personal relationship.

Q11. You would like to continue in present organization due to:

Parameters

Ranking by Respondents

a) Great work environment

b) Job security

c) Good Compensation

d) Challenging type of work

e) Location

f) Technology used in organization

g) Inspiring leadership

h) Work culture in the organization

Give rank (1) to the top most priority & rank (8) to the least priority

Table 11. You would like to continue in present organization due to:

Fig.11: You would like to continue in present organization due to

Findings

3 top most parameters for respondents to continue in present organization are: Good Compensation,Job securityand Challenging type of work.

3 lower most parameters for respondents to continue in present organization are:Technology used in organization, Location and Inspiring leadership

Hypothesis Testing:

Hypothesis 1

H0: Null Hypothesis- Employees are not satisfied with present system in the organization

H1: Alternative Hypothesis- Employees are satisfied with present system in the organization

The calculated mean, Standard Deviation (S.D.) and critical x values at 5% level of significance are given in the following Table12-

Table 12: calculated mean, Standard Deviation (S.D.) and critical x values at 5% level of significance.

Calculated mean

Standard Deviation (S.D.)

Critical x values at 5% level of significance.

2.06

0.868

3.428

Null hypothesis is rejected as calculated value (8.636) is more than table value. Therefore alternative hypothesis gets accepted. Thus, we can conclude that employees are satisfied with present system in the organization.

Hypothesis 2

H0: Null Hypothesis -Employees dis-agreed that relationship between boss and subordinate is vital

H1; Alternative Hypothesis – Employees agreed that relationship between boss and subordinate is vital

In order test above hypotheses it was decided to calculate mean, Standard Deviation (S.D.) and critical x values at 5% level of significance.

The calculated mean, Standard Deviation (S.D.) and critical x values at 5% level of significance are given in the following Table13-

Table 13: calculated mean, Standard Deviation (S.D.) and critical x values at 5% level of significance.

Calculated mean

Standard Deviation (S.D.)

Critical x values at 5% level of significance.

1.60

0.498

2.82

Null hypothesis is rejected as calculated value (13.5) is more than table value. Therefore alternative hypothesis gets accepted. Thus, we can conclude that employees agreed that relationship between boss and subordinate is vital.

Conclusions:

Automobile industries in Pune city must focus on engaging and retaining employees by formulating new HR strategies. An organization should thus recognize employees more than any other variable, as powerful contributors to a company’s competitive position. Employee engagement should be a continuous process to sustain competitive advantage for development of the organization

Recommendations:

Employer need to create good working conditions, exciting challenging work to engage employees effectively in the organization.

Training programs may be arranged in inter personal relationship, conflict resolution to have better engagement of employees within the organization

Effective performance appraisal system may be used for identifying employees’ training needs with respect to performance requirements.

Limitations of the Study:

Thisstudy suffers from the limitations ofnon-generalization of results.The detailed study was not possible dueto paucity of budget and time constraint, smaller sample size.

Scope for Further Research:

A detailed study can be carried out in Maharashtra and all India to ensure better employee participation, motivation and to effective HR strategies.

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