Why is it important for the post-2020 era?
History records indicate that about 2300 years ago, Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC) was able to march ahead and conquer unchartered lands by battling for years across continents, miles away from home, because he had an engaged army that was willing to abide by him as their commander.
Alexander is known to have achieved such an engaged workforce by ensuring that he spent dedicated time with his soldiers, listening to and addressing their grievances, ensuring timely payment of salaries and dressing like his army.
Employee engagement was always a popular approach among human resource experts, internal communications practitioners, and business conference presenters. This notion refers to the extent employees feel passionate about their jobs, how committed they are to the organization, and the degree of discretionary effort they exert toward their work. When organizations focus on how to improve employee satisfaction, these changes do not necessarily lead to increased performance. In many cases, the conditions that make employees “satisfied” with their jobs are the same conditions that frustrate high performing employees. Top performers embrace change, seek ways to improve, whereas low performers avoid accountability, and resist change.
The New Era
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about dramatic changes in the business environment and organizations must change to thrive during the post-covid-19 era, with HR playing a pivotal role. Simultaneously, employees’ priorities shifted from financial achievement into employee well-being, continuous learning and family culture. It is critical for organizations to be aware of how their people feel about the organization. Employee engagement and productivity needs to be increased, whilst HR take hard workforce rationalization measures and minimize all the relevant risks.
Employee engagement measures the relationship between employees and the organization and it is the HR’s responsibility to find new approaches to support business leaders in restructuring in the new era to enhance:
- Employee Loyalty
- Productivity
- Agility
- Retain Top Talent
The level of employee engagement can be measured by the willingness and ability of employees to contribute to the success of their organisation. It is their discretionary effort which is an essential element for the good health and well-being of a company.
A highly engaged workforce shows the high level of engagement in their work and is always keen to take up new challenges to bring a positive change or establish a highly conducive work environment.
Measuring Employee Engagement was never an easy task.
Since the early 1990s when HR experts and senior leaders first attempted to measure employee engagement, the main tool utilized was employee engagement surveys.
Even though these surveys captured useful information, many of these are still of limited use.
Clark stated: “When traditional surveys are presented to the board, they give a result – which will say how satisfied or committed a team is. A senior leader just thinks, yes, well I already know this. But what can I do with it?“
Research revealed that in some cases senior leaders dismiss negative results, perceiving them as grumbling. Also, sometimes they accept the positive results as validation – well, that’s a great team! They’re really good to work with!
At TTM Associates, we believe there are two components of employee that need to be activated effectively:
- Organizational Engagement measures how engaged employees are with the organization as a whole
- Engagement with “My Manager” is a more specific measure of how employees relate to their direct supervisors.
We have a proven track record in designing, deploying, activating, and sustaining talent engagement approaches in organizations. Now, powered by the advanced AI driven technologies behind Qlearsite’s engagement solution, we focus on the fundamental concept of understanding and describing, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship between an organization and its employees.
Alongside this, we humanize technology every step of the way, by providing unique insights, actions, and long-term value, tailored to the needs of our client.
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