Employee Engagement and Performance

 

9. Employee Engagement and Performance

Shaw(2005, p. 26) defines employee engagement as emotional and intellectual commitment to the organization by an employee. For an organization to perform well it is important to have engaged employees.  Here it is vital to have the employees engaged to the organization rather than to the job. Because an employee engaged to the job would not necessarily be committed for the organization where as if the emotional connection is with the organization he/she would always try to give their maximum commitment for the organizational performance.

9.1 Employee engagement could be of 3 types.

9.1.1 Engaged Employees

Engaged employees are builders who consistently strive to give excellence within their roles.(Anitha, 2014) They are passionate about their job, committed to their work and the organization They bring a positive attitude to the organization while being creative and innovative. Engaged employees bring a positive attitude to the organization while being proactive about their job

9.1.2. Not Engaged Employees

Not engaged employees focus on the tasks spelled out to them rather than the goals of the organization. They do what they are told to do.(Anitha, 2014) These employees only put their time for their work but they are neutral about the organization. They are only working for the salary that is paid but not connected to the organization.

 

9.1.3. Actively Disengaged Employees

Actively disengaged employees are dangerous individuals who not only do not perform well but also demotivate the performer in the organization (Anitha, 2014).They are not only underperforming in the organization but also expressing their unhappiness with complaints and grievances. These employees could hinder the performance of engaged employees while they could influence not engaged employees to be Actively Disengaged.

For an organization to perform effectively employees need to be engaged. Engaged employees express their authentic selves through physical involvement, cognitive awareness and emotional connections while disengaged employees ‘uncouple’ themselves from their roles, suppressing personal involvement in physical, cognitive and emotional aspects of work.(Truss et al., 2013)

Conclusion

An organization should obtain best commitment from their engaged employees. Build relationships with other colleagues so that they motivate not engaged employees to be engaged. In addition management should focus on not engaged employees to motivate them to be engaged. They should also focus on disengaged employees since they could leave the organization and damage its reputation. Managers should also try to address their concerns so that to see if they can get them engaged.

References

Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International journal of productivity and performance management. Available From https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-01-2013-0008 [Accessed 06 May 2022]

Shaw, K., 2005. An engagement strategy process for communicators. Strategic Communication Management, 9(3), p.26. Available From https://www.proquest.com/openview/26b659ad323ddb4a59763ca3731684c7/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44514 [Accessed 06 May 2022]

Truss, C., Shantz, A., Soane, E., Alfes, K. and Delbridge, R., 2013. Employee engagement, organisational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory. The international journal of human resource management, 24(14), pp.2657-2669.Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2013.798921 [Accessed 06 May 2022]