GLOBAL TRENDS IN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
The significant decrease in employee engagement in the future is a concern because driverless cars, drones, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies compete for jobs (Hewitt, 2017). Employee engagement left unaddressed, populism and more sophisticated technology advances will create further angst in organisations (Hewitt, 2017).
Human resource
management endorses responsibilities like employee empowerment,
commitment, and growth (Mehta et al.,
2016). Companies
with a highly engaged workforce have risen to the challenge of maintaining and
improving engagement levels (Mehta et al.,
2016)
Figure: 01 - Employee Effectiveness Framework – Common Drivers
Source: (Mehta et al., 2016)
Employee involvement is also vulnerable to change as a result of
dynamic changes in the business environment. New trends affect
various behaviours, including employee engagement (Terry, 2021). Further, there are new trends in employee engagement in 2021,
with the emphasis shifting toward the positive. Given the trend towards personalised
employee communication, it is necessary to have flexible and adaptive employee
engagement models(Terry, 2021). Employee engagement modules will include
customised messaging, customised strategies, and customised communication
techniques (Terry, 2021)
Due to the rapidly changing work environment, which a worldwide
pandemic has impacted, remote working is practised, and employees
must be immediately contacted (Polovin, 2021). As a result, internal communication has shifted
to instant digital techniques like emails, instant chats,
and social media, and even there is a trend towards employee
applications and employee engagement tools (Polovin, 2021).
Human capital
input has been regarded as a critical requirement for
firms. Employee voice becomes a primary consideration when making workplace
decisions. That is why many firms now understand the importance of human
capital input (Polovin, 2021).
Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to their organisations, and put discretionary effort into their work. While companies have started recognising the impact of employee engagement, a large proportion is yet to understand the extent of the real challenge (Mahipalan and Sheena, 2015).
Video: 01 - 13 Employee
Engagement Trends for 2020
Employee engagement is
the “emotional connect” that an employee feels towards their organisation.
What makes one feel connected to an organisation and motivates to deliver his
or her best varies from person to person. With
every new generation in the workforce, trends defining employee engagement
change drastically. (Vantage Circle, 2020)
Source: (Vantage Circle, 2020)
Video: 02 – 10 Surprising
Trends In Employee Engagement
Video: 02 explained ten surprising trends in
employee engagement (PlanSource,
2018)
- Connect employees to larger company goals and
mission.
- Solicit employees feedback and involve
employees in decisions.
- Hold regular one on one meetings.
- Encourage employee recognition.
- Invest in professional development and
mentorship programmes.
- Allow time for passion projects and innovation.
- Embrace transparency and open communication.
- Empower employees with the tools they need to
succeed.
- Foster positive workplace relationships.
- Use tech to track and encourage engagement.
Employee Engagement in Global Companies
The founders of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) identified employee engagement as the cornerstone for making Google a fantastic workplace by appreciating its workers. Google inspires employees by allowing them to manage their work flexibly. Flexibly includes allowing employees to work from home when necessary, implementing flex schedules, increasing the number of personal time employees receive each year, or allowing employees to take personal time in hours rather than days. Google guarantees that workers have the most inspiring, flexible, and distinctive work environments possible in order to think creatively and produce new ideas to help Google achieve its goals (CULTURE SUMMIT, 2019)
Figure 02: Google Office Environment
Source: Leaderonomics.com, 2017
Individuals provide value to businesses. The intangibles are people. Additionally, people are emotional and changeable. They frequently want to be won over. That is why, whether a business is experiencing stability or fast change, employee engagement may be a significant difference. (Hewitt, 2017).
11 Employee Engagement Trends (Kumar, 2020)
- Create an Inclusive and Diverse Workplace
- Managing Employee Performance Effectively
- Set Specific Goals That Get Results
- Improve Manager Effectiveness
- Use Technology to Empower Teams
- Invest In Employee Growth and Development
- Support Employee Health and Wellness
- Value and Recognize Employees for Their Contributions
- Build an Employee Listening Program
- People Analytics
- Understand and Prevent Costly Turnover
References
CULTURE SUMMIT (2019) Employee Engagement Best Practices
from the HR Experts at Google - Culture Summit. Available at:
https://www.culturesummit.co/articles/employee-engagement-best-practices/
(Accessed: 21 November 2021).
Hewitt, A. (2017) Trends
in Global Employee Engagement Global anxiety erodes employee engagement gains,
Risk. Reinsurance. Human Resources.
Kumar, P. (2020) Top
11 Employee Engagement Trends In 2021 (Backed by Data) - Springworks Blog, Employee
Engagement. Available at:
https://www.springworks.in/blog/employee-engagement-trends/ (Accessed: 25
November 2021).
Mahipalan, M. and Sheena
(2015) ‘Emerging Trends in Employee Engagement: A Review of Literature’, OPUS:
HR Journal. Publishing India Group, 6(1). doi: 10.21863/OPUS/2015.6.1.001.
Mehta, M., Chandani, A.,
Moksha, N. and Parul, C. (2016) ‘Trends in Employee Engagement Practices in
Global and Indian Companies: A Technique to Curb Attrition’, Indian Journal
of Science and Technology, 9(15). doi: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i15/92128.
PlanSource (2018) 10
Surprising Trends In Employee Engagement - YouTube. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhX-4RjOn68 (Accessed: 25 November 2021).
Polovin, G. (2021) Employee
Engagement Trends 2021 - SoGoSurvey Blog. Available at:
https://www.sogosurvey.com/blog/employee-engagement-trends/ (Accessed: 20
November 2021).
Terry, M. (2021) Employee
Engagement Trends for 2021: Focus has Changed for the Better. Available at:
https://www.talkfreely.com/blog/employee-engagement-trends (Accessed: 20
November 2021).
Vantage Circle (2020) 13
Employee Engagement Trends for 2020 - YouTube. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jl2_Kl2Go0&ab_channel=VantageCircle
(Accessed: 21 November 2021).
Hi nirmika, agree with you, adding to your points, when the attitude and behavior towards employee engagement. Both are the attitude and behavior need to be adjusted to have a higher rate of employee engagement (little and little, 2006).
ReplyDeleteHi Dineth, Thank you for the comments. Adding more to the comment., organisations considered an ‘employer of choice’ are more likely to have higher levels of employee engagement as they create work environments in which employees feel respected and valued. The connection they feel with the organisation is such that they are willing to exert discretionary effort to pursue its success (Leary‐Joyce, 2004). Further, Lloyd Morgan (2004) found that numerous cultural traits are critical for increasing engagement levels, particularly having a culture of innovation, having good internal communication and having a reputation of integrity.
DeleteHi Nirmika Adding more to your points, Diversity is a prominent challenge facing businesses today. Most employers are aware that diversity in the workplace is important, yet many don’t realize that their workforce isn’t as diverse as they believe it to be or as diverse as it could be (Gupta, 2008)
ReplyDeleteHi Amila, I Agree with your feedback. Engagement for workers is a blend of happiness, motivation and performance. If a company fails anything out of all three, it will result in a decrease in employee engagement and ultimately in profitability. While job satisfaction, productivity and performance are the three factors that affect employee engagement. The willingness of an organisation to maintain employee engagement is closely linked to its ability to achieve high levels of performance and the consequences of superior industry. It has been found that high rates of commitment are correlated with a variety of positive effects, including high-performance levels (Krishnan,2013).
DeleteHi Nirmika. Nicely written article. As you have mentioned, Google is recognized for providing its employees with the highest level of employee engagement (Rao, 2017). Free chef-prepared organic meals, free haircuts, free dry cleaning, gyms and swimming pools, video games, the ability to bring your pets to work, on-site physicians, sleep pods, subsidized massages, and many more benefits are available to Google employees (Krapivin, 2018). All of these advantages come at a cost to Google, yet despite this, the company is becoming more profitable and attractive every day
ReplyDeleteHi Gihan, Thank you. Further, Google has been very intentional about creating the culture they want. One purpose of that culture is google is to focus on transparency. This concept is to break down barriers, encourage creativity and collaboration. As a result, Employees are feeling empowered. Culture comes down to behavioural habits, and Google creates a culture of transparency and freedom and creates habits of creativity. High transparency leads to identifying employees’ strengths and capacity (Yi et al., 2016).
DeleteHi Nirmika ,As described by (Sofian 2016), To enhance or maintain competitive advantage, profitability, efficiency, effectiveness organization must work hard to create a conducive work environment through employee engagement and their well-being further employee engagement and well-being have become a crucial concept with the utmost attention to management in today's organization. In this current and challenging globalized economy, business leaders need a high-performing workforce for growth and survival.
ReplyDeleteHi Ganith, While agreeing with your comments, there is a growing need to improve working conditions so that the reduction of the management structure can maintain or even exceed its performance (Delanoeije, 2020). This concern has given rise to the scientific literature as new ways of working(NWW) (Hendrickx, 2018). An increasing number of organizations have been looking to implement NWW’s in search of a readjustment of their management practices to stay competitive in the market, reduce operating costs, and increase productivity (Blok et al., 2012).
DeleteYes, Nirmika also, According to Christopher (2020), To say the least, the first half of 2020 has been hard, making an engaging staff experience more important than ever to drive performance. However, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic's issues, we've seen customers' staff become increasingly more involved — to an all-time high. This reflects our clients' focus on listening strategy as well as the leadership, organizational development/human resources, and change management interventions necessary to move the needle.
ReplyDeleteHi Isuru, Agree with you. Further, Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most organisations innovate distance learning means. Instead of using traditional means of delivering training programs, using video communication tools and e-learning programs were introduced. According to the annual report of Bank of Ceylon Sri Lanka, they have used Ms Teams, Zoom, and the “tvBOC” channel as video communication tools, and many e-learning programs were conducted to overcome the situation (Bank of Ceylon annual report, 2020).
DeleteDue to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many employees are working from home (WFH). While this is not a new concept for some industries, it is a new way of working for many (Mehta, 2021). WHF has drastically reduced work engagement in some companies because the impact of leadership is minimal and autonomy is high for all levels of staff. Therefore, new ways of engaging employees during the pandemic are needed.
ReplyDeleteMehta, P., 2021. Work from home—Work engagement amid COVID‐19 lockdown and employee happiness. Journal of Public Affairs, 21(4), p.e2709.
Hi Ravi.Agree with you. Further, Due to the current working climate influenced by the global pandemic, remote working is being practiced and there is a need for instant communication between employees. Therefore, internal communication goes digital with instant digital communication methods like emails, instant chats and social media and even there are tendency for using employee apps and employee engagement software (Polovin, 2021). The approach of one-size-fits-all has not outdated since there should be personalisation in the communication use by companies. Therefore, there is a need of having flexible and adaptable employee engagement models considering the trend for personalised employee communication (Terry, 2021). This will include personalised messages, personalised strategies, and even personalised communication methods (Terry, 2021).
DeleteHi Nirmika, adreed, Technology has already emerged in every facet of human resource management. Technology has been integrated into Employee benefits platforms, employee recognition tools, performance management tools, to survey tools. It has made it easier for organizations to deliver better and quicker results. (Tom, 2015)
ReplyDeleteHi Ijaz. Agree with you. According to Korzynski (2013), employee motivation depends on technological, generational, and organisational changes. The new generation is more familiar with new technology and more practical when dealing with customers or organisations further, employees like to work under modern organisational culture, increasing their effectiveness.
DeleteIn Google employees are feeling empowered. They take care of the families even by providing sports facilities & special facilities to the spouses of the employees. (Robinson Resource Group 2013). By using the best practice approach Google has created high transparency their own environment to the employees
ReplyDeleteHi Shazna. Agree with you. As mentioned, Google is a leading organisation where more concerning about employee engagement. As a result, google developed many strategies to engage employees while motivating. Hence employees are working more satisfyingly with higher productivity (Rani ,2021).
DeleteAgreed with you and would like to add below as well, Engagement is not about driving employees to work harder but providing the conditions in which they will work more effectively, it is about releasing employee's discretionary behaviour(CIPD,2012),Example organizations provides (WFH) work from home facility in this new normal situation due to pandemic.
ReplyDeleteHi Manoj. Thank you. One of the significant issues faced by the employees is that unplugging after work. When they work in a central place, they have a scheduled period to be in the office with a fixed time duration, but Zeidner (2020) emphasizes that employees work more hours than before with the remote working system since it gives access and flexibility to work anywhere. Thus, Greer et al. (2014) claim that due to this condition, employees have to manage work and personal life matters, especially with kids. Hence, with the heavy workload, they have to manage, most employees get stressed and pressured since they have no free time to engage in extra activity rather than work. Work from home has become an issue that affects mentally and physically for the employees. Consequently, by providing flexibility and a target-oriented work plan, it can effectively manage the remote workers.
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