Questions:
Discuss the following points..
1. Employee Engagement methods.
2. Consequences of absence of employee engagement.
3. Evaluate which methods you feel would create the most impact in achieving the highest level of employee engagement within Frishco.
Answers:
Introduction
This report provides an analysis of employee engagement and its role in success of any organization. It emphasizes on the importance, need and benefits of employment engagement in the today’s modern business world. Employee engagement is defined as a level to which employees are dedicated towards their work, their commitment to organization and all of their efforts to successfully completion of strategic business goals of organization (Carbonara, 2012). The report focuses on discussion of different methods of employee engagement like good quality line management, commitment to employee well-being, two-way open communication, clear, effective co-operation, accessible HR policies/practices, focus on employee development, fair pay and benefits, etc in context of Frishco. Through use of these factors, report analyzes current state of employee engagement at selected company. Frishco is a reputed company in super markets chains in Canada. Frishco has adopted the principle of employment engagement and ultimately became successful in long-run. This report also looks at the various consequences, if any organization fails to implement employee engagement. This can lead to decline in the company’s values, brand and prestige. At last, this report suggests various methods that can be adopted by company to improve employee engagement at its workplace.
1 Employee Engagement methods
There are different methods or ways adopted by Frischo for effective employee engagement at its workplace. Detail of these methods is as below:
1) Good Line Management– Frischo hires effective leaders that support and guide to their juniors or newcomers at the workplace. Line managers and senior managers regular monitor the work of employees and give feedback to HR managers. The company believes that employees are vital resources for its success. HR management gives an opportunity to employees to raise their opinions, if needed. Management gives fair chance to employees to give feedback about operations of the company (Melcrum, 2016).
2) Communication: Being a people-oriented company, Frischo follows the open communication with employees at all levels. They facilitate transparency in communication between employees and management within the company. It helps to increase employee morale at work. Along with this, opinions of employees are valued in organization that may contribute to strong employee engagement at Frischo (Coca-Cola, 2016). Company Management adopts different engagement methods for their employees and managers to express their views. Quarterly employee forum is conducted by management to enable employees to share their views and ideas towards company’s strategy. A ‘Bright Idea’ scheme is run by the company to encourage employees to share their innovative ideas for further improvement in business (Trainingmag, 2016). So these are different styles of communication adopted by management of Frischo to increase employee engagement in business.
3) Employees well-being and commitment: Frischo management is fully committed to employee’s development and well-being. Company management highly focuses on development of staff, so that employees, business and its clients are fully satisfied. There are so many ways used by Frischo to encourage the development of employees, like hiring of talented people, giving training and coaching about workplace. Formal and informal meetings, face to face discussions are used by Frischo to find the areas of improvement and new ways of working (IBM, 2016).
4) Co-operation– Company’s management co-operate employees at every level of management. It encourages employee’s participation in decision making. The company follows the innovative leadership model, in which everyone is encouraged to work for same strategic goals rather than their individual goals. Top management supports the employees at work and gives appreciation to their opinions (CMI, 2016).
5) Clear and accessible policies of HR management– Company’s sound HR policies help employees in the areas of personal and professional growth. HR management enables right performance appraisals of the employees, so that they contribute their best to the organization. Management provides training opportunities to the employees. It provides such opportunities on frequently, so that the employees can achieve their career goals at right time within organization (Truss,Mankin and Kelliher).
6) Compensation and benefits: In a recent study of company human resource management, it is find out that, there are some factors, which are really important to meet the personal needs of employees like the need of recognition, respect and encouragement etc (Forbes, 2016). All these needs are focused by organization through providing monetary and non-monetary benefits. Example of such benefits involves giving promotions, the opportunity to take decisions and assigning a variety of tasks.
7) Development of employee: Company identifies important needs of staff and encourages job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, which are effective tools of employee engagement in the company. Job rotation means to change the job and work areas to develop new skills in the different areas of business. Change of the department of employees is considered as a good tool for personal development as well as employee engagement. Job enlargement methods also involve encouragement of employees to take new and challenging tasks, job enrichment etc that contribute to broadening of the area of existing job roles by engaging employees to the variety of other tasks (Managementhelp, 2016).
2 Consequences of absence of employee engagement
In today’s business world, employee engagement has been a significant concern for every, organization. There must be employee engagement in every organization, so that employees do not feel isolated. Engaged employees work not for getting good pay or promotion only, but also for achieving organizational goals. Employee engagement helps to get trust and confidence of worker. Frishco Company believes in maintaining employee engagement for continuing success of business. It involves employees in all aspects of decision making, which helps to maintain good employee relation and reduce employee turnover (Truss, et al., 2013).
Consequences of an organization’s inability in resolving employee engagement issues:
There are various consequences, which may be faced by Frischo, if it fails to create employee engagement at its workplace. Discussion of these consequences is as follows:
Employee input will disappear:
Employees are the lifeblood of an organization. Input or ideas that are provided by employees can lead to new processes. In absence of employee engagement, no employee will provide input until they feel connected to their job, which can be the major consequence of disengaged employees in organization.
Increased Employee turnover:
The failure of Frischo in maintaining employee engagement can lead to increased employee turnover. If employees do not feel connected to their job, it may result in inefficient work. Lack of employee engagement at work may also lead to employee dissatisfaction with job, which ultimately lead to employee exit tendency (Richardson, 2014).
Resistance to change:
If there is no employee engagement in organization, then it can lead to resistance by employees towards organization decisions. It is because if all decision is taken by higher authorities without considering the view points of employee, it will make employees feel isolated and they will not accept the changes made in organization.
Negative impact on working environment:
A disengaged employee negatively affects working environment, as if absence of employee engagement may also lead to poor communication at workplace. Communication from the higher level about the changes in making important decision for achieving organizational goals leads to create disinterest in employee towards their job and it adversely affects the working environment of organization (Byrne, 2014).
Increased Employee absenteeism:
Employees cannot perform their assigned work efficiently in absence of employee engagement. This could be due non involvement of employee in organization decision making. Lack of knowledge about different decisions also affects the quality of implementation of decisions.
Employee Disengagement affects sales and profitability:
If an employee does not feel connected to his/her job, then he will not put their all effort in completing their work. It leads to decrease in employee’s productivity and this way, it affects the sales or organization adversely. As a result of reduced productivity, Frischo will not be able to meet with customer demands and it will ultimately affect profitability of organization negatively (Caplan, 2013).
Employee Disengagement affects customer service:
When there is no employee engagement in an organization, then disengaged employees do not care about quality of service provided to customers. This will result in switching of customers to other brand, as no customer like to deal with organization facilitating poor customer service.
Lack of employee engagement issues affects motivation level of employee: If an employee does not get recognized and rewarded for their effective work, it will adversely affect motivation level of employee. Employees feel isolated and do not feel motivated at work assigned to them (Mathis, et al., 2013).
3: Evaluate which methods you feel would create the most impact in achieving the highest level of employee engagement within Frishco.
Creation of strong team environment:
Strong and effective employee engagement depends on how they interact with each other. Positive interaction between all employees helps to increase motivation of employee and to create their interest towards work. This way, strong team environment makes employee to work with full dedication and efforts. It will contribute to higher productivity in Frishco (Garber, 2012).
Improved leadership:
The major reason behind employee exit tendency is also behavior and leadership of direct supervisor. This way, engagement of employees is connected directly to the leadership of their supervisor. This includes how information is shared to the employees by the supervisor and how they treat employees. Improvement in leadership in a positive way will help Frishco Company to engage employees for a longer time, as they will feel motivated in ppositive workplace environment.
Providing effective reward and recognition:
If an employee receives proper recognition and reward for their productive performance, then it will increase motivation level of employees. Ultimately employee engagement in organization will increases with this practice, as it will create positivity in employees towards their job (Nelson, 2015).
Employee Development:
Every employee wants opportunity to grow within the organization. For making effective development of employees in organization, there must be defined development plan for each employee. This includes development of effective skills among them, which helps to increase connectivity of employees to the job.
Providing Regular Feedback:
Providing constant feedback to employees on their performance will also help to maintain employee engagement in Freshco. If employees will get regular feedback on their performance, they can improve performance at job and get more attached towards their job. This way, they can also get rewards for good work that helps to keep-up employee dedicated and connected toward their work and ultimately helps to organization to achieve its goal.
Managing transparency:
Management Transparency and employee engagement are inter connected. As if employee gets clear information about each and every aspect about job, it creates a sense of belonging among employees towards the company. It may ultimately help Frishco to achieve greater level of employee engagement (Bondarouk and Lujan, 2013).
Improvement in organizational structure:
In order to maintain employee engagement and employee satisfaction, top management of Frishco should make the organizational structure flexible.
Creation of motivational culture:
Creation of motivational culture among workforce helps to develop collaborative work relations among employees. Effective interaction can motivate employees at work, which helps to engage employees for long term in the organization and ultimately helps to achieve organizational goals (Macey, et al., 2011).
Conclusion
From above, it can be concluded that Fraischo currently follows different practices for employee engagement such as publishing employee engagement forum, use of intranet for sharing views and ideas of employees etc. There are various consequences that may be faced by an organization, if it fails to incorporate employee engagement at workplace such as decline in employee motivation, decline employee productivity etc. At the same time, absence of employee engagement may also lead to decline in productivity and performance of work force. Employee engagement is helpful to keep human resource of organization motivated and enthusiastic at work. If, a company fails to implement employee engagement at workplace, it may face increase in different issues such workplace conflicts, employee grievances, employee absenteeism, increase in employee exit tendency in organization. Still there is need for improvement in employee engagement at Frischo. There are different recommendations that can be given to management of company for improving employee engagement at workplace such as creation of motivational working environment, creation of flexible organizational structure, managing transparency, employee development, providing regular feedback, improving leadership etc. Apart from these, the employee engagement can also be improved through some HRM tactics such as job rotation activities, job enrichment, training, group assignments etc.
References
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