What is the Need for Employee Engagement?

According to a research study, there are only 13% of the employees that are engaged in their workplace, worldwide. It is a known fact that these are the group of productive employees compared to the others. But are the remaining companies not interested in making their employees productive? Aren’t they much concerned on how to make their employees engaged?

No, of course. Their only problem is that their employee engagement strategies are drastically failing. It is now a big concern for all the companies worldwide that ultimate employee engagement strategies are to be implemented in their organizations that yield tremendous results.

Money, whether in the form of salary, incentives, allowances, increments, or maybe extra benefits is not the only driving force that makes today’s employees heartfully willing to work for the company. There are many other things to be focused upon like the working environment, open communication between the employees of the company, opinions being valued and better career development. So, it depends upon the overall experience they get in the office premises.

Unfailing employee engagement strategies are those that focus on how to improve those working conditions of the employees and keep them enthusiastic, satisfied, and committed to the organization.

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is the extent to which an employee invests all his cognitive, emotional, and behavioral abilities to work for the positive outcomes of the organization. Employee engagement can be recognized as the level of enthusiasm and connection that employees have with their organization. It measures how motivated are the employees and how committed they are towards the success of the organization.

According to the global business leaders, engaged employees tend to be high performers. The Organizations with more engaged employees will be highly productive with higher rate of Employee retention. The engaged employees of an organization, stay motivated and motivate others too to work efficiently. They create a positive work environment and keep it vibrant by putting in extra effort for the success of the organization.

Why is Employee Engagement Important?

Human beings have different needs. Some of them are basic needs while the others are complex needs. When the employees of an organization have their needs fulfilled, they would eventually feel committed to the organization. A renowned psychologist named Abraham Harold Maslow proposed Human’s Self-esteem theory. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in human psychology that describes the needs that drive human behavior.

According to Maslow’s self-esteem hierarchy, when a person’s self-esteem needs are satisfied, the motivational driving force would be higher. The first two levels of needs are physiological needs like food, water, shelter, clothing and the safety needs like financial security and personal security. Till this level, every company tries to meet the requirements. Means, the physiological needs are met by providing salaries and incentives, while the safety needs are met by providing pick-and-drop facilities. But most of the companies stuck up at this level and end up with not-so-good plans to deal with the other levels effectively.

The third level is considered psychological and is based on social connections and relationships. The fourth level is based on emotions and the need for self-esteem and self-respect, like recognition, respect, status, strength, freedom etc. and the fifth level is the self-actualization level where one desires to become the most desired self. It includes having morality, need for acceptance, and scope for creativity that showcases our full potential.

Hence, when such needs are met at the workplace, the employees feel committed, motivated, and possess a sense of belongingness to the organization.

What needs to be done?

The organizations should focus on meeting the complex needs of the employees. In any individual, feeling satisfied and successful with own progress helps in the improvement of self-esteem and self-confidence. But getting appreciation and applause from others improves our confidence and the willingness to do more. When we don’t get any kind of appreciation from others, it would eventually lead to negativity, low self-confidence and inferiority regarding our lives.

This is why recognition plays a bigger role. This recognition should be there for the employee’s work, commitment and also for the feedback. When the feedback of the employee is valued, it aids for the employee engagement in the organization. Many kinds of employee engagement strategies are framed by the companies just to meet these requirements that foster the development of the organizations.

Attempts to enrich employee wellness require knowledge about their competencies, skills, needs, temperaments and personality. This knowledge facilitates necessary changes in the work environment, policies and relationships that would support the employees. Support eventually leads to transformation of the employees and help them become fully functional.

Wellness Hub provides its flag ship product named EWA, meaning Employee Wellness Audit, specifically for this purpose. EWA helps your company achieve a greater degree of employee engagement. Log on or call us for a demo.