An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, as well as
enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their
organization's interests. Employee engagement is important to the
competitiveness of any organization, particularly in the current business
environment.
Research has shown that organizations with high employee engagement excel in
customer satisfaction and achieve high productivity and operational efficiency,
as well as profitability with the additional side effect of safer, healthier
employees with lower absenteeism and reduced turnover. In a construction
company, employee engagement plays a critical role in achieving significant
project delivery metrics, such as production quality and safety. This article
will address how to encourage employee engagement in general and, having
achieved that, how that process can be directed toward driving stellar safety
performance.
Employee engagement can be viewed from a cognitive, emotional, and
behavioral perspective. The cognitive aspect revolves around the employees'
perception and beliefs regarding the organization, its leaders, and working
conditions. The emotional aspect relates to whether the employee has a positive
or negative attitude toward the organization and its leaders. The emotional
perspective is influenced by the cognitive element. The behavioral aspect of
engagement fosters the employee's willingness to apply his or her
discretionary effort to their work, resulting in a value-added benefit to the
organization.
So, employee engagement is distinctively different from employee
satisfaction, motivation, and organizational culture. This distinction is
muddied by the prevailing wisdom espoused by many safety practitioners in the
field.
Basic Premise
Research has shown that certain management practices foster employee
involvement and engagement. To paraphrase Jim Collins, in his book Good to
Great, this involves putting the "right" person in the
"right" position and providing them with the "right"
resources so that they can do the "right" thing at the
"right" time. An engaged employee will in all likelihood perform
their work at a superior level all of the time.
For this premise to thrive, the organizational systems have to be
integrated, management practices have to be aligned, and the work climate has
to be supportive so as to maximize worker engagement. Organizational
effectiveness scholars have identified four elements in the work environment
that foster high worker involvement: power, information, knowledge, and
recognition.
The "power" element of involvement means the organization truly
and effectively empowers the workers to participate in decision-making
regarding their work. To a lesser extent, it might mean management has to adopt
a democratic style of leadership, which encourages workers to voice their
opinion and concerns before decisions are made. For this to work, the
worker's suggestions have to be discussed, their applicability evaluated,
and some of the useful worker's suggestions have to be implemented. To
achieve greater involvement requires giving the workforce greater input and
control.
In construction, the toolbox talk creates a forum for this exchange to
occur. For this to function optimally, the time involved has to be expanded
somewhat or they have to be done a few times a week or as needed, rather than
once every 10 working days as established by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration or the industry prevailing practice of once a week.
For workers to be effective in their work, they need
"information." This becomes the basis for decision-making,
problem-solving, and proper execution of the work. The challenge for management
is to set up a process by which the worker gets the right information at the
right time. Another important aspect that sustains involvement is when the
worker sees a direct link between what they do on a daily basis and the
organizational or project goals and objectives on the whole. This sort of
vertical alignment has been proven to be highly effective in engaging workers
and its resulting positive impact on organizational superior performance and
outcomes.
Knowledge, in general, refers to the worker's capability and skill to
perform the work. To realize this element, the organization must implement a
robust hiring and promotion function so as to hire and promote capable workers.
They must then provide them with the right training and, more importantly, the
right education to enhance their competence and abilities. The enhanced
knowledge will be ineffective unless they are provided with the right resources
and information to enable them to perform the work at a superior level. And
they have to be effectively empowered so that they are better able to assess
risk and exposure, when it comes to safety, so that they may make the right
decisions. When workers are knowledgeable and engaged, the operation becomes
efficient, effective, and safe.
To enhance the effectiveness of power, information, and knowledge, the
organization must secure the active involvement of managers and supervisors in
providing necessary constructive feedback as well as positive feedback,
encouragement, and recognition (See Figure 1). This is not only critical to
achieving engagement but more importantly to sustain it over time. This will
lead the workers to clearly understand the importance of their self-improvement
not only to themselves and their career but its importance and value to the
organization.
Obviously, recognition can take many forms. Research has shown that some of
the critical factors are in its direct linkage to the behavior or the immediate
outcome. It has to be given as soon as possible to heighten its effectiveness,
and the worker has to believe that whatever form the recognition comes in that
it will be meaningful to them.
Figure 1: Work Environment Factors Effect on Employee
Performance
By implementing these four elements of effectiveness, the organization will
more than likely gain some level of improvement in their operational outcomes.
The importance of these four elements in the work environment will, in fact,
positively influence the workforce's engagement in their tasks, immerse
them into cooperative teamwork, and solidify their commitment to operational
efficiency, which will translate into organizational success.
Work Practice Effectiveness
Given the current state of the business environment, employee engagement can
be critical to business success. In a study of 35 large business organizations
with a large number of divisions, a positive correlation was found between
employee engagement and overall business success. In construction, this would
translate to employee engagement affecting the vital metrics of the project
delivery process that covers production, productivity, quality, safety, and the
customer, as well as partner (satisfaction) relationship.
For employees to be engaged, they have to generally be satisfied at work.
Astute organizations understand that happy employees are also more productive,
loyal, enthusiastic, and are committed to staying at that company. So, most
organizations try in one way or another to accomplish this through hiring
practices, having worker-friendly policies, promoting based on merit, etc. But
many find that, in spite of their best efforts, their employees are generally
dissatisfied. This leads to their supervisors having to motivate indifferent,
uncooperative, frustrated, and unproductive employees. The common interventions
utilized by management include close supervision, motivational talks, possibly
coaching, some form of incentives, or punishment. These traditional management
interventions have proven to be ineffective in the long run.
Unfortunately, this is a rather common outcome, as shown in a research study
that looked at about 4 million employees worldwide. This study found that
workers start out enthusiastic about their job, they want to succeed, and they
understand that to accomplish this, they have to work hard and contribute to
the success of their organization. But, over time, these same employees lose
their enthusiasm, motivation, and goodwill toward their employer. Research has
found that the company is responsible for demoralizing its employees without
realizing it. Management has generally implemented some of the big-ticket items
but has failed to address the smaller, seemingly inconsequential things.
Leadership's Role in Engagement
According to a study conducted by Gallup, State of the Global Workplace, only 15 percent of
employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs. This means that they are
emotionally invested in committing their time, talent, and energy in adding
value to their work, their team, as well as advancing the organization's
goals and objectives. Gallop research of the cost of employee disengagement in
the United States found that it costs industry approximately $550 billion a
year in lost productivity. This has a significant impact on organizational
profitability and well-being.
This not only highlights the seriousness of the problems but the challenge
faced by leaders and managers when dealing with the organization's
workforce. Astute organizational leadership sees this as a significant
opportunity for their managers and supervisors to learn and master the art of
engagement to motivate the workforce to become fully involved in advancing the
organization's goals and objectives.
This becomes more and more important in the current business environment,
both locally and regionally as well as globally, because the pace of doing
business is accelerating and competition is increasing. Most organizations are
faced with doing more in less time with fewer resources in an almost constantly
changing and challenging business environment. Perspicacious leaders understand
that this can only be achieved with a fully engaged workforce, which highlights
the fact that the employees are in fact the organization's most important
asset. But sadly, this is only true when the employees are fully engaged, and
Gallup's research found that only 15 percent are.
If that is the case, then what is the status of the rest? Research indicates
that, generally, organizational employees fall into three categories: fully
engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged. The engaged group, which
constitutes about 15 percent of the workforce, are cognitively, emotionally,
and physically committed to the organization and its leadership. These
employees are motivated, satisfied, and enjoy their work. Their supervisors
find them cooperative, easy to deal with, and require minimal supervision as
they tend to take on the responsibility of not only meeting but exceeding
expectations.
The larger group of not-engaged employees constitutes about two-thirds (67
percent) of all the employees employed by the organization. These are the ones
who are not satisfied or are mildly dissatisfied with their situation at work.
Their efforts fall within the lower regions of acceptability. The effort of the
mildly dissatisfied employees are the ones who do just enough to get by. These
employees do not feel obligated or motivated to exceed expectations. The
organization's performance, success, or profitability is not their focus or
concern.
These are the employees who require more attention from their supervisors to
ensure that they meet requirements. Supervisors also spend time trying to
"push" these employees to be more productive. This takes time away
from management doing productive work to having to motivate indifferent,
uncooperative, frustrated, and unproductive employees. This is the group that
presents an opportunity for managers and supervisors—to exert effort in working
with this group to find ways to spark interest in engagement.
The remaining 18 percent makes up the third group, which are the actively
disengaged employees. These are the ones who are dissatisfied with the work,
their supervisor, and the organization as a whole. In many cases, these are the
employees who have been with the organization for some time and know both the
formal as well as the informal means, methods, policies, procedures, practices,
etc, allowing them to hang on to the detriment of operations. Due to their
longevity, they tend to be looked up to as well as emulated by newer employees.
This can translate into the spread of disengagement among a larger segment of
the workforce, resulting in greater challenges for management.
Line management in organizations is made up of executives, managers, and
supervisors. Depending on the industry and organizational structure, managers
and supervisors tend to be directly involved with the workforce, though
supervisors are the ones who directly interface with the workers. It generally
is those people who have the greatest impact on the worker's perceptions of
the work, operations, and the organization in general. This is sometimes
referred to as the leader-member exchange. It is these people who have a
significant impact on the degree and quality of the workforce's
engagement.
Leadership Compared to Management
Management and leadership share some similarities but are effectively
different. To manage, you do not need to necessarily be a leader, and to lead,
you do not necessarily have to be a manager, as they each entail different and
unique skills as well as activities. While managers maintain a smoothly
functioning workplace, leaders look to change and improve operating systems,
work practices, and management procedures so as to enhance output and outcomes
(see Figure 2). Managers generally have a short-term focus, while leaders have
a long-term focus. In today's challenging business environment,
organizations need efficient management as well as effective leadership.
Figure 2: Leadership—Management Influence Model
Leadership's Role in Engagement
Great leaders foster engagement by articulating a compelling vision to all
of the members of the organization. They hire and promote people who have
innate values, skills, and attributes that "fit" into the
organizational culture and align with its vision. They actively develop
managers and supervisors as well as provide them with technology and resources.
They truly empower them and also make sure that they put the "right"
people in the "right" positions, provide them with the
"right" resources, and enable them to do the "right"
things.
Manager's Role in Engagement
Great managers make sure that they procure and develop superior talent.
Similar to leaders, they try to get their people to effectively and efficiently
perform their assignments. They also work on workforce engagement. Managers
also ensure the workforce is fully aligned with the organization's
mission.
Conclusion
Both management and leadership play the following important roles in
employee engagement.
- Hire the right people
- Create an open and supportive work environment
- Provide career opportunities
- Promote engaged, motivated, and emotionally intelligent people
- Facilitate 360-degree communication
- Actively listen
- Encourage the sharing of information, ideas, and opinions
- Build a trusting relationship
- Provide recognition
- Celebrate success
All of this fosters employee engagement, which plays an important role in
the organization's overall success.