Determining factors associated with employee engagement - With the usage of models.

 

The purpose of this assignment is to determine the factors associated with employee engagement with the usage of three models, namely ;

Ø  “Robinson, Perryman and Hayday’s model on employee engagement”.

Ø   Sak’s model on employee engagement

Ø  Aon Hewitt’s Model on Employee Engagement

 

In the early stages after introducing the concept of "Employee Engagement", a qualitative study had been conducted by Kahn (1990) of the concept of personal involvement in work roles and to identify psychological conditions and antecedents. The rationale behind Kahn's theory of personal involvement (Kahn, 1990) mainly relates and forces three psychological conditions that impact on individual involvement in their work which are called psychological impact, psychological safety status and psychological availability (Johnson, 2004). A detail report on the theory introduced by Khan (1990) had been discussed earlier, hence through this assignment three more theories are discussed with the applicability on same to an actual work environment. In order to get an apparent view on the term “ Employee Engagement”, three more models have been taken into consideration together with how the same is applied in  a present work environment.

 

1.    Robinson, Perryman and Hayday model on employee engagement.  

 

Figure 1.0 : Robinson, Perryman and Hayday model on employee engagement

Source : Catherine  2014.

Catherine (2014) has sighted that an Employee Engagement model has been introduced by Robinson, Perryman and Hayday during year 2004, and in their model they have stated that “ Engagement as a two-way relationship between the employer and employees”. (Catherine T, 2014)Their model was described in their research work titled as “Employee drivers of employee engagement” , in which they state it as a positive attitude created by the staff towards the organization and its values. Cook (2008) has stated that they through this model it is evident that the engaged employee is aware and works with its partners to improve performance in the workplace to add value to their organization and emphasizes, the employee commitment is positive if the organizations continue to focus on developing and nurture their staff (Cook, 2008).

Whilst perusing the applicability on same to the project Uma Oya in which I work , the major constraint the company encounter during initial stages of the project is to get the cooperation of local employees by letting themselves be valued and important through getting them involved in the project.  Majority of the priority lines introduced through the model have been practiced by the Iranian company , especially through providing proper training and development to all local staff, and by assigning local supervisors / formans as immediate managers of local employees.  As per the model equal opportunities had been given to local staff with fair treatment and transparency to the best possible level. The Iranian construction company always assured the health and safety of employees at all times, and their remuneration had been always above industry norm and bonus payments had been made according to their performances upon appraising.

2.    Saks’s  Model on Employee Engagement

 

Figure 2.0 : Saks’s model on Employee Engagement

 

Source : Imperatori 2017.                                                                                                                        

Imperatori(2017) has cited  that the above conceptual model had been developed by Saks (2006) as  a part of his research work on “Employee history and consequences Involvement ". Here he had focused on three fundamental aspects of employee involvement, namely  employees and their  psychological makeup and experience , the ability to the employer to create a favorable environment that promotes employee engagement and the interaction among employees at all levels (Imperatori, 2017). Saks had developed an evaluation process and had showed the relationship between three parameters, the antecedents, employee involvement and consequences.   Factors such as job satisfaction, training and development, reward and recognition and     colleague-supervisors relationships had been taken into consideration (Russell L, 2010). He has shown that antecedents that directly affect the state of employee commitment attributable to factors such as commitment, ownership, satisfaction, participation etc. The "consequences" are the final result of the evaluation process that can be evaluated with customer satisfaction and improved performance measures (Gagne, Marylene).

When considering the applicability of this model to our current work organization, we could clearly identify how the antecedent factors such as job characteristics, supervisory support and reward and recognition has influenced the work engagement towards retaining and influencing the employees towards their job engagement. In the project, the technology introduced and the machinery deployed were unique and had latest technology, and were imported from countries i.e. Germany, Italy etc. In order for the employees to perform duties, proper training and development had been given to them, with supervisory support at all times. Their job characteristics which are the principles for enriching jobs had been defined clearly, and a proper reward-recognition module had been introduced for employees. i.e. introduction of a bonus payment method for employees who perform their duties over the allocated targets assessed on weekly basis.  Whilst practicing above model, although the job contract with employees had been executed only for a period of three month (renew in every three months) , the percentage of workers leaving the company had been very remote. Through the formal surveys conducted, it had been made aware that the employees were engaged in performing their duties with satisfaction.

3.    Aon Hewitt’s Model on Employee Engagement

 

Figure 3.0  Aon Hewitt’s Model on Employee Engagement

 

 

According to the above model introduced by Hewitt (2009) , there are six “involving drivers” he has introduced in order for a person to get fully engaged in their jobs . When referring to above illustration the engagement could be identified as the quality of values in life,  work environment and motivation,  people factor,  opportunities avail ,reward and recognition,  and  HR practices deployed by the company (Sparrow, 2012). Apart from” people factor” all other factors are interconnected with people, and the role of these people is with utmost  importance in order to make other factors a success since they are interconnected to one another and cannot  operate in separation.

The same could be clearly identified when the same is applied to a operational working environment.

When applied same to the project Uma-Oya,  we could clearly identify the operational hierarchy is structured in a proper manner, where the top management and middle management consist of Iranian officials and supervisory/forman  levels consist of local employees and the laborers are all locals. The work-flow is very effective as many people team-up towards reaching the same goal, and there are no goal-settings by any other inter-connected department heads/supervisors, apart from the authorized personal in the structured hierarchy.

Accordingly, the work tasks have been structured in a very viable manner and all essential material/equipments have been provided without any setbacks. Career progression is one key area the company has looked into, and good performance have been recognized, and increments/ promotions to the next level has been granted whenever possible. Continuous training and development is being conducted at all times. The working shifts have been structured in a manner where the employees could have a healthy balance between work and personal life, and the work shifts and leave have been structured accordingly in align with the local regulations. Employee health and wealth is a key factor the company has looked into, and under corporate social responsibility, there are immense activities the company had been engaged in doing over the past decade. i.e. donations, granting machinery/equipment for people in need, helping people towards upgrading the standards of living, social welfare activities , helping children for educational activities etc. 

The payments and benefits granted to employees had always been above the industry norms, and retirement savings has been provided to employees as per the local regulations which consist of gratuity, employee trust and provident fund payments. Through adopting and application of the captioned model, it is evident that the company has been able to maintain the employee engagement levels at the optimum level.

 

References;

Catherine T, K. A. (2014). Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Cook, S. (2008). The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement. London: Koganpage.

Gagne, M. (Marylene). The Psychology of Employee Engagement. 2014: Oxford Univercity Press.

Imperatori, B. (2017). Engagement and Disengagement at Work. Milan: Springer.

Johnson, M. (2004). The New Rules of Engagement. London: Charted institute of personnel and development - CIPD.

Russell L, J. R. (2010). Engage Your Workforce. Alexandria: ASTD Press.

Sparrow, J. (2012). The Culture Builders- Leadership Strategies for Employee Performance. Surrey: Gower Publishing Limited.