CAN TECHNOLOGY IMPROVE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?

INRODUCTION:

Studies around the world have revealed that engagement levels have a direct impact on employee's performance and consequently on the bottom line. A well established co-relation exists between employee engagement and business results.


Engagement : Some Quotes (from articles in professional journals)

- Work never kills a person; the absence of it (unemployment) has killed many.

- Remaining idle is not human nature.

-No one likes to avoid work if there is clarity on what to do & how it will be evaluated.

-Keeping work force idle produces negativity which impacts on team performance.

-Engagement comes through involvement; people deliver more if they are emotionally involved with the work.

-Delaying decisions on personal issues creates stress & diverts employee's attention from work.

-Absence of engagement is a challenge that can produce industrial unrest.

-Unless you know people intimately, you can't engage them effectively.

-To keep their teams engaged, managers have to remain super-engaged.

-An empowered manager is an incubator of employee engagement.

-Employee motivation improves engagement levels.

-Trust, developed through transparency, promotes engagement.

-Engagement is fostered by Leadership; managers who lead from the front keep their task force actively engaged.

-Occasional encouragement always improves engagement.

-Engagement comes through commitment.

-Attitudinal transformation creates a temperament for healthy engagement.

-Employee engagement has transformed many organizations.

Who is an engaged employee?

Experience reveals that engaged employees always demonstrate most of the attributes given below:
Good understanding of company's business.

Full clarity about own role & job deliverables.

Always achieve assigned goals; often exceed expectations.

Keen to put in extra-effort to accomplish a task.

De-link own performance from rewards & recognition.

Keep the work bench neat & tidy and take good care of job tools.

Always keen to learn something new.

Exhibit high energy levels at all times.

Highly information conscious if in the position of a supervisor/ manager.

Never say, “it is not my job”.

Willingly take on additional responsibility.

Have an outstanding record of personal discipline & attendance.

Self accountable & highly responsible: have no back-log of work at any time.

Always available to assist others; provide willing support to the team.

Have a consistently high record of performance.

Never come under pressure : always cool and adaptable by nature.

Not over-concerned with work-life balance.

Bubbling with new ideas: enjoy experimenting.

Seldom initiate complaints & grievances.

Consciously improve processes that impede work.

Highly allergic to slow & sluggish people.

Always lead subordinates though personal example.

What Reduces Employee Engagement:

A common problem with organizations is demanding more productivity without creating a conducive work environment which enables involvement of employees at all levels. Some of the diseases observed are as under:

Lack of awareness of the management about the use of modern HR technology to create a healthy work environment.
Lack of empowerment of the managers/ supervisors.

HR Technology for creating healthy work environment

20 to 30% of an employee's time is spent on personal issues such as:

Approval of Leave/ loans & advances/ claims & re-reimbursements.

Queries related to pay/ promotions/ increments/ tax deductions.

Searching for copies of company policies/ processes/ forms.

Chasing the concerned staff for decisions on their requests.

Tracing the misplaced/ withheld/ overlooked personal cases.

All these create heart-burns and stress, besides lack of accountability at various levels. Technology today provides a solution in terms of on line tracking of all cases initiated by an employee. Automated work-flows enable speedy processing of requests. 'Help Desks' of various types facilitate cross functional interaction and improve accountability of the decision centers. 'Employee portals' provide relevant information about company policies/ processes. An employee can view & update personal data, read his job description & get a live picture of his attendance record. By merely spending 10 minutes daily, an employee can easily manage all his personal issues. What a colossal saving of energy and what an effective way of realizing that "Someone cares"! Technology thus improves the motivation to work.

To create a healthy work environment, which promotes emotional involvement of an employee, organizations need to review if their existing HR operations are being supported by technology that enables the following:

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