01. Employee Engagement Introduction

In present organizational context employee plays a vital role and contemporary organizations should consider them as an asset instead of direct cost (Beer et al, 1984). Further Boxall and Purcell (2016) discuss that Human Resource is dynamic and unique resource it varies person to person therefore it must be managed very carefully further he explains Human Resource is very sensitive and reacting to either positively or negatively to the way of managing it. Therefore it is very important to recognize of people and invest in them as a source of ‘human capital advantage’ rather than applying cost cutting initiatives (Boxall and Purcell, 2016).

In contemporary organizations Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) mainly focuses on following themes (Itika, 2011).

•         Strategic resourcing and talent management

•         Learning and Development

•         Employee Relations

•         The Design of Work

•         Rewards and Employee Engagement

•         Organisational Culture

•         Ethics and HRM

•         Managing Diversity

•         Change Management

Human Resource Management in a contemporary organization is built on these theories and each of them are equally important and failure of one area may be cost failure of whole organisation (Itika, 2011). Among these themes Employee relation plays vital role in SHRM because as per Daniel (2003) “If relationships are strong, then employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and more productive as a result” (Daniel, 2003, p. 56) according to Daniel (2003) final outcome of a succeed employee relationship is having a highly engaged workforce. Engaged employees are always satisfied with their job and will stay with the company for long time and they always look for new effective ways of value addition to the organization therefore the end result is a high performing company where people are flourishing and productivity is increased and sustained (Catteeuw et al., 2007).

As per Catteeuw (2007) defining only satisfaction and long term employment will not meet the Employee Engagement threshold but most important criteria is looking for new effective ways of value addition to the organization. In Sri Lankan Public-sector organizations above two criteria of Long term employment and    employees satisfaction can be seen abundantly but value addition to the organisation cannot be seen. As an example Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Employees have satisfaction with their jobs because relatively their salary scales are higher than other government organisations and they have relax working environment due to plentiful number of workforce. Further they are having good recognition within the society as well. However, these employees are not actively engaged contributing little value to the development of the organisation. Therefore Customer Loyalty, one of main outcome of an Employee engagement cannot be seen towards these organisations.

Kahn (1990) defines Employee Engagement as “the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances” (Kahn,1990, p.694). Further Saks (2006) says it is not merely an attitude but it is degree to which an individual is focused to their work and become success of their role. Employee Engagement shows the level of commitment and involvement of an employee towards their organization and its values. Engaged Employee is having positive feelings toward his work, find their work to be personally meaningful and manageable, and he has the confidence about the future of his work (Saks, 2006). Kenexa Employee Engagement Index shares four emotional states which an actively engaged employee is having as follows (Kenexa, 2008),

1. I am proud to work for my organization.

2. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my organization as a place to work.

3. I would gladly refer a good friend or family member to my organization for employment.

4. I rarely think about looking for a new job with another organization.

According to the Karsan and Kruse (2011) Employee Engagement is the level of employees’ motivation to contribute to organizational success and are willing to apply unrestricted effort to accomplishing tasks on achievement of organizational goals. Further they reveal that employee engagement can be measured and it is a combination of pride, satisfaction, advocacy, and retention

                                           (Petracoach,2017)