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Organisational
According to Dina Pyron, global director of human capital at Ernst & Young, “in a fiercely competitive global arena, it is critical for organizations to have the right talent in the right place”. Many managers consider investing in employee engagement crucial, with researchers concluding that talent management is strongly correlated with improved business performance.


 * 1) Enhanced efficiency: High levels of engagement have been found to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of operations within an organisation, and is positively correlated with employee retention and high quality output. According to Havard Business Review, top-quartile engagement firms have lower absenteeism and turnover, and highly engaged organizations have double the rate of success of lower engaged organizations.
 * 2) Positive financial outcomes: Research has also shown that organisations with highly engaged employees are strongly correlated with positive financial outcomes measured in terms of Return on Assets, Profitability, and Shareholder Value . Increased levels of employee engagement are also shown to foster a positive organisational culture. It is more likely that engaged employees will view their organisation and job as a healthy environment and therefore will support the organisation and their goals . As a result, researches believe that managers who are able to build a work environment challenging enough for its employees to feel engaged in order to maximise organisational value . There are also several issues that organisations face when looking at employee engagement levels.
 * 3) Methodological: Practitioners face a number of risks in working with engagement data, which are typically drawn from survey evidence. Many consider it difficult to measure employee engagement and its effectiveness, due to a difficulty in identifying the link between employee engagement and performance . These include the risk of mistaking correlations for causation, making invalid comparisons between similar-sounding data drawn from diverging methodologies and/or incomparable populations, misunderstanding or misrepresented basic concepts and assumptions, and accurately establishing margins of error in data (ensuring signal and noise are kept distinct). It is also difficult to define the scope of employee engagement research, as it can be administered on a variety of organisational levels.Anitha (2013)
 * 4) Administrative: A focus on survey administration, data gathering and analysis of results (rather than taking action) may also damage engagement efforts. Organisations that survey their workforce without acting on the feedback appear to negatively impact engagement scores . The reporting and oversight requirements of engagement initiatives represent a claim on the scarcest resources (time and money) of the organisation, and therefore requires management time to demonstrate value added. At the same time, actions on the basis of engagement surveys are usually devolved to local management, where any 'value add' is counted in local performance. Central administration of employee engagement is therefore challenging to maintain over time.
 * 5) Consistency: Zigarmi et al. (2009) and other scholars believed that there is a gap between the research results on employee engagement, and the practice of increasing employee engagement levels by managers. According to several studies, researchers and practitioners have many differences of opinions on how to foster employee engagement, thus making it difficult to study the field in an appropriate context.
 * 6) Ethical: Were it proven possible to alter employees' attitudes and behaviours in the manner intended, and with the expected value-adding results for the organisation, many individuals question remains whether it would be ethical to do so. Practitioners generally acknowledge that the old model of the psychological contract is gone, but attempting to programme a one-way identification in its place, from employee to organisation, may be seen as morally and perhaps politically loaded.
 * 7) Globalisation: Studies have shown that employee engagement is not able to keep up with the pace of the globalisation of organisations, due to employees struggling to understand the cultures and performance drivers of their global counterparts.

Employees

 * 1) Improved quality of work and health: Studies have shown that business units with higher employee engagement score report 48% fewer safety incidents, 41% fewer patient safety incidents, and 41% fewer quality incidents.
 * 2) Improved morale: Studies have also shown that engaged employees are more likely to display a positive attitudes towards their fellow colleagues, customers and the organisation.
 * 3) Higher performance: According to Trahant's (2009) research, highly-engaged employees are twice as likely as those who are less engaged to be "top performers in their organisations". In addition, three-quarters of highly engaged employees were found to either exceed or far exceed the expectations of their work requirements.
 * 4) Increased task activity and persistance: Employees who are highly engaged are found to persist with tasks for longer periods of time.
 * 5) Work relationships: Employees who are highly engaged are also found to have greater interpersonal attraction to fellow employees. Engaged employees are also more likely to respond positively to the social influence attempts of a fellow employee. Anitha (2013) Supportive teams who trust each other foster a supportive work environment which encourages colleagues to try new things without fearing failure.Anitha (2013)
 * 6) Relationship with organisation: Studies have shown that engaged employees are more likely to have and express positive feelings towards an organisation, and are more readily to adapt to organisational change.

Managers
In order to maintain employee engagement, researchers believe that managers must keep up with the ever-changing skills of its employees in order to adapt their management style to suit and drive engagement. Managers who express care and concern for their employees' well being, encourage the development of new key sills, and actively cultivate a supportive work environment are found to be those who most maintain and increase engagement levels of employees.

Anitha (2013) believes that effective leadership is a crucial skill for managers to utilise in order to effectively drive employee engagement. Effective leadership (being self aware, making decisions carefully and effectively, transparency with employees, consistent moral standards) is also found to naturally foster employee engagement.

Bhuvanaiah and Raya (2014) believe that employee engagement levels can be managed through three key practices: managing stress, promoting employee well being, and facilitating self-management.

The Ten C's of Employee Engagement
'The Ten C's of Employee Engagement' states that there are ten 'avenues for action' which drive employee engagement. The Ten C's of Engagement are:
 * 1) Connect: Some researchers consider employee engagement to be a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with their manager. Their research concludes that employees highly value how convincingly leaders show appreciation for their employees.
 * 2) Career: Administering employees with challenging and meaningful work that provide opportunities for career advancement is also shown by research to be positively correlated with employee engagement. Studies have shown that by providing these opportunities, managers instil confidence in their employees, thus increasing engagement.
 * 3) Clarity: Many researchers consider it integral that employees understand their organisation's goals and what they stand for. It is believed that a substantial part of employee engagement is created from ensuring that an individual's goals are in line with the organisation they work for.
 * 4) Convey: Giving employees both positive and constructive feedback is considered by many researchers to be the key to organisational success and a major component of employee engagement. According to this research, employers should be aware that effective communication can lead to a more productive relationship between management and employees. Managers should therefore be able to understand their behaviours and competencies they need to engage their teams, thus making engagement much more concrete and tangible. Effective communication includes acknowledging employees' feelings, explaining the underlying purpose for tasks, clarifying how tasks contribute to an inspiring vision, providing employees with opportunities to help develop innovative practices, and highlighting the interesting aspects of tasks. Communication is an investment of time that will acquire dividends in engagement and perhaps loyalty in the long run.
 * 5) Congratulate: Studies have shown that employees feel that they only receive immediate feedback when their performance is below expectations. Researchers therefore believe that 'coaching and conveying' is considered to be the approach of successful leaders, as they are aware that their employees need to also be both congratulated for their successes.
 * 6) Contribute: Studies have also shown that employees want to be reassured that their contribution to the organisation matters. Researchers consider it vital that organisations provide an appropriate platform for employee contribution in order to bolster employee engagement.
 * 7) Control: The feeling of being given the opportunity to participate in workplace decision-making is shown to be positively correlated with reducing work stress and increasing employee engagement.
 * 8) Collaborate: Researchers believe that working in teams creates synergy and is a key contributor to employee engagement.
 * 9) Credibility: The credibility of an organisation in terms of corporate social responsibility methods and reputation has also been positively linked to employee engagement, as researchers believe that pride in their job and organisation leads to higher engagement levels.
 * 10) Confidence: Closely linked to credibility, researchers also believe that employees also need to have confidence in their organisation and its reputation and ethical standards in order to increase employee engagement.

Herzberg's Motivators
According to Frederick Herzberg, there are six internal motivating factors that drive employee engagement. These are:
 * 1) Sense of achievement: Feeling accomplished from completing work tasks.
 * 2) Recognition: Providing employees with positive and consistent feedback.
 * 3) The work itself: Feeling that their job and tasks have purpose towards reaching the goals of the organisation.
 * 4) Responsibility: Feeling that their job is of significant importance.
 * 5) The opportunity for advancement: Providing employees with opportunities for career development.
 * 6) Personal growth: Feeling a sense of personal development as a result of work.

Ruyle, K. et al.'s theory
Ruyle, K. et al. (2009) states that the single most important causing factor that drives employee engagement is the immediate manager working relationship. They believe a good manager is skilled in informing employees of the required task, providing constructive performance feedback, recognising good performance, supporting career development and task allocation. Combinations of these factors have been shown to foster a positive work environment, increasing employee engagement.

Flow

 * need to define workflow** Workflow, or "flow", in the workplace, has been shown by research to be positively correlated to high levels of performance, enjoyment of the task, and engrossment during periods of time at work. Studies have shown that when an employee is in a period of flow for just two to three hours, he or she may produce a better quality and greater quantity of work than he or she normally would in a whole day. . Flow is most likely to occur when there is an optimal match between the employee's skill level and the challenge provided. Many consider that assigning employees to a task with an appropriate level of difficulty based on the competency of that individual will therefore result in optimal employee engagement.

Job Design
Jobs that have variety, significance, autonomy and performance feedback are shown by studies to promote internal motivation, personal responsibility and job satisfaction, which are all positively linked to employee engagement. Considering that individuals are motivated and satisfied by different components of their job, studies have shown that job design is integral to increasing employee engagement. According to researchers, characteristics of a job should be individually altered to ensure employees are engaged in their work and committed to their organisation.

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How to engage yourself
Employees that take restorative breaks to stretch out, get water, look out the window at beautiful scenery, or take a brief talk may return to work invigorated. Such breaks can reduce job stress, promote long-term physical health, and also support employees' concentration, energy, and physical health.

Engaging employees
There are several ways in which managers can positively influence employee engagement. This can include:
 * Welcome new employees
 * Get to know individual employees
 * Focus and support employees
 * Coach and develop employees
 * Handle feedback from employees
 * Recognize employee performance

Support employees’ intrinsic motivation
Employers can promote workflow in the workplace, since "Flow" entails peak levels of performance, enjoyment of the task, and engrossment during periods of time at work. When an employee is in a period of flow for just two to three hours, he or she may produce a better quality and greater quantity of work than he or she normally would in a whole day.

Flow is most likely to happen when there is an optimal match between the employee's skill level and the challenge provided. Managers would be wise to assign employees to tasks that they will find neither too easy nor too hard.

Welcoming new employees:

Selection: Certain people are more likely to experience flow at work than others. For instance, employees who have developed and maintained a high level of intrinsic motivation for what they do are more likely to experience flow. Employers can use personality profiles to better select the right employees for the right positions. During the selection process, present some tough hurdles that candidates will have to surmount as employees. This will give them a sense of accomplishment even before they are hired.

Promotion: Use competency framework to recruit managers who either have skills already or have the potential to develop them and to recruit current employees for new, more desirable jobs, rather than going outside the organization. Training: This means that adequate training must be provided for employees and they should not be given many tasks for which they are highly overqualified. Ongoing assessment of employee skills and abilities is required in order to enhance the likelihood that an optimal match is provided. Also employers can provide professional development opportunities for their employees.

Getting to know individual employees:

High level of engagement needs the support of the development of employees' intrinsic motivation. Jobs that have variety, significance, autonomy and performance feedback will promote internal motivation, personal responsibility and job satisfaction, which is also said to have intrinsic motivation. All of these increases create meanings for employees, which contribute towards employee engagement. Employees will to pursue both prescribed and voluntary work. Both job engagement and job enrichment are important to motivating employees. All work can be made more meaningful by altering characteristics of the work, helping employees to see their work in the greater context of the organisation.

Research based upon the sixteen basic desires theory indicates that desires for physical activity, romance, social contact, independence, order, helping others, curiosity, acceptance, eating, tranquillity, power, savings, honours, competition, prestige, and family all are related to engaging employees.

In fact, knowing an employees' top three or four motives can lead to a greater match between the employee and the assigned task, which promotes more engagement.

Support employees’ extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation leads to greater understanding and better problem-solving abilities, whereas extrinsic motivation leads to greater speed on relatively easy tasks. Extrinsic motivation can be crucial for helping someone to keep working hard and remain inspiring. When it refers to focusing and supporting employees, money is a powerful incentive and can activate an employee's extrinsic motivation. The design of the compensation plan should include pay, financial and nonfinancial benefits and be aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives.

Communication
When it refers to coaching and developing employees, handling feedback from employees, communication plays an important role. Employers need to aware that communication can lead to a more productive relationship between management and employees. Managers should be able to understand their behaviours and competencies they need to engage their teams, thus making engagement much more concrete and tangible. There are also some actions employers can take, for example, employees should have a voice enables them to take part in dialogue across the organization about matters that impact the current and future performance of an organization, and also encouraging employees come up with a great idea to improve a product or a service can make them feel involved in their organisation.

Organizational integrity is a critical enabler for engagement and trust in the management team, which is about the words of an organization are ensured to match the behaviors. If there are inconsistencies in company culture and gaps in the words and actions of the leadership, managers can conduct employee research or give employees a voice via channels such as the staff survey, listening groups, ideas schemes, and forums on the company internet.

A effective communication incudes acknowledging employees' feelings, explaining the underlying purpose for tasks, clarifying how tasks contribute to an inspiring vision, providing employees with opportunities to help develop innovative practices, highlighting the interesting aspects of tasks. Communication is an investment of time that will acquire dividends in engagement and perhaps loyalty in the long run.

If employers used impropriate communication techniques, then fear of negative performance evaluation (an extrinsic motive) may become a more prominent concern for the employee than any intrinsic motivation to think deeply about or discuss important issues related to the company's mission. This management style will lead to "group think" that diverse expertise agree on decisions that are actually bad for the company.

Leadership style
When it refers to recognizing employee performance, Leadership styles is important to engage employees. The results demonstrate the existence of a not-too-costly organizational instrument – leadership style for increasing worker engagement, especially when the sector has high level of environmental complexity. Managers should become more aware of the impact of leaders’ behaviours on employee performance and morale. Many companies will need leadership interventions that help leaders better communicate with employees if they want to promote deeper engagement.

Applications in different countries and industries
The companies across the globe try to follow the 10 C’s for employee engagement to satisfy their employees. Connect, career, clarity, convey, congratulate, contribute, control, collaborate, credibility, confidence.

The impact of employee engagement as an HR tool is high. It is not limit to one country or industry or a few hundreds of people because the higher the level of engagement, the higher the performance of the business. And these techniques again would vary from industry to industry.

Increasing engagement is a primary objective of organizations seeking to understand and measure engagement.

Some additional points from research into drivers of engagement are presented below:


 * Employee perceptions of job importance - "...an employee's attitude toward the job's importance and the company had the greatest impact on loyalty and customer service than all other employee factors combined."


 * Employee clarity of job expectations - "If expectations are not clear and basic materials and equipment are not provided, negative emotions such as boredom or resentment may result, and the employee may then become focused on surviving more than thinking about how he can help the organization succeed."


 * Career advancement / improvement opportunities - "Plant supervisors and managers indicated that many plant improvements were being made outside the suggestion system, where employees initiated changes in order to reap the bonuses generated by the subsequent cost savings."


 * Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors - "Feedback is the key to giving employees a sense of where they’re going, but many organizations are remarkably bad at giving it." "'What I really wanted to hear was 'Thanks. You did a good job.' But all my boss did was hand me a check.'"


 * Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates - "...if employees' relationship with their managers is fractured, then no amount of perks will persuade the employees to perform at top levels. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with the boss."


 * Perceptions of the ethos and values of the organization - "'Inspiration and values' is the most important of the six drivers in our Engaged Performance model. Inspirational leadership is the ultimate perk.  In its absence, [it] is unlikely to engage employees."


 * Effective internal employee communications - which convey a clear description of "what's going on". "'

Commitment theories are rather based on creating conditions, under which the employee will feel compelled to work for an organization, whereas engagement theories aim to bring about a situation in which the employee by free choice has an intrinsic desire to work in the best interests of the organization.

Recent research has focused on developing a better understanding of how variables such as quality of work relationships and values of the organization interact, and their link to important work outcomes. From the perspective of the employee, "outcomes" range from strong commitment to the isolation of oneself from the organization.