Employee Engagement best practices

Employee commitment

Employee commitment simply applies to a condition in which employees are committed to their jobs for reasons other than monetary compensation. Organizations, on the other hand, must invest resources, effort, and tactics. When combined, these components lay the groundwork for employee dedication. Any company has procedures in place to help them meet its objectives. While behaviors differ between organizations, there are several that are similar. The aim of this paper is to recognize two of the best practices, compare them to those at Hewlett-Packard Incorporated, and make suggestions for reform.

Best Practices Have Been Established

Open contact and feedback processes are among the best practices (Ruck, Welch & Menara, 2017). This practice allows employees to voice out their concerns, issues, recommendations, exchanging ideas, telling stories of achievements and challenges. Here, human resource management needs to carry out a survey on the employees to find out their comfort levels with the work environment and conditions (Ruck, Welch & Menara, 2017). This strategy collects these information through social media and surveys. For instance, team leaders are encouraged to create WhatsApp groups for members of the team. They use the platform to ask questions, say what they need to be changed or simply encourage one another to achieve production targets.

On the other hand, surveys can be done through free text messages and on websites where employees log in and answer a set of questions. This form of communication make employees feel that they are part of the organization, thereby boosting their morale at work (Ruck, Welch & Menara, 2017). For instance, Recreational Equipment Incorporated implements this practice through an online platform of social media known as ‘company campfires’ (Miller, 2014). The employees debate on and discuss issues with one another to find solutions to problems (Miller, 2014). It offers them an opportunity to contribute to the entity’s decision making processes.

Another best practice for employee engagement

Another best practice for employee engagement is creation of incentives, acknowledgment, and career development opportunities (Miller, 2014). Organizations implement systems and programs which identify employees who achieve exceptional performance are rewarded for good work. Other business entities also have incentives for workers who recognize, practice, and uphold values and principles (Miller, 2014). As long as particular activities help improve the image of the organization or increase production in a unique way, the participants are paid or given gifts. Moreover, some organizations coach employees while other combine the program with mentorship. The objective is to help workers to develop their careers as they work. Employees become stimulated to work better. They know that the organization is interested in their wellbeing as individuals, and endeavor to also help it realize its corporate objectives. For example, MD Anderson Cancer Centre has a program for offering mentorship to the nurses, doctors, and interns as a way of guiding them in their career (Parikh, Brown, Yang & Tannir, 2017). It makes them know that they are in the right profession and seek to perform better in their current jobs.

How Hewlett & Packard (HP) Incorporated Implements These Practices

HP applies the practice of ‘the voice of employee’ in its human resource management. The organization allows its workers to share their views on a platform known as Voice of the Workforce (VoW). Here, the perceptions of workers on the identity of HP brand is collected and analyzed to help the company make production decisions. It also measures the levels and improvements of training and development, and how the goals of the entity are achieved. The difference between what HP does and what other organizations employ is that HP carries out this exercise annually. Further, the program is availed in twenty six languages to ensure that all its employees in every branch participates in the survey.

Secondly, HP has created an incentive known as Golden Banana Award (Sims, 2014). This program identifies and compensates employees who have helped the organization to solve problems through unique innovations. It encourages workers to stay on course and find ways of improving the performance of the business. On the flipside, the employees endeavor to become the best and be recognized for being special. As they do so, they feel as part of the business and dedicate their services to it. The difference between HP’s practice and common practice is that HP allows only those who invent new ideas and products to get this awards. It leaves out those who improve their performance. However, it has mentorship programs and career development strategies for its employees on an online platform which is also an annual event.

Recommendations to HP Incorporated

To effectively benefit from the practice of employee voice, the management needs to open the VoW survey platform throughout the year. This is to ensure that every issue, problem, or recommendation is communicated as soon as it happens. Instant responses and feedbacks makes employees to appreciate their roles in the business. Moreover, delays in communications between the management and workforce create loopholes which may be difficult to fill up at later stages when surveys are carried out. Consequently, important information and insights are lost. Further, HP needs to expand the scope of Golden Banana Awards to include workers who have spontaneously improved performance without necessarily having invented an idea of product. This will enable them to have a rigorous and benefit-oriented work ethics.

The currently implemented career development should be done physically. The existence of an online training and connections site is inadequate. Human beings learn better when they have actual contact with their trainers. Accordingly, HP can encourage its employees to work committedly when they have real people guiding their actions and helping them to make career choices. Even job rotations and employment in new sectors cannot achieve the same results as mentorship.

Insights Gained Into Employee Engagement

I have learnt that employees’ are vital components for existence and growth of a business. As a result, their inputs through feedbacks are also important. Providing a proper, effective, reliable, and usable communication systems makes it easy to manage issues arising and solving organization problems. This practice has the effect of making employees to have a sense of belonging in the system, hence a practice to be committed in serving the business with all their strengths. As a leader, I will ensure that the voice of the employees form the basis of decision making and actions in the business. In this sense, I will avail text message platform, WhatsApp group forum, and an online website for communicating with the employees as done at Recreational Equipment, Incorporated This step will help in retaining the workers as they help the organization to attain its goals and still feel as part of the entity.

On the issue of reward, recognition and advancement of career objectives, I will assign every employee a professional mentor. These mentors will meet the employees every last date of the month to share insights and discuss issues which affect their performance. This program will also reward employees who will have shown exceptional improvements. In particular, the rewards will be in the forms of job promotions, scholarships to interns, sponsored trainings to senior employees, and executives. In summary, I have learnt that employee engagement helps both the organization and employees as individuals. It must thus be given proper attention through planning and executing achievable strategies.

References

Miller, H. S. (2014). The 10 Best Practices for Enhanced Employee Engagement. Henry Miller

Group, 1(2014), 18.

Parikh, J. R., Brown, J., Yang, W. T., & Tannir, H. (2017). Network collaboration of an

academic institution and a community health organization. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 14(2), 282-285.

Ruck, K., Welch, M., & Menara, B. (2017). Employee voice: An antecedent to organizational

engagement?. Public Relations Review.

Sims, B. (2014). Using positive‐reinforcement programs to effect culture change. Employment

Relations Today, 41(2), 43-47.