Employee Engagement

Defining employee engagement

    Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards his/her organization and its values. It has been defined more completely as when employees feel positive emotions toward their work, find their work to be personally meaningful, consider their workload to be manageable, and have hope about the future of their work (Saks, 2006).

Karsan and Kruse (2011) defines that employee engagement is the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organizational success and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of organizational goals.

Kahn (1990: 894) defined 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’.

Drivers of employee engagement  
To be able to do anything about engagement it is necessary to understand the factors that affect this – its antecedents and drivers. Crawford et al (2013: 59–62) listed the following drivers:

• Job challenge: this takes place when the scope of jobs is broad, job responsibility is high and there is a high work load. It enhances engagement because it creates potential for accomplishment and personal growth.

• Autonomy: the freedom, independence and discretion allowed to employees in scheduling their work and determining the procedures for carrying it out. It provides a sense of ownership and control over work outcomes.

• Variety: jobs which allow individuals to perform many different activities or use many different skills.

• Feedback: providing employees with direst and clear information about the effectiveness of their performance.

• Fit: the existence of compatibility between an individual and a work environment (eg, job, organization, manager, co-workers) which allows individuals to behave in a manner consistent with how they see or want to see themselves.

• Opportunities for development: these make work meaningful because they provide pathways for employee growth and fulfilment.

• Rewards and recognition: these represent both direct and indirect returns on the personal investment of one’s time in acting out a work role.
  
  

Outcomes of employee engagement
Stairs and Galpin (2010) claimed that high levels of engagement have been shown to relate to:

-lower absenteeism and higher employee retention
-Increased employee effort and productivity
-Improved quality and reduced error rates
-Increased sales;
-Higher profitability, earnings per share and shareholder returns;
-Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty;
-Faster business growth; and
-Higher likelihood of business success.

*In order to improve employee engagement, there should be survey to measure where the organization stands in terms of employee engagement. This video will explain more why an organization need an employee survey.

Employee engagement in Hospitality Industry

        Employee engagement is critical to any organization that seeks to retain valued employees. It is very important for effective utilization of human resource and smooth running of the organization. Without employee engagement organization cannot survive for long period of time.  If the employee working in hospitality sector is engaged towards the job, definitely they will provide better hospitality to the guest. Some of the effect of employee engagement on hospitality industry is listed below,

• Engaged employees will stay in the organization and care about its products and services.

• They are well motivated towards hospitality and services.

• Engaged employees creates emotional attachment with the guest and the guest is also get connected with the organization and comes again and again.

• Engaged employees improves customer satisfaction and service levels.

• Engaged employees Provides a high-energy working environment.

How to engage employees in the organization

• Reinforce your venue's mission, vision, and values: Share your venue's mission, vision, and/or values during employee onboarding. When employees understand that they’re working towards a larger goal, they’ll feel more passionate about their work.

• Create team bonding activities: Create a sense of community among your team by making team meals a tradition, hosting social events for employees outside of work, or organizing holiday parties.

• Celebrate employee milestones and personal dates: Let employees know that you care about them by acknowledging employment anniversaries, birthdays, and other meaningful personal occasions.

• Gamify performance: Offer incentives to your team for specific goals like upselling, decreasing ticket times, or selling a special menu item.

• Create a mentorship program: Pair new employees with more experienced staff members to serve as mentors throughout their employment.

• Provide professional development opportunities: Set aside a budget for professional training opportunities for your team.

• Make it easy for team members to stay in touch: When employees can easily communicate with each other, both on the clock and outside of work, they’ll be more committed to their work.

How employee engagement impact on employee attrition in hospitality industry

             Employee engagement became a challenge in employee attrition rises due to the demand and the shortage of skillful employee in the hospitality industry. Hospitality industry must have engaged workforce for the better hospitality and services, so that the guest may visit again and again for the getting the taste of that hospitality. An engage employee is fully dedicated toward their work and work with enthusiasm. Thus it may be concluding that the employee engagement is very important for the survival of hospitality industry and without engagement better hospitality cannot be provided at any cost. When an organization facilitates a strategic employee engagement process, lead employees to feel like they are part of a family and they will be more engaged at work with their colleagues. Employees who are engaged are more likely to stay with their current organization and stay committed to their organization (Bakker et al., 2012; Wildermuth & Pauken., 2008; De Clercq et al., 2010; Karatepe & Olugbade, 2009). Apparently, employees who are not engaged will affect hotel performance through higher absenteeism, higher turnover, lower productivity, and recruitment and training cost. On the other hand, a high level of employee engagement will help hotels to increase the employee satisfaction which leads to a reduction in employee attrition.

 

References

Armstrong, M & Taylor, S. (2014) Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (13^th ed). Kogan Page Ltd [Online]. Available at www.koganpage.com . Accessed on 29^th May 2021.

Cvetkovic, A. (2020) 7 Creative ways to engage hospitality employees. Blog. Typsy [Online]. Available at https://blog.typsy.com/7-creative-ways-to-engage-hospitality-employees . Accessed on 29^th May 2021.

Sadiqe, M. (2014) Employee Engagement in Hospitality Industry in India: An Overview. Global Journal of Finance and Management, pp. 375-378 [Online]. Available at https://www.ripublication.com/gjfm-spl/gjfmv6n4_14.pdf . Accessed on 29^th May2021.