adminHannan Chitate Business Correspondent
The local media and the country at large are awash with stories highlighting poor performance of entities in the country.
There are always barrages of excuses to justify this state of affairs and if unabated there is risk of continuous decline in economic performance and erosion of shareholder wealth.
While strategies are formulated annually and some even implemented religiously, there still arises the question whether the formulated strategies are shared with all relevant stakeholders in particular the critical employees.
This togetherness, if correctly fostered, creates the necessary sense of ownership, unlocks sagacity among employees and generates a sense of belonging all of which ultimately translate to improved work effort.
Shareholder wealth can indeed be unlocked when organisations master the facets of communicating high expectations to followers and inspiring them to be committed and be part of the shared vision.
Thus to enhance business performance, focus should now shift beyond the obvious monetary rewards but to intrinsic factors such as employee engagement, which is defined as the “harnessing of organisational members’ selves to their work roles” (Kahn, 1966).
There are several debates on the subject of employee engagement, but overwhelmingly satisfying (which is the extent people disapprove of their employer) and commitment (the willingness of people to contribute to business success) will yield engagement (which is the extent people are prepared to act and intervene in order to improve business results) (Aon Hewitt, 2012).
Once employees are engaged business results will improve.
The competence level of executives managing institutions in Zimbabwe has been under scrutiny, but one dimension at the echelon of these challenges could simply be lack of awareness of the impact employee engagement has on bottom line figures.
Congruency between ownership and management interests should be managed in all contexts and this could indeed be the initial phase in addressing performance challenges through enhancing employee engagement levels.
Shareholders and management who fail to share the same vision result in management paralysis which results in the erosion of shareholder wealth through failure to capitalise and invest in long-term plans.
In situations where shareholders are passive, this charade can continue until the expiration of the executives’ contract terms and surprisingly the executives exit with golden handshakes.
In most organisations the “What’s in it for me?” attitude is prevalent and there is little if no evidence of intentions to control this negative attitude towards performance.
The risk is that, if not controlled the contagion effect of this attitude will spread throughout the entity at the shareholder’s expense.
It is strange that even at CEO level this attitude is discernible in many companies.
This state of affairs leaves employers with no option but to pursue employee engagement strategies in order to achieve superior performance results.
When it comes to engagement, perceptions quickly incline towards monetary rewards, but comfort should be given that research has proved that money is not the only influence in people’s decision to take a job as there are other non-financial motivators that employees crave so much for, such as advancement, autonomy, civilised treatment, environment, exposure to senior people, praise when praise is due, support, the feeling of being challenged, the feeling of being trusted, the feeling that work-life balance is respected (Woodruffe, 2006).
This thwarts the excuse of attributing solely low engagement levels to the poor economic performance.
Employee engagement levels can be categorised into five according to Blessingwhite (2011), and indeed if research is to be carried out company by company, sector by sector jaw dropping results could emerge.
The engaged
Every company desires to have an engaged human capital.
This level is comprised of highly engaged employees who contribute highly and have high satisfaction.
It is in this group at the apex where organisational and personal interests align.
The people are known for commitment and discretionary effort in all the work activities they perform.
If a wild guess is to be made of the fraction of employees falling into the engaged level in Zimbabwe, one wonders what percentage would fall into that category.
Would you as an employee fall into that category?
Then the next question becomes, what are companies and employers doing to ensure that the majority of employees are engaged?
This engaged group needs to be kept engaged otherwise they will slide and distress the motivation levels of the workforce and consequently brunt on business performance.
Engaged employees make positive use of themselves in their roles, are more productive, have better well being and stay in their jobs for longer.
Almost engaged
The second level of engagement consists of people that are almost engaged who have medium to high contribution and satisfaction.
This group of people is highly employable and more likely to leave for greener pastures.
It should be observed that their departure robs the entity of a wealth of skill and knowledge.
Employees in this level are reasonably satisfied with the jobs they do.
Companies have an opportunity to turn this group into the engaged so that they get improved performance results.
Honeymooners and
Hamsters
The third level of Honeymooners and Hamsters has medium to high satisfaction but low contribution.
Honeymooners are people new to the organisations or their job roles but generally are happy to be doing what they do.
Companies should aim to move this group quickly so that they start contributing highly.
Hamsters, on the other hand, could be working hard but on non-important tasks thus contributing very little to the success of the organisation.
This grouping usually comprise of people that “retired in place” and spend up a lot of time curled up, reading newspapers, internet browsing, gossiping and bad mouthing the employer.
Such people, whenever given a chance to speak, they demonise their employers and are not proud to be associated with the products they make, sell or even their employers.
This is food for thought. If not managed properly this grouping has potential to cause resentment amongst other employees.
Crash and Burners
The level of Crash and Burners consists of a grouping that has low satisfaction and medium-to-high contribution.
This grouping of employees comprises individuals who are top producers who have failed to achieve their personal definition of success and satisfaction.
Mainly the employees are disillusioned and potentially exhausted.
In analysing their sentiments, they are exceedingly vocal and are stringent that management are making bad decisions or bitterly blaming colleagues that they are not pulling their weight.
This group has potential to leave but may choose to stay for many reasons and slide to become disengaged.
Is this in any way familiar? If not correctly managed they have potential to bring down others around them.
The Disengaged
The worst of the five levels are the disengaged employees who contribute lowly and are lowly satisfied.
This group has people who feel underutilised, disconnected from organisational activities and are not quite getting what they want from their work environments.
Such employees spend the bulk of their time deliberating in contagious negativity.
If left unmanaged the disengaged can without remorse collect monthly pay cheques whilst complaining and at the same time looking for the next job opportunity.
This grouping, if unattended to through coaching erode performance and usually their exit benefits everyone including themselves.
Is this proverbial in your organisation?
Under these circumstances do leaders or CEOs of companies in Zimbabwe understand the influence employee engagement has on the overall bottom line?
If yes, are the strategies being employed to foster engagement appropriate and adequate?
Through research Macey & Schneider (2008) confirmed that engaged employees invest their time, energy or personal resources trusting that their investment will be rewarded intrinsically or extrinsically in a meaningful way by the supervisor.
Research has also confirmed that employee attitudes affect customer attitudes, and customer attitudes affect financial performance.
Given this plethora of compelling evidence on the relationship between engagement and profitability, it should be high time that organisations start implementing strategies that enhance employee engagement in order to improve productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and employee retention.
Most of these strategies that influence positively engagement require minimal financial resources, if not none at all.
Some of the initiatives such as company practices, quality of life, total rewards, people, opportunities and work will be discussed in the next article.
Online Reporter