“Engaged employees are productive employees” according to Shriar (2017). The importance of assessing and analysing employee engagement has a direct impact on the performance of the business. It is an HR tool that uncovers relevant data on employees, and their potential within the organisational culture, to be productive. These are all factors, that the employer controls. With this data, HR has the power to implement solutions that have the potential to effect productivity through engagement strategies to drive sales, adding business-value. 

“You know when you have got it right because your workforce is motivated and productive and the organisation is a talent magnet” according to talentsmoothie (2017). Bersin (2015) describes this as “becoming irresistible”. Bersin (2015) simply defines a highly engaged workforce in 5 elements. An organisation that empowers employees to 1) deliver meaningful work, where 2) management takes a hands-on approach in setting the goals, coaching people and managing performance. In a 3) positive work environment that is real, flexible, recognized, diverse and inclusive and 4) creates growth opportunities in training, mobility of staff, blended learning approaches and a knowledge culture. Most importantly and 5) leadership is key to driving engagement by earning trust, investing in people, inspiring, motivating and keeping people aligned to the mission and purpose of the organisation. 

Bersin (2015) states that the “concepts and principles of employee engagement have really changed”. As a result, “a new market is born” namely the “feedback market” with the rise of 4 distinct categories to extract accurate and ongoing employee engagement data. Bersin (2015) describes the categories as: 1) Next Generation Pulse Survey and Management Feedback tools that are fast and easy-to-use in gathering “on-the-ground” feedback from employees; 2) Open Suggestion Box and Anonymous Social Network tools that enable and encourage anonymity and conversations from employees that have a voice that needs and wants to be heard; 3) Culture Assessment and Management tools that help to define a culture, assess “fit” and support effective management in cultural-dynamics and; 4) Social Recognition tools that enable peer-to-peer recognition and rewards employee input. 

I would agree with Bersin (2015) that employee engagement is now an everyday topic and in order to elicit the most accurate employee engagement data would be to implement next generation pulse survey and management tools into the organisation. Bersin’s customers’ described this feedback data as “even more valuable than industry benchmarks” to help understand and drive engagement. 

Bibliography

Bersin, J., 2015. A New Market is Born: Employee Engagement, Feedback, and Culture Apps. [Online]
Available at: http://joshbersin.com/2015/09/a-new-market-is-born-employee-engagement-feedback-and-culture-apps/
[Accessed April 2018].

Bersin, J., 2015. Becoming Irresistible: A New Model for Employee Engagement. [Online]
Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/deloitte-review/issue-16/employee-engagement-strategies.html
[Accessed April 2018].

TalentSmoothie, 2017. Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Factsheet v2. [Online]
Available at: https://talentsmoothie.com/ts1/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/employee-value-proposition-evp-factsheet-talentsmoothie-v2.pdf
[Accessed April 2018].

Shriar, J., 2017. Why HR needs to invest in Employee Pulse Surveys. [Online]
Available at: https://www.officevibe.com/blog/human-resources-needs-invest-employee-pulse-surveys
[Accessed April 2018].