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A leadership priority is emerging how to improve employee engagement within companies: There have been disquieting developments in recent times. All over the world, good employee policies exist in the manuals. However, the management capability to engage with the work orce and to implement the policies humanely is under pressure. !n his book The !dea o "ustice, #ro Amartya $en re ers to the two !ndian philosophical concepts o %iti and %yaya. %iti relates to the policies, principles and institutions o &ustice while the %yaya re ers to the actual delivery o &ustice. The ormer is committed to better &ustice, while the latter is deeply concerned with the prevention o in&ustice. #revention o in&ustice is very di erent rom pursuit o per ect &ustice. They are two sides o the same coin, but their value perception is di erent. $o ar as the !ndian legislative ramework is concerned, laws pertaining to worker relations have or long needed to be updated. 'abour re orms have been widely discussed, but the sub&ect remains on the pending agenda. However, at the irm level, managers can act on remedying the nyaya perceived by the employees in the employee(employer relation) its practice can be modernised by orward( looking managements. This requires special e ort by company leaders. *vidence o pressure: +onsider the evidence that employees do su er rom a eeling o un air treatment, resulting in desperation and depression among employees o both developed and emerging markets. ,ell(known -rench companies such as -rance Telecom, .enault, #eugeot and */- have experienced increasing suicides among workers in the last two years. The cynic may observe that the -rench suicide rate is generally high compared to 0ritain, 1ermany and the 2$. That is true. However, even in the 2$, the rate o suicides has increased by 345 in the last two years. *mployees eel that they are expected to o er loyalty to their employer, but they do not receive an equal commitment rom the employer to protect their &obs. 6anagers are so ocused on corporate survival that they seem to have a limited bandwidth to attend to the employees7 eeling o in&ustice. *mployees everywhere say that they are 7in distress7 or that they are 7stressed out7. $urveys in the 2$ over the last ew years show that indices like 7loyalty7 and 7trust7 have collapsed rom the 485 levels to 985 levels. 6ore than hal the respondents eel a sense o stagnation and disinterest in their work. The recession has increased uncertainty simultaneously with a perceived 7onslaught7 by managers to increase work orce productivity.
All in all, in the developed countries, permanent workers are unhappy and are disenchanted with both their work and their employers7 attitude. Temporary workers too have their own grievances. !n $outh :orea, industrial action by temporaries has been experienced at $sangyong and /onghee. !n "apan, the president o .engo has stated his disapproval o ;temporaries being treated the same as robots;. !n !ndia too, we have witnessed hyper cases o industrial action recently. A ter many decades o relative labour tranquillity, company executives have been killed at 1ra<ino in the north and #ricol in the south. $trikes have occurred at 1urgaon(6anesar, +hennai and +oimbatore. *mployees in the emerging markets are deeply concerned about in lation, ood and security. #rices o essential commodities have already increased sharply. -ood experts predict that the rise in ood prices is only the beginning o a serious, new threat. .ichard Henry, chie economist at !-+7s agribusiness department, believes that ;last year7s ood crisis was a airly small one and was cut short by the global inancial crisis the next one is bound to be more prolonged;. !n emerging countries, such orecasts cause very deep concerns. 2niversally, employees are a worried lot. All o these are alarming trends and need to be taken seriously. $olutions must be ound and implemented at the irm level. ,ithin the irm, it must be ocused upon at the departmental level and at the level o the individual relationship. *mployees eel engaged or disengaged at the transactional level within departments. A irm(level approach: 6anagers must consider a our(pronged approach: l -irst, the sub&ect o employee engagement needs to be driven down the company by the +*=. ! think there is a general lack o awareness o the problem down the line. !t is also mixed up with the general economic downturn. #oor employee engagement, it must be clearly understood, is a precursor to some other problem which is brewing. That is why there needs to be top(level engagement. ! enough employees eel disengaged, the consequences will certainly be disruptive. =perating managers have to act. !t cannot be le t to the H. department.
will de initely eel engaged. !ncidentally, i because o your attention employees grow wings and ly away to another company, it7s ine. !n a growth market ull o opportunities you cannot, in any case, keep employees arrested. However, i you truly invest in careers o your employees they will stay engaged or the time they are with you ( breeding enthusiasm and good will. +ompetence: ,hile career is about the actual growth, competence is about the ability to grow. =pportunities to learn and apply the learning in real li e tasks grows competence. And most employees are looking or competence(boosting opportunities. They would like to stretch, learn and improve as long as they eel they are growing marketable skills. *mployees who know that their current &obs are helping them become competent or uture &obs will stay engaged. +are: +aring is a ine art that requires managers to be sensitive, empathetic and spontaneous. +aring is experienced by the small day(to(day gestures o managers >not by grand policies o the company@. Are you sensitive to the 7mood7 o your employeeC /oes your employee share with you that her child is sick or he has to attend a parentDteacher meetingC /o you volunteer some time o during those timesC /o you know their workloadC Are you doing something about easing their stressC There are many daily gestures that comprise caring ( which no ma&or investment in swanky gyms and ood courts can substitute. +aring is a culture that good companies oster through a set o sensitive managers who balance tasks well with relationships. !ncidentally, sometimes un and ood(based entertainment helps express caring. Thus entertainment is perhaps A5 o engagement. And genuine caring deepens engagement. "ust as band, baa&aa and baaraat does not equate wedding, un, rolic and entertainment can not create sustainable employee engagement. !ts time we got serious with employees. Chandrasekhar Sripada (The author is VP and head, HR at IBM India, South Asia )
and workers at 'and .over. The world over, the biggest challenge companies ace is engaging their people. And !ndian business houses like the Tatas and !n osys seem to do it very well. !s this something academicians should researchC The &ury is still out on that one,; he says. 1rant, who is in 6umbai to teach a course at the newly established 6!$0 0occoni $chool o 6anagement in #owai, believes there are also some things about !ndian culture that corporates need to ignore. $ocial strati ication and power distance, or example. ;The culture in !ndian !T companies, like !n osys, is very egalitarian. Goung people are encouraged to challenge their bosses, which goes against !ndian culture, but they do it,; he says. ,hich brings us to what 1rant believes is the second ma&or trend in strategic research today the study o leadership. The earlier dys unctional ocus on individual leaders has gone out o vogue, thanks to the work done by the likes o "im +ollins. 'eadership is now being seen as acilitating the evolution o the organisation, which has none o the +*= hubris that accompanied the earlier description. ;=ne o the eatures o a complex, modern(day corporation is that no one knows how it works, not even the +*=,; says 1rant. Another interesting area o strategy research that 1rant mentions is the management o real options. -rom the Tatas and 0irlas to the Ambanis and 6ahindras, this is a strategy that many !ndian business houses have deployed to move into new areas like de ense, telecom and retail. 1rant gives the example o 1oogle, which has adopted a strategy o regularly going into new areas like the android system and the 1oogle +hrome browser.
but when combined with a set o core values, these two concepts together can trans orm a workplace into something that employees believe in and are proud o . +ore values(this is how we do it. +ore values communicate how the employees within an organi<ation are going to go about the business o executing its mission. As pointed out above, the mission at 6arriott Hotels !ndia is, ;To be the I? hospitality company in the world.; 6arriott has developed these core values that de ine how the company will go about executing its mission: #ut #eople -irst, #ursue *xcellence, *mbrace +hange, Act with !ntegrity and $erve =ur ,orld. These represent behavioral expectations or the employees o 6arriott Hotels !ndia and thus direct their e orts toward the goals o the organi<ation. ,hen a set o core values is in place and everyone in the business is committed to them, employees no longer need a boss to tell them what to do and how to do it. Step !wo: .ire #nly 0ualified 'eople Who ,esh With the Culture +ompanies with a high level o employee engagement are extremely disciplined about using their culture as the primary criterion or hiring new employees. !n order or employees to become engaged with their work, there must be a tight it between those individuals and the mission and core values o the organi<ation. ,hat this means is that i a perspective employee can7t get excited about #ursuing *xcellence, *mbracing +hange and Acting with !ntegrity, than 6arriott is not the workplace or them to thrive in. Step !hree: )eaders ,ust )ead, *ot +i"e #rders !n a high(engagement organi<ation, there is no need or leaders to tell their ollowers what to do and how to do it. !nstead leaders set the example, provide support and do whatever it takes to enable his or her ollowers to do their best work. ! companies in !ndia would ollow The *ngagement -ormula, they will have created a work environment where all employees, including millennials, can thrive. -ollowing the ormula will not only make businesses more success ul, they will become magnets or attracting the best talent. Dr. Ross Reck is author of "The Engagement Formula", "Destination Work", REVVED! , The Win-Win Negotiator
E!: What are the mistakes managers make when it comes to keeping their teams engaged1 =ne mistake is that managers practice position(ship rather than leadership. They ocus on constituency, the people they need the most and depend on, only caring about how they are viewed by the leaders above them, thereby ollowing position(ship. 6anagers orget what it was like to be an employee and the qualities important or managers to have. Also, managers need to maintain strong relationships with the people they manage. ,e o ten hear ( /on7t get too close to your managersDemployees as you may lose ob&ectivity, which is alse. !n act, you gain to communicate e ectively and have a meaning ul relationship. E!: What are the warning signs for an organisation that engagement le"els of the workforce are coming down1 /rop in energy levels at your workplace. !s your workplace energised, is it un, do people look orward to coming to workC =r is your workplace always serious, slower in pace and lacks motivationC Another sign is when there are more people who are saying why they can7t do things vs what they can do. -or example, when there is a new idea, there are more people against it than or it. ,hen people in the organisation become sceptical to adopt new ways, it is a sign o lowered engagement. E!: What should managers do when they see engagement le"els slipping1 .ow can organisations help1 The irst thing that managers need to do is to have a transparent conversation with the team. The power o dialogue is most power ul and the most underutilised thing that a manger does. The manager needs to talk to the team, about the team, bring issues out in the open because long(term disengagements are caused by people who cannot move out o problem mode and get into the solution mode. A manager needs to ask people or help and not shy away rom it. As humans, when we are asked or help, the best o us comes to the sur ace. Thus managers need to address the issue head on, ask or help and expect solutions rather than urther problems.