The region underwent rationalization 18 months ago, in which 7 different counties went from doing everything in 7 individual ways, into one region with 7 different unction’s operating in accordance with guidelines from National Headquarters. This has proved to be a challenging time for the employees and after a year and half of change, their physical, mental and emotional outlook would have changed. Employees are one of the most important factors in the success of the organization and we need to ensure that we are looking after them to the best of our ability. Repose to conduct a research project looking at employee engagement and how this effects the organization. This is also important as new guidelines from the Care Quality Commission have stated that all future inspections will encompass an overview of the organization as a whole, and employee engagement will be past of this. From the SOOT analysis I have carried out (see appendix 1), I can see that there are a large number of strengths and weaknesses. The strengths detailed shows that the organization already has some good tools in place in regards to employee engagement, providing they are being utilizes properly.
The weaknesses listed all play a part in a decline in the concept of employee engagement, which could provide an adverse effect on the organization. The CHIP defines employee engagement as: “Being positively present during the performance of work by willingly intriguing intellectual effort, experiencing positive emotions and meaningful connections to other”. (Chip . Co. UK, 2014) The term Employee Engagement encompasses motivation, job satisfaction and commitment to the organization.
If an employee feels satisfied and positive within their role, the more motivated they will feel to go the “extra mile”. In turn, the employee will feel more valued, be more committed and engaged with the organization as a whole. From this, the organization should notice a greater level of productivity and an achievement of its goals. Absence levels will decrease and the level of staff turnover should lower. It will also be easier to recruit the right Of employee as the organization will be seen as a good organization to work for.
Armstrong (2012) states that: “Organizational engagement will be affected by the quality of life provided by the working environment and by having an employee value proposition that ensures the organization is an employer of choice” Identification Of the key stakeholders and why and how they might be interested in or affected this study (AC 4. 1, 4. 2) There are many Stakeholders that may be interested in the review, but the key stakeholders and their different interests are detailed below: Managers
Managers will have a large responsibility in ensuring that employees are engaged within their role and with the organization. The level of engagement displayed will directly affect their function and achievement of their objectives. Managers will need to understand and be supportive of the concept of employee engagement, as well as implementing any changes that may come from this study, such as learning and development and performance management. Management, whether senior or line managers will ultimately be concerned with the cost that the lack of engagement brings for the organization I. E. Sheer levels of absence and low productivity as well as the cost Of implementing any recommendations that may be made as a result of this study. Employees Employees will need to understand what engagement is and how it can benefit their emotional and mental wellbeing, as well as their role within the organization. They will ultimately experience the majority of any chances and will want to know how they will be effected. Potential employees People who are seeking employment may be interested in this issue as this will influence the way they view the organization and be a deciding factor in plying for any future job vacancies.
Trade Unions It would be very easy for employee engagement to be used in a negative way to ensure that employees are more productive and putting in more effort for no reward. In this case, Trade Unions would be interested to ensure that employees aren’t exploited for the good of the organization and that the benefits of improving employee engagement are mutually beneficial to all parties concerned. Identification of the key sources of secondary research sources e. G. The key textbooks, journals, concepts and other organizational data/recent research and an evaluation of their nutrition to the study (AC 1. & 1. 2) Key research methods of collecting primary data and an evaluation of their relative strengths and weaknesses (AC 1 . 1, 2. 3 & 2. 4) Outline of how you might present the findings in order to persuade stakeholders to act on the results. (AC 4. 2 & 4. 3) would need to research Employee Engagement and the effect it has on the organization in order to establish the current level Of employee engagement. I could also look at how employees think engagement could be improved. The data I use to find this out will either be Qualitative (data that is descriptive) or
Quantitative (data that is measurable and in a numerical form) I could also use internal information, such as reports that contain information from performance appraisals and exit interviews that have already been collated from within my own organization. This is classed as Secondary Research. This would be easily accessible to me and would give me a picture of engagement within the organization. Another form of secondary research would be to look at reports and policies from other organizations in order to find out what their approach is and how effective it has been.
An example of this would be the INS. Their website states: “Staff engagement is a key ingredient in helping the INS meet the range of current challenges that it faces. Effective staff engagement will be essential to help meet the financial challenges and improve productivity. ” (Mesosphere. Org, 2014) There is a whole range of materials within this weapon such as a toolkit for employee engagement, which details the benefits, how to embed engagement and tips for how to improve this.
Details of webzines, a model of an engagement policy and tools to measure engagement can also be found. Results of a recent employee survey have also been published. The results for employee engagement and involvement can be seen below: “The indicator is made up of scores for job satisfaction, motivation, levels Of involvement and willingness to act as an advocate for the organization by recommending it. Motivation scores improved from 3. 82 to 3. 84. The key involvement measure, I. E. Ability to contribute toward improvements at work, increased from 67 to 68%.
The percentage who felt involved in decision making also improved to 54% and ability to make suggestions rose to 75%”(Ionospheres. Org, 2014) This would give me an example of good practice in which to base my research on and also to compare with another organization, such as Iceland, who have been named as the best company to work for out of 100 organizations by the Sunday Times. There are other sources within this type of research that I could use such as Literature. This would be hard copies of text books or journals that give different points of view on the subject.
I could use a report by McLeod and Clarke (2008), entitled “Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement” This report was commissioned by the Government to look at employee engagement and look at the potential benefits to employees, organizations and companies. The report went on to detail what employee engagement is, the evidence behind employee engagement, the barriers that might be in place as well as how to make engagement work. The report also looks at case studies for different organizations and companies.
I could relate some of the information in this report to my study, especially in regards to barriers and recommendations. An example of an article that I might use from a journal would be “Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance” (Marko’s and Sandy Serried, 2010) from the International Journal of Business and Management. This article defines employee engagement, looks at the drivers behind engagement and look at how the organizations is effected as well as offering an opinion on strategies. There is also a large amount of literature available online.
I would need to be careful about the sources of this type of literature as there are a lot of unreliable websites such as Wisped. I would need to ensure that literature was either from a credible website or an online academic resource such as Google Scholar, which can access a wide range of articles, reports and books from professional bodies, universities and academic publishers. This gives me a wide range of sources in which I can use in my research. Collecting and analyzing data myself from different sources that are external to the organization, is considered as Primary Research.
I could use the following methods to collect the primary research that need, each having strengths and weaknesses. Conducting Interviews. This would provide me with Qualitative data and give me the direct information I need, as well as the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the answers given by asking probing questions if necessary. There are 3 hypes of interviews that I could use: Structured – Using a pre prepared set of questions would give me very precise and relevant answers, but this could also be too rigid and the interviewees may not be able to express their true opinions.
Semi Structured -? This type Of interview would have some questions that are standard but would allow the interviewee the opportunity to speak freely and express their thoughts on the subject Unstructured – There are no pre-prepared questions in this type of interview and the interviewee will be able to speak about the subject with direction. This may provide a more open insight into the issue, but at the same time could give poor quality data as the interviewee may provide information that is irrelevant to the subject.
With any type of interview, there could be an element of bias during a face to face conversation, as the interviewees may not answer honestly and may tell the interviewer what they think is the correct answer. Using this method of collecting data will be very time consuming The interviewer would need to have good interview and people skills in order for the interviewee to feel comfortable and confident to express their opinions. Questionnaires. From giving the employees questionnaires to complete, I would gain quantitative data.
This would be a less time consuming option initially but would take a good deal of time to collate the response and also to complete any follow up. The employees may give a more honest opinion but at the same time there may be a low response rate, which would not give a proper overview of the employee opinions.
