Employee Engagement

Definition of employee engagement


Employee engagement is defined in many ways including, "we know it when we see it."

-Employees are engaged when many different levels of employees are feeling fully involved and enthusiastic about their jobs and their organizations.
-Engagement is the willingness and ability to contribute to company success and the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work, in the form of extra time, brainpower and energy" according to a Towers Perrin study.



Measuring employee engagement


Most companies (75 percent) try to measure employee engagement at this point in time. In addition to the reported level of engagement, organizations use measures such as retention, organizational performance, increased productivity, and financial success.
Overall, employee engagement is one of today's most important business issues. It is a place where we as HR are in a position to make a real difference.



The Five Most Important Tips for Effective Recognition

You need to establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.


-All employees must be eligible for the recognition.

-The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.

-Anyone who then performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward.

-The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.

-You don't want to design a process in which managers "select" the people to receive recognition. This type of process will be viewed forever as "favoritism" or talked about as "it's your turn to get recognized this month." This is why processes that single out an individual, such as "Employee of the Month," are rarely effective.