Empolyee Engagement-"Being BP"

A very much talked about function of HR world nowadays wherein there is a paradigm shift in HR role from ‘Being Traditional’ to ‘Being the Business Partner’ for the organization

But what is employee engagement in true sense?

1. Fun activities, events, celebrations, festivals, birthdays?
2. Involvement in decision making?
3. Work life balance?
4. Career growth opportunities?
5. Training, Learning & Development?
6. Adequate utilization of employee in terms of job ability fitment & quantum of workload?

Ideally all the above are subset of a superset called Employee Engagement…

As defined by google baba, it is an extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work. The above mentioned subsets can be summed up in form of 6 C’s for ensuring a complete engagement of employee

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs specifies the need hierarchy of an individual wherein Employee Engagement aspects play a very vital role for the satisfaction of employee by safeguarding the upper 3 portions of Pyramid - Belongingness, Self Esteem and Self Actualization. In spite of good perks, remuneration and designation; people tend to leave the organization or loose interest in their jobs. There might be varied reasons altogether for the same but certain well executed employee engagement practices will surely deal with such issues.

A happy employee is always a productive employee. Although the matter of fact is the need/satisfaction level of different individual is different. So here lies high responsibility on shoulders of managers with whom an employee works day in and day out! The definition of manager is no more a person who gets the work done but he is the responsible one for understanding and thereby helping his team member achieve those upper 3 portions of Maslow’s pyramid.

However, employee engagement is not only the responsibility of HR in the organization but it calls for equal mindset of reporting managers, HODs and management as a whole. It turns out to be an overall cultural image of an organization.  All in all it calls for a CHANGE…

“Growth is the only evidence of Life”

Now the question is whether there is any tool/measure to find out that the employees of our organization are engaged/ disengaged? What are the techniques to find the underlying reasons of disengagement?

This being a very wide topic; could have various other perspectives attached to it. Hence all are requested to kindly share your opinions on the said topic and foster the leaning!!!

 

Carve our own life sculpture-The way we want

Internal Locus of Control and Self Motivation are the biggest weapon to live a satisfactory and happy life. Let us understand it by means of a beautiful story shared by someone in my professional network.

****************************************I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport in Dubai. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said: 'I'm Abdul, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Abdul's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean! As he slid behind the wheel, Abdul said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

I said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'Abdul smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, lassi, water and orange juice.'Almost stuttering, I said, 'I'll take a Lassi.'Handing me my drink, Abdul said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The NST , Star and Sun Today.'

As they were pulling away, Abdul handed me another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'And as if that weren't enough, Abdul told me that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for me.Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day. He also let me know that he'd be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

'Tell me, Abdul ,' I was amazed and asked him, 'have you always served customers like this?'
Abdul smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about POWER OF CHOICE one day."

Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle.

'If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. Stop complaining!''Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.''That hit me. really hard' said Abdul.

'It is about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes, slowly ... a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.' 'I take it that it has paid off for you,' I said.'It sure has,' Abdul replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on it.'************************

Abdul made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like a duck and start soaring like an eagle. Start becoming an eagle today ... one small step every week..next week... And next...And....

"You don't die if you fall in water, you die only if you don't swim.

That's the Real Meaning of Life. Let us Improve Ourself and our skills in a different way.

Be an Eagle. .not a Duck.

Source: Story received on social network