Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is seen as the extent to which employees feel committed to their organization. It is the relationship that an employee has to the organization for which he or she works. Organizational commitment from employees does not just mean that they will not leave the job, but also that they feel like true ambassadors of the organization. Engaged employees feel a real sense of belonging, trust the leadership of the organization, and feel that there are opportunities for reward and growth.

The Benefit of Engaged Employees

Organizations that cultivate employee engagement find that there is an increase in employee camaraderie and trust. This increases collaboration among employees and decreases hostility in the workplace. Organizations experience higher productivity, improved creativity, and lower turnover.

How to Increase Engagement

Research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) indicates that to increase employee engagement, organizations have to instill in supervisors the importance of giving their employees meaning, variety, autonomy, and co-worker support while on at work.

Meaningfulness of a job is determined by the variety of skills, the task identity, and the task significance. Skill variety has to do with the skillset required to complete a job (i.e., Does the task need a range of skills?). Task identity is the extent to which an employee is responsible for a task from start to finish, rather than just a portion of the job. Task identity is also related to employee empowerment. Task significance is how meaningful the employee feels the task is relative to making an impact inside or outside of the organization.

To understand how to change these criteria, supervisors need to understand their employees. Seek candidates from within the organization to fill existing job roles that fit their professional development goals better than their current job. By using an employee’s strengths, organizations will begin to increase engagement.

Employee Commitment

Another component of engagement is commitment. Employee commitment, or the relationship an employee has with the organization he or she is employed with, can be increased when an organization reciprocates with a commitment to an employee. For example, giving employees professional development opportunities increases knowledge, skills, experience, and expertise.

When organizations train employees, they are investing in them and letting them know that the organization sees them as valuable. By developing an employee’s skills, organizations increase self-efficacy (how confident an employee feels they will be successful in a specific role or task), self-esteem (how an employee feels about him or herself), and employer commitment.

Employees derive gratification from learning new skills, especially if they perceive those new skillsets to be associated with an increase in pay or title. Training also enhances the value of an organization’s employees because gaining new skills can foster innovation, creativity, and productivity.

Foster Employee Engagement with Trakstar Learn

If your organization is looking to foster employee engagement through training, one great way to start is by offering online training. Online training is low-cost, highly scalable, and requires very little upfront investment by the organization. Learn is a learning management system that stores training, course progress, and assessment data all easily accessible from the web. Request a demonstration of the Learn platform. See for yourself how easy the Learn LMS is to use.