Inportance of HR Policy and Other Factors in Employee Engagement Essay

Inportance of HR Policy and Other Factors in Employee Engagement - Essay Example The findings of this research will provide insight of Human Resource (HR) department that has earned a fundamental status in any organization in the recent history. It facilitates the formation of an effective infrastructure in which employees can excel and achieve goals in accordance with the vision of the company. HR functions encompass the art of providing an environment for the managers such that they are able to engage their employees and achieve desired results. Alfres, Truss, Soane, Rees and Gatenby defined employee engagement as the presence and active participation of the employee in the happenings of the organization, alongside maintaining effective and meaningful relations with the colleagues. Lockwood stated that the employees who possess greater levels of commitment with the organization tend to perform 20% better than the others and there are 87% less chances of them leaving the organization. Therefore, it can be said that better organizational results can be linked to greater employee engagement. A performance driven environment that is fuelled by competent employees is achieved by the presence of effective HR policies. Humane, flexible and clear HR policies ensure a fair and amiable working environment that helps to engage employees by protecting their rights and interests. However, the formulation of valuable HR policies is not the only factor that is used to attain employee engagement in the organization.... Figure 2: Managers’ practices influence the level of employee engagement and ultimately the business results (Vance, 2006) Alfres, Truss, Soane, Rees, and Gatenby (2010) considered the following factors to bear great relevance when employees rate their line managers; communication, trust and level of fairness. Along these lines, the managers are expected to assign tasks in a fair manner in accordance with the skills and expertise of the employees. The employees expect clear and unambiguous guidelines from their managers so that the employees can direct their efforts in a consistent direction and produce results according to the expectations of the managers. Vance (2006) discussed the job characteristics model from the 1970s that increased the attention on the relation of job design with job satisfaction. This model promotes the consideration of the following aspects; skill variety, clear identification of task, relevance of task, independence to perform the task and feedback o f the performance. Line managers are also responsible for ensuring that the efforts of the employees are rewarded in an according manner. 2.2 Team Cohesiveness and Mutual Support Mutual understanding and cohesiveness are important traits of any team since these factors work towards the enhancement of employee engagement. Albercht (2010) stated that exchange of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) helps the employees to improve their work performance and stay directed towards the achievement of the goals of the team. Mutual support promotes an amiable environment in the team which develops personal relations within team members; such relations provide the feeling of belonging to a specific establishment.