1. Running head: PLANNING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 1
Planning Employee Engagement
Jose Novelli
Walden University

2. Planning Employee Engagement
Planning Employee Engagement
Leadership in an organization can do many things in increase employee engagement,
retention, and overall productivity. Through Human Resource (HR) maintaining a pulse on
employee satisfaction and happiness, management can take action to ensure that all employees
are happy, productive workers, who contribute to the organization’s overall mission. There are
five key strategies that can help improve employee retention, engagement, and productivity.
These strategies are working environment, rewards and recognition, involving the workforce,
training, and constant job evaluation and satisfaction.
The work environment of an organization needs to meet and address the employees’ needs.
This can be providing snacks, child care, napping area, or anything else your employees feel
strongly about. One needs to know what your employees hold most dear. The work environment
should be a dynamic, changing environment that adapts to the needs of the employees.
Rewarding and recognizing employees can help motivate employees. Mark Twain once said,
“I can live for two months on a good compliment.” (Bersin, J. 2014). These rewards can be
monetary or it can be recognition. The best rewards tend to be motivational and not so much
monetary. By management stepping up to recognize an employee, it highlights exemplary work
ethics and motivates others to follow.
Getting employees involved in the workings of an organization helps to allow new ideas and
gives employees the voice they need to feel important. Employees need to do more than show up
to their employment. They need to be engaged and willing to give it their all. By listening to
suggestions, comments, and concerns, it gives the employees a say in their working environment.
Management does not need to act on every suggestion or concern. It helps to give the
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3. Planning Employee Engagement
management a pulse of the overall contentment of the employees, while giving new ideas and
new perspectives.
Investing in the human capital through training and increasing the upward mobility of
employees, helps all employees strive to be their best. By spending the time and resources to
properly train employees, it reduces the amount of supervision employees need and helps the
company promote from within. This reduces the turnover of employees and helps all employees
feel they are working towards the mission of the company by using their skills and expertise. As
stated by Gregory Smith, “Employees who understand the business, complain less, are more
satisfied, and are more motivated. All this leads to better management-employee relationships”
(Smith, G. 2015). This is the goal that management strives for. So the investments in human
capital will help create a work climate that helps all employees meet their potential.
Management needs to evaluate employees’ satisfaction and contentment on an ongoing basis.
This needs to be done frequently and with target areas in mind. By using surveys and other
evaluation tools, it allows management to target areas of concern, measure growth, and help
develop solutions for long term goals. The goal is to create a work culture where employees that
value their positions, feel they are working up to their potential, and are willing to go above and
beyond for the welfare of the company. Frequent evaluations and surveys help give management
progress indicators to keep all the other strategies on track.
Conclusion
All in all, there are many strategies that management can help improve employee retention,
engagement, and productivity. By ensuring that management provides working environment that
meets the employees needs, rewards and recognition to help employees strive to be the best,
involving the workforce to share ideas and be part of a worthwhile organization, training to help
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each employee live up to their potential, and constant job evaluation and satisfaction to monitor
the successfulness of the other strategies, it is a recipe for success.
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References
Bersin, J. (2014). Time to Rethink The Employee Engagement Issues. Forbes.com. Retrieved on
February 22, 2015 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/04/10/its-time-to-
rethink-the-employee-engagement-issue/3/
Smith, G. (2015). How to Improve Job Satisfaction and Increase Employee Engagement. Chart
Your Own Course International. Retrieved on February 22, 2015 from
http://www.chartcourse.com/the-pride-system/
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References
Bersin, J. (2014). Time to Rethink The Employee Engagement Issues. Forbes.com. Retrieved on
February 22, 2015 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/04/10/its-time-to-
rethink-the-employee-engagement-issue/3/
Smith, G. (2015). How to Improve Job Satisfaction and Increase Employee Engagement. Chart
Your Own Course International. Retrieved on February 22, 2015 from
http://www.chartcourse.com/the-pride-system/
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