INTRODUCTION:

Employee Engagement is the level of commitment an employee has towards the organization. The primary behaviors of engaged employees are: speaking positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees and customers, having a strong desire to be a member of the organization, and exerting extra effort to contribute to the Organization’s success. Employee engagement is one step ahead of employee satisfaction. Employee is not only satisfied with the management decisions, salary and things but also giving back to the organization in terms of commitment, dedication, and loyalty.

A fully engaged employee is intellectually and emotionally bound with the organization, gives 100 percent, feels passionately about its goals and is committed to live by its values. This employee goes beyond the basic job responsibility to delight the customers and drive the business forward. Moreover, in times of diminishing loyalty, employee engagement is a powerful retention strategy.

Research shows that engaged employees: perform better, put in extra efforts to help get the job done, show a strong level of commitment to the organization, and are more motivated and optimistic about their work goals. Employers with engaged employees tend to experience low employee turnover and more impressive business outcomes.

Employee engagement definitions vary from “a positive emotional connection to an employee’s work” to “engaged employees are inspired to go above and beyond the call of duty to help meet business goals”

Focus On Employee Engagement:

Current studies show that organizations are focusing on the meaning of employee engagement and how to make employees more engaged. Employees feel engaged when they find personal meaning and motivation in their work, receive positive interpersonal support, and operate in an efficient work environment. When organizations focus attention on their people, they are making an investment in their most important resource. You can cut all the costs you want, but if you neglect your people, cutting costs won’t make much of a difference. Engagement is all about getting employees to “give it their all.” Some of the most successful organizations are known for their unique work environments in which employees are motivated to do their very best. The concept of engagement is a natural evolution of past research on high-involvement, empowerment, job motivation, organizational commitment, and trust. All of these research streams focus on the perceptions and attitudes of employees about the work environment. In some ways, there are variations on the same fundamental issue. What predicts employees “giving their all?” Obviously, all organizations want their employees to be engaged in their work.

Several standardized tools exist for assessing employee engagement and providing feedback for making changes. These tools tend to have several common goals and characteristics:

Create a simple and focused index of workplace engagement-Many organizations are using very short, simple, and easy to use measures that focus on the fundamentals of a great workplace. Instead of conducting broad culture/climate surveys with 100 or more questions, organizations are opting for a focused approach that measures fundamental qualities of the workplace that likely will be important 10 years from now (e.g., feedback, trust, cooperation).

Allow for benchmarking-Most organizations want to know how they compare to other organizations. Using a standard measure of engagement allows organizations to see how they compare to other companies along a simple set of fundamental work qualities.

Direct action-Engagement measures tend to be very actionable. This means that the organization can alter practices or policies to affect employees’ responses to every item in the measure.

Show relationship to company performance-Without a link to company performance or other critical outcomes, measures of engagement have little value. The whole idea behind engagement is that it leads to enhanced performance. The link to performance outcomes is a necessary underlying assumption of all engagement measures.

Elements of Engagement:

Some researches conclude that personal impact, focused work, and interpersonal harmony comprise engagement. Each of these three components has sub-components that further define the meaning of engagement.

Personal Impact-Employees feel more engaged when they are able to make a unique contribution, experience empowerment, and have opportunities for personal growth. Past research (e.g., Conger and Kanugo, 1988; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990) concurs that issues such as the ability to impact the work environment and making meaningful choices in the workplace are critical components of employee empowerment. Development Dimensions International’s (DDI) research on retaining talent (Bernthal and Wellins, 2000) found that the perception of meaningful work is one of the most influential factors determining employees’ willingness to stay with the organization.

Focused Work-Employees feel more engaged when they have clear direction, performance accountability, and an efficient work environment. Aside from the personal drive and motivation to make a contribution, employees need to understand where to focus their efforts. Without a clear strategy and direction from senior leadership, employees will waste their time on the activities that do not make a difference for the organization’s success. Additionally, even when direction is in place, employees must receive feedback to ensure that they are on track and being held accountable for their progress. Employees lose faith in the organization when they see excessive waste. For example, employees become frustrated when they are asked to operate without the necessary resources or waste time in unnecessary meetings.

Interpersonal Harmony-Employees feel more engaged when they work in a safe and cooperative environment. By safety, we mean that employee trust one another and quickly resolve conflicts when they arise. Employees want to be able to rely on each other and focus their attention on the tasks that really matter. Conflict wastes time and energy and needs to be dealt with quickly. Some researches also find that trust and interpersonal harmony is a fundamental underlying principle in the best organizations. Employees also need to cooperate to get the job done. Partnerships across departments and within the work group ensure that employees stay informed and get the support they need to do their jobs.

There are three levels of Employee Engagement

1. Engaged employees

2. Not engaged employees

3. Actively disengaged employees

Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.

Not Engaged employees are essentially “checked out”. They’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time – but not energy or passion – into their work.

Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their happiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. The following table shows the engagement level of employee’s world wide.

Exhibit: Engagement level of employee’s world wide

Country	% Engaged	% Not Engaged	% Disengage
Mexico	40%	51%	9%
Brazil	31%	62%	7%
U.S.	21%	63%	16%
Belgium	18%	67%	15%
Canada	17%	66%	17%
Germany	15%	70%	15%
Ireland	15%	70%	15%
U.k.	12%	65%	23%
Spain	11%	64%	25%
Korea	9%	71%	20%
France	9%	68%	23%
Netherlands	8%	73%	19%
China	7%	67%	25%
Italy	7%	64%	29%
India	2%	37%	56%
Japan	4%	57%	41%
Global	14%	62%	24%

OBJECTIVES:

1. To study the level of Employees Engaged towards the organization.

2. To study the factors influencing employee engagement.

3. To study the level of commitment of employees towards the organization.

4. To study employees attitude towards the organization.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The study is descriptive research study. The main purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In the present study, descriptive method is used to know the level of employee’s engagement with the organization .The primary data was collected through a well structured questionnaire with close-ended questions measures at 5-point Likert type scale. Secondary data was collected from the company records, magazines, journals, books and Internet. Simple convenience sampling method is used. Sample size consists of 100 respondents. Simple percentage analysis and tabulation is used to analysis the data.

RESULTS, INTERPRETATIONS AND FINDINGS

After analyzing the data the following interpretations are drawn:

Table 1: Response regarding expected work

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	4	4%
2.	Disagree	10	10%
3.	Neutral	20	20%
4.	Agree	60	60%
5.	Strongly Agree	6	6%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above reveals the fact that 6% strongly agree and 60% agree with the work expected from the employees are reasonable, 20% have no idea, and remaining 10% disagree and 4% strongly disagree.

Table 2: Response regarding current position

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	6	6%
2.	Disagree	8	8%
3.	Neutral	10	10%
4.	Agree	68	68%
5.	Strongly Agree	8	8%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above reveals the fact that 8% strongly agree and 68% agree that their talent and abilities are use well in their current position. 10% have no opinion, and remaining 8% disagree and 6% strongly disagree

Table 3: Response regarding satisfaction with the level of pay

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	4	4%
2.	Disagree	16	16%
3.	Neutral	12	12%
4.	Agree	60	60%
5.	Strongly Agree	8	8%
	Total	100	100%

From the above fact reveals the employees satisfaction with the level of pay they receive. It is clear 8% of the respondents strongly agree, 60% agree, 12% have no idea, 16% percent disagree and 4% strongly disagree.

Table 4: Response regarding mutual support among co-workers

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	6	6%
2.	Disagree	-	-
3.	Neutral	16	16%
4.	Agree	64	64%
5.	Strongly Agree	14	14%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above fact reveals that the co-workers help each other when needed. It is clear 14% of the respondents strongly agree, 64% agree, 16% have no opinion and 6% strongly disagree.

Table 5: Response regarding superior relationship with team members

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	4	4%
2.	Disagree	6	6%
3.	Neutral	10	10%
4.	Agree	50	50%
5.	Strongly Agree	30	30%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above fact it is clear that 30% strongly agree and 50% agree that there is friendly working relationship between superior and team members. 10% have no opinion, remaining 6% disagree and 4% strongly disagree.

Table 6: Response regarding safe and clean work environment

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	2	2%
2.	Disagree	8	8%
3.	Neutral	10	10%
4.	Agree	50	50%
5.	Strongly Agree	30	30%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: The above table reveals the fact that 30% strongly agree with safe and clean work environment, 50% agree and remaining 10% neither agree nor disagree, 8% disagree and 2% strongly disagree.

Table 7: Response regarding organization care about employee’s well-being

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	2	2%
2.	Disagree	6	6%
3.	Neutral	12	12%
4.	Agree	60	60%
5.	Strongly Agree	20	20%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above table it is clear that nearly 60% of the respondents agree that the organization care about its employee well-being, 20% of the respondents strongly agree and 12% have no opinion, and remaining 6% disagree and 2% are strongly disagree.

Table 8: Response regarding opportunity for growth and improvement

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	2	2%
2.	Disagree	-	-
3.	Neutral	20	20%
4.	Agree	64	64%
5.	Strongly Agree	14	14%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above table it is clear that 14% strongly agree and 64% agree with the fact that the organization provides attractive opportunity for growth and improvement, 20% have no opinion and 2% strongly disagree respectively.

Table 9: Response regarding engaging work with the organization

S. No.	Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage
1.	Strongly Disagree	2	2%
2.	Disagree	-	-
3.	Neutral	10	10%
4.	Agree	48	48%
5.	Strongly Agree	40	40%
	Total	100	100%

Inference: From the above table it is clear that 40% of the respondents strongly agree that they are fully engaged in doing their best work in the company, 48% agree and 10% have no opinion and remaining 2% strongly disagree respectively.

CONCLUSION:

Employee engagement is one step ahead of employee satisfaction. Employee is not only satisfied with the management decisions, salary and things but also giving back to the organization in terms of commitment, dedication, and loyalty. The present research study shows that the employees working in BALCO agree with the work culture, pay, opportunities for growth and advancement and also fully engaged with their work. Research shows that engaged employees: perform better, put in extra efforts to help get the job done, show a strong level of commitment to the organization, and are more motivated and optimistic about their work goals. Employers with engaged employees tend to experience low employee turnover and more impressive business outcomes.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 10.06.2011 Accepted on 01.08.2011

Asian J. Management 2(4): Oct.-Dec., 2011 page 165-168