"Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it."

--Timothy R. Clark

Employee Engagement is the employee’s commitment to his or her organization and the eagerness to perform beyond expectations, has become a target area for management. Engagement does not only mean job satisfaction, it is much more than that. Highly engaged employees are dedicated and motivated in making the organization a success. Engagement is “A feeling of psychological connect with the organization emerging out of pleasurable or positive emotional state leading to job satisfaction, commitment, sense of pride towards the

organization, wanting to stay with the organization, forming emotional connect and recommending others also to work with the organization (Lather and Jain, 2014)”. The world's top-performing organizations understand that employee engagement is an effort that stimulates business outcomes. Employee Engagement is arguably the most integral metric for organizations in the 21^st Century.

Encapsulated by the images of encounter, engagement is connected with the active collaboration and investment of a person, not solely parts into role performance. In the context of organizations, engagement has a more explicit meaning. Within the workplace these synergies clearly reveal themselves in the contract of employment wherein employees take a pledge to serve their employer, show responsibility towards their job, and assume the accountability of employment. Employees of the organization invest their energies to comprehend and embark these roles. And thus, they feel associated and involved in the roles and responsibilities they perform. It is precisely evident that whenever employees of the organization are mentally and emotionally engaged they push the organization to unmatchable heights.

The progressively aggressive business environment has propelled the organizations to focus to the vital issue of employee engagement in an attempt to explain the underlying factors of employee motivation and performance. According to Gallup (2005) engagement was considered imminent, especially when the nature of the job is universal and persuasive part of an employee’s well-being, which not only alters the life of the employee but also one’s mental and physical health Wrzesniewski, Rozin, and Bennett (2002).

Kirke (2012) argued that engaged employee having the needed knowledge, skills and proficiency is critical for any organization seeking growth and success in business. In the current dynamic business scenario, training and development has gained significance in keeping employees engaged and sustaining a competitive edge. Appropriate training and development plans to nurture talent can increases the level of engagement. It also assists in enhancing employee performance by widening the learning base of the employees which would ultimately lead to better organizational performance. Different employees have different meaning of satisfaction. Some want that they are valued for whatever job they doing while other, seek development opportunities and diversity in their work profile. Organizations now-a-days rely on training and development as a one stop solution to address all these different needs of the employee to promote employee engagement. Organizations which invest in training and development are considered more positively by employees in comparison to those who don’t.

Carly (2012) profess the idea of many researchers who had consistent thoughts that engaged employees are more productive, and one of the best way to engage then is by offering better training and development opportunities. She also highlighted a few important areas which are when focused upon enhances employee engagement in the organization. These are:

· Encouraging Innovation by creating an environment of learning and innovation among employee so that they feel connected to the organization.

· Ensuring continuous improvements through training and development.

· Managing employee engagement as an integral business process.

· Focus on individual training and development plans.

· Creating a culture of holistic thinking about employee development and engagement.

· Intensify on accelerating employee engagement and satisfaction through training and development plans rather than barely on business benefits.

· Create an impression that the organization is seriously concerned about their employees and is always ready to invest its time and money for its employees.

· Ensure proper feedback after training is imparted to ascertain the level of satisfaction and engagement among employees.

It is thus imperative that organizations should invest in employees training and development activities to improve employee engagement. With this premise the present study was conducted to see the impact of training and development on engagement among employees of National Capital Region of India.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Numerous researches are conducted across the globe to map employee engagement and to understand its linkages with other factors. Many international research and consulting firms such as Hewitt Associates, Gallup, BI Worldwide, and Tower Watson etc have undertaken researches on engagement in Indian firms. Big corporations of private sector and a few public sector corporations are conducting this type of study with the help of international consulting and research organization.

The most crucial asset possessed by organizations is its employees. They are considered as the intellectual capital of the organization. Using, this intellectual capital has now become a major source through which organization’s gain competitive edge in this dynamic business environment.

Khan et.al. (2016) construed that training and development and job satisfaction are to important parameters of employee performance. In their study they made an attempt to study the effect of training and development on performance of the employee through job satisfaction. A sample of 105 employees from telecom companies in Pakistan were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that there is a positive impact of training and development on job satisfaction and performance of the employees. Thus they concluded that by investing in training and development programs job satisfaction among the employees will increase. Hence the satisfied employees will perform their assigned tasks responsibly and with best performance.

Nkosi (2015) conducted a research in a Local Municipality located in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa with a prime objective of analyzing the effect of training on commitment of the employees, their performance and retention. A total of 130 responses were collected using convenience sampling. Data was analyzed using regression analysis and it was found that training had a significant impact on commitment of the employees, their performance and retention.

Arunmozhi (2015) conducted a research on employee engagement and involvement at ICICI bank, Chennai. Responses were collected and analyzed from 300 employees. The statistical analysis revealed that that there is a significant difference amongst the engaged and disengaged employees with respect to employees who underwent training and those employees who didn’t undergo any training to enhance the work efficiency. Results show that Employee engagement has a positive correlation with performance of the employee, safety of the officers and their retention. While, employee engagement did not had any correlation with recognition and incentive for job, and job satisfaction among the employees.

Deloitte (2015) in its refreshed model of engagement also highlighted training and development as growth opportunity which supports in improving the employee engagement in the organization apart from other factors like meaningful work, hands on management, positive work environment and trust in leadership.

Terera and Ngirande (2014) studied the impact of training on employee job satisfaction and retention of employees at a selected tertiary institution. They collected data from 120 respondents using random sampling. They concluded that although employee satisfaction and retention have a significant positive relationship however, there is no significant relationship between training and retention of employees.

Nawaz et.al. (2014) conducted a study in Pakistan to examine the relationship among training, empowerment, employee engagement and creativity. The results of their study exhibits that there exists a positive relationship between training and employee engagement. They validated the social exchange theory which states that organizations which invest in the employee training and empowerment are likely to build a sense of commitment among the employees. And this commitment ultimately leads to employee engagement which further enhances creativity of the employees.

Vasudevan (2013) conducted a study to understand the effect of training on job satisfaction, work commitment and job performance. Responses were collected from 180 employees of Malaysia. Correlation and regression analysis were used to establish the relationship between the variables. The results of the study revealed that different parameter of training like training need analysis, training commitment, Content of the training, delivery approaches and training evaluation were positively correlated and had a significant impact on job satisfaction, work commitment and performance.

Gamage and Imbulana (2013) conducted a research to study the impact of training and development on performance of the employees. The parameters on which the performance of employees was judged were absenteeism, productivity and job satisfaction. The study was conducted on call center employees in Sri Lanka. They collected a sample of 226 respondents. The results showed that training and development had significant positive relationship with productivity of the employee and job satisfaction. However, there exists a significant negative relationship between training and development and absenteeism.

Costen and Salazar (2011) in an attempt to understand the effect of training and development on job satisfaction of the employees, their loyalty and intention to stay with the organization in lodging industry in the United States. Results of the study revealed that job satisfaction, loyalty and intention to stay are higher among employees who receive proper training and development in different areas to develop new skills.

Owoyemi, Oyelere, Elegbede and Gbajumo-Sherif (2011) construed that employee commitment towards organization can be enhanced through training. They collected 250 responses from employees and management staff of a financial firm in Nigeria. On regressing the data it was revealed that there is a significant positive impact of different levels of training on employee commitment. And thus they concluded that on increasing the training in the organization the level of employee commitment towards their organization will improve.

Hewitt (2011) defined six categories which drives engagement in an organization. These were: People which includes senior leadership, manager, coworkers, customers; Total rewards which includes pay, benefits, recognition; Company practices which includes practices: policies and people practices, performance assessment, company reputation; Work which includes work, resources, processes; Opportunities which includes career opportunities, learning and development and Quality of Life which includes work life balance.

Bulut and Culha (2010) conducted a study to examine the effect of training on employee commitment taking into consideration the emotional and affective responses of employees towards their organization. A sample of 298 respondents was collected from 4 star and 5 star hotels operating in Izmir, Turkey. The finding of their study shows that there is positive impact of all the different dimensions of training on employee commitment.

Dessler and Varkkey (2009) construed that the selecting employees carefully does not assure effective performance. They emphasized that performance and potential are two different parameters. Employees having potential does not guarantee performance unless they know how and what is to be done. Trainings resort to this problem. It helps in developing the basic skills among the employees that are needed to perform their jobs. They accentuated the significance of training, as a continuous attempt to enhance the employee performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitude and increasing skills, in employee engagement and involvement.

Irmer and Jorgensen (2009) in their model of employee engagement proposed that Learning and Development, Reward and Recognition, Job Design, Leadership and Work Environment are key drivers to Emotional Engagement, Rational Engagement, Discretionary Efforts, and Intention to Stay.

Chiang, Back and Canter (2005) conducted a study in hotel industry to explore the impact of training on training quality and increasing training satisfaction, job satisfaction, and intention to stay. The results of the study revealed that there was a positive impact of training on job satisfaction and training satisfaction. They also construed that job satisfaction progressively led to intention to stay. Also, there existed an indirect effect of training quality on intention to stay which was mediated by job satisfaction.

Robinson et. al. (2003) identified Training and development, performance appraisal, communication, equal opportunities and fair treatment, pay and benefits, health and safety, cooperation, Family friendliness and Job satisfaction as the main factors that lead to a feeling of valued and involvement which in turn enhances engagement in their IES (Institute of employment studies) engagement model.

Roehl and Swerdlow (1999) conducted a research to analyse the attitude of Hotel employee towards training and its relationship with employee commitment. Factors like satisfaction, morale, quality of management and awareness to rules, had an indirect effect on training and employee commitment was also taken into consideration. The study was conducted in United States. The findings of the study suggested that training is substantial to the benefit of franchise lodging organizations because it not only has a direct positive relationship with perception of supervisor quality, morale and awareness of rules but also a significant indirect effect on organizational commitment.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The objectives of conducting this study are:

· To study the impact of training and development on employee engagement.

· To study the impact of training and development on, different parameters of employee engagement, that is, Job satisfaction, Organizational commitment, Intention to stay, Pride, Advocacy and Emotional Connect.

SAMPLE:

The study was conducted on working professional of different organizations in National Capital Region of India. A sample of 450 employees was collected and analyzed using regression analysis. There were 295 males and 155 females whose age group ranges from 18 years to more than 55years. The sample was collected from employees at different levels of management. Hence, the sample included responses from 211 entry level managers, 180 middle level managers and 59 senior level managers (Table 1).

Table 1 Respondent profile

Gender	Male	Female
	295	155
Marital Status	Single	Married
	210	240
Age Group	Young adults: (18-35 years)	Mid. Age adults (36-55 years)	Senior adults (55years and above)
	277	144	29
Level of Management	Entry level Manager	Middle level Manager	Senior level Manager
	211	180	59
Sector of Employment	Public	Private
	86	364

Tools Used

· Training and Development:

· A 7 itemed questionnaire was constructed to measure the training and development practices in the organization. The validity of the questionnaire was established by confirmatory factor analysis. The cronbach alpha reliability score was calculated as 0.831. .

· Employee Engagement Scale:

· A 26 itemed employee engagement scale developed by Lather and Jain (2014) was used to measure Employee Engagement. The scale had six dimensions of employee engagement, that is, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, advocate, intent to stay, pride and emotional connect. The reliability score of various dimensions were Job Satisfaction (.870), Organizational Commitment (.858), Advocate (.831), Pride (.891), Intent to Stay (.806), and Emotional Connect (.784).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

Correlation coefficients were calculated for various factors of Employee Engagement of the overall sample. The results reveal that there is a significant positive correlation between Training and development and Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Advocacy, Pride, Intent to stay and overall employee Engagement. While there is insignificant correlation between Training and Development and Emotional connect (Table 2).

Table 2. Pearson Correlation of Training and Development with various factors of Employee Engagement.

	TD	Sig.
Job Satisfaction	0.599	.000
Organizational Commitment	0.491	.000
Advocacy	0.461	.000
Pride	0.504	.000
Intent to stay	0.507	.000
Emotional Connect	0.042	.187
Employee Engagement	0.589	.000

The training and development score of the respondents was regressed with different employee engagement factors. The results indicated that there is a significant impact of Training and development on job satisfaction and it contributes to 35.7% (Adjusted R²= .357) change in the level of job satisfaction. It means that organizations seeking improvement in the job satisfaction of its employees can invest in training and development programs. Similarly, there is a significant impact of training and development on Organizational Commitment contributing to 23.9% (Adjusted R²= .239); Advocacy contributing to 21.1% (Adjusted R²= .211); Pride contributing to 25.2% (Adjusted R²= .252); and Intent to Stay contributing to 25.5% (Adjusted R²= .255). However, the results clearly indicated that Training and development practices do not have an impact on the Emotional Connect of the employees (Adjusted R²= .000). This means that emotional connect is a variable which is more intrinsic in nature and is related to the inner emotions of an employee with the organization and is certainly not affected by any change in the extrinsic variable like training and development (Table 3).

On regressing the training and development score with the overall employee engagement score, it was evident that there is a significant impact of Training and development on employee engagement which contributes to 34.5% (Adjusted R²= .345). This means that organizations can enhance the level of employee engagement by invest in suitable training and development programs.

CONCLUSION:

As evident from the results of the present study individual bring in organizations their own deep rooted psyche. This is developed out of their socialization in life. That is why training and development did not have any impact on the emotional connect of the employees with their organization. While, the results of this study clearly shows that there a significant impact of training and development practices on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, advocacy, intent to stay, pride and the overall employee engagement. Thus, we can say that there are many factors through which employee engagement can be improved in an organization and out of these factors, training and development is one important factor. Organizations which invest in their employee’s development are likely to have better engaged employees.

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS:

The results of the present study clearly depicts that managers can enhance the employee engagement in their organisation by taking the following steps:

· Mangers should not only identify critical skills required by each employee to perform their assign tasks but also find out whether employee needs trainings in those critical skills.

· Managers should make sure that employees of the organisation receive trainings in time whenever they are needed.

· Managers should periodically discuss the individual development plans with each employee.

· Organizations must assign the head of the HR department with the responsibility of assisting and advising on Training and development activities and procedures for each unit.

· Managers of each unit in the organization should ensure that Training and development activities are performed.

· And lastly, Managers must use appropriate measurement tools determine the status and performance of training and development activities.

LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH:

The study is limited to a sample of 450 employees of Delhi/NCR. The finding of this study therefore may not have universal applicability to other organizations. Also, since the study is conducted in India, its applicability is limited to other countries.

REFERENCES:

1. Arunmozhi, T. (2015). A Study On Employee Engagement And Involvement Practices In ICICI Bank Ltd., Chennai.

2. Azeem, M. F., Rubina, and Paracha, A. T. (2013). Connecting Training and Development with Employee Engagement: How Does it Matter? World Applied Sciences Journal , 28 (5).

3. Bhattacharya, Y. (2013). Employee Engagement in the Maritime Industry: A Predictor of Performance, Safety and Retention amongst Indian Officers.

4. Bulut, C., and Çulha, O. (2010). The Effects of Organizational Training on Organizational Commitment. International Journal of Training and Development , 14 (4).

5. Carly. (2012, September 11). Total Learning. Retrieved December 2016, from http://blogs.terrapinn.com/total-learning/?_ga=1.153260792.1955352798.1480572794

6. Chiang, C.-F., Back, K.-J., and Canter, D. D. (2005). The Impact of Employee Training on Job Satisfaction and Intention to Stay in the Hotel Industry. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality and Tourism, 4 (2).

7. Costen, W. M., and Salazar, J. (2011). The Impact of Training and Development on Employee Job Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Intent to Stay in the Lodging Industry. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality and Tourism, 10 (3).

8. Deloitte. (2015). Becoming irresistible: A new model for employee engagement. Retrieved from http://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/deloitte-review/issue-16/emp loyee-engagement-strategies.html

9. Gamage, P. N., and Imbulana, M. L. (2013). Training And Development And Performance Of Employees: Evidence From Sri Lanka Telecom. International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services and Management Research , 2 (9).

10. Infotech Enterprises (2011). Hewitt Engagement framework: six categories to drive engagement. Retrieved from http://image.slidesharecdn.com/engagement5thaug-nhrd1-0-110906051558-phpa02/95/employee-engagement-18728.jpg?cb=1315286259

11. Irmer, B. E. and Jorgenson, C. (2009), Employee engagement drivers. Retrieved from: http://www.dynamiccapability.com.au/employee-engagement.html

12. Jidda, R. T. (2013). Effect Of Employee Engagement Practice On Attrition With Respect To Sales Employees In The Indian Business Scenario.

13. Khan, A. A., Abbasi, S. O., Waseem, R. M., Ayaz, M., and Ijaz, M. (2016). Impact of Training and Development of Employees on Employee Performance through Job Satisfaction: A Study of Telecom Sector of Pakistan. Business Management and Strategy , 7 (1).

14. Kirke, D. (2012). Employee Engagement: Impact of Learning and Development.

15. Lather, Anu Singh and Jain, V.K. (2014). Developing A Scale To Measure Employee Engagement.

16. Nawaz, M. S., Hassan, M., Hassan, S., Shaukat, S., and Ullah, A. (2014). Impact of Employee Training and Empowerment on Employee Creativity Through Employee Engagement: Empirical Evidence from the Manufacturing Sector of Pakista. World Applied Sciences Journal , 32 (5), 921-929.

17. Nkosi, S. M. (2015). Effects of training on employee commitment, retention and performance: A case study of a Local Municipality in South Africa. European Journal of Business and Management , 7 (15).

18. Owoyemi, O. A., Oyelere, M., Elegbede, T., and Gbajumo-Sheriff, M. (2011). Enhancing Employees’ Commitment to Organisation through Training. International Journal of Business and Management , 6 (7).

19. Roehl, W. S., and Swerdlow, S. (1999). Training and its impact on Organisational Commitment among Lodging employees. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research , 23 (2), 176-194.

20. Terera, S. R., and Ngirande, H. (2014). The Impact of Training on Employee Job Satisfaction and Retention among Administrative Staff Members: A Case of a Selected Tertiary Institution. Journal of Socila Sciences , 39 (1), 43-50.

21. Vasudevan , H. (2014). Examining the Relationship of Training on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Effectivenes. International Journal of Management Business Research , 4 (3), 185-202.

Received on 21.12.2016 Modified on 26.12.2016

Asian J. Management; 2017; 8(1):01-06.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00001.4

				Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients
	F (Sig.)	R Square	Adjusted R Square	B	Std. Error	Beta	t	Sig.
Job Satisfaction	250.712 (.000)	0.359	0.357	0.703	0.044	0.599	15.834	.000
Organizational Commitment	142.297 (.000)	0.241	0.239	0.356	0.03	0.491	11.929	.000
Advocacy	120.762 (.000)	0.212	0.211	0.227	0.021	0.461	10.989	.000
Pride	152.555 (.000)	0.254	0.252	0.254	0.021	0.504	12.351	.000
Intent to stay	154.944 (.000)	0.257	0.255	0.391	0.031	0.507	12.448	.000
Emotional Connect	.794 (.373)	0.002	.000	0.023	0.026	0.042	0.891	.373
Employee Engagement	237.531 (.000)	0.346	0.345	1.954	0.127	0.589	15.412	.000