HRM FPX 5122 Assessment 1 PMC Employee Engagement Investigation

Student Name

Capella University

HRM-FPX5122 Developing an Effective Workplace

Prof. Name

Date

PMC Employee Engagement Investigation

Employee engagement is one of the most significant drivers of a company’s performance. A survey conducted by Gallup found that disengaged employees cost American companies more than $500 billion. The same study found that increased employee engagement led to increased profitability and productivity in firms (Beheshti, 2019). The poll results emphasize the importance of employee engagement in firm performance. In the words of former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, every company regardless of size must ensure that it has energized employees who believe in the firm’s mission and are committed to achieving it if the particular firm intends to succeed in the long term (Vance, 2006). Consequently, firms must conduct periodic investigations to determine the levels of employee engagement. This essay is an employee engagement investigation report of PMC.

Power Manufacturing Company (PMC) is a company that specializes in the manufacture of lawnmowers, trimmers, and other corded and cordless power tools. The company was founded in 1960 and has grown from the original one company to four different facilities in Lima in Ohio, Winona in Minnesota, Bowling Green in Kentucky, and Provo in Utah. The company has also expanded to include two distribution centers in Kansas and Indiana.

Lima and Bowling Green plants employ 600 and 500 non-union workers respectively. For the last five years, workplace demographics have changed. Moreover, turnover at both plants has increased from the usual 3-4% to an alarming 15% at the Lima Plant and 18% at Bowling Green. A pay survey shows that the hourly wage rate at Lima is competitive with the wages in the area. Consequently, management is at a loss to explain the cause of the high employee turnover, hence the need for an employee engagement investigation.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is an integral part of the performance and success of every business entity. Therefore, the topic has received much attention from business management scholars over the years. However, there is no one correct way to define the term employee engagement. Even different organizations and business leaders have different definitions of employee engagement. Despite the various interpretations of employee engagement, most definitions relate engagement with job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and extra-role behavior (Truss, Alfes, Delbridge, Shantz, & Soane, 2013). Therefore, this report adopts the definition of Kenexa that employee engagement is the extent of motivation that employees have to contribute to organizational success, and are willing to go beyond their job description to accomplish tasks that contribute to the achievement of organizational goals (Vance, 2006). Having established the critical role played by employee engagement to the success of a company, the next section describes the different factors that influence employee engagement.

Factors that Drive Employee Engagement

PMC has identified several factors that influence employee engagement and which the company would like included in the employee engagement investigation.

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation includes financial elements such as pay and benefits, but it may also consist of non-financial aspects such as travel discounts, daycare services, employee assistance programs, and other elements related to organizational goals. In 2018, TinyPulse conducted an employee engagement survey in 20 industries spread out across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Among the findings of their investigation was that 43% of employees would leave their current employer for a 10% salary increase in another organization (TinyPulse, 2018). The findings imply that low compensation results in disengaged employees and ultimately turnover. In return, the company suffers losses as disengaged employees are not productive or committed to the company’s goals.

Work Environment and Work Conditions

Employee engagement factors can be divided into intrinsic factors or those within the employee and extrinsic factors or those within the organization. One of the organizational factors that influence employee engagement is the work environment. Workplace conditions are an important driver of employee engagement. The satisfaction of employees is dependent on the ability of management to provide the capability to do meaningful work, achieve outcomes, be recognized, and have opportunities to move ahead in one’s career (Sharma, Chaudhary, & Singh, 2019). The work environment is diverse and incorporates other factors like the safety of the employees as they work. The workplace should be constructed and fitted in a way that protects the employee’s well-being (Al Mamun & Hassan, 2017). For instance, employees working in manufacturing factories like PMC should be provided with protective work gear. Moreover, companies can incorporate facilities that ensure employee well-being. Research conducted by Gallup found that 89% of employees in companies that had wellness programs were most likely to recommend their workplace to others (Beheshti, 2019).

Supervisory Leadership

The level of support that employees get from their supervisors plays a significant role in employee engagement. Employees can commit themselves to their organizations when they feel that their company, through supervisors, values and cares about them (Sharma et al., 2019). Inadequate support from managers and supervisors coincides with poor performance among employees and vice versa (TinyPulse, 2018).

Plant Management

Closely related to supervisory leadership is plant management. Poor management will, more often than not, lead to employee turnover. Employees who feel that their company has a weak culture are likely to leave their company for better prospects. While management may think that their style of management is transparent, employees are less likely to feel this way. Key among the roles that management should play is the recognition of employees. The Gallup poll found that employees who received feedback from their seniors and who received recognition were more likely to be engaged (Beheshti, 2019).

Peer Relationships

The TinyPulse research conducted in 2018 found that employees care deeply about their coworkers. Employees who relate better with their colleagues and who enjoy positive interactions with their colleagues show lower levels of stress and higher levels of engagement and vice versa (Beheshti, 2019). Consequently, workplace relationships are an essential driver of employee engagement.

Job Training

Job training can either be through orientation and onboarding of new hires or development for existing employees. New hire training helps the employee to understand how the organization works while development training opportunities increase satisfaction and productivity of employees. Unfortunately, most companies, 44% of employees, feel that their company lacks direction and development opportunities for them (TinyPulse, 2018).

Meaningful Work

Besides the factors identified by PMC for inclusion in the engagement investigation, an additional factor that influences employees’ engagement is meaningful work. Employees want to be assigned roles and tasks which make them feel satisfied and fulfilled and which enable them to contribute to the company’s objective (Sharma et al., 2019). Five factors contribute to the meaningfulness of work. These factors are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and performance feedback. Jobs with these factors lead to employee motivation, which is an indicator of engagement (Vance, 2006).

Employee Engagement Investigation Approaches

The management of PMC has various tools at its disposal that can be used to investigate each of the issues identified in employee engagement. One of the most common approaches in engagement investigations is surveys. Surveys can be formulated by the firm, or the firm can hire an outsider to conduct a study. Investigations in firms often take the form of psychological and motivation surveys, which include questionnaires that are handed to employees to fill. Questionnaires can be tailored to fit the issue being investigated.

One of the oldest tools used in employee engagement investigations is the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale that measures vigor, dedication, and absorption levels of employees to their work (Sharma et al., 2019). When using engagement surveys, the management should inform employees of the study before it is administered. Moreover, management should make it optional for employees to take part in the polls (SHRM, n.d).

Another strategy that can be used in the investigation of employee engagement is through the use of people analytics by analyzing employee data that could be collected through observation. For example, the management of PMC can use observation to observe and analyze peer relationships and supervisory leadership in the organization (Fuller, 2014).

HRM FPX 5122 Assessment 1 PMC Employee Engagement Investigation

A common strategy to measure job satisfaction and meaningfulness of work is the satisfaction-engagement approach. The most commonly used tool in this approach is the Gallup poll, which consists of 12 questions about the employee’s organizational and broader work environment (Fletcher & Robinson, 2014). Satisfaction-engagement approaches measure the level to which employees feel that their organization supports them in their role. Therefore, it can be used to investigate plant management, supervisory leadership, job training, compensation, and other organizational factors that influence engagement (Fletcher & Robinson, 2014).

The other approach is the multidimensional approach, which is the most recently developed approach. The method distinguishes between organizational factors and job-related factors of engagement. The approach can thus be used to measure such factors as job training and development opportunities as well as the meaningfulness of work (Fletcher & Robinson, 2014).

A third approach towards the measurement of employee engagement is the needs-satisfying approach. The measure focuses on psychological engagement or physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects that are employed when one is performing their role. The method can be used to measure peer relationships and interconnectedness in the workplace (Fletcher & Robinson, 2014).

Recommendations for PMC

For its engagement investigation, PMC can adopt the use of surveys. As observed earlier, surveys are the most widely used in employee engagement investigations, mainly because they can be tailored for every issue under investigation. Unfortunately, surveys depend on responses given by employees and are thus bound to be biased (Fuller, 2014). PMC can use surveys developed to investigate the various factors. Nevertheless, the company should also have another strategy to support the findings of the survey conducted.

The other strategy that PMC can adopt is observation. Supervisory leadership and peer relationships can benefit from observation. The organization can hire or assign people the role of observing and collecting data, which is then analyzed to determine the employee perception towards their peers and their relationships with supervisors and management. Of the three approaches discussed, the multidimensional approach is the most appropriate  for PMC since it is suitable for measuring both job-related drivers of engagement and organizational factors of engagement.

References

Al Mamun, C. A., & Hassan, M. N. (2017). Factors affecting employee turnover and sound retention strategies in business organization: A conceptual view. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 15(1), 63-71.

Beheshti, N. (2019, January 16). 10 timely statistics about the connection between employee engagement and wellness. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nazbeheshti/2019/01/16/10-timely-statistics-about-the-connection-between-employee-engagement-and-wellness/#4bd2e96922a0

Fletcher, L., & Robinson, D. (2013). Measuring and understanding engagement. In Employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 287-304). Routledge.

Fuller, R. (2014, November 17). A primer on measuring employee engagement. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/11/a-primer-on-measuring-employee-engagement

Sharma, N., Chaudhary, N., & Singh, K. V. (2019). Management techniques for employee engagement in contemporary organizations. IGI Global.

SHRM. (n.d). Developing and sustaining employee engagement. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/sustainingemployeeengagement.aspx#:~:text=Employee%20engagement%20is%20influenced%20by,%2C%20leadership%2C%20and%20company%20reputation.

HRM FPX 5122 Assessment 1 PMC Employee Engagement Investigation

TinyPulse. (2018). The 2019 employee engagement report. Retrieved from https://www.tinypulse.com/hubfs/EE%20Report%202019.pdf

Truss, C., Alfes, K., Delbridge, R., Shantz, A., & Soane, E. (2013). Employee engagement in theory and practice. Routledge.

Vance, J. R. (2006). Employee engagement and commitment. SHRM. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Employee-Engagement-Commitment.pdf