Article - Are They Engaged Properly?

Not many people feel good about work; there are the medium types, the lazy types and of course the workaholic types. We often find people who try to cobble up their work putting on an attractive façade but that’s always just a show off. Very different from all these is the engaged employee who exhibits exceptional services and complete dedication. Engaged employees tend to be highly enthusiastic about work and invest great amount of effort and care for the progress of the company. They genuinely try to bring about change and progress. For such a person work is not obsession but passion, very unlike others, and is true examples of what Jack Welch once said, “Never mistake activity for accomplishment”. Employee engagement is least related to macro-economic conditions, but is influenced greatly by the work experience.

As  you sow, so shall you reap. Everything depends on a give and take policy and an engaged employee cannot be taken for granted nor can any conditions produce an engaged employee. It is highly essential that an apt milieu be set up for high productivity and it is always up to the company to avail it to the staff.

There are basically 10 factors that affect the employee engagement or also called as 10 Cs of Employee Engagement:-

Connect:   A good connection is requisite between the employee and the employer and without it no pep ups can aid employees into performing at their best. The productivity and dedication of the employee is always directly proportional to their relationship and connectivity with the employer.

Career:   “Only the test of fire can make fine steel”; similarly only meaningful and challenging work opportunities can keep up the employee fit and competent. It is always up to the employer to challenge the employees with new tasks and also to keep the progress chart going up. Only this can boost up the confidence level as well as enthusiasm of the employee. Job rotation helps in stretching their perseverance to newer levels.

Clarity:  Clarity in communication is the key to good results. No desired results can be achieved from a broken or unclear communication. Clear instruction and a clear vision on the task ahead is the best way to keep things easy and simple.

Convey:  It is essential that the views and perspectives of the employer about the employee be conveyed as earliest as possible. The employee must be aware of what is expected of him/her. Providing feedbacks is the best option.

Congratulate:  Whenever a mistake is made there is never a delay in the feedback, it is common. But room has to be made for appreciations as well. The more an employee is appreciated, the more he/she feels important and worthy and gives them more confidence.

Contribute:  Only when a person contributes will they feel involved in what is happening. It is the employer’s duty to make sure everyone gets a chance to contribute and to bring forth their potentials by encouraging them to put in more ideas and efforts. This is a strategy to build up a connection between the employee and the job.

Collaborate:  Collaborating is a good way of building internal relationships between the employees as well as their relation with the employer. The work load remains equally shared and efficiency increases many fold compared o individual performances. This empowers the trust and cooperation between the employees and fosters a feeling of oneness among them.

Credibility:  The Company’s reputation and ethical standards greatly influences the performance and dedication as well as well their trust towards the organization. An unethical organization suffers greatly in productivity as well.

Control:  It is comfortable for a person to work only if he/she has a firm grip of the posts they are holding. In case of jobs that can easily slip away from hand the levels of productivity and dedication also wavers. Unless a person is in full control of their jobs nothing can be expected out of him/her. Providing opportunities to exhibit themselves and to make a firm grounding gives the emotional strength and control to an employee which will reflect in their work.

Confidence:  Opportunities and encouragement are key elements in boosting up confidence. Trusting the person and giving them space to express themselves also helps. The performance and ethics of the leaders also aids in kindling confidence of the team.

Employee engagement is very difficult to achieve without a firm grounding of the organization and a welcoming attitude. The employer plays a great role in creating such a milieu. Unless the employer cooperates, it is baseless to dream on such an end. Proper identification of engaged employees and to have a constant feedback of the level of engagement of all the employees will facilitate to proper use of skills. Leaders should probe into reasons for lack of employee engagement and make suitable rectifications. Employee engagement is a priority that every organization should concentrate on for the best productivity and output.

Remember, good employees are the backbone of an organization.

Story - Doing What We Preach

Often it happens that we say one thing and act something else. We are all great preachers but hesitate from doing what we preach. Let me explain with an instance. 

Once a boy was chosen to join a seminary and all his family joined them on the occasion. All the priests of the area were gathered and after the initiation ceremony the boy was educated on the basics of priesthood.

“You are to live in utter poverty with no lust for power and wealth. Your service is required by the people as well as God. Learn the great talent of sacrifice. He who sacrificed his life on the cross for the people will be your guide. Your entire life should be for the well-being of the people. Physical desires are never to be encouraged. They are guises of the devil. Celibacy is to be a strict practice.  So remember my child poverty and celibacy are the main practices of being a priest”. The priest concluded with prayers after a long speech.

A very sumptuous banquet was arranged and everyone feasted lavishly on the delicacies. Every luxury including wine was served on the table and the merry times were feasted on. But the boy’s father was found to have a troubled look and on enquiring exclaimed, 

“If this is your idea of poverty, I really don’t want to think on what celibacy would be!”

Moral:  Practice what you preach and do not preach what you cannot practice.

Story - Killing Free Thinkers

The world is an ordered whole which runs on set social norms and canons. Everyone is bound to walk on the same road and any deviation is intolerable. This has always been the main cause of the retardation world has been facing so long. Free thinkers are suppressed and brains are toned to believe only on what is the most considered.  There have been many instances in my life where these kinds of free thoughts were suppressed right from childhood. One of my friends’ little girl once had a curious idea. She ran to her father to clarify, 

“Father, what covers most of the Earth, land or water?”

“Of course its water dear, Earth has plenty of water than land”, he replied instantly without wanting a second thought.

“But, father”, she thought for a while and retorted, “how is that possible, isn’t there land even under the water; without it the water won’t stay right? Then how come water covers more part than land?”

The father squeezed out his brain to reply logically but failed and even I had the same amazement when this was presented to me. The little girl thought beyond her text books and dared to curiously traverse on a different path and thought differently.

I recall another such instance from my school days. I had my schooling from a convent school where the nuns spent hours advising little brats to mold them into the desired obedient “mama’s child”. 

Once one such episode was progressing in our class where the brat of class was made to stand up and the nun was on her usual routine. “Listen my child; you have to think more on God. It is not you who is doing all the naughty work, Satan is working through you. He is influencing you into making trouble. Don’t you want to be a good boy? Pray to the lord and he will protect you. Repent on your mistakes dear child and he shall hear you….” 

And so on went her preaching. When all her dialogues were said and prayers were made to God to look after the little lamb, this boy, silent all the while had a very confused look.

“What bothers you my child? Is the pang of repentance beginning to annoy you?”

“Sister, Isn’t God powerful than Satan?”, there was an innocent question made.

“Of course he is my child, why do you ask?”

“Then why doesn’t God kill Satan? If Satan dies then there will be no trouble in the world”.

The class was silent for a moment and slowly bursts of suppressed laughter hissed through the air.

“Oh but God can’t kill anyone!”, he exclaimed after a pause. “Wouldn’t that be a sin? Well in that case he can at least throw Satan in a prison can’t he? Then he would not have troubled children like me”, he said with at most innocence. The nun’s face grew pale first and reddened instantly in anger as the hissings grew into loud laughter.

The boy was innocently on a very logical plane like my friend’s daughter. They were thinking very reasonably and logically beyond the set ideas that we live on. It is such a pity that such free thinkers are always suppressed by the society. When we adults tried to press on to the girl the very scientific discoveries on Earth, the boy was subjected to a public mockery and warning when the next PTA meeting was called in the school where the nun claimed him to be blasphemous. 

Such a mockery of free thinkers and innovative brains! We are all guilty in this aspect trying to propel anyone who dares to deviate from that path claimed to be right by the majority with scientific proofs to aid us. This simply effects into the dearth of free thinkers and stagnancy of mankind. If only we were ready to accept…