Essentially, employee
engagement is the measure used to determine just how committed an
employee is to his job and his company, as well as to its goals and
plans. This means that employees are engaged with their work beyond
simply thinking of their next paycheck or promotion. Their job,
their workplace, and the progress of their work matter to them.
Discretion
So how do you know if your
employees are engaged? If they practice proper discretion, for one.
When you see that your employees are doing their job not out of
compulsion, coercion or reward, but out of the innate responsibility
to get things done as efficiently as they could, you know you have
engaged people in your employ. An engaged employee, for example, will
work overtime without being told to do so, because he knows the work
at hand needs to be completed without delay.
Engagement does not
Equate to Happiness
Always keep in mind that the
engaged employee is not always the happiest one, nor is he the most
satisfied with job security or employment status. Rather, he is the
one who is most productive, even when all of these are lacking.
Bottom Line
So what can an engaged
employee do for you? With such an employee base, you can optimize
productivity (without having to sacrifice too much of your
resources), in turn leading to more efficient returns in terms of
quality of employees and positive profit margins.
