The Research on Employees’ engagement in the workplaces

The Research on Employees’ engagement in the workplaces

Introduction

In this paper, we will focus on the factors which influence staffs’ engagement in their workplaces. The employee’s engagement in the workplaces is so critical to both the individuals and the organizations’ because they will benefit from this from both ends. The involvement of employees leads to gain in the organization because when the employees’ engage, the imputed targets are met and thus the sales in the organization increase.  Also, the organizations can identify the employee’s talents when they engage. This can either lead to salary increment or promotion to the hard-working and talented employees.

The term engagement refers to the involvement of an individual, the satisfaction of an individuals and the enthusiasm for work. In general, it requires intimacy involvement in the work with a framework of the work experience.   Engagement of employees is so vital in the company because it creates emotional connection towards each other which leads to cognitively vigilant to the direction of the team.  In most cases, the engagement occurs when the employees are certain about what they will achieve or expect from the engagement. The employees’ also engage when they have the resources to complete their work. They also participate when there is an opportunity for growth and feedback. The need for the employees to feel that they contribute significantly to the organization is fundamental.

One of the factors which lead to employees’ engagement is leadership. Companies have been changing their structure due to the stiffly competitive market. In recent years, companies thought of capital as a sort of wealth, but it seems that situations are different as the years go by. The organization has, however, employed employees development and performances as a strategy to set them apart in the competitive market. The organization are focusing on their employees’ skills. Talent management has emerged to develop a workforce so that the organization will have a competitive and strategic advantage. (Batista-Taran et al. 2013; Karanges et al. 2013; Yeh, 2013; Bamford, M., Wong  and Laschinger, 2013)

There are common critical factors that lead to increased employees engagement in any organization. One of the significant factors is the employees’ satisfaction level. Employees’ satisfaction is a fundamental factor that leads to employee engagement. The work can bring employees and employers closer together to benefit both of them. The employees want to work in an organization where they can find a meaning and a benefit to working at.  Employees need to be sure that they a have future in that sought of organization. These and other factors which create peace in the mind of employees brings some sought of satisfaction with the job. When the employees work with a clear mindset that their work will be significantly rewarded and that there is nothing whatsoever that will make them lose their jobs efficiently, then their level of satisfaction will increase.  When their level of satisfaction increases, their level of engagement also increases. The human resource managers have been given the task to ensure that there is some level of satisfaction among their employees. They can ensure that there is the employees are satisfied by attending to the problems they are facing in the organization. Ensure that they receive payment on time and many other duties that will benefit the employees. The employees’ engagement is closely linked to organizational performance in term of employees treatment. When the companies engage the employees in some minor organization decision, have high employee retention etc. leads to employees’ high level of satisfaction (Markos and Sridevi, 2010; Cantor, Morrow, and Montabon, 2012; Lu et al. 2016).

The level of engagement determines whether the people are productive in their job and also their stay within the organization or quit or maybe join the organization’s competitor. The level at which the employees receive the rewards and compensation determine how employees will engage in the company’s work. Companies which provide rewards increases with their employee’s commitment and engagement level. This will further increase the efficiency of the companies work and high level of positivity and motivation among the employees to the company. Compensation increases the employees’ relationship. The compensation can come in forms of pays and benefits, perks, reward etc. The compensation management motivates the employees in the company. Another factor that encourages employees engagement is performance management. This involves a goal-setting process where each employee challenges themselves by trying to meet the company’s goals. This makes the employees have the feeling of being valuable in the company. Therefore, this increases the level at which the employees engage in the company’s work.

With all this information, we will be studying the following research study; What are factors that influence the employees’ engagement in their place of work?

Below are the formulated hypotheses that need to be tested at the end of the study

H1: The leadership skills significantly increase the employees’ engagement in the work

H2: The employees’ levels of satisfaction have a significant level to the participation of the employees at the work

H3: The motivation has a significant level to the engagement of the employees at the work

H4: The reward has a significant level to the engagement of the employees at the work

Methodology

The participants who were involved in the study were individuals working in different companies. The participants had to accept to be included in the study. The participants were also given the freedom to exit the research at any point. The research took around 10-20 minutes. The participants who took part in the study were 18 years and above. The participants were selected at random. Female who participated in the research were 42 while the males were 16. People were chosen at random; therefore; any race was allowed to participate. Before the research was conducted, a questionnaire was designed for an LMX-style design. About 13 questionnaires were created. The questionnaire used a Likert scale approach to create it.  The 13 questionnaires were administered to the 58 participants, and their answers were recorded. The research was qualitative research, and therefore the participants were given the questions, and they were supposed to provide the suited option. The participants’ location was recorded by the device used to administer the questions.

Analysis and Results

It was obtained that both our independent variable (Leadership and motivation) were significantly correlated with the employees’ engagement (r=0.397, p<0.05 for leadership and r = 519, p<0.05). There was insignificant relationship between the other independent variables (r=0.095, p>0.05 for confidence, r = 0.251, p>0.05 for satisfaction and r=0.229 for performances, p>0.05 and r=0.137, p>0.05 for reward). The results obtained from the independent t-test shows that there was no significant difference in engagement by gender (p (0.68) <0.05, t(52) = -1.237). Both confidence and satisfaction showed a significant difference by gender (p(0.01)<0.05, t(48) = -0.646 for confidence and p(0.017)<0.05, t(48) = 0.543 for satisfaction). The other predictors showed insignificant difference by gender (p(0.752)>0.05, t(47)=       -0.379 for leadership, p(0.321)>0.05, t(48)=-0.311 for motivation, p (0.364)>0.05, t(48) =0.03 for reward and p (0.91)<0.05, t(47) =-0.496 for performances). From the regression analysis, it was obtained that only motivation was a significant predictor of the engagement level of the employees (t =2.445, p=0.018). However the other independent variables showed a non significant influence to the employees engagement (Beta = 0.83,t=.408, p=0.685 for leadership, beta =0.031,  t=.219 p=0.828 for reward, beta=-.021, t=-.122, p=0.904 for satisfaction, beta =-.1, t=-.602, p=.55 for performance). Out of the total participants, 42 (72.4 %) were female while the rest, 16 (27.6 %) were male. The average age was between 34-46 years old.

We will determine the factors that influenced the employees’  level of engagement at the workplace. The elements that were tested were the leadership skills, the employee’s level of satisfaction, the motivation and reward. From the analysis, it was obtained that only motivation had a significant influence on the employees’ engagement. The remaining independent variables had an insignificant impact on the employee’s engagement at the workplace. However, all the independent variables had a positive influence on the level of employee’s engagement at the work places. This means that the independent variables were directly proportioned to the dependent variables (the level of engagement of the employees at the workplaces).

The article that we are going to review is the Impact of HRM Practices on Employee’s Performance by Saira Hassan (Hassan, 2016). The author found out from the study that there is a significant relationship between HRM practices and employee’s performances. The author claims from her research that the employee’s performances can be increased by giving employees an opportunity to make a decision. The author designed a questionnaire to be used to conduct the study. The questionnaire was a 5-points Likert scales that ranged from strongly disagree to agree strongly. The participants that were used to collect the data were employees who worked in different departments who worked in the textile sector. The designed questionnaire was divided into two parts, where the first part comprised of data regarding HRM practices and employees’ performance, and the second part had demographics of the participants. The number of participants that were involved in the research was 68 respondents. The questionnaire was distributed among the 68 participants to obtain the data.

The author successfully explains the methods she used to collect the data. She stated the number of participants who were involved in the study. She also noted the company and the fields of the participant’s and even the type of research design. However, she failed to mention several points that are very crucial when conducting research. The author didn’t state whether there were any restrictions when conducting the research. The limitation may include an agreement of acceptance by the employees to be involved in the study. The author didn’t mention whether there was a restriction of age when conducting the research. In most scenarios, participants who were younger than 18 years were not allowed to be included in the study. The researcher did not mention whether there was an instrument that was used when conducting the research. The author did clearly state how the sample was obtained. She only succeeded to indicate the number of participants who took part in the study, and she did also mention how the sample was collected. In most scenarios, the researcher uses random sampling when conducting the research. Some important information, such as whether both the gender was allowed to be included in the research is missing.  Lastly, the author did not state the reliability of the research and how the reliability of th research was done. With all this information, it can be noted that the method used for the study was reasonably good but not enough to make the research study excellent. However, the research required larger sample size when using a random sample. The random sample can sometimes be biased when it is handling a small size of the data. Thus, the author ought to increase the number of respondent who took part in the research (Osypenko, and Reshetjuk,  2011; Šuvaković, 2011; Mangal and Mangal, 2013).