CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
6.2.1 Level of Employee Engagement
According to the researcher’s survey results, 60.38% of employee from Thorbin Developments, CC and 62.97% of employees from Dive Factory, CC were engaged.
However, these figures need to be looked at with an open mind as employees may have answered the questions in a way which they think will please management.
On the positive side, going forward there 39.62% of respondents from Thorbin Developments, CC and 37.03% for Dive Factory, CC were disengaged, which management can attempt to win over. For managers to increase the employee engagement levels among their employees, they need to be exemplary and show their dedication to the organisation, in other to foster the same commitment to subordinates.
6.2.2 Relationship between Employee Engagement and Performance
There is always room for improvement in any organisation. One of the daily desires of employees is to go home feeling like they did a good job and that they are valued.
To improve organisational performance, managers need to continue exploring additional efficient strategies that will improve the employee engagement levels in their organisation.
One of the ways of doing this is by effective recognition and rewards. There is a powerful association between recognition that an employee receives and employee engagement (Wu, 2017). Through recognition, rewards and proper acknowledgement of workers, an organisation can generate a stronger emotional commitment to their organisation (Bartscht, 2015). Employee recognition makes employees to feel valued, thereby contributing to great employee experiences (Wu, 2017). The researcher believes that Thorbin and Dive management should utilise recognition strategies going forward as it will provide gratification to employees and make employees feel inclusive. Certainly, managers are encouraged to apply best practices principles in implementing balanced recognition and rewards system.
Another employee engagement strategy that is recommended for Thorbin and Dive is transparency and honesty. One of the top priorities that employees expect from their leaders is transparency and honesty, as this is becoming a top driver in building engaged employees in any organisation (Topcu et al., 2015). Studies have shown that transparency and honesty are one of the most vital predictors of employee engagement (Topcu et al., 2015). Transparency and honesty assist in increasing the trust that employees have on the management, as they believe that it demonstrates to them that their management keeps their promises (Reilly, 2014).
6.2.3 Categories of Employees more Engaged
From this research study, it was not clear about the categories of employees that were more engaged at Thorbin and Dive. The review from Table 4-13 showed that there were no statistically significant associations between the demographic variables and overall job satisfaction of the respondents (as P-value was more than 0.05). Irrespective of their gender, age and years of working at the company, the respondents were somehow either very satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs.
However, Tables 5-1 and 5-2 provide that 60.38% employees from (Thorbin) and 62.97% employees from (Dive) where enagged, while 39.67% employees from (Thorbin) and 37.3% employees from (Dive) were disengaged, this shows that management from both companies still need to carry on maintaining high employee engagement levels and at the same time try to enagage disengaged emplpoyees as they can influence the enaged employees and drag them them also to disangagement and not caring about the needs of the organisation (Carter, 2015).
Mnagement for both Thorbin and Dive can use strategies like suggestion boxes, where all employees can express what they do not like in their workplace and what they wish for.
6.2.4 Work Practices at both Companies
As Thorbin and Dive as growing organisation should also show fair treatment in their strategy. The feedback from the research study showed that 40% and 43%
respectively indicated that they are fairly treated well by the management. This feedback shows that there is more room for improvement in this area. According to Hewlett, Rashid and Sherbin (2017), line managers and supervisors make different type of judgements and perceptions regarding employees under them daily, and these employees perceive whether those decisions are unfair. A further study by Hewlett et al., (2017) showed that a high number of biased employees are usually disengaged. The study further revealed that these employees who perceived bias are usually looking to leave the organisation (Hewlett, Rashid and Sherbin, 2017).
It is essential for employers to assess and confront unfairness and bias in the workplace, as they flow down the organisation slowly, thereby diminishing employee engagement levels (Rasheed, 2017). Hence, Thorbin and Dive are encouraged to explore new approaches to confronting unfairness and biasness in the workplace.
6.2.5 Strategies for Improved Employee Engagement
The feedback from this research showed that only 20% and 30% from both companies indicated that their management and leadership discusses their training and development needs with them. Any learning and training strategy that fails to capture the minds of the employees represents a lost opportunity to cultivate talents and prepare for the future, which implies a lost opportunity employee engagement improvement (Getha-Taylor, 2018). Recent findings from Find Courses’ 2018
Report provides new understanding into the present state of learning and development, as it revealed that top performing organisations were more likely to implement engaging learning and development (Getha-Taylor, 2018). Meeting the training needs of employees through learning and development will ensure that they are engaged and empowered to do their job to the best of their ability (Demirtas and Akdogan, 2015). Utilising effective learning and development strategy will help an organisation nurture loyal employees who will try to evolve with the organisation as much as they can.