The Difference between Engagement and Productivity
The answer to the axiom of a workforce that is both engaged and productive has been one of the most sought out answers by the organizations worldwide. Job motivation and job satisfaction are continuously influenced by the globalization trend, technology changes and development as well as the new business practices in various organizations. Not only that but companies nowadays are facing a lot of challenges when it comes to creating a workforce which is both engaged and productive i.e. there is employee's job satisfaction and they have the organizational commitment present as well to gain a competitive advantage and at the same time retain their key employees. An organization that wants to be successful must understand that employee retention is important to sustain their leadership and growth in the market place.
Irrespective of which market an organization belongs to, it’s management has the key responsibility of achieving their organization’s objectives and as such an organization needs a defined mission statement. Once an organization defines its reasons for being as well as its established purpose then the management can manage and prioritize the energies and resources to best fulfill the mission. For the employees concerned, work and life would have a meaning when they feel that what they are doing and all their hard work is appreciated and has some worth as well as it is in alignment with their organization’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives.
There are three life factors that need to be kept in dynamic balance to achieve and maintain happiness and productivity and they are as follows
1. Spread out work more evenly: To make the best use of employees as a valuable resource, the organization and its management need to give more attention to their relationship with their staff as well as understand the nature and content of their employees’ jobs. Designing and organizing the jobs so that work is spread out more evenly would have a positive effect on staff morale as then attention would be given to the quality of working life.
2. Lead by Example: Employees do not enjoy working under a person who himself doesn’t do what he preaches i.e. he says one thing and does the other. If an organization and its management want engaged and productive employees then the managers need to lead by example. For instance, if a manager just bosses people around and shouts out orders on what needs to be done without lifting a finger himself then how can that company and its management expect the employees to work hard. A manager who works twice as hard motivate their employees to work twice as harder as well, unlike the employees who work for a manager who doesn’t log much time at all. Most of the times, the number of hours worked has a negative effect on productivity however it shows that the managers who lead by example have employees who are ten to twenty percent more productive despite the extra hours worked.
3. Have regular one-to-one meetings: According to an article written in Harvard Business Review, employees who regularly had one-to-one meetings with their bosses were more likely to be more productive and engaged as opposed to those employees who didn’t. Managers who regularly have one-to-one meetings with their staff show their employees that they are genuinely interested in their employee’s well-being as well as their performance. These meetings have a direct effect on the employee’s engagement and productivity as now the employees know that their bosses care about their employees’ futures as well apart from their business and the company.
If any organization wants to build a strong company then first it needs to understand the difference between engagement and productivity and how it needs to combine the two to retain employees who are engaged as well as productive. Happier employees mean higher-level of job commitment which in turn leads to improved customer satisfaction and more productivity
