Factors Affecting Employee Organizational Engagement in the Indian Context.
| Author | Maan, Pratibha |
Introduction
In the prevailing competitive environments, the constant challenges for the organizational scholars and industry experts are to engage employees and make them feel satisfied at the workplace, as an engaged workforce maximizes the organizational success by putting forth their knowledge and skills to the best of their competencies. Loehr (2005) mentions: that "it is the ratio of engaged to disengaged workers that drives the financial outcomes and impacts profitable growth". Therefore, if the employees are engaged and committed to their respective jobs, they deliver higher productivity, through which organizations gain a competitive edge (Haque et al., 2021). Needless to mention engaged employees prove to be resourceful for the companies, however, it is a laborious task, as a report by Gallup highlights that 51 percent of employees feel "disengaged" in the workplace, whereas 13 percent are "actively disengaged", i.e., those who feel miserable and spread negativity to their colleagues (White, 2022). These data points themselves are the startling signals for the industry managers who want to retain their employees for longer times. Studies also report that ambitious employees are more likely to be demanding at workplaces and if their needs remain unmet, they might leave the organizations (Hirschi & Spurk, 2021). Moreover, the challenges are further exacerbated when the ambitious employees feel disengaged and show low performances leading to sharp declines in their overall organizational commitment. Furthermore, managers opine that engaging employees at work are burdensome due to unconcealable barriers to the process of employee engagement such as employees feeling not being valued and rewarded for their contributions, lack of involvement in decision-making, inadequate resource support, lesser knowledge about companies' mission and goals, generational differences, etc., (Bhowal & Saini, 2019). Thus, the management personnel finds themselves constantly modernizing the best engagement strategies to extract the best from their employees' knowledge and skills and to retain them for longer times. To achieve this, the management exercises and focuses on providing many employee benefits such as paid leaves, work-from-home, health and life insurance, parental leaves, etc., but largely remains ineffective in their endeavors (Banerjee & Yadav, 2016). The present study, therefore, addresses this constraint by arguing that employees do not only seek benefits but rather aspire for more. We, therefore, propose that, along with the employee benefits, a healthy work environment and adequate investment in the development of employees from their employers would enhance employees' organizational engagement.
We collected data from Indian working professionals, and later the data was analyzed by employing statistically significant tests. The study substantiates that, more than providing benefits to the employees, the management should rather focus on building a healthy work environment and investing in employees' overall development to motivate and retain them. Also, the study can be generalized to the younger generation as the sample is largely inclined toward the younger generational employees more than the older ones.
Employee Benefits & Employee Organizational Engagement
Employee benefits were introduced during the twentieth century, when employers started paying extra benefits apart from direct compensation, such as health/ life insurance, parental leaves, paid leaves, etc. to their employees (Dulebohn, 2009; Balkin & Werner, 2022). Research indicates that employers provide benefits to employees to motivate and inspire them which further promotes their job satisfaction, worker loyalty, and engagement (Klonoski, 2016; Reissova et al., 2019). Also, employees who feel appropriately redressed, through their reimbursement or additional day off, indicate a superior engagement level.
Further, studies show employee benefits such as flexible working arrangements (FWAs) depict positive linkages with employee engagement and more dominantly with overall employee wellbeing (Weideman & Hofmeyr, 2020). If the company employees are engaged, it is most likely to bear maximum outcomes in terms of financial and other aspects. Therefore, it is the fundamental account of the human resource personnel to make employees feel engaged both physically and psychologically to create proficiency for the organization (Sudjiwanati & Pinastikasari, 2020).
Research highlights that if employees are satisfied with the overall employee benefits programs and policies, their dedication toward organizational engagement becomes superior (Malhotra et al., 2007). Further, the previous studies assert that among other constructs such as personality and job satisfaction, reward and benefits given to the employees had substantial direct effects on organizational engagement (Widodo & Damayanti, 2020). Similarly, Daniel (2019) has coined that when employees are compensated fairly and justifiably, they perform better. In addition, Miarkolaei (2014) have found that employee members who felt content with the given pay, direction, benefits, and associates become much more attached to the organization which gives a boost to their organizational engagement. Moreover, the employer's role is significant in not only providing the required benefits but also observing and understanding that employees seek stable and assured benefits programs, therefore, employers are advised to form long-term benefits strategies to retain employees (Galanaki, 2019).
Furthermore, employers should recognize that employee benefits are necessary not only because these are regulated by laws but also because employees reciprocate based on the benefits provided to them. This "give-and-take" equation between employers and employees could be understood by "Social exchange theory" (SET), i.e., "to explain the motivation behind the exchange of attitudes and behaviors between individuals" (Blau, 1968). This theory explains that employees expect their employers to provide them for their labor, and based on the treatment they get, they further reciprocate (Anitha, 2014; Xiu et al., 2019).
H1: Employee benefits will influence employee organizational engagement positively.
Work Environment & Employee Organizational Engagement
The literature depicts that it is the environment of an organization that largely determines the degree to which employees feel involved in organizational functioning. If the work environment exhibits such qualities where employees have a feeling of being valued, the chances of them becoming more engaged are heightened (Bhappu & Schultze, 2018; Babu et al...
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