Thepurpose of this report is to analyse the issue, employee engagement that willbe affecting the future of work. It will be analysing the potential impact ofemployee engagement on hospitality business asemployee engagement is now a trending topic for the customer-service businessand also the impact on the human resource management in the hospitalityindustry. This report will then provide some recommendations on future strategiesoptions that human resource managers should be considered to pursue. Theterm, employee engagement is now a trending topic across businesses.
It hasemerged as one of the issues that will be affecting the future of work. Kahn (1990)was one of the first to introduce the idea of engagement(https://www.researchgate.
net/profile/Dr_Sebastian_Rupert_Mampilly/publication/235790288_’Satisfaction_with_HR_Practices_and_Employee_Engagement_A_Social_Exchange_Perspective’_Journal_of_Economics_and_Behavioural_Studies_7_Vol_4_July_2012/links/0912f5138804fed82e000000/Satisfaction-with-HR-Practices-and-Employee-Engagement-A-Social-Exchange-Perspective-Journal-of-Economics-and-Behavioural-Studies-7-Vol-4-July-2012.pdf).He defined engagement as “the harnessing of organisation members’ selves totheir work roles;in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively andemotionally during role performances’. He also proposed that engagedindividuals are prepared to invest significant personal resources, in the formof time and effort, to the successful completion of their task, and thatengagement is at its greatest when an individual is driving ‘personal energiesinto physical, cognitive and emotional labours (http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/469.
pdf).Therefore, employee engagement is defined as the level at which employeededication, both emotional and rational subsist in relation to achieve the missionand vision of the organisation (Gupta, 2015). It usually involves thesatisfaction of employee with their work, the extent to which people enjoy andbelieve in what they do for work and the perception that the manager valueswhat they contribute to the organisation. A lot of researches has been done toinvestigate the relationship between employee engagement and job performance. Theresearches have proved that greater the engagement of the employee, the greaterthe employee is performing on the work. Engaged employees are also believed to bemore likely to commit to stay in the business than the disengaged employees (https://www.
shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Employee-Engagement-Commitment.pdf). Today,with increasingly competitive markets, globalisation, a volatile economicclimate, employee engagement has become one of the critical drivers that leadsbusiness to success, especially in for the hospitality business.
The success ofa hospitality business is influenced by customers’ satisfaction which thereforeis important for the business to ensure that their employees are engaged andproductive as there are evidences shown that employees who are engaged andcommitted to their work are performing better on their work. Having trained andexperienced employees is easy to satisfy customers as they are experienced in providinga best experience for the customers. In order to retain these trained andexperienced employees, the business should provide a satisfied and engagedworkplace for the employees (http://blog.
rewardian.com/why-is-employee-engagement-in-the-hospitality-industry-important).The research has also stated that highly engaged employees are perform 20%better and they are 87% less likely to leave the business (http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/ICIMS/Volume-1/10.pdf).
However, Employee engagementdoes not only have the potential to affect employee retention, productivity andloyalty, it is also a key link to the customer satisfaction, company reputationand overall stakeholder value. Business should see engagement as a profit becauseengaged employees are more productive which leads to a better job performance.Engaged employees are more profitable, more customer focused and more likely tocommit to stay in the business. By involving them in the business, theemployees will be motivated to contribute to the business’s goals and missionsand this will also improve their sense of well-being (Harshitha, 2015).
According to the research, the earning per share growth rate of the organisationsthat have greater engagement is 2.6 times more than the organisations withlittle engagement. In general, when employees start to join the business, theyare usually enthusiastic because the environment is new to them so they arecommitted and ready to be an advocate for their new employer which means thatthey are highly engaged. However, there is also some researches stated that thelonger the employees stay with the business, the less engaged they will become (http://www.
iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/ICIMS/Volume-1/10.pdf).Therefore, it is important for the business to understand the impact ofemployee engagement as it will affect the productivity of the business. Intoday’s global business environment, as employee engagement has become acritical issue that will affect the current and future business, hospitalitybusiness should be aware of the impact of employee engagement. In order tosurvive in this competitive market, the business should have the human resourcedepartment to set agenda for employee engagement and commitment in order togain a competitive edge in the market (http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/ICIMS/Volume-1/10.
pdf).Having a high-performing workforce is critical to survive in this competitivebusiness environment as an engaged workplace can develop the work, increasingthe profit and as well as decrease costsrelated to maintenance and hiring new employees. Hence, human resource plays animportant role in the strategic planning as it will affect the customers, resultsof the business and ultimately the value of shareholder (textbook). Employeeengagement is an important practice that human resource department need to implementbecause if the employees are not engaged in the workplace, that means that theyare not committed to their work which is likely to slow down the performance.As (http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41149446.
pdf)stated, ‘objectives are more easily met when employee is engaged and morelikely to fall short when they are not.’ When an employee is not engaged, it isdifficult for the human resource manager to get them to help driving thebusiness goals. Therefore, the human resource managers need to be able todevelop and implement HR strategies that support the business objectives,improve productivity and enhance employee wellbeing in this volatile businessenvironment. Business must also invest in its human resources practices inorder to engage employees and also to benefit from the engagement when theemployees feel satisfied, involved, motivated to commit and contribute more tothe business (https://www.shrm.
org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Employee-Engagement-Commitment.pdf).However,human resource manager should take employee engagement into account when doingthe human resource activities such as planning, recruitment and selection becausethere is an increasing awareness on the impact of employee engagement forbusiness which will affect the performance and success of the business.
Forhospitality business, people are the main resource in order to operate thebusiness. Planning how business will meet its current and future HR needs andhow people will be supported and nurtured within the business is a criticalstep for success. Human resource planning, also known as employment planning isthe process by which an organisation attempts to ensure that it has the rightnumber of qualified people in the right jobs at the right time. It ensures thatemployees with appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities are available at aspecified time in the future (textbook). According to (textbook), engagementand development of high quality employees is one of the factors that affectsthe performance of a business. However, HR planning could be affected byemployee engagement as when an employee is not engaged in the work, theemployee might decide to leave the business with or without any sign so the HRmanager should make sure that every employee is engaged in their work.
Afterthe HR planning process, recruitment is then carried on. Recruitment is theprocess of seeking and attracting a pool of applicants from qualifiedcandidates. A job vacancy may be filled from within or outside the business. Recruitmentcan be done through job posting, newspaper advertising, social networking sitesand executive search (textbook). There is a correlation between employeeengagement and recruitment.
When the employee is engaged, there is probably noneed to recruit as the engaged individuals are enthusiastic about their workand they will most likely to stay in the business whereas when the employeesare not engaged in their work, they might decide to leave the business and thisis when business would have to start recruiting to seek for engaged employees (https://www.tlnt.com/the-power-of-engaged-employees-to-help-drive-your-recruiting-efforts/).However, business can recruit engaged job applicants by using attractive messagessuch as challenging work assignments, a highly skilled team environment orminimal supervision to attract the job applicants. Applicants who notice andrespond to it are more likely to be excited for the job they apply.
Also,business could also consider to seek candidates within the business, theexisting employee will be even more engaged than before being recruited for hisdesirable jobs whereas, if the business recruits from outside of the businesswhen there is qualified internal employees available, there is a high chance todisengage the existing employees (https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Employee-Engagement-Commitment.pdf).Once the recruitment is done, the human resource manager has to select amongthe job candidates to fill the available positions. Selection involves inchoosing from the available candidates predicted to be most likely to performsuccessfully in the position they are applying for.
Steps in the selectionprocess include computer screening, reviewing applications, psychologicaltesting, employment interviewing, reference checking and completing a medicalexamination. Based on the information gathered, a selection decision is made(textbook). Whenselecting a candidate, HR professionals should be able to apply evidence-basedselection processes to predict who is the most likely to be engaged on the workin order to employ a high calibre, high achieving, productive, committed andengaged employee for the business (http://www.pbr.co.in/November2016/16.pdf).
