People are the backbone of any firm. Be it Google, Apple, Microsoft, Toyota, Infosys, P&G or any other Fortune 1000 organization, they all owe their success to their employees and leaders. It is no secret that in today’s time the Indian job market is fractured. There are many job seekers and many openings, yet everyone complaints that their job is not a good fit or the organization’s recruiting program’s quality is declining. Managing employees and creating a winning culture can be a powerful strategic advantage for organizations.

Employees can be broadly categorized into four categories based on their happiness, loyalty, motivation, leadership and performance:

Hostile employees are people who are non -performing and not a fit to the company culture. They are actively looking for new opportunities, are responsible for creating a negative, non-collaborative working environment.

Disengaged employees are those who are barely satisfied with their jobs. They are not able or willing to create an impact by their work. They look at their work as routine and a means to fulfil their needs. Such employees are neither value creating nor loyal brand ambassadors.

Contributing employees are those that create value for the organization. They are moderately happy with their jobs but there is room for performance improvement.

Engaged employees are those that regularly create an impact and value for their firms. They are loyal, brand advocates and intrapreneurs. They regularly go over and above the required call of duty to create and deliver value.

Engaged employees are a dream come true for organizations. They are able to create a visible difference in the organizational performance.

As per 39 Solutions research, study by Gallup and Forbes survey it was found that organizations with highly engaged employees are able to make the following impact vis-a-vis organizations with low engagement employees:

• 22% increase in profitability
• 10% increase in favourable customer ratings indicating improved customer experience and satisfaction
• 21% increase in employee productivity and outcome
• 37% improvement in punctuality and attendance
• 25% reduction in attrition rate and employee turnover.

Employee Analytics slowly is gaining prominence and needs to be a core of HR Practises. It helps employees create a powerful and measurable difference for organizations. This can be done through consistent leadership programs, creation and continuous improvement of a winning culture and involvement of managers in HR functions.

Most organizations are following the trend of doling out freebies to their employees to retain them and increase their satisfaction. However this practice may do more harm than good – it is similar to feeding animals in the wild. The act may interfere with the animal’s natural instinct to hunt and survive. Similarly providing excess luxury options may make employees lazy, in need of more facilities and potentially create free riders. This may increase the firm’s expenses and reduce productivity.

Employee Analytics uses its proprietary models and tools to measure employee engagement and then recommend ways to improve engagement. Some key inputs in the model and tools are:

Need of Employees

Most employees want to make enough money to live comfortably and save for a rainy day. It is proven that excessive monetary benefits can lead to greed, alignment of focus on short term goals and reduction in overall productivity.

Employees have non monetary needs which can go a long way in making them engaged. Autonomy is highly preferred by star employees – the ability to work in their own style within company norms and culture and also achieving work life balance. Employees also excel when they have a chance to become experts or masters in their field of work. The goal of employee analytics is to ensure long term sustainable success for employees and engage them in work activities that can have a beneficial impact to the company.

Decision Rights

Clarity of role, responsibilities, non-ambiguous organization structure and reporting mechanism is crucial to create engaged employees. Most organizations struggle with clarifying decision rights. 81% of disengaged employees blame lack of clear decision rights in their organizations.

Information Flow

As organizations grow, ensuring everyone is on the same page becomes a huge task. Even with technology advancements (ERP, CRM, intranet) 68% disengaged employees claim that they never have the right information at the right time. Leaders must ensure that the organization vision, strategic principle and brand values are shared at all levels. Employee Analytics ensures that the organization culture and structure must be such that feedback can easily be shared and incorporated.

Performance Measurement

It is a well-known fact that employees do not leave firms, they leave bad bosses. Organizations must have consistent, fair and clear policy to measure impact and performance of employees. Simple, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (SMART) goals need to be set and monitored.

Rewards & Recognition

Rewards and Recognition is important for all employees. Employee Analytics offers a strong alignment of rewards and recognition with decision rights and performance measurement. Feedback in form of praise, recognition and appreciating impactful efforts goes a long way in creating engaged employees.

Learning & Development

Organizations must provide ample opportunities for an employee to learn and grow through mentoring and coaching. Providing an environment and opportunity to become experts is an attractive tool to create engaged employees.

The above are few key inputs that are used to assess and create engaged employees. HR function of an organization must ensure active participation from business managers and must evolve and include thought process on lines of psychology, data analytics, leadership and brand creation.

One can assist organizations and measure the employee engagement, do customized consulting for individual and organizational culture problems and impart firm-specific trainings to motivate engaged employees and ensure work life balance through Employee Analytics.