Employee Engagement And Organizational Culture
It will be just right to say that Employee Engagement is a direct result of a strong Organization Culture. It refers to how an employee feels about the culture of the organization they are in.
An organization’s culture defines the proper way to behave within the organization. This culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviors, and understanding.
These values and beliefs are like a collection of expectations and practices that guide and inform the action taken by the employees in the organization.
Culture, therefore, is very intrinsic to Employee Engagement, when employees feel trusted, supported, and respected by their employers, they’re more likely to be engaged. Organizational culture clearly outlines the behaviors and norms that are healthy and supportive. Employees clearly understand their culture and what is expected of them. They feel connected. They feel involved. They feel supported. And, therefore, they feel engaged. Culture and employee engagement are closely tied.
One can say that to improve employee engagement, start by improving the company culture.
Moving on to Design Thinking, the concept is often confused to be applicable only to technology and IT-related practices. Going by the mere definition the concept is a method of thinking of creative resolutions to problems. HR has been able to leverage the concept very beautifully in the last few months.
Let us look at a few pillars of Engagement and see how Design Thinking has been used in those
Meaningful Work – By using tools like Success Factors, organizations can focus on performance management instead of performance appraisals. This keeps the employees motivated and engaged.
Supportive Management and Communication – The need to constantly communicate with the employees is very high in any engaged organization. By using tools like Microsoft Teams and Basecamp organizations are not just keeping the communication channel live but also it’s two-way communication. This helps them ensure that the employee feels supported at all times.
Positive Work Environment – Most organizations are using learning tools and chatbots as a tool to set positivity in the culture keeping employees highly engaged.
Growth Opportunities – There are many bite-sized learning apps that provide a huge opportunity for employees to create their own growth plans.
Trust – The most important factor that builds the culture and therefore keeps employees engaged. Organizations have been able to use tools like OrgLens that help them understand the network of employees which is highly dense and dense the most engaged.
Organization Culture and Employee Engagement are interlinked and Design Thinking simply helps in finding creative solutions that help in driving the pillars of the two.
Role of Design Thinking in Employee Engagement – Stay tuned to watch a series of Employee Engagement
Author / Educator – Vibha Singh, Director – HR, Table Space Technologies
I have Close to 16 years of experience in the HR domain, in organizations like Wipro, 3 Global Services( Tech Mahindra ), Bank of America, and Execute HR. Started my career with recruitments, managed positions across all levels, and then moved on to managing employee life cycles. There on I started creating HR solutions for various organizations and advising them on the HR work ways. I have headed the HR Technology development team, where I was responsible for product designing and development and there on implementation at various client organizations.