Making employee engagement an end‐to‐end practice
| Date | 20 April 2010 |
| Pages | 32-37 |
| Published date | 20 April 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391011040055 |
| Author | Richard Doherty |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Making employee engagement an
end-to-end practice
Richard Doherty
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to assist businesses of all sizes in employee engagement, attraction and
retention, by demonstrating how fundamental human resources (HR) processes can be effectively
combined with new technologies to make employee engagement an end-to-end practice. Employers
know that happy and fulfilled employees are moreproductive, but attracting and retaining the best talent
for a business involves engaging employees in the long term. This paper discusses a range of tactics to
help ensure engagement, such as regular appraisals, use of social networking and the efficient
recording of employee performance and interests, to best optimize the talent management process.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a practical approach. It is based on both Richard
Doherty’s extensive experience in the HR and talent management sector, as well as the practical
experiences Jobpartners has had through working with its clients for over a decade. It looks at the basic
values of interaction with employees, as well as how best to optimize, streamline and efficiently operate
all aspects of employee engagement in order to lead to a more productive workforce with lowerchurn.
Findings – This paper demonstrates how best to engage employees from before a career even begins,
right up until it ends. It offers guidance on using the latest techniques and technology to keep employees
engaged and motivated. Threading through the paper is the knowledge that even if an employee moves
to another company, you may still hold a relationship with them as partners or customers. Employee
engagement must therefore be an end-to-end practice and this paper will help show how to make that a
reality.
Originality/value – Motivated and efficient workforces only happen when respect flows in all directions
through a business, with transparent processes throughout. This article looks at examples of how the
mobile network operator ‘‘3’’ and Rabobank used some of the tactics referred to above to reap benefits
such as reducing recruitment costs and meeting targets for employee assessments. This information
results from Jobpartners ongoing work with both companies to help them streamline and integrate their
HR processes.
Keywords Performance appraisal, Computer software, Human resource management,
Employee attitudes
Paper type Case study
Employee engagement is one of those often talked about but rarely understood
concepts. Every employer knows that a happy and fulfilled employee is a more
productive one, but to attract and retain the best talent for a business involves
engaging employees in the long term. Engagement is about respect going both up, down
and across a business, transparency throughout and alignment of HR and management
policies to business culture and objectives. When all this is done well, employees will be
doing the right job for all the right reasons, and the business benefits will be tangible.
This article discusses how best to encourage employee engagement from before a career
even begins, right until it ends, including how to combine the latest techniques and
technology with fundamental HR processes to keep employees engaged and motivated.
The key thing to remember is that even if an employee in whom a business has invested
chooses to move on to another company,they might still remain important in their next role as
PAGE 32
j
STRATEGIC HR REVIEW
j
VOL. 9 NO. 3 2010, pp. 32-37, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 DOI 10.1108/14754391011040055
Richard Doherty is Group
Vice President, Solutions
and Marketing at
Jobpartners, London, UK.
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