People - Employee Engagement & Retention (Understanding) Flashcards
Which best describes technology’s impact on employee engagement levels?
The boundaries between work and non-work life are increasingly overlapping, contributing to employee fatigue and burnout.
While technology has provided flexibility in how, when, and where work is produced, many times at lower cost, it has contributed to employees having a harder time separating work from non-work time, leading to fatigue and burnout.
Which work relationships are most closely tied to creating and sustaining employee engagement?
Manager-employee relationships
Research shows that manager behavior is pivotal to both employee engagement and employee well-being. Managers who manage in ways that not only encourage employees to demonstrate engagement externally by their actions but also engender emotional engagement represent a vital mechanism for creating a workforce that is sustainably engaged and well (and productive).
A recent employee satisfaction survey indicated that 83% of respondents were satisfied with their jobs. The CEO believes that employee engagement initiatives have met expectations and that money budgeted for additional employee engagement efforts should be shifted to other projects. Which is the best way to respond?
Explain that employee engagement is about performance outcomes not always reflected in survey results, so initiatives should continue.
Employee engagement is a broader concept than employee satisfaction, commitment, and morale. It is an outcome-driven concept about behaviors that can positively influence individual- and business-level performance. As such, engagement initiatives should continue. However, efforts will most likely shift to acknowledge progress made in some areas and gaps that remain in others.
A company is expanding into a new country and wants to extend its collaborative, team-based approach to help engage its new workforce. Which driver of engagement should the HR director consider first?
Align company practices to new country practices using valid research to guide changes.
The first step is to recognize that drivers of engagement may vary among cultures, and the HR director must obtain non-biased information about preferences among this new group of employees. Not addressing a different approach to collaboration up front may cause confusion as the teams integrate.
An advertising firm has experienced significant turnover among its creative writers. During exit interviews, the writers have expressed dissatisfaction with rigid starting times, a lack of recognition for their work, and poor communication between managers and employees. Which actions should HR recommend managers implement to improve employee engagement?
Requesting and valuing employee input on important organizational issues
Participation is a process in which power or influence is shared between management and employees who are both engaged in the decision-making process. Employee input on important organizational issues is both asked for and valued. Depending on the organization or industry, a participative culture may also include giving the employees the discretion to act on their decisions.
Which managerial behavior would most effectively increase employee engagement?
Encouraging employees to have a proposed solution when they come for assistance with a problem
Autonomy and control over the job reinforces employees’ ability to manage and solve problems. Encouraging employees to work through a problem prior to approaching the manager reinforces that they are capable and can solve the problem.
A consulting company knows that its primary advantage lies in the expertise and commitment of its people. Which practice should HR recommend that leaders focus on?
Retention
A company that sells its employees’ expertise will most likely focus on employee retention. In this situation, experienced employees who have developed strong relationships with customers cannot be easily replaced.
A new HR leader would like to assess the level of employee engagement in the organization. His focus will be on behavioral engagement. Which of the following characteristics should the HR leader look for?
Effort employees put into their jobs
Behavioral engagement is evident in the effort employees put into their jobs, which leads to greater value, creating higher performance than from less engaged employees. It can occur when both trait and state engagement are present. The less desirable of the traits is transactional engagement.
Which managerial competency would best support the relationship between the well-being and engagement of employees?
Demonstrating interest in employees as individuals and contributors
A nurturing style of management, demonstrated by getting to know employees’ individual needs and abilities, has been shown to reinforce the relationship between well-being and engagement.
Which of the following actions is most likely to reduce job burnout?
Giving employees control over their work
Burnout occurs when work is no longer meaningful to a person. Giving employees more say about how the work is done reduces burnout and makes employees more committed and engaged in their work.
Which is an example of a manager’s behavior that drives employee engagement?
Considering the consistency of a candidate’s preferences with the organization’s practices before offering employment
A driver of employee engagement is hiring the right person for the right job to ensure that the applicant is a fit for the role and the culture of the organization. Engagement requires finding the right motivations and environments that work for different people; some people would not be satisfied by working only in their areas of strength, and some employees may become disengaged if a “work hard” culture creates continuous stress. Innovation is not an important factor in every organization and in every job role.
Why should an organization consider a high-performance culture and strategically invest in practices to keep high performers motivated and focused?
Which of the following drivers of employee engagement is consistent in workplaces globally?
Job role that encompasses opportunities for professional and career growth
Employee turnover is on the rise, and management is looking for cost-effective ways to stop this trend by improving employee engagement. Which manager action can make an immediate improvement without affecting the budget?
Show gratitude to employees by thanking them.
Why should an organization consider a high-performance culture and strategically invest in practices to keep high performers motivated and focused?
Turnover can negatively impact organizational productivity, innovation, and relationships.
In a high-performing culture, talent is championed from the bottom up. High turnover of top talent would lead to losses in innovation, performance, communication, relationships, etc.
