Question
You have been asked by the Board of Directors to produce a briefing paper which outlines how REBU can improve employee engagement.
Your briefing paper must include:
- A review of emerging developments to approaches to employee voice and engagement and it must provide:
- Three recommendations on how REBU can improve approaches to employee voice and engagement based on your review. The recommendations must include clear and actionable justifications (1.1).
- A critical evaluation of the interrelationship between employee voice and organisational performance focusing on high-performance work practices (1.4).
- An assessment of surveys, suggestion schemes and team meetings as approaches that can be used drive employee engagement (1.3).
- A discussion of the differences between employee involvement and employee participation and how these can be used to build effective employment relationships within REBU (AC1.2).
- A conclusion explaining the concept and design of better working lives in order that REBU to promote good physical and mental health work practices (1.5).
Solution
Task 1- Briefing Paper to the Board of Directors
Background
In this briefing paper, it focuses on reviewing the emerging developments to approaches to employee voice and engagement. Adopting the definition of CIPD (2021a), employee voice identify the process in which individuals communicate their views to their employer and influence matters affecting them at work. This is by assisting in building an open and trust-based relationship between the employers and their people which contribute to success of an entity. In line with this background, by focusing on REBU organisation which is a gig economy based organisation, this report to board of directors will evaluate the best practice in improving their employee engagement.
- REBU Improving Employee Voice and Engagement Recommendations
According to CIPD (2021b) in improving employee voice and engagement, people practice professionals play an instrumental role. To improve the approaches, the recommendations include;
Recommendation 1– Within a period of 1 year, REBU would need to ensure that as part of their employee life cycle, they embed employee voice and engagement. This recommendation is supported by CIPD (2021c) this note that this can be integrated in the recruitment and onboarding phases. Also, since REBU faced issue with working conditions, within a period of 8 months, to achieve 80% improved work conditions, they would have to establish appropriate recognition programs for encouraging and supporting their employees in getting engaged and participating in the organisation operations.
Recommendation 2– In the next one financial year, REBU would need to ensure that they are measuring success and outputs. As evidenced in Quantum Workplace (2020), measuring success and output could entail use of an engagement survey before the employees are involved in various organisation activities. The importance of this would be to ensure that the employees voice is appreciated and how they appreciate their involvement and engagement in active organisation operations noted. This would increase the employees retention with over 60% within a period of 6 months. For REBU, since they already have a tradition of taking the exit interviews, this can be used to obtain the measurements and data for success.
Recommendation 3– In the next 6 months, REBU can prioritise on harnessing the application of different social media platforms with an intention of controlling the employees (existing and future) in expressing their distinct views. This is supported by CIPD (2013) report which evidence that increased popularity of platforms including Glassdoor and LinkedIn has informed the necessity for responding to current postings and supporting the employees voice and engagement culture.
1.4 Interrelationship of employee voice and organisational performance by focusing on high-performance work practices
Different studies have found employee voice to be strongly correlated with performance. For instance, Dwomoh (2012) noted that high employee voice in active decision making harness the scope of organisation performance. Similarly, while introducing the concept of high-performance work practices, CIPD (2021a) report noted that through employee voice, the employees feels more valued, high-level trust and influential. The outcome of this is increasing overall job satisfaction and performance scope. In a more in-depth approach, Ashiru et al. (2021) research found out that the high performance work practices which include training strategies, recognition and rewards, staffing and career opportunities promote the employee voice eventually increasing the performance. In REBU, considering its current situation, one of the approaches they can use to harness their employee voice is by facilitating existence of a high-performance work practices. Providing the employees with the opportunities for high performance working, it is possible to achieve a high-level performance. Since REBU organisation is already facing an issue with employee turnover, this could have a positive implication on the employees and employer. This is particularly making appropriate decision making and appropriate operations.
Further, according to Miao et al .(2020), employee voice is linked with the high performance work system which entail various interrelated (internal fit and exterior synergy) HR practices impacting employees knowledge. Taking this into account, to link the employee voice with the performance and the high-performance strategies, REBU would need to harness their employees innovativeness by creating a sustainable operations while leveraging on competitive advantage. As illustrated in figure 1, as a best practice, appropriate opportunities for expressing their ideas, concerns and perspectives with authenticity and with minimal fears of the social or workplace consequences.
Figure 1: Employee Voice and Employee Performance
Further, through the psychological contract improved, Miao et al. (2020) note that the employees are able to harness their commitments, expectations and understanding of their relationships. The noted issue in REBU positively contribute to encouraging an increased scope of openness and mutual awareness as part of their operations. The organisation would become a high performing work environment hence being raked in Sunday Times 100 companies for working in (AwardList, 2022).
- Assessment Surveys, Suggestion Schemes and Team Meeting being approaches for driving employee engagement
According to Quantum Workplace (2021) there exist a set of factors with a direct implication on harnessing the employee engagement. The approaches include;