All sectors across the globe have started looking at employee engagement as an opportunity

because engaged employees always tend to perform better than not engaged or disengaged
employees. Organization with engaged employees are always a strength to the organization as
it has lot of positive outcomes.

Researchers on engagement have developed various concepts to explain employee activities,

behaviors, and psychological states (e.g., commitment, motivation, and satisfaction) as core
components of engagement. Scholars have begun using engagement with different terminology
(e.g., employee engagement, job engagement, and work engagement). Employee engagement
refers to “the individual’s involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for work”.
Typically, employee engagement is comprised of both job and organizational engagement. Job
engagement focuses on “a psychological state of fulfillment with one’s task at work” and
organizational engagement focuses on “a multidimensional motivational concept reflecting the
simultaneous investment of an individual’s physical, cognitive, and emotional energy in active,
full work performance”. Work engagement (as used in this paper) is defined as “a positive,
fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption”.
Although these related terms have slightly different definitions, each definition shares a
common core: To describe a state of mind.

Work engagement is also defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is
characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli et al., 2001). Vigor is refers to
being strongly involved in one’s work and experiencing a sense of significance, enthusiasm, and
challenge. Absorption is characterized by being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in
one’s work, whereby time passes quickly and one has difficulties with detaching oneself from
work. In short, engaged employees have high levels of energy and are enthusiastic about their
work. Moreover, they are often fully immersed in their work so that time flies. Also Employee
engagement is an individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work
he or she does.

Furthermore, Employee engagement is such a phenomenon which is corollary to researches on

employee social behavior at work place. It essentially defines the in depth the workers’
psychological involvement with employer and work. It is comparatively new concept in the field
of Human Resource Management spanning more than two decades (Rafferty et al. ,2005;
Melcrum Publishing, 2005; Ellis and Sorensen, 2007). Employee engagement is, however,
different from job involvement in that it relates to how the employee uses emotions and
cognition that accompany both job satisfaction and commitment (May et al., 2004). On the
Basis of extra role behavior (discretionary effort) and commitment of an employee,
engagement is a two way reciprocal process among employee and enterprise (Rafferty et al.
2005). Engagement is a multidimensional concept as employees can be engaged emotionally
and cognitively as well as physically. Emotional engagement implies at the meaningful link with
colleagues empathy and concern for coworkers’ feelings. Contrarily, cognitive engagement
implies at precise consciousness about mission and responsibility at work place (Kahn, 1990).

In this study I will discuss how employee work engagement predicts major employee’s
behavior.

In-role performance and employee work engagement:

Performance behavior means that a measurable connection is made between result and
the behavior that is required to achieve that result. It specifies and measures the behavior that
is needed to achieve the desired result.

Bakker et al. (2004) showed that engaged employees received higher ratings from their
colleagues on in-role and extra-role performance, indicating that engaged employees perform
well and are willing to go the extra mile. Further, in their survey among Dutch employees from
a wide range of occupations, Schaufeli et al. (2006) found that work engagement is positively
related to in-role performance whereas workaholism is not. These findings were expanded in
another study among 327 secretaries. Gierveld and Bakker (2005) found that engaged
secretaries scored higher on in-role and extra-role performance than their non-engaged
counterparts. In addition, results suggested that engaged secretaries had more influence on
daily business. They were more often asked to carry out additional, challenging tasks, including
personnel pre-selection, the organization of trade exhibitions and conventions, and website
maintenance.

There are at least four reasons why engaged workers perform better than non-engaged
workers. Engaged employees often experience positive emotions, including happiness, joy, and
enthusiasm; experience better health; create their own job and personal resources; and
transfer their engagement to others.

Organization citizenship behavior and employee engagement:

OCB is defined as “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized
by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of
the organization (Organ, 1988. P.4).

Organizational climate helps achieving the objective of organization and ensuring the maximum
utilization of human resource. Successful implementation of human resource systems reflect on
growth and development of an individual as well as organization (Rafiei, 2015). Employee pro
social behavior is spontaneous which refers to intentional behaviors that result in benefits for
co-workers and employer (Feigin et al. 2014; Eisenberg and Miller 1987). Pro social behavior is
seen in several forms such as kindness, volunteerism without expectations of any kind for extra
benefit. It increases motivation and encourages employees to altruistic behavior (Katz and
Kahn, 1966). Currently the concept is improved and giving a new conception into true sense
which is recognized as Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Organ, 1983). If an employee
exhibits organizational citizenship behavior, it shows contribution or dedication of employee as
organizational citizens. Organizational citizenship behavior is one of the part of pro social
behavior which provides benefits to organization as well as employees (Dovidio et al. 2006).
Organizational citizens have persistence, ability and flexibility to cope with the additional work
efforts without any hope of reward in return (Feigin et al., 2014). In this case, employees’ self
realization and motivation is clearly seen through their dedication and potentiality towards the
organization (Jaksic, 2013).

There are studies which has carried on to determine the relationship of employee engagement
and OCB and proved to have a positive relationship. A study based on Thai organizations by
Rurkkhum (2010) found that there exist a positive relationship between employee engagement
and OCB. The author measured OCB based on 5 dimensions such as altruism, civic virtue,
sportsmanship, courtesy and conscientiousness developed by Podsakoff et al (1990). Except
courtesy, which indicated a weak relationship all the other variables such as altruism, civic
virtue, sportsmanship and conscientiousness indicated a positive relationship with employee
engagement. A similar study based on employees working in various sectors situated in
Malaysia supported the finding wherein except courtesy all the other four constructs had
positive relationship with employee engagement (Islam et al., 2012). Few other studies which
supported the positive relationship are (Saks, 2006; Thayer, 2008; Thomas, 2011; Barman,
2012; Finkelstein, 2013).

Employee pro-social behavior is reflected in a positively engaged work place. Though many
studies have reflected on pro social behavior (extra role behavior) of employee only few have
centered on positive link between organizational citizenship and engagement. If employee is
positively engaged with work they manifest creativity and extra role for the organization.
Employee engagement is a strong forecaster or predictor of organizational citizenship behavior
which shows the extra role behavior. Organizational citizenship behavior means that employees
are engaged they have willingness to go extra mile. The studies that are taken depict a strong
linkage between the dimensions of engagement and OCB. Certain dimensions as, absorption,
dedication and vigor and under employee engagement are found to be more vociferous in
predicting organizational citizenship behavior. Consequently, if these dimensions are stressed
upon then a modification can be brought out in the way that employees are engaged. Contrarily
the dimensions such as altruism, sportsmanship, courtesy, consciousness and civic virtue under
organizational citizenship behavior are seen to be positively related to engagement. These
studies however are limited in their scope of application to only service sector ignoring
completely other organizations. Future researches in this field could focus on extension of these
dimensions into different sectors.
Deviant workplace behavior and employee engagement:

Deviant workplace behaviors are becoming a cause for considerable concern in organizations
across the globe. Australian national poll reported that about 31% of workers had been verbally
abused by their immediate supervisor and about 35% by a coworker; also, the US Chamber of
Commerce estimates that between 33 and 75% of all employees have engaged in other
aggressive behaviors such as theft, fraud, vandalism, and sabotage, 75% of all employees steal
at least once, and about 95% of all organizations experience employee theft.

Workplace deviance has been defined as a voluntary behavior that violates significant
organizational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well-being of the organization, its
members, or both. Deviant behavior may be acceptable or not from the legal standpoint, but,
importantly, it contradicts general social norms. For example, verbally abusing a coworker, lying, taking
credit for others’ work, or unfairly claiming more resources for the self may be legal or not. However,
one of its common examples is that these behaviors violate significant societal norms and have the
potential to harm others.

Robinson and Bennett identified deviant behavior among individuals—interpersonal deviant—

as one of the two primary categories of such behavior.

But counterproductive work behaviors can be defined as a voluntary behavior that violates
significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its
members, or both.

According to Robinson and Bennett, they identified two dimensions of workplace deviance,
severity and target; they use multidimensional scaling analysis as follows:

1. Severity: The dimension of severity refers to the extent to which the deviant act violates
important organizational norms and thus is perceived as more potentially harmful to the
organization or its members. Relatively, minor forms of deviance include such behaviors
as social loafing and unjustified absenteeism, whereas more severe forms might involve
physical aggression or theft.

2. Target: The target dimension reflects whether the deviance is directed at the
organization or organizational members. Organization-directed deviance might include,
for example, vandalism, theft, or sabotage. In contrast, individual-directed deviance
might include gossip or physical assault. Although a given act of deviance may harm
both targets, organizational members will tend to direct their deviant actions at
primarily an individual or an organizational target.
Deviant behavior typically aimed directly at the organization is often referred to as
organizational deviance. Organizational deviance encompasses production and property
deviance. Workplace deviant behavior may be expressed as tardiness or excessive absenteeism.
These behaviors have been cited by some researchers as withdraw behaviors; such behaviors
allow employees to withdraw physically and emotionally from the organization.

All in all, if an employee is engaged then there will be less chances that one shows a deviant
workplace behavior.

Absenteeism and employee engagement:

Absenteeism is an employee's intentional or habitual absence from work. While employers

expect workers to miss a certain number of workdays each year, excessive absences can equate
to decreased productivity and can have a major effect on company finances, morale and other
factors.

Even for very large companies, absenteeism among employees can be a big deal. But, for
smaller organizations, where there are fewer people in a given position—perhaps
only one person in a certain position—absenteeism can have a significant impact on
productivity and customer service. The type of business will also have an impact on the extent
to which absenteeism impacts organizational performance.

Absenteeism is one of the most toxic elements in many organizations, particularly those in
relatively low-skilled fields where it is most common, such as retail and customer service.
Kronos recently conducted its second Global Retail Absence Survey in which it surveyed 800
retail managers across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the
United States.
Based on those responses, Kronos found that:

 58% of respondents believe unplanned absenteeism has a negative impact on staff

productivity.

 55% believe it has a negative impact on managers’ stress.

 46% believe it has a negative impact on team morale.

“And it’s a vicious cycle,” argues Kronos. “More than half [of the survey respondents] agree that
poor employee engagement causes increased absenteeism.”
Kronos reports that 63% of retail managers in the United Kingdom, 63% in the United States,
and 61% in Germany feel that poor employee engagement has a big impact on unplanned
employee absences. And that shouldn’t be surprising.
In customer-facing occupations, unexpectedly having a lower ratio of staff to customers means
a busier, more stressful day in what can already seem like a very high-stress job when dealing
with customers.

There is a clear tie between low employee engagement and absenteeism, or turnover. What’s
true in general is no less true for the retail industry in particular. “More than half of retailers
worldwide (52 percent) see a direct correlation between poor employee engagement and
increased staff turnover,” according to Kronos. That turnover again results in remaining staff
having to pick up the slack when the company ends up shorthanded.

Turnover and employee work engagement:

Employee turnover describes the number or percentage of employees who leave your
organization and will need to be replaced. There are employees who leave for their own
reasons (voluntarily) and those who are let go (involuntarily). This article will cover the
employees who leave on their own accord. High employee turnover is the scourge of many
organizations: it's costly, time-consuming, and can totally destroy morale.

Richard Branson, says on engagement:

“It should go without saying if the person who works at your company is 100 percent proud of
the brand and you give them the tools to do a good job, and they are treated well, they’re going
to be happy. If the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not going to
do things with a smile. Effectively, in the end, shareholders do well, the customers do better,
and your staff remains happy.”

Branson appreciates that his success is built on his employees. In his approach, the customer
isn’t #1 – the employee is. If your employees are happy, he contends, your customers will be
happy too. And he’s right. Gallup reports that highly engaged workplaces see 20% higher sales,
21% higher overall profitability, 10% higher customer ratings and up to 67% lower turnover.
Clearly, focusing on engagement can increase retention in meaningful ways.

These are the things that matter when it comes to engagement. It’s up to the manager to foster
these things. Employers need to provide support to employers in good times and bad, giving
praise and recognition when things are going well, and helping employees overcome obstacles
when things are going poorly. It’s also up to managers to foster transparency, cohesion and
equality on their teams. When it’s done right, building an engaged team can drastically reduce a
high employee turnover rate. That’s good for you, your company, and your customers.

Richard Branson says he’s never taken a course in HR or even read any books on the topic. But
he certainly understands how important engagement is to the heath of a company.

Studies have revealed that the companies where employee engagement is high, the rate of
employee turnover is pretty low. We have already discussed the negative impacts of employee
turnover and how expensive it can turn out to be, so it is high time, companies start focusing on
ensuring their employees are suitably engaged and love working in the company. It is for this
reason, many companies organize a variety of team building activities that gives a boost to
employee engagement and robust team bonding.

Customer satisfaction and employee engagement:

Research shows there is a direct correlation between engaged employees and the satisfaction
of your customer and ultimately achieving your business outcomes.

In other words, employee engagement drives customer satisfaction. Richard Branson says,
“Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers”.

Engaged employees are described as being fully immersed in and enthusiastic about their
work. This emotional attachment means that employees will go above and beyond the call of
duty. Employee Engagement differs from employee satisfaction. Satisfaction can be described
as being happy at work. Engagement takes employees to another level.

These employees will go the extra mile to resolve the client’s problems or work late to close a
sale. They contribute to a culture that consistently delivers great service. They take ownership,
deliver on their commitments, in and outside the organization, and are passionate about
satisfying the customer because they own the results of their work.

If your company struggles to attain your customer experience goals, then consider a formal
employee engagement program to help you establish the building blocks to ensure your
company creates happy customers.