In very simple words, productivity is just a term that is used to measure efficiency. In terms of economics, it means measuring the output that comes from the inputs provided. Technically productivity is defined as output per unit of input, labour, or capital.

A real-time example would be a bag manufacturing factory. Suppose, if 10 labours collectively produce 20 bags per day by employing all the resources, it would not be considered as very productive. However, if the same number of labours collectively manufacture 200 bags per day, productivity would be considered to be very high.

Productivity is an important context not just in the professional scenario. It is relevant in every walk of our life, every sector and hence it is very important to know how productivity can be measured. In economics, operations, factories, as well as service sectors. However, with tangible products as output, the measurement of productivity becomes a lot easier. However, with intangible output, the determination of productivity is a lot more complex.

In factories and manufacturing firms, the units of output can be divided by the labour or tangible inputs and the productivity will be measured. However, in any service, it is harder to find. So in some cases, the aggregate revenue collected by the employee is recorded. It is then divided by their salary to find a deduction of productivity.

Factors Affecting Productivity

There are a number of factors that determine productivity in an organisation. They are described as follows :

Selection of proper manpower largely affects productivity. Selecting the right employees for the right job leads to higher productivity. Also providing proper training to the employees for skill formation increases productivity.

Selecting and acquiring proper types of equipment and machinery in an organisation increases productivity. Availability of optimum, well-functioning and up-to-date machinery in the workplace ensures smooth functioning of labour and hence better productivity.

The floor area or space covered is a detrimental factor in productivity. The total area of different departments, including quality department, administrative block, affect productivity in the workplace. Apart from the floor area, the positioning or the location if these departments also play a major role.

The use of economic, clean and renewable sources of energy has also proved to significantly increase productivity.

Intra-organisational movement is also a significant influence on productivity. The movement of manpower and materials inside the organisation to a large degree affects productivity in the workplace.

Also Read: How to Measure and Improve Employee Performance?

Types Of Productivity

Productivity, broadly speaking is a consolidated term. However, it can actually be rather dynamic in its meaning. It can be differentiated on the basis of a number of factors namely, labour, capital and materials. Below listed are the comprehensive explanation about the three types of productivity.

Labour Productivity

Labour productivity, otherwise called labour efficiency, is characterized as genuine financial yield per work hour. Development in labour productivity is estimated by the change in monetary yield per work hour over a characterized period. Labour productivity and employee productivity are not the same aspects. Employee productivity is characterised as an employee’s yield per hour.

Work profitability is straightforwardly connected to improved ways of life as higher utilization.

This expansion in yield makes it conceivable to expend a greater amount of the merchandise and enterprises at an inexorably sensible cost.

Development in labour profitability is legitimately decipherable from changes in physical capital, new innovation, and human capital. When the increase in labour productivity is evident, in most cases the attributing factors are the above listed three. Physical capital is the instruments, gear, and offices that labourers have access to use to facilitate production and manufacturing. New developments are new techniques to join contributions to create more yield, for example, sequential construction systems or robotization. Human capital speaks to the expansion in training and specialization of the workforce. Measuring labour productivity also provides a huge and clear insight into the trends of these mentioned factors.

Capital Productivity

Capital productivity is the output per unit of estimation of fixed capital assets. In a socialist economy, capital profitability describes the effectiveness with which fixed capital stock is utilized. It is regularly utilized in the financial examination and in the detailing of creation plans and plans for capital consumptions, both for the national economy in general and for independent organisations or companies, professional associations, joint ventures or enterprises.

Information on the GDP and on national income is utilized in computing capital efficiency for the national economy all in all; for ascertaining the profitability of independent organisations information on the net as well as the gross output are put to good use. In segments where the yield is homogeneous (oil, coal, concrete), physical units are at times utilized in the figurings. Capital productivity is determined based on the parity valuation of the fixed creation resources (devaluation costs included), utilizing either the normal incentive throughout the year or the incentive as of the year’s end. Capital profitability is inversely proportional to the ratio of capital and output.

Material Productivity

Material productivity is feined as the amount of output produced in term of per unit input of materials. Materials, in this case, are defined as natural resources. It can be broadly differentiated from total productivity.

The capacity to make the equivalent or more yield utilizing less material assets is known as material productivity. Procedure inconstancy is at the base of materials overconsumption. It begins process wasteful aspects that bring about faulty production, procurement errors, faulty billing practises etc. In other words, it is a blatant wastage of resources.

Each business needs to see if its utilization of materials is changed in accordance with the base adequate levels, or, on a flip side, overconsumption is available. Numerous organizations set the base minimum level dependent on historical data or forecasted data of consumption. However, setting the minimum level should always be based on optimum consumption. R&G can help an organisation by baselining what that minimum level is, along these lines setting the measures. When this count is comprehended and shared by all the essential partners, the time has come to evaluate the deviations between real utilization and guidelines, and to make a framework for persistently lessening or removing the sources of those deviations, subsequently expanding material efficiency.

Productivity and its various types are extremely relevant in any big or small workplace. It helps to keep a proper check on resources and also works as an alarm for necessary changes that have to be made to make the best use of all kinds of availabilities.

An entrepreneur is the owner of the company. He is someone who sets up the foundation of the company. He brings in ideas, innovations and makes decisions in terms of running the company. He is the prime decision-maker. An entrepreneur is responsible for taking risks in the business. Risks include financial, operational, and other unforeseen contingencies related to the business. The entrepreneur is the true-leader of the company. His primary focus is on achievements and profits.

A manager, on the other hand, is an employee of the organization. He evades the element of any form of risk-taking related to the business. Instead, he is responsible for the smooth functioning of his subordinates. A manager may be responsible for a group, a specific department, or a region. He handles and manages all the administrative functions running under him and ensures the organizational goals and targets are met. He does not have to make binding financial decisions regarding the organization. A manager is employed to run an organization or company and does not have to decide upon its fate.

Let us find out what are the key differences between an entrepreneur and a manager based on some important aspects.

Difference between Entrepreneur and Manager

Position in the Company

An entrepreneur is positioned in a company as a visionary. He is the leader and the owner of the business. All the risks associated with the company are borne by him.

A manager, on the other hand, is placed in the organization as a salaried employee. He does not bear any risks.

Focus

An entrepreneur’s focus is primarily long-term. He is focussed on setting up the business,  sustaining it, and expanding it. His focus determines the existence and growth of the business organization.  He has long-term objectives and works towards reaching the same.

A manager is an employee who has short-term objectives in terms of the organization. A manager’s assigned job is to ensure the regular smooth-functioning of the company, and hence, his//her objectives and duties are not far-fetched.

Motive

An entrepreneur is motivated to set up his/her own venture. This means that his motive is to set up a new venture due to his own personal choices.

A manager, on the other hand, is motivated by the power his position holds. His only motive in the organization is to dispense the services that are assigned to him and prove to be a competent employee.

Element of Risk

The possibility of risk-taking is probably one of the most significant aspects of being an entrepreneur. In setting up a completely new venture, an entrepreneur poses himself/herself to the risks and uncertainties of the business. Whether the risks are related to the finances, legal operations, or profits, it is the entrepreneur who bears the full of it.

A manager does not have to take risks in the organization. He has a predefined set of duties and a limited job role that he has to dispense and then receive definite perks in return.

Income

The income of the entrepreneur is rather uncertain. His income from the organization depends upon how well the organization makes the profits. Setting up an organization from scratch has its uncertainties. That also makes the profit-yielding capacity very unpredictable.

The income of a manager of a company is certain and fixed. A manager in an organization is a middle or high order employee. Hence, he/she is a salaried employee on the company’s payroll. As a result, by the end of each month, a manager receives a fixed amount as remuneration as well as promised perks that come with his position.

Innovation

An entrepreneur has to take necessary decisions in terms of the innovations in the organization. The business is the entrepreneur’s brainchild. Hence the decisions regarding product offerings, product development, etc., are made by the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur decides ways by which the evolving demands in the market can be met.

A manager does not have to make any innovative inputs into the organization. A manager, however, has the responsibility of carrying out the decisions taken by the entrepreneur. Hence, it can be rightly said that a manager puts the entrepreneur’s idea and gives them shape in the real world. He/she is responsible for the proper execution of these ideas.

Characteristics

A successful entrepreneur is supposed to have a number of characteristic traits. He/she should have great leadership skills. He/she should be ready to take risks and have an extremely innovative bent of mind. In addition, an entrepreneur should be analytical and patience. He/she should be a good speaker since it is the entrepreneur’s ides to sell his/her business idea to the world and find an establishment.

A manager, however, can have a few inter lapping qualities as that of an entrepreneur. But in essence, to be a good manager in an organization, a person needs to have adequate knowledge in management theories and other aspects. He/she, in most cases, must also have prior practical experience in his field of the job to be hired.

Approach

An entrepreneur’s approach to work is more informal in nature. Since he/she is not directly related to the operations and daily execution of tasks, the necessary formality is averse in the entrepreneur’s case.

A manager, on the other hand, is extremely formal in his professional approach. He/she is responsible for administering a coordination a group of employees around him. This requires the manager to maintain a degree of formality and professionalism in his operations.

Decision-making Process

The decision-making process of an entrepreneur is largely intuitive. He/she employs his innovation, ideas, motivation, and natural drive into making decisions for the organization.

A manager, on the other hand, abides by rules and analyzed data. He/she follows proper protocol and hence takes decisions which are calculative and analytical in nature.

From all the above-stated information, a summary table of differences between an entrepreneur and an employee is drawn. It mentions the various bases of difference along with relevant information.

All the above differences have made it clear that there is a significant difference between manager and entrepreneur. Needless to say, both have considerable importance in any organization. It should, however, be noted that their roles cannot be juxtaposed. Both possess specific skill sets and work on different avenues to keep the growth and daily operation of the organization steady.

The daunting task of job hunting doesn’t stop at job application and interviews. It involves tasks beyond our imagination, tasks we would have never imagined to do and they are equally tiresome as job application procedure, even at times more than it.

There are terms and a processes we need to know about before embarking upon your professional journey. Today, we will be discussing one such term, called ‘job enlargement’. It is a common term used in corporate sector, amongst employees, potential employees and employers. But, for a new comer, the term might sound unfamiliar and new. If you find yourself alien to the new corporate lingo which makes you feel left out, you have come to the right place. We will tell you everything that one needs to about regarding job enlargement.

What is Job Enlargement?

Put in simple words, job enlargement is a process by which a company can expand the roles of a particular designation or employee working at a certain level.  The scope of one’s duty or the tasks associated with one designation enlarges leading to increased working role of the employee hired for that particular role.

It belong to the horizontal restructuring of the organization, talking in professional languages which shifts and changes one’s role only at a horizontal level. This means that the job enlargement procedure cannot combine jobs of a hierarchically superior employee and inferior employee. The tasks being shuffled should only concern the designations that belong to similar organizational layer.

Job enlargement helps the company in cutting costs. It usually resorted to if the organization is facing serious budget constraints, shortage of employees or any extraordinary circumstance similar to COVID 19 pandemic in which work from home and job cuts forced many companies to opt for job enlargement of many employees.

It goes against the notion of ‘departmentalization’ or ‘special division of labor based on skills’. It can also influence the quality of product and services the company is trying to deliver since the special skilled division of labor notion is disturbed here. It can lead to considerable organization restructuring of companies which are small in size and employee small number of people.

Job Enlargement Advantages

Job enlargement adds the number of role performed by an employee at one particular designation. It makes the role diverse and breaks down the monotony associated with corporate jobs.

The monotony when removed can increase one’s productivity since people are performing different roles and are involved in end to end process of production. Their knowledge and experience also grows in a holistic way when engaged in end to end process.

Experience and on-ground realities of problems as well as solutions derived after encountering them can help the employee in broaden their area of interest or specialization. They can learn about scopes and opportunities in different fields which may motivate them in pursuing professional courses in inter related fields.

The exposure to different fields and different problems can help the employees in career advancement as they gain experience as well as expertise.

Adding onto the professional experience, employees are often offered higher salary than before job enlargement since their roles have gotten expanded and diverse. One might see a considerable rise in salary if company is generous.

Accountability and autonomy comes with diversification of roles. Not only one feels responsible for the role but also a sense of collectivity starts emerging which makes the employee focus on the entire team, cooperation and coordination between tasks to deliver a good quality end product.

Job Enlargement Disadvantages

Often times, employees may encounter a role which they might be uninterested in working as. This may lead to decreased efficiency. The overall productivity of a team also declines since the tasks overlap and there occurs a delay in delivering the product/service.

There are increased chances of miscommunication and lack of coordination which may hamper the quality of product.

In addition to it, employees may face increased work load. There are also chances of unequal distribution of work amongst employees which can lead to professional bias.

Job enlargement as initiative has its own advantages and disadvantages. Both employers and employee needs to be mindful of the cost and benefits and negotiate accordingly to promote and healthy work environment.

To excel in life, what matters the most is performance. Performances which are upto the mark are always appreciated. But maintaining the same level of performance always does not turn up successfully. Then the couple of questions arise like, why productivity is low? What are the loopholes in performance? So to answer such sort of questions and to fill the bridge between current and expected performance, two points which are taken into consideration are:

• How to Measure Employee Performance?
• How to Improve Employee Performance?

Firstly to elaborate, Employee performance is referred to how an employee fulfills their job duties and executes their required tasks. It involves the effectiveness, quality, and efficiency of their output.

Importance of Assessing Employee Performance

1. Every employee’s individual performance influences how all the team or maybe the firm (especially if it’s small) is doing. Hence assessing the performance shows them the clear picture of their standard of output.\
2. It clarifies the employee’s role and status in the organization. Some employees are always curious to know regarding their stand. So assessing job performance clarifies their status and needs to the company.
3. Self-development is the most important benefit for the employee performance appraisal as it allows receiving positive feedback as well as identifying areas for improvement. An employee can discuss and even create a developmental (training) plan with the manager so he/she can improve his skills.
4. Performance appraisal system also helps the management in deciding about the promotions, transfers and rewards of the employee.
5. It is easy to identify the under-performers and decide whether companies want to keep them hoping for improvement or sometimes have to let them go.

Process of Assessing Employee Performance

Step 1 – Establish Performance Expectations and Standards

The process assessing employee performance begins with the establishment of per­formance standards. The managers must determine what outputs, accomplishments and skills will be evaluated. These standards should be relevant to job analysis and job descriptions. These performance standards should also be clear and objective to be understood and measured and should not be articulated in vague manner.

Step 2 – Communicating the Standards

Once the performance standards are established, this needs to be thoroughly and clearly communicated to the respective employees so that they come to know what is expected of them.

Step 3 – Measure Actual Performance

In this stage, the actual performance of the employee is measured during the specified period of time. It is an endless process which involves monitoring the performance throughout the year. This stage requires the careful selection of the right techniques of measurement, taking care that personal bias doesn’t affect the outcome of the process.

Step 4 – Compare Actual Performance with Standards

In this step, the actual performance is compared with the desired or the standard performance. The comparison tells the deviations within the performance of the employees from the standards set. The result can show the actual performance being more than the desired performance or, the actual performance being less than the desired performance. If the desired performance is not upto the mark, it proceeds to the fifth step in the process, i.e., the discussion of the appraisal with the concerned employees.

Step 5 – Discuss the Appraisal with the Employee

The fifth step within the appraisal process is to communi­cate to and discuss with the employees the results of the appraisal. This is the most challenging task that a manager faces when they need to present an accurate appraisal to the employees and then make them accept the appraisal in a constructive manner. A discussion on appraisal enables employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This has, in turn, impact on their future performance. The impact could be positive or negative depending upon how the appraisal is presented and discussed with the employees.

Step 6 – Initiate Corrective Action

This is the final stage in the process. Initiating some effective corrective measures should be executed according to the results of the appraisal.

How to Measure Employee Performance?

Here are a few ways to measure and evaluate employee performance:

1. Graphic Rating Scales

A typical graphic scale uses sequential numbers, such as 1 to 5, or 1 to 10, to rate an employee’s relative performance in specific areas. Scales are often used to rate behavioral elements, such as “understands job tasks” or “participates in decision-making.” Or they could note the frequency an employee performs a certain task or behavior, such as “always,” “frequently,” “occasionally,” or “never” coming to work on time. You can adapt scales to your business needs.

2. 360-degree Feedback

This well-named system takes into account the feedback, opinions and assessments of an employee’s performance from the circle of people in the company with whom they work. It can include co-workers, supervisors and others. As this evaluation includes the input from many sources, one can note positive and negative similarities and trends and can also identify areas that may need additional measurements and support.

3. Self-Evaluation

Asking an employee to evaluate his/her own performance can be very effective. Often, employees may be more critical of their performance than you might be. A form that includes multiple-choice answers, essay-type answers, or a combination of the two. Comparing self-evaluation to measure own objective appraisal can be helpful in finding similarities and discrepancies along with a richer understanding of employee’s performance. It can generate conversations that can be beneficial to employee development.

4. Management by Objectives (MBO)

Also known as “Management by Objectives,” this is a process whereby employees and managers form objectives together. They jointly determine individual objectives, how they align with company goals, and how performance will be measured and evaluated. MBO gives employees a transparent understanding of what’s expected and allows them to participate within the process, which fosters better communication and increases motivation.

5. Checklists

Using a simple “yes-no” checklist is a quick and easy way to identify employees that have deficiencies in various performance areas. It will also identify those that need additional training and knowledge to become more efficient.

How to Improve Employee Performance?

1. Understand the Reasons Behind Poor Performance

Employees don’t truly understand the company vision or how their job contributes to its achievement, or employees don’t have measurable performance goals, so they don’t even realize they aren’t performing well enough. Understanding the causes behind poor performance (and even average performance) is a critical first step toward improving employee performance which can be resolved and improved through a healthy conversation.

2. Prioritize Employee Development

At a certain good time to readdress employee goals and plan accordingly to benefit the organizational goals improve employee performance. Working closely to bridge any skills gaps will not only help them achieve long-term goals but will also benefit the company as when employee skills improve it fulfills business objectives.

3. Improving Morale

Boosting morale of the employees with recognition, or celebrating their success or special days. Even sometimes with few monetary perks improvise the employee performance.

4. Empower Employees

For effective results in work, what is most important is that employees must have belongingness and authority that can be gained when an employee is duly empowered and has sufficient amount of freedom and space to work.

5. Utilize the Right Technologies

Implement technology platforms that drive performance and engagement daily. Technology is crucial in today’s workforce, as it reduces stress and saves time. Tech-savvy approach always fascinates employees to work more effectively.

6. Continual Communication

Essence of communication is to understand. Hence more communication means better understanding towards a company’s core value resulting in improvement of work standards.

7. Foster a Positive Work Environment

Happy employees always come up with happy results and to make employees happy what is utmost important is a positive work environment. Inculcating such culture never disappoints the staff and their productivity.

8. Don’t Micro-manage

Micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes and controls or reminds the work of his/her subordinates or employees. In this manager control every part of a situation, project, etc., even including the very small details, in a way that may not be necessary and may not give enough responsibility to the employees which involves avoiding delegation, constantly making reports, not allowed to make decisions and can’t pass on their skills or knowledge which makes routine work and culture very sofocative and full of congestion so avoiding this practice gives more space to employees to perform both efficiently and effectively.

Job enrichment is a subset of job design and a by-stander with job enlargement. It is a vertical restructuring of a job role. It is a tool used to motivate the employees by enabling them to learn new skills and acquiring new experiences. It serves as an antidote to employee monotony that occurs due to the repetitive nature of jobs. It attempts to increase employees’ autonomy over its job and also allow him/her the room for feedback and participation. The idea of job enrichment largely emerged from Frederick Hertbergz ‘Two Factor Theory’. It is a process of motivation where newer sets of dimensions are added to pre-existing jobs.

Different Ways of Job Enrichment

The primary essence of job enrichment is to increase the job satisfaction of the employees. This is done by vertical enlargement of the job profile known as job enrichment. This means increasing the control of the employee over his job. Upon having heightened control, the employee feels more responsible, more accountable and freer to take risks on his activities. All of these factors attribute to better job satisfaction which in turn lead to better productivity. Here are some of the ways by which job enrichment can be carried out:

Job Rotation

One of the most effective ways of job enrichment is by rotating the employees in various jobs. This will allow the employees to learn new skill-sets and acquire new experiences. Job rotation can be an extremely useful tool in providing motivation to the employees.

Complex Tasks

The employees can be assigned with more complex set of tasks. This will give them a sense of entitlement towards their job since they will be handling the job from the start to the end. They will find more meaning in their professional duty and that would give them the motivation that is required.

Formation of Autonomous Teams

Job enrichment can be both on an individual and group level. Formation of such teams would help the enrichment on a group level. In such groups, the employees should be given the freedom to decide upon the operations, evaluations, etc. In some cases, they may also e give the freedom to choose their own team members. This will provide heightened motivation for their work.

Increasing Participation

Increasing the participation of the employees in the higher-level management processes can work as an effective motivator. A company with a very strict hierarchy is likely to make the employees that their voices are unheard. Hence letting the employees have a say in strategic management can, in turn, lead to job enrichment.

Transparent feedback

In most cases, we see that the quality team of an organisation tracks employee performance and points out the mistakes. However, if the feedback process is more employee-directed meaning that the employees have more control over tracking their own performance, then it would lead to effective job enrichment.

Steps in Job Enrichment

The followings are a rough sketch of the steps might be implemented for job enrichment:

Survey

The first and foremost step is conducting an extensive survey in the organisation. It should be first understood the areas of improvement. The areas where the employees are dissatisfied should be found out. Implementation of enrichment without a proper survey would only lead to developmental work in areas that do not require it leading to ineffective job enrichment.

Deciding on the Approach

There can be a number of approaches to implement job enrichment. Hence, it is important to decide on the right approach. Choosing a drastic approach would not only be cost-ineffective but also poses the risk of operational failure. Hence, a complete paradigm shift in the workplace scenario is not a safe option. Instead an optimum task-force should be appointed to implement job enrichment on grounds of operational profitability as well as job satisfaction of the employees.

Curating the Program

After analysing the different approaches, a final program for implementation of job enrichment should be created.

Communicating the Program

After designation of the program, there should be clear communication. All the levels of management, as well as the employees, should be well communicated about the plan of action. In addition, the employees should be given enough participation and their feedback should also be taken into account.

Advantages

The followings listed are the advantages of job enrichment:

• Job enrichment enables the employee ton to learn new skill-sets and enrich himself.
• With learning new skills, he is prone to new jobs and hence can potentially acquire new experiences.
• It is one of the best motivational drives for the employees of an organisation.
• A workplace with motivated and skill-enriched employees can be regarded as a healthy working environment.
• Since due to job enrichment, the employees are motivated to be participative, it improves their decision-making process of the employees.
• By increasing the job role and participation of other middle and lower-level employees, job enrichment reduces centralisation of power.
• Job enrichment inculcates a sense of accomplishment in both the employer and the employee.

Disadvantages

Even though job enrichment can be generally attributed to positive outcomes in an organisation, there are a few disadvantages that should be noted.

• Employees are given way too much control under this approach. However, the credibility of the employees is not always tested. Whether the employee can make full use of the control in his hands or not is debatable.
• A lot of employees work well and prove to be productive when they are under direction. Given the autonomy of actions, it may affect their productivity.
• A degree of ego clashes and complexes may also emerge in the organisation since the superiors may feel that they are losing their hierarchical position.
• Job enrichment comes with added responsibility upon the employees. This may, in some organisations be a tool of their exploitation due to overworking.

Job enrichment is a two-sided sword. However, it obviously does more good than harm. If it is used by unscrupulous management, it may lead to exploitation of the employees. However, if it is systematically implemented, it would lead to a workforce of highly motivated and driven individuals who are satisfied with the work they do.

It is for the organisation to decide the right approach of job enrichment in alignment with the other needs of the organisation. A well-enriched set of jobs will only lead to higher levels of productivity.

Looking for highly talented employees for your company? Register here on our platform to find them.

Empty mind is a devil house so the primary task of any reporting manager is to allocate sufficient amounts of tasks to its subordinate to keep them engaged but keeping engaged is not sufficient. Because you can’t eat the same kind of food daily similarly, you can’t do the same kind of task daily. To get rid of the boredom weather in life, food or work something engaging is must.  So this must engage activities in the field of work is referred as Employee Engagement Activities.

To define Employee engagement it is the extent to which employees feel hooked into their jobs and stays committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work. Employee engagement involves activities, games, and events which drive towards better employee performance.

Importance or Objectives of Employee Engagement Activities

The objective Employee Engagement Activities is to ensure that employees feel committed towards organisation’s goals and remain motivated to contribute for organisational success, also at the same time enhancing their own sense of wellbeing. Below are some of the major importance of Employee Engagement Activities:

1. Better employee health & safety: In a happy work culture where employees are always engaged and associated with happening activities inclusive of their daily activities, they are more at the state of mental peace and satisfaction which ensures better employee health and become very less prone to any mishaps or health hazards.

2. Happier employees: When employees are allowed to share their valuable inputs towards betterment of the company, feels themselves more connected and realizes security of a job, such an environment produces happy employees.

3. Greater employee satisfaction: As mentioned in the above two points, employees with better health and happy state of mind always turn in greater satisfaction.

4. Better home life (Work-Life Balance): Employee engagement not only involves events or fun activities, it is based for the overall betterment of employees. In the concept of overall betterment the foremost thing is happy home life or personal life in order to manage better work-life balance. A maintained work-life balance takes place when the work-timings and pressure is duly managed or reduced.

5. Lower absenteeism: Happy people, happy culture, happy home life . In addition to these three the first output which comes is lower absenteeism as it always stimulates the individual to rush for the office.

6. Higher retention (Low rate of attrition): Based on the factors like better employee health & safety, happy environment, greater employee satisfaction and better home life leads for sure towards lower attrition and higher retention due to healthy work ambiance.

7. Better & quality customer service: The ultimate motto of employee engagement is to attain the company’s end goal which is producing high quality goods or services in order to achieve the client’s or customer’s satisfaction.

8. Greater productivity & profitability: Happy environment produces happy employees and happy employees produce greater productivity which generates higher sales and profitability and key for these depends upon well managed employee engagement strategies.

9. Greater employee loyalty: Loyalty comes with satisfaction and satisfaction comes from motivation. When a company assures a well managed employee engagement strategy it leads towards higher employee loyalty.

10. Higher stock price: Greater sales and profitability leads towards a better brand name which creates a long going future and wealth. Based on the wealth or fund capacity the share or stock prices of the company increases for sure.

Effective Employee Engagement Strategies

1. Listening to Employees: Listening is always considered to be good practice in every field of life especially in corporate as listening to employees with their grievances or problems always give a personal touch and keep them connected with the core value of the company.

2. Practice sharing good ideas between teams: Competition is good till it is healthy but it is obvious that it becomes bitter in the concept called ‘work politics’ so in order to remove this work politics and maintain a healthy competition, sharing good ideas amongst each other or within two teams is always considered a good practice to be followed.

3. Value employee opinion: Employees are human resources but moreover they are human assets of the organization which leads the company towards the achievement of their end goal. Hence its very important that such assets must be valued and nourished by properly entertaining their opinion as they have different mindsets run in different directions ends with, providing a bunch of opinion which mostly found useful in terms of organizational growth.

4. Invest in the wellbeing of employees: As mentioned above the human assets must be given the chance for nourishment. Hence, it is very necessary apart from only focusing towards organizational growth, well- being and development of the individual employees should also be taken care of.

5. Recognise good work: Apart from the pre-mentioned strategies, what actually motivates is the recognition and praising. To reach the goal every employee strives hard. Sometimes they achieve, sometimes they can’t but when they receive the achievement, recognition and tinge of praise-worthy words, works as a power booster and significant motivator for future tasks.

10 Best Employee Engagement Activities

1. Workplace Parties

Company parties like annual, summer and winter parties to celebrate a year of business. Additional festivities like Halloween parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and other celebratory parties make people feel companies prioritize them.

2. Learning Lunches

Learning lunches or potlucks are the perfect way to bring a team together and help them learn. Encourage different departments to share what they’re working on and tackle a new topic as a team. Hosting such lunches once per month fosters learning, and helps with transparency.

3. Employee Games, Tournaments, and Competitions

Employees love getting involved in games, tournaments, and competitions. Hosting a sports tournament, or challenges office-wide can do wonders for the employees at the organization.

4. Special Days

Special days such as birthday, anniversary, work anniversary change the pace and give employees something to look forward to. Cutting cakes, gifts or treating them special on these days boosts morale alot.

5. Training

Training always brings out a special in you. A speaker for a truly interesting and invigorating training session, engage the employees and teach them something new.

6. Recognition Programs

Recognition programs are a great way to get employees to interact with one another. Programs like “Employee of the Month” or “Employee of the year” always become the common platform of recognition in which everyone cherishes each other, congratulates and fosters team spirit.

7. Team-building Activities

Team-building activities, especially those outside of the office, are something that employees love. Go-kart racing, and bowling etc. are such options. These sorts of activities will facilitate bonding outside of the workspace, and give employees better understanding.

8. Fundraisers and Charity Days

Fundraisers and charity days are also a nice way to bring employees together on the common page Often these causes affect your employees, so giving them the opportunity to organize such events for causes they are passionate about is an effective way to enhance their organizational skills.

9. Employee Work from Home Policy

This policy is the most effective one which gives employees the liberty of how to work, where to work and when to work. The objective is to fulfill the deadline in the most convenient manner without any obligation of professional wear, timings, daily commute. The concept of home office has always proven the best manner of employee engagement.

10. The First-day welcome Card/Gift to New Hires

It is one of the great employee engagement activities to introduce to a new hire. It makes new employees engaged on their first day itself, Thus, this trick at the workplace to welcome new buddies with presents like a welcome card, gift, or email to the new hires makes them feel equally important as it is to introduce them to the team in a friendly manner.

Looking ahead to join such great companies. Feel free to register with us and explore opportunities with many awesome companies.

Employee Skills Matrix

A Skills Matrix is rightly known as a Competency Matrix as well. It is a visual instrument that allows an HR professional to observe, analyse and map out the various skills and competencies of the employee in an organisation. This matrix is essentially used to find out the required and available skill-set of the employees. For curating a team for any specific project, a skills matrix comes in very handy. For an HR professional with a data-driven mindset, this proves to be an important tool.

In a properly framed skill matrix, namely, three aspects are shown. These are the required set of skills in the employees, the existing set of skills in the employee, and the skill set that is missing in the employees. Ideally, it is used for a small or medium-sized group or team. However, it can be potentially expanded.

Whenever utilized accurately, the Skills Matrix offers a solid review of the information and aptitudes accessible inside a group. It can let you know whether you have the right stuff important to complete explicit errands. In the event that the group is inadequate in certain important aptitudes, we call this an abilities hole. This makes it a basic instrument for any human asset supervisor putting together their choices with respect to the information.

In the left side of the matrix, the required skills in the employees are listed. In the top row, the names of the employees are mentioned. In the intersection of these rows and columns, the proficiencies and skills of the employee are mentioned by level.

Skills Matrix Levels

As mentioned, proficiency and interest are two important parameters of the Skill matrix. “Proficiency” means an employee’s existing credibility in a field. “Interest” shows his/her drive to learn more and develop. High proficiency is no wonder a positive parameter but it is only useful when it comes with a high level of interest. Following described are a few levels in the Skill Matrix:

Proficiency level 0

An employee with a zero level has no skill in an area and cannot be put to activity. The focus is on the introduction of basic concepts to the employees.

Proficiency level 1

An employee with a proficiency level of 1 only possesses the basic concepts of a skill. The focus for this employee would be on the development of those basic skills.

Proficiency level 2

At this level, the employee, not only has basic concepts of skill but also has some practical knowledge about the same in the professional field. At this point, the focus is on acquiring new experiences and extensive training.

Proficiency level 3

Level 3 employees are experts of middle-order. They have the relevant knowledge, skills and experience. Hence they can carry out the activities on their own with average competence. Occasionally, intervention from professionals might be needed. There is however room for development and new experiences.

Proficiency level 4

Employees marked at this level are experts in their field. They do not need help from other professionals. In fact, they are the ones who help other employees with queries and developmental needs. They generally focus on strategic management and problem-solving in their respective domains.

Proficiency level 5

Employees at this level are highly skilled. They work in strategic management. They are experts in problem-solving, coaching and helping other employees.

Interest

Interest has a binary level. It is either 0 or 1. 0 signifies that an employee has no drive or motivation for development and learning. 1 signifies that an employee is highly driven to develop his skills and increase his core competencies.

Skills Matrix Benefits

A skill or competency matrix has varied uses. Also, it does not just benefit the team that it is applied to. It also benefits the organisation, the individual employee, the final stakeholders/clients etc. Below described are the benefits of a skill matrix:

Team

The matrix is most beneficial to the team it is being applied to. With the help of the matrix, all the members of the team are on the same page. It effectively showcases the missing skills which can be attended to by hiring new employees or extensive training of the current spots. It shows the team its strengths and weaknesses and how they can impact the productivity of the team.

Organisation

On a broader perspective, the Skills Matrix analysis benefits the organisation. It gets a clear picture of the Human resource it possesses. It also helps the organisation to allocate its resources for the required training and development process.

Individuals

The skills matrix provides a two-fold benefit to the employees in the team. TO begin with, it makes the employee aware of his/her strengths and weaknesses. The awareness makes it a starting point for a learning process. Also, the requirements shown in the matrix makes the individual employee clear as to what the team/organisation expects or demands of him as output.

Stakeholders/Clients

The increased productivity and efficiency of the team means better output in terms of service. In that sense, it ultimately benefits the stakeholders of the organisation, be it internal or external.

Steps to Create Skills Matrix

The framework of a competency matrix is specific and requires some systematic steps to its creation. The steps are described as following:

Assessment of required skill-set

A Skills Matrix is generally created by an HR professional to assess and increase the productivity of a team. It is also done to prevent intra-team mishaps like conflicts. Hence, the first step would be to list down or assess the required skills necessary for a particular project. These skills would be the foundation upon which current employees would be assessed, new employees would be hired and training and developmental programs would be undertaken.

Assessment of the employees’ current skill-set

The second step in the creation of the matrix is very important and comprehensive. It includes the assessment of the current skill-set of the employees. This can be done by taking direct information from the employee or by asking his colleagues, supervisors, examining reports, etc. Since only asking the employee might not provide an accurate result due to bias, the 180 degree or 360-degree feedback method is used. Upon assessing the skill and experience of the employees, they can be divided into the levels of proficiency as decided by the organisation.

Assessing the interest of the current employees

Based on the skills of the employees, they will be assigned tasks. High proficiency would not ensure high output. The employee must also be interested to implement and develop his skills in his activity in the organisation. Hence assessment of the employees’ interest is very important upon which they will be divided into a 2-point interest scale in the matrix.

Incorporation of the insights

Once all the data has been gathered, they should be incorporated into the template of the matrix and analysis has to be made of the same.

Responding to the result

The last step is the evaluation of the matrix. Here the HR should analyse the data related to each employee. The employees should also be given a chance to make suggestive inputs. If there is any error, they should be rectified immediately. The fact that each employee is assigned to the right job should also be evaluated.

A skill or competency matrix has emerged to be an important tool in a data-driven workplace scenario. In a situation where analytics are taking over rough data, a skills matrix has proved to be a boon to the HR scenario. It has not only benefitted the employer but also the employees as well as the final clients. The multiple benefiting nature and technical approach of this analysis is what had made it so relevant and important in recent times.