Employee Engagement: Overview, Issues, and Strategies

This document provides an overview of employee engagement, its importance, and current issues in the context of Marriott International. It discusses communication issues and the corporate ethic strategy for sustainability and life-long employment. Suggestions for improving employee engagement are also provided.

Employee Engagement
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the organisation and current issues in employee engagement and developing a
talented workforce.......................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
Communication issues within Marriott International and the hotel industry..............................5
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................5
Corporate Ethic Strategy and sustainability for life-long employment......................................5
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion and Suggestions.......................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Employee engagement can be defined as the extent to which employees within an
organisation are committed to and engaged in their jobs as well as the organisation. Employee
engagement is important because it helps an organisation in retaining talent (Akingbola and van
den Berg, 2019). There are many ways through which overall engagement of the employees
within the workplace an be increased. This includes encouraging flexibility within the
workplace, clarifying goals to the employees etc.
Organisation chosen for this report is Marriott International, which is a leading hospitality
organisation founded in the year 1927 by J.W. Marriott and Alice Marriott. The report provides
an overview of the company and the corporate ethic strategy. It also explains the company's
sustainability for life-long employment. Suggestions are also included in the report.
Task 1
Overview of the organisation and current issues in employee engagement and developing a
talented workforce
Marriott International is a leading hospitality organisation which is headquartered in
Maryland, United States. The company was founded by a married couple, J.W. Marriott and
Alice Marriott. The company has operations in different geographic locations across the world
and is the first lodging company to enter the cruise business after partnering up with Sun Line.
Marriott International operates and manages nearly 30 brands under its name. Since the company
operates in different locations, the employees working for the company belong to diverse
backgrounds (He, Chao and Zhu, 2019). The employees of the company are highly engaged and
committed to their jobs. But there are certain issues relating to employee engagement and
developing a talented workforce.
In order to promote employee engagement within the workplace, it is important for an
organisation to keep redefining it. If the employees will not have a purpose on their jobs, they
would be confused as a result, their levels of job engagement would be less. Today, employee
engagement has become one of the most common issues at the workplace. This has led to a
decline in the overall productivity levels of not only the employees but the companies that they
work for as well. On the other hand, having a talented workforce is equally important as having
employees who are engaged to their jobs. The culture of the company can play an important role
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in this. Marriott International has been able to retain talent within its workplace. And for this, the
company has adopted various measures.
But there are certain issues related to retaining talent in the workplace and one of them is
that Marriott International has employees working who belong to different generations and
possess a lot of experience. It can be difficult to retain those employees in such cases. Candidates
prefer to work for companies that have a healthy and positive company culture (Loerzel, 2019).
If the working atmosphere and values of the respective company will not be up to the mark, it
will fail to retain the employees who are willing to work with it. Communication barriers like
language is also an issue concerned with employee engagement. Also, in order to develop a
workforce that is talented and has all the important skills, it is important to provide regular
training to the employees. But there can be certain employees who might not show interest and
avoid the training sessions.
Apart from this, it is also important to maintain a workplace environment wherein the
managers as well as team leaders provide regular constructive feedback to the employees. This
helps them in understanding their areas of strengths and weaknesses. As a result, they would
focus on their work and put in more efforts in order to generate the desired output. Technology
also plays an important role in developing a talented workforce, but if Marriott International will
fail to implement latest technology in its workplace, the employees will find it hard to develop
certain skills and as a result, this will be an issue in the development of a talented workforce
within the company.
Another issue that is related to employee engagement within an organisation is the
company not being able to develop a workplace environment that is healthy and positive
(Nikolova, Schaufeli and Notelaers, 2019). This can affect the overall productivity of the
employees and as a result their willingness to come to work everyday will also go down. Poor
levels of employee engagement can seriously impact the overall profitability of the firm. As a
result, the company will lag behind against its competitors. These are some of the issues that are
related to employee engagement as well as developing a talented workforce. They must be
addressed properly if Marriott International wants to maintain its position in the market and gain
a competitive edge against competitors. Therefore, it can be said that employee engagement
plays an important role within an organisation and can contribute significantly to the overall
performance levels of the firm.
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Task 2
Communication issues within Marriott International and the hotel industry
Communication plays an important role within an organisation in order to ensure a high
level of employee engagement as well as development of a talented workforce. Marriott
International has operations in various geographic locations which means that there is a diverse
workforce working for the company. In order to communicate any important information to the
employees, the company uses various channels to do so (O’Connor and Crowley-Henry, 2019).
The communication channels include emails, video conferencing, newsletters etc. But there can
be cases wherein due to ineffective communication, the message is not transferred. For example,
a poor internet connection can make it difficult for the employees working in different hotel
properties to communicate with each other effectively.
Also, newsletters that are used by the company, have not prove to be very effective as
they take a lo of time to get delivered to different employees. Therefore, it is important for
organisations operating within the hospitality industry to make sure that effective communication
channels are used so that there are no issues regarding the same. This is important because most
of the hospitality organisations either operate globally or have operations in different locations.
Ineffective communication can lead to a poor performance of the organisation as well as a
decline in the overall productivity levels. Thus, the company loses its position within the market
and the competitors get a chance to stand out within the industry (Pradhan, Dash and Jena,
2019). Effective communication should be promoted to make sure that the level of employee
engagement is maintained.
Task 3
Corporate Ethic Strategy and sustainability for life-long employment
An organisation should have an ethics strategy to make sure that the overall business
activities are run in an ethical manner. Marriott International has developed an effective
corporate ethic strategy that helps in developing an ethical culture within the workplace. This
further leads to the company achieving its goals in an effective and ethical manner. An effective
corporate ethic strategy should define the ethical standards in a clear manner. This is done by
clearly explaining the company's rules as well as values and policies in a proper manner. It is
also important that the strategy describes both acceptable as well as unacceptable behaviours
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within the workplace. One of the other goals of the strategy within the company is to build
awareness about ethics among the employees.
The company aims to offer life-long employment to employees who are loyal to it and
comply by the different ethics. The corporate ethic strategy that is developed by the respective
company outlines how the different business activities must be conducted. Also, this has led to
the overall sustainability for life-long employment for people who have been working for the
company for a very long time and are loyal to it (Regy and Malini, 2019). It also helps in
maintaining an ethical culture within the workplace. The companies adopts various strategies in
order to make sure that the business processes are sustainable. Marriott has developed a
corporate ethics strategy wherein it treats all its employees in a fair and consistent manner. Also,
they are treated with respect and honesty.
The strategy also explains that it is important for all the employees working within the
workplace to treat the personal information of other employees as well as the business itself with
discretion. The company highly values its employees and makes sure that they feel safe and
secure within the workplace. For this, various measures are adopted. The company's corporate
ethics strategy also outlines that it is dedicated to hiring qualified, experienced and passionate
candidates from across the world. The company is known for embracing the backgrounds as well
as talents of the different people. The strategy is in line with the various standards and laws of
the different countries that it operates in. the strategy has helped the company not only in
retaining its employees for a long time but also ensuring a life-long employment.
Marriott International knows that the key to building a profitable as well as recognisable
business, it global workforce is to utmost important (Riyanto, Ariyanto and Lukertina, 2019).
Therefore, in order to retain the employees within the company for a longer period of time, the
company adopts various strategies. This includes providing frequent training so that they acquire
latest skills. Also, the company conducts guest lectures for the employees from time to time to
help them upgrade their knowledge about the recent trends within the industry. Team building is
encouraged to provide the employees with an opportunity to learn new things and build
networks. This helps them in working effectively and remaining engaged in their respective jobs.
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Task 4
Conclusion and Suggestions
From the above report, it can be concluded that employee engagement is an important
aspect within an organisation. And companies that have employees who are engaged and
committed to their jobs have high levels of productivity. Adopting employee engagement
strategies can help a company in overcoming various issues such as increased staff turnover,
communication etc. Employee engagement contributes significantly to the overall productivity of
the company. Not only this, employees who are engaged in their jobs are happier and contribute
to the overall profitability of the firm (Shaik and Makhecha, 2019). But there can be certain
issues associated with employee engagement within the company. Ineffective communication is
one of the issues that can affect the levels of employee engagement within an organisation. The
respective company, Marriott International operates in different geographic locations which
means that there are employees working for the company in its different hotel properties.
Therefore, it is a crucial task for the company to adopt strategies that will help in maintaining the
levels of employee engagement.
Developing a workforce that has required skills as well as attitudes is an important task
that the respective company must do. In order to be able to do so, Marriott International is
suggested to conduct training and development sessions regularly. This will provide the
employees an opportunity to acquire new skills and enhance their knowledge about the latest
trends within the hospitality industry. Therefore, if the company will have a workforce that is
engaged in its respective jobs, it will be able to retain them for a longer period of time. Marriott
International is also suggested to use effective communication tools in order to transfer important
information to the employees across different departments (Sun and Bunchapattanasakda, 2019).
Latest technology should also be implemented within the workplace to make it easier for the
employees to carry out tasks. Apart from this, the company is also suggested to develop an
effective corporate ethic strategy. The strategy must outline the code of conduct, acceptable and
unacceptable behaviour within the workplace.
The strategy will ensure that the business operations are carried out in an ethical manner
and the goals as well as objectives are achieved. This will also help the company in retaining its
staff members for a long period of time. The strategy will also outline how the company will
carry out its business processes in an effective manner. When employees complete their work in
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an ethical manner and with integrity, the company's overall performance will increase. As a
result, the levels of employee engagement will also increase. And the company will also be able
to hire qualified and experienced professionals. Therefore, it is suggested that the company
focuses on the enhancing the skills of its employees by offering them various opportunities.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Akingbola, K. and van den Berg, H. A., 2019. Antecedents, consequences, and context of
employee engagement in nonprofit organizations. Review of Public Personnel
Administration. 39(1). pp.46-74.
He, H., Chao, M. M. and Zhu, W., 2019. Cause-related marketing and employee engagement:
The roles of admiration, implicit morality beliefs, and moral identity. Journal of
Business Research. 95. pp.83-92.
Loerzel, T., 2019. Smashing the barriers to employee engagement: Firms may boost productivity
and satisfaction by taking actions on 3 fronts. Journal of Accountancy. 227(1). p.28.
Nikolova, I., Schaufeli, W. and Notelaers, G., 2019. Engaging leader–Engaged employees? A
cross-lagged study on employee engagement. European Management Journal. 37(6).
pp.772-783.
O’Connor, E. P. and Crowley-Henry, M., 2019. Exploring the relationship between exclusive
talent management, perceived organizational justice and employee engagement:
Bridging the literature. Journal of Business Ethics. 156(4). pp.903-917.
Pradhan, R. K., Dash, S. and Jena, L. K., 2019. Do HR practices influence job satisfaction?
examining the mediating role of employee engagement in Indian public sector
undertakings. Global Business Review. 20(1). pp.119-132.
Regy, J. and Malini, D. H., 2019. Impact of high performance work practices on employee
engagement in apparel manufacturing and retail firms. Prabandhan: Indian Journal of
Management. 12(2). pp.7-22.
Riyanto, S., Ariyanto, E. and Lukertina, L., 2019. Work Life Balance and its Influence on
Employee Engagement “Y” Generation in Courier Service Industry. International
Review of Management and Marketing. 9(6). pp.25-31.
Shaik, F. F. and Makhecha, U. P., 2019. Drivers of employee engagement in global virtual
teams. Australasian Journal of Information Systems. 23.
Sun, L. and Bunchapattanasakda, C., 2019. Employee engagement: A literature review.
International Journal of Human Resource Studies. 9(1). pp.63-80.
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