Employee Engagement Strategies Employed by Sainsbury's

This essay discusses the employee engagement strategies employed by Sainsbury's, a profitable grocery store chain. The strategies include encouraging learning opportunities, transparency, knowledge sharing, and involving employees in planning. The essay highlights how these strategies help the organization achieve its objectives.

Running head: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Various organizations around the globe, tend to employ suitable employee engagement
strategies in order to be able to increase the productivity and performance of the organization as
a whole. The primary reason why such strategies are deployed is because it has been proven to
have a positive impact on the different facets on the organization (Alfes et al. 2013). For the
given essay, the organization which has been chosen is the Sainsbury`s. The company is one of
the most profitable grocery store chains around the globe, and a large share of this can be
contributed to the employee strategies employees. Hence, the essay will be highlighting four
employee engagement strategies which are employed by Sainsbury`s and how they are useful in
helping the organization to achieve its objectives.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement can be described as an approach taken by the organization to
result in a condition for the organization which may be suitable for it in the long run. Each
organization tends to be largely committed towards ensuring that the organizational goals and
values are largely successful. In the same manner although Sainsbury is not the largest grocery
chain around the globe, it has taken various advanced steps in the field of Human Resource
management and related practices and this is the reason it has been able to innovate this well
(About.sainsburys.co.uk. 2018). The next section of the essay will be discussing the four primary
employee engagement strategies which have helped Sainsbury`s to reach the position it is in
today.
Strategies employed by Sainsbury`s
Encouraging and Providing Learning Opportunities

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It is the duty of the employer to provide various learning opportunities to the various
employees present in the organization. on It is important for the organization to create its own
academy and assess the different employee`s needs. In this manner, it will be able to understand
the knowledge and the different development opportunities as required by them (Wang and
Hsieh 2013). One of the major reasons, why different companies tend to leave the organization is
due to the lack of any growth and prosperity aspects. Hence, for this reason, it is important for
the different companies to assess the areas and preferences of the employees and analyze the
basic laggings of them. They can both create a curriculum and set up the classes accordingly
(Breevaart et al. 2014). The grocery store conduct. It is in the hands of the different employers to
ensure that the different employees tend to engage the entire procedure and also reward the
different employees accordingly. In the same manner, Sainsbury`s conducts regular sessions for
its employees and provides them with different trainings on retail aspects. This way, the
employees get motivated to work at the company and even the company benefits from it by
application of the knowledge as it can be used to improve the store management.
Improved Transparency
When the transparency in an organization is improved, the employees automatically tend
to get improved. This is because honesty is often considered to be the best policy. One of the
most popular ways of doing this is by sharing the financials of the organizations in front of the
employees. The employees working in the stores need to be submitted with a quick presentation
about the financial positioning of the company at the end of every quarter. This goes a long way
in assisting the firm to reflect to the employees that all their efforts are linked together and this
also contributes towards setting objectives for the next few months (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra
2014). When all the employees are involved in the setting of the objectives then, they are given

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the opportunity of taking part in the success of the firm. Following this principle, Sainsbury`s has
mentioned a transparent system whereby the different employees are involved in the profitability
of the stores and they are engaged in efficient decision making (Truss et al. 2013). Along with
this the management of the different stores tend to involve them in objectives setting as well.
Encouraging knowledge sharing
The different departments in the store are often separate from one another. However, this
should not be the case and the whole organization should be treated as a single unit and all the
employees need to be aware of the operations of the different departments (Bal, Kooij and De
Jong 2013). Hence, for this reason, it is the duty of the employer to create an open and sharing
space where the team can update one another and evolve extensively.
Very often this tends to get boring, but hence, the management needs to make sure that
these meetings are quite engaging in nature. Following this aspect, the Sainsbury Company
tends to share a common platform whereby the different employees tend to share their
knowledge and skills throughout the different floors in the stores. In this way, they will be able
to solve the issues existing more comfortably and also be able to engage in the operations
effectively.
Involving the employees in the planning procedure
The stated method is contributed to be the most effective method in order to improve the
production of the organization and to engage the employees effectively. The employees should
be made a part of the firm and their opinions need to be valued during the planning stage (Anitha
2014). This shall help in ensuring that the plans which will be prepared by them are implemented
well. Sainsbury`s tends to apply this strategy extensively and involves all the employees in

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monthly meetings when they prepare for the coming month. These plans may be plans regarding
the designated employees for the month or the sales and offers provided to the companies.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that the engagement off the different
employees is a crucial aspect which assist the organization in achieving all its objectives.
Sainsbury`s has been a consistent performer throughout and the reason why it has been able to
engage in consistent profits is because of its human resource practices. The people strategy can
be described as the focus of the success and the Sainsbury`s training academics aims to prepare
the best employees. With its engaging in planning strategy along with the transparency plans,
Sainsbury has been able to innovate its operations and create a good name for itself across the
globe.

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References
About.sainsburys.co.uk. 2018. Results, Reports and Presentations. [online] Available at:
https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/investors/results-reports-and-presentations [Accessed 10 Jul.
2018].
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human
resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation
model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), p.308.
Bal, P.M., Kooij, D.T. and De Jong, S.B., 2013. How do developmental and accommodative
HRM enhance employee engagement and commitment? The role of psychological contract and
SOC strategies. Journal of Management Studies, 50(4), pp.545-572.
Breevaart, K., Bakker, A., Hetland, J., Demerouti, E., Olsen, O.K. and Espevik, R., 2014. Daily
transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement. Journal of
occupational and organizational psychology, 87(1), pp.138-157.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2),
pp.183-202.
Truss, C., Shantz, A., Soane, E., Alfes, K. and Delbridge, R., 2013. Employee engagement,
organisational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the
theory.

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Wang, D.S. and Hsieh, C.C., 2013. The effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and
employee engagement. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(4), pp.613-
624.