Improving Employee Engagement: A Psychology and HR Report

This report examines employee engagement challenges at the Ealing Building Society, focusing on issues such as ineffective recruitment, leadership incapability, and low employee motivation. The analysis delves into the strategic contributions of HR to address these problems, emphasizing the importance of effective recruitment practices, including the 'best fit' theory. It explores various leadership styles, particularly situational leadership, and the application of Herzberg's two-factor theory to enhance employee motivation and engagement. The report provides recommendations for improving recruitment quality, developing leadership skills, and implementing motivational strategies to foster a more engaged and productive workforce. The report highlights the interconnectedness of these factors and their collective impact on overall employee satisfaction and organizational success.

Psychology and Employee
Engagement

Table of Contents
Psychology and Employee Engagement..........................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Employees are vital part of organisation and success of all the resources depends on the
factor that how well human resource is able to utilize the resources. Skills and knowledge of the
human resource gets capitalized by training which organisation provides them and motivation of
the employees which encourage them to work to the best of their potential and capacity. The
Ealing Building Society is facing some issues which are related with employees and their
performance other than high retention is another problem which is being faced by the
organisation. This has resulted in increased work pressure of the existing employees and
employees with good past performance have started taking leave more often. These problems are
major and require to be addressed by the HR department of the organisation.
MAIN BODY
This report as includes strategic contribution of the HR to improve the existing employee
condition of employees and problems which are being caused by the HR in the organisation. The
main problems and their solution are;
Ineffective Recruitment
The first role of HR in their duties is to recruit best available talent in the organisation.
There are various instances in case of Ealing Building Society which communicate that
recruitment at the organisation is not effective (Wood and et.al., 2016). Effective recruitment are
important because of various reasons like retention of the employees in future is determined
when they are recruited employees who are cultural fit and adaptable to the organisation can stay
longer comparing to those who are not able to cope with the changing needs and situations. First
step that HR needs to take to improve the overall condition of the company is to improve the
quality of the recruitment. Under-skilled employees and those who are inadequate for their job
affect the organisation in two ways first is that they cost the organisation and other is that
organisation do not get any benefit from such employees in terms of profitability and
productivity.
Contribution of HR in improving this situation

HR has most important contribution in improving this situation as recruitment is responsibility of
the HR.
HR needs to ensure that the person being recruited has adequate skills that match with the
requirement of the job in the organisation (James, 2017). The skills include academic skills for
the job and along with that, behavioural skills which are required to improve the performance at
the job.
Checking previous records, previous records of the employee can help in predicting future
behaviour and performance of the candidate. HR will have to collect information regarding the
candidate about their behaviour in their previous organisation. In case employee is being
recruited after completing education than education institute can also give information regarding
the candidate.
This will improve quality of recruitment in the organisation so along with performance of the
candidate and employee overall performance of the organisation can be improved. This will also
ensure that employee is capable of adapting the culture of the organisation and retain in
organisation for longer.
Best Fit Theory
HR at Ealing Building Society can also apply best fit theory of the recruitment to ensure
quality recruitment in the organisation (Eva, 2018). The best fit approach emphasize on the
importance of ensuring that HR strategies are in accordance with the circumstances of the
organisation. Organisational circumstances refer to its culture, operational processes and external
environment which collectively create different and unique circumstances for the organisation.
Best fit approach takes into consideration both organisation and its people. This will ensure that
organisation and people both are according to each other’s requirements and both should be a fit
for the organisation so that both can complement each other rather than become a liability for
each other.
Application of this theory will require that HR identify and analyse what kind of employees are
required in the organisation and this is also a challenge for the HR for HR while applying this

theory for recruitment (Afroze, 2016). Later, identifying and recruiting same people in the
organisation is also a challenge for the HR.
This theory in this way will help and contribute HR and organisation to find the best employees
which are perfect fit for the organisation.
Best fit theory can be applied and ensured wherein while recruiting employees company
can take employment test regarding the key skills required for their job and along with this
company can also take test to ensure and analyse their past work performance to ensure that they
can be a best fit for the culture of The Ealing Building Society. They can add value in existing
practices and are different from those who have not performed well and have left the
organisation.
Leadership Incapability
Incapability of leader is another problem at Ealing Building Society. Leadership is one of
the most significant elements behind success of the organisation. This makes it important that
Ealing Building Society has the leaders which are able to manage and lead the organisation.
Leadership capabilities include many things and capable leaders can also ensure that
performance of the team members and employees are as good as expected (ŠIKÝŘ, Sekerin and
Gorokhova, 2018). Motivating and guiding employees in order to ensure achievement of
organisational as well as their individual objectives. Ensuring that employees are engaged in the
organisation which ensures high quality performance of the employees is also a responsibility of
the leader. Regarding incapability of leader what HR can do is the question. Related to this what
HR can do is that HR firstly employs those candidate in the organisation which are capable of
managing and leading the organisation and teams in future. Later HR can contribute in this by
giving employees training so that they can develop their leadership skills and potential to lead
the organisation and its people.
Regarding Leadership there are various theories and HR in Ealing Building Society can
employ them according to their situation and the leaders can be hired which are able to adopt and
work according to that kind of leadership. Though leadership is individual capability of the
leader but when they are being trained then in such case they can train leaders to adapt particular
leadership style. One type of leadership style does not fit in all situations because leadership

effectiveness depends on the influencing and effectively managing employees to complete their
task. This also gets affected by the organisational situation. For example delegating leadership
style is not suitable where employees lack skills and competency and are not willing to take
responsibility.
Situational Leadership Theory
This is one of the theories that Ealing Building Society can adapt in their organisation
and this is also suitable for current circumstances of the organisation (du Plessis, 2017).
Leadership requirement in the Ealing Building Society is for those who are not motivated and for
those who not skilled for their job. Through this leadership style Ealing Building Society will be
able to deal with all the problems regarding the employees.
This leadership theory consists of four type of leadership style which leader can adopt as
per the situation. Situation includes maturity level of the employees which is based on their
motivation and willingness and their capabilities to perform the task given to them. Leadership
styles are as follows-
Telling
This style of leadership requires that leader take all the decision on the behalf of the employees
(Hooper and Potter, 2019). This is the responsibility of the leader to decide what the team
members and employees are required to do and along with that how they can do that. In current
situation of Ealing Building Society requires its leaders to follow this style as many of the
employees are incompetent and under skilled and in such case their leader is required to take
decision for them.
Selling
This style of leadership is applied where skills and capabilities of the employees are improved
but their willingness is less to complete the task. This style of leadership includes that leader give
options to the members and they can select one of them in relation with what to do and how to
do. They are motivated and supported by the leader in order to complete the task.
Participating

In this style of leadership what employees do is that they support the members as they are
competent and capable of completing the task but they are not willing to take responsibility
(Lynch and et.al., 2018). In such case they are supported by leader and leader motivates and
encourages members to take responsibility and complete the task.
Delegating
This style of leadership includes that members have highest responsibility. The members are
competent to complete the task and along with that they are also willing to take responsibility to
complete the task.
This leadership style needs to be trained to the leaders and aspiring leaders and this is the
responsibility of the HR. This will improve current situation of the Ealing Building Society
regarding employees and their performance. Such leadership style will also contribute in
enhancing employee engagement in the organisation as leader will be exert strong influence on
the members.
The Ealing Building Society can adopt telling and selling style of leadership employees
who are new and incompetent they can be managed and leaded with telling style of leadership
and those who are competent but not willing to take responsibility can be leaded with selling
style which motivate them and also encourage them to take responsibility.
Motivation of the employees
Low motivation of the employees is also a key problem at Ealing Building Society. This
is because retention of the employees is low and the employees who leave the organisation their
replacements are not recruited timely and this is why their covering up their work increases work
pressure of the existing employees (Kuvaas, Buch, and Dysvik, 2018). Improper working
condition and stress of work is significant reason behind the reduced motivation of the
employees. Motivation of the employees to work and perform is also a key contributor for the
employee engagement and this is why it is important element for all the employees. HR at the
Ealing Building Society requires developing strategies so that the motivation of the employees
can be increased and for that HR need to;
Recruit competent candidates at the place of those who have left the organisation.

Train employees properly so that they can perform and their inabilities do not affect their
motivation at their workplace as inability to perform also affect the motivation of the employees.
Leaders at various level of the organisation are also competent and capable to motivate their
members so that their motivation and morale does not reduce.
Herzberg two factor theory of motivation can be applied here.
Figure 1Two factor theory of Herzberg
This theory of Herzberg provides two factors which are hygiene factors and motivating factors.
Hygiene factors are those factors whose absence in job can reduce the job satisfaction of the
employee. This includes supervision, salary, work condition, remuneration etc. in Ealing
Building Society all these factors are lacking and this affect job satisfaction of the employee and
consequently they leave the organisation. Basically these are those factors which are very
important for the employee to have at their work.
Motivating factors on the other hand are important to motivate the employees (Alshmemri,
Shahwan-Akl and Maude, 2017). Absence of these will not affect job satisfaction of the
employee. But these are important to contribute motivation of the employee.
The Ealing Building Society facing several problems and through this theory company
can ensure that all the factors which contribute to managing and keeping employees satisfied like
working condition and salaries are given due importance and also timely motivational activities
and factors should also be applied this will increase motivation of employees and satisfaction and
motivation will collectively contribute in employee engagement.

These three problems consequently resulting that employee engagement at the Ealing
Building Society is very low. Employee engagement refers to the extent to which employees feel
passionate about their work and this is possible only if the employees are motivated to perform
their work. There are various activities through which HR can ensure employee engagement in
the organisation. This is important to derive effective performance of the employee. This is the
factor because of which employee willingly perform their best at their job because they feel
connected to their job. Employee engagement is very important for the organisation and its
success and main component of the employee engagement are culture of the organisation,
motivation and relations in the organisation. Leadership is also important contributor to
employee engagement. Ealing Building Society, is having inadequate leadership and relations in
the organisation are also unfavourable for the employee engagement and this is why working for
the employee engagement requires working on motivation, leadership and culture of the
organisation (Mone, London and Mone, 2018). HR of the organisation can also organise some of
the activities and events which contribute to employee engagement and develop positive feelings
in the mind of employee regarding their organisation. This is more important for those who are
under skilled they will get involved in their job and also will work on their skills so that they can
contribute in success of the organisation.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the discussion that employees are significant contributor of
organisational success and this is possible when they make wilful contribution in the
organisational operations. This report discussed some of the problems which are being faced by
Ealing Building Society and how they affect the performance of the employees at the
organisation like motivation, leadership etc. Problems being faced are related to employees and
this is why HR of the organisation has to play the most important role in solving the problem.
Role of HR and theoretical application regarding theories was discussed in this report.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Afroze, R., 2016. Does Recruitment Develop a Corporate Image to Attract Talented Candidates
for Hiring in Bangladesh?. Asian Business Review. 6(1). pp.5-38.
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Science Journal. 14(5). pp.12-16.
du Plessis, D., 2017. Weak leadership, inadequate planning hamper land reform: bottom
line. Farmer’s Weekly, 2017(17005), pp.32-33.
Eva, T.P., 2018. Recruitment and Selection Strategies and Practices in the Private Sector
Commercial Banks of Bangladesh: Evidence from Human Resource
Practitioners. European Business & Management. 4(1). pp.28-38.
Hooper, A. and Potter, J., 2019. The business of leadership: Adding lasting value to your
organization. Routledge.
James, P.S., 2017. Organisational Behaviour, 1e. Pearson Education India.
Kuvaas, B., Buch, R. and Dysvik, A., 2018, August. Individual variable pay for performance,
incentive effects, and employee motivation. In annual meeting of the Academy of
Management, Chicago, USA.
Lynch, B.M and et.al., 2018. The development of the Person‐Centred Situational Leadership
Framework: Revealing the being of person‐centredness in nursing homes. Journal of
clinical nursing. 27(1-2). pp.427-440.
Mone, E.M., London, M. and Mone, E.M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective
performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
ŠIKÝŘ, M., Sekerin, V. and Gorokhova, A., 2018. Managing Human Resources Using the Best
Practice. Best Fit Approach. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences. 13(1).
Wood, J.M and et.al., 2016. Organisational behaviour: core concepts and applications. John
Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd..
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Herzberg’s Motivation Theory – Two Factor Theory. 2018. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2018/04/herzbergs-two-factor-theory/ > .