IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE-CASE OF MANUFACTURING SECTORS

2 Introduction: Employee engagement is the level of involvement and commitment an employee has towards his/her organization and its values. It is a measure of an employee's positive or negative attitude towards their job, colleagues and organization which influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Engagement is linked to three essential forces in the organization - productivity, profitability and attrition. Ultimately the productivity is what is expected by the company from employees. An engaged employee performs what is expected of him and have his focus and goal clear and brings success to the organization. Profitability results from actively engaged workforce. What company looks for are committed and sincere and loyal employees who can perform their job efficiently with all role clarity. Employee engagement has a direct impact on the employee's productivity, loyalty, commitment and less attrition. The organization as a whole benefits from employees that are loyal, committed, productive, and engaged. Purpose: The paper aims at finding the employee engagement in manufacturing industry, and finding out the relationship between employee engagement and organizational performance and reduced attrition. Methodology: Nearly 600 white collared employees and 600 blue collared employees and 50 HR managers, located in Maharashtra and Gujarat, from different manufacturing industries selected on a random basis sampled for the study. Results:It was found that the degree of employee engagement strongly correlates with organizational culture, open communication with supervisors, empathetic attitude of the superiors towards the employees, recognition of one's contributions towards the organizational goals, and freedom to participate in the decision making process, safety measures in the organization and HR policies related to training and development, compensation and benefits and career development. This ultimately results in loyal employees, reduced attrition and increased performance and productivity. Contribution of the paper: Study developed a model which will help in better implementation of engagement strategy for improving performance and retention.The study covers both white collar and blue collar employee for better understanding at both levels in emerging markets like India.This is the first such study involving both segment of manufacturing units.