Making employee engagement an end‐to‐end practice

Purpose – This paper aims to assist businesses of all sizes in employee engagement, attraction and retention, by demonstrating how fundamental human resources (HR) processes can be effectively combined with new technologies to make employee engagement an end‐to‐end practice. Employers know that happy and fulfilled employees are more productive, but attracting and retaining the best talent for a business involves engaging employees in the long term. This paper discusses a range of tactics to help ensure engagement, such as regular appraisals, use of social networking and the efficient recording of employee performance and interests, to best optimize the talent management process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a practical approach. It is based on both Richard Doherty's extensive experience in the HR and talent management sector, as well as the practical experiences Jobpartners has had through working with its clients for over a decade. It looks at the basic values of interaction with employees, as well as how best to optimize, streamline and efficiently operate all aspects of employee engagement in order to lead to a more productive workforce with lower churn. Findings – This paper demonstrates how best to engage employees from before a career even begins, right up until it ends. It offers guidance on using the latest techniques and technology to keep employees engaged and motivated. Threading through the paper is the knowledge that even if an employee moves to another company, you may still hold a relationship with them as partners or customers. Employee engagement must therefore be an end‐to‐end practice and this paper will help show how to make that a reality. Originality/value – Motivated and efficient workforces only happen when respect flows in all directions through a business, with transparent processes throughout. This article looks at examples of how the mobile network operator “3” and Rabobank used some of the tactics referred to above to reap benefits such as reducing recruitment costs and meeting targets for employee assessments. This information results from Jobpartners ongoing work with both companies to help them streamline and integrate their HR processes.