Engagement Specialists – Why do we need them?

The word “engagement” is extensively accepted as a function today and in business, it is largely linked with productivity. The pressure of engagement is immense and new genres of professionals – the Engagement specialists, are busy helping organizations worldwide to cope up with the engagement challenge.

While organizations are doing every effort to retain their valuable assets (clients, customers and employees), the results are often not great. Despite all attempts, clients pull out and employees resign, leaving the management and organization puzzled over –

• Why employees to choose to leave ignoring organization’s retention efforts?

• Why clients drop-out despite good services?

• What makes employees, customers or clients look out for options?

During my conversation with departing employees, I often contemplate reasons for their separation. Surprisingly, it’s not every time that an employee leaves because of dissatisfaction over salary, work or supervisor. Better engagement and meaningful assignment are often the reasons employees give for leaving.  Employees today are more experimental than before; they are open to take any move that can enhance their career. Holding them is a challenge. For a strong retention and engagement strategy, it is important to record behavior patterns that inspire turnover. Some of the reasons why employee and customer choose to leave are:

Willingness to work with industry leaders

Working with a leading organization or brand name gives a sense of satisfaction and security. People desire to work with organization that is leader in terms of customers & client satisfaction, employee benefits and financial means.

Opportunities with competitors

While companies view their competitors as rivals, their employees, clients and consumers see better opportunities with competitors in terms of prices and employment. Of course, who doesn’t like to go for a better bargain?

Positive work-relationship culture

Employees value positive work environment and enjoy working with colleagues, Managers and peers who are highly professional and supportive. A good work culture is one of the most critical elements of employee motivation and retention. Employees often leave because of dissatisfaction over company’s work culture.

Word engagement is far more substantial today than ever before. Effective engagement means engaging an individual’s mind, interest, talent, skills, capacity as well as psychology .Engagement Specialists are experts in these areas. Client Engagement Specialist, Employee Engagement Specialists, Customer Engagement Specialists etc, are working worldwide towards creating a business and work environment where clients, customer and employees feel involved and satiated. As it’s rightly said:

“Regarding engagement, yes we need to pay people more – pay them more attention! It’s just not about the money.”

Meetu Khanduja is an HR professional with extensive experience of working with IT/ITES industry. She holds an MBA (HR) and PDG (Intellectual Property Rights) from Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. She has been working with Artech Infosystems as Outsourcing HR consultant with specific involvement in Employee Engagement & Retention, Talent Management and HR outsourcing functions. She enjoys volunteering for social and environmental causes. She shares her experience and views on HR on her blog at HRdictionary. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook & on twitter at @hrdictionary.