Engagement could be defined as a state of relationship or willingness to participate in any given activities. These feeling cannot be controlled by the company or employer. For example, commanding an employee to love their job, forcing an employee to like their boss or making employee to have fun with their co-worker. Even though these feeling are not easy to control, the employer could adjust work environment or get a better understanding on his/her employees and put more attention on them. If the employer gives enough time, effort, or sincerity, building a high engagement would be easily achieved.

I have researched and studied from many learning sources and concluded that employee engagement can be categorize in to 3 types;

1. Engagement with Boss
2. Engagement with Job
3. Engagement with Colleague
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It may seem as 3 type of engagement are independent of one another, but I think each activity in our offices impact employee engagement more than 1 type. For example, “Job Rotation” help employee to improve overall skills and increase “Engagement with Job”, while at the same time the staffs appreciate their boss for such opportunity and increase “Engagement with Boss” simultaneously.

In order for us to feel “engaged” with something, there are many factors that determine our “desire” to be engaged. If we take a moment to study and examine those factors that increase our “desire” to be engaged with our organization, we will hear the following questions in our mind; do I like working with my boss, has he spend time to teach me anything, is my working environment fun and exciting, have I learned anything new, is my workplace pleasant, etc. “Different employee will have different questions in their mind due to different “Life Goals”. I’d like to share with you the findings from my research that I believe to be a fruitful “wisdom” in efficient and effective people management.”

Traditional “Human Resource Management” approach usually set organization goal as primary goal, or we can say it’s “One pillar” approach. I found that

A good strategic planning for efficient people management must be “Two pillar” approach. Beside organization goal, we also need to consider employee “Life Goals””

which can be simplified into 5 elements;

• Leisure & Family – to have personal time for family and have Work-Life balance
• Wealth – to have income that is reasonable to the amount of work, their skills and capability, and at least meet their expectation
• Corporate Title – to have career growth and get promoted
• Skill Champion – to have opportunity in skills development and recognized as “specialist” in their chosen field
• Belonging – to be accepted and welcomed in the workplace community

Human Resource Strategy has common element to Business Strategy, the plan must always consider more than 1 primary pillar. The strategy model (SWOT or TOWS) always consider internal and external factors, strength and weakness. It is the same in HR Strategy, we must take in to account both “Organization’s Goal” and “Employees’ Life Goal” with equal weight, not focusing too much on one side and create an imbalance of priority.

If you think that creating employee engagement is a difficult task, or a important skill that a leader must have. We have Bossy Airline Simulation which designed for teaching HR for non-HR manager. It is suitable newly appointed managers or supervisors, who lack knowledge and experience in people management. It is also suitable for managers who have attend HR for non-HR course in the past but looking to refresh their knowledge, and receive new wisdom. Learner would improve their skill through a simulation game that contains both entertainment and knowledge.