BUSINESS DYNAMICS
In the corporate imagination, employee engagement has long been treated as a valuable driver of performance. Engagement is commonly defined as the emotional commitment that workers feel towards their organisation and its objectives.
This has prompted a phenomenal rise in HR budgets for surveys, programmes, dashboards and campaigns, which are designed to measure and stimulate that commitment.
WHY ENGAGEMENT IS CRUCIAL
Dr. Muneer Muhamed notes how involved employees could benefit businesses
Within this fixation, employee engagement is generally overlooked. Paradoxically, while engagement is celebrated, involvement is what sustains performance, resilience and long-term value creation.
Employee involvement extends beyond emotional attachment; it is the deliberate, systematic and planned inclusion of employees in decision making, at different levels, problem solving and so on. Involved employees aren’t merely motivated observers but instead, active contributors to how work is designed, executed and improved.
Companies such as Procter & Gamble (P&G), Tata Steel, Mahindra and Unilever have made tangible progress by embedding involvement into their daily operations rather than treating engagement as a periodic measurement exercise.
A growing challenge is that engagement appears to be losing momentum. Participation rates in engagement surveys are declining and scepticism about their relevance is rising.
So has engagement become a largely top-down exercise, driven more by reporting requirements than lived experience?
The belief is that one can expect more enthusiastic, motivated and self-starting employees when they’re properly engaged. However, enthusiasm alone doesn’t guarantee better decisions, stronger accountability or sustained innovation.
Employee involvement is grounded in participation. It’s about giving employees a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their work and the organisation’s future. Engaged workers are enabled to influence results, question assumptions and offer ideas that reach beyond their defined roles.
Participation shifts employees from being strategy recipients to active co-owners of execution. This difference is subtle yet profound; and it explains why involvement reliably produces superior and durable business outcomes.
Involvement augurs well for companies because it fundamentally changes how employees relate to their work. Involved workers don’t simply comply; they commit. When they actively participate in decision making, it results in diverse perspectives that improve the quality of decisions.
The Toyota Production System (TPS), where workers at every level are encouraged to propose improvements, is a classic example. It’s no wonder therefore, that the world salutes Toyota’s quality and reliability.
What differentiates involvement from engagement is a deep sense of ownership. People who are part of a decision-making process instinctively feel accountable for delivering goals. Any feeling of ownership results in more responsible behaviour and discipline in execution.
Organisations such as Google and Marriott are often cited for building cultures where employees are trusted to act collectively in their employers’ long-term best interests. Others including Emirates and Wipro have made substantial investments in comparable approaches.
When people feel their judgement is valued, work moves beyond transactions and becomes genuinely purposeful.
Job satisfaction also rises sharply with involvement because fulfilment derived from empowerment is deeper and more durable than satisfaction generated by perks or slogans. When employees are trusted to contribute ideas and influence direction, they experience validation and meaning.
Google and 3M famously institutionalised this principle by allowing employees time to pursue self-directed projects – a practice that produced many successful innovations. Creativity flourishes not because it is demanded but because it’s permitted. And involvement strengthens alignment with corporate goals and values.
Corporates should encourage open and transparent communication, whereby employees can freely share their ideas and feedback. Try crowdsourcing ideas, conduct mini town halls and pursue open door policies.
Include employees in decision-making processes, especially when these directly affect their work. You can establish employee councils, which include representatives to discuss and make decisions on workplace issues and policies.
Empower employees by delegating authority – and provide them with the resources and support needed, to take the initiative and make decisions. Marriott is a classic example where even the bellboy is empowered to upgrade or offer special privileges to guests if he knows of a visitor’s genuine unhappiness such as missing amenities in the room or delays in orders.
Recognise and reward employees for their contributions and involvement in improving the organisation. Many companies have set up innovation awards to encourage employees to drive new business ideas and processes.
Recognise and reward employees
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