EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH SPORTS

 

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH SPORTS

Employee engagement is known as the relationship level between an organization and employees. It is the commitment and the loyalty of the employee towards the organization. An engaged employee who always actively involves in positive action pays more interest on organization reputation.

Employee engagement does not mean employee happiness. Someone might be happy at work, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are working hard, productively on behalf of the organization (Kruse, 2012).

An engaged employee as described by Bevan et al (1997) is someone ‘who is aware of business context, and works closely with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefits of the organization.

Employee engagement through sports

Employee engagement is the emotional touch of an employee with the workplace. The engagement is measured by employee commitment in terms of energy, time, talent and willingness to add more value. Sport, as an engagement and team building activity it pushes employees out of their comfort zone, without the work related pressure, that comes with the territory but with an element of fun.

“We have always thought out of the box when it comes to employee engagement. As a tech company, we went beyond just a cricket tournament and included an additional social aspect utilizing our internal social network Yammer that really engaged our employees” (Dharmaratne, 2017).

Many companies have started ensuring sports as a part of their annual schedule event list. They pay more special attention to their outdoor team sports activities to generate a sense of sportsmanship and team spirit, which further enhances engagement within the organization.

The success of sports activities is dependent on a number of committees, departments, branches, different grade employees all working together in unison.

In Srilanka, we can see these sport activities organized by all the companies as their mega outdoor activity for each and every year and it give real success for the companies to build unity and employee engagement towards work.

References

Bevan S, Barber, L and Robinson, D (1997) Keeping the Best: A practical guide to retaining key employees, Institute for Employment Studies, Brighton

Dharmaratne, C. (2017, November 1). Daily news, home page. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from Daily news: http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/11/01/business/133080/driving-positive-employee-engagement-through-sports

Kruse, K. (2012, Jun 22). Forbes, Leadership. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#f2b71307f372