Product life cycle Essay

Identify and assess the relevance of the ‘product life cycle’ to the notion of employee engagement. Employee engagement can be viewed through the four stages of the product life-cycle Step one is the introduction of the concept of employee engagement, its principles, strategy for enhancing engagement and involving employees, process of change to ensure engagement is fully embedded into the organisation. Step two is growth and growing the concept of engagement through a number of mechanisms: * Support from senior and line managers * Development of line managers in engaging staff * Clear communication and involvement strategy * Involving staff in organisational and job design * Encouraging self and career development planning * Identifying mechanisms for continuous staff feedback * Evaluating and adapting engagement strategies. Step three is reaching maturity and embedding and maintaining the above factors through continuous involvement, participation, communication, evaluation and action And finally, step 4 is the inevitable decline, even though there is a decline it is still important to retain key employees, and their skills and knowledge, and therefore to continuously involve them in managing the change and future strategy. The employee engagement life cycle is an important tool for HR professionals to use to assess how the engagement product fits with the business’s objectives and strategy. Evaluate the future for employee engagement in the UK and global economic context. Future action plans include: * Involving workers in identifying factors that will engage them further * Consideration of the demographic data and identification how to engage staff from all backgrounds at different levels * Further evaluation of the link between engagement practices and performance * Development of managers that can motivate and inspire staff Monster (2011) the online job advertising website conducted an international survey on employees’ views of their line managers and uncovered the following results: * Only 10% described their manager as ‘brilliant’ * 73% feels their manager does not invest in their self-development * 70% believe that they could do their manager’s job to a higher standard * 41% of UK workers felt their managers were totally incompetent Line managers are pivotal to enhancing engagement through empowering, motivating, inspiring, coaching and helping the employee develop themselves to enhance performance. Key areas where managers require further development include: * Responding to grievances and confronting issues * Empowering and involving workers on decisions that impact on them * Treating all team members equitably and with respect and providing constructive feedback * Recognising and appreciating efforts (particularly discretionary effort) * Being driven to deliver on commitments and promises made. Assess the future role of the HR professional and the HR function so far as the sustainable implementation of employee engagement practices is concerned. In order for HR to become more strategic, they need to ensure the HR strategies and the business strategies are aligned and both contribute to the overall business aim and objectives. If this is achieved then HR can be a driving force for creating an organisational strategy for competitive advantage. HR practitioners can determine organisation capability and engagement levels to flexibly adapt to changing environmental and customer needs through an evaluation of: the current resources in terms of skills, knowledge and behaviours; and organisation design and development. Once the HR practitioner is vertically integrated within the business, they will be able to take advantage of future opportunities by becoming a key player in the strategic decision making process through providing extensive knowledge in terms of organisational capability in taking the opportunity to grow into new markets, or determining future strategies and actions required.