Employee engagement is a two-way street, right? While your employer devises mediums to engage with you, what are you (as an employee) doing to get engaged by your employer?

With the blink of an eye, and click of a button, we have stepped into a whole new business eon where change is inevitable; technology is the monster that rules all, and above all - employees have become the fulcrum of the business turf. Yes, corporate India has undergone a facelift and so, gone are the days where the employers were the most/sole fundamental realm of the business province. It was almost impossible to find an ‘employee' equivalent to the employer-centric clichés, questions, mantras, and methodologies in terms of managerial proficiency, performance, potential and point of view. Most managerial books, to a large extent, taught employees ways to contribute to the organisation, improve competence or even up their value. But, for a business to be a prodigy, experts were dawned by the concept of ‘employeeship', a term coined by InspireOne to assert the ubiquitous role of an employee towards organisational success. Employeeship, also regarded as corporate citizenship for the employee, forced corporates to wake up and smell the coffee. The success of a business venture was not only solely reliant on great leadership, but also by a level of unparalleled investments made by the employee in terms of responsibility, loyalty, commitment and initiative. The recent L&OD Roundtable (a platform for learning and OD professionals to ideate, discuss and derive learnings w.r.t their area of expertise) Master Class on ‘Employeeship' facilitated by Saumya Chandra, senior consultant, InspireOne, focussed on getting employees to meet their employers more than half way on the engagement agenda. "Organisations today seek to develop a culture of ownership and responsibility. We are constantly asking questions like - ‘how do we mobilise the energies of employees to create consistent success?' In the heart of this question lies the need to create an eco-system that enables employees to bring their ‘hearts to work' – to get fully committed and create an organisation that's built to last. This is ‘employeeship'," says Chandra.

So, when business gurus were harping on what an employer should do to keep his/her employee engaged, employeeship raised questions such as - ‘what should an employee do to get himself/herself engaged by the employer?' Explaining his take on ways an employee could get engaged, Porus Irani, director, Handiman Services Ltd expresses, "The most important task of an employee is to understand the vision of the organisation. The more you involve yourself in working dedicatedly towards accomplishing the vision of the organisation, the lesser you tend to encounter failures at the workplace."

Employeeship, in simple terms, is about creating an atmosphere that urges individuals to develop through their work and synergise with others to accomplish greater goals jointly than individually, thereby making the achievement of organisational goals greater than the mere attainment of individual goals. Employee loyalty, commitment, and responsibility are key factors. "In terms of loyalty, loyal employees become brand ambassadors for the company. Loyalty is not only associated with the tenure of the employee, but also how an employee speaks and feels about the company," believes Ruth Singh – HR head - Emkay Global Financial Services. "Employees with high commitment will not only achieve their targets, but also usually go that extra distance to achieve the desired results. Responsibility is knowing and doing exactly what is expected without being asked or explicitly told," she adds.

Employees who indulge in the facets of ‘employeeship' are often struck by the generic ‘quality v/s quantity' dilemma. Is less more or does more surpass the assumed quality? "For India at this juncture, both quality and quantity are simultaneously important with speed being the essence. The pressure on today's employee is very high as they have to nurture the foundation laid by the older generation and prepare a progressive stage of experimenting and growth for the coming generation. That becomes effective employeeship. If employees do not think beyond the moment and invest in either quality or quantity, they will leave the coming generation with a sense of inadequacy, which will be very difficult to explain, thereby creating a cavity in the concept," specifies Atul Sharma – executive VP HR, learning and development Bajaj Electricals Ltd.

Thus, employeeship challenges the erstwhile assumption that success is brought upon primarily by the top-management. Instead, it is an optimum organisational culture where the management and staff are equally liable for successes and failures and combine their efforts to achieve the best.

- Lynn Lobo

The writer can be reached at lynn.lobo@timesgroup.com