 Welcome back from that report. Highly engaged employees hold very favorable opinions of their place of work. When employees feel connected to their teams, love their jobs and have positive feelings about the organization, they are going to want to stay and put in extra efforts to help the organization succeed. These brand advocates speak highly of their company to family and friends. They encourage other employees around them to do their best. Now my guest, Samson Robert O'Core is a trained and qualified human resources and marketing management professional from the prestigious Emo State University ORE. He brings an in-depth wealth of experience from different sectors, including insurance, manufacturing, financial logistics, food and beverage, textile, luxuries, power generation and steel, transport and logistics constructions and chemicals. He is a profound people's manager as well as a development specialist that enhances organizational brands using employer branding and culture. Alignment, many thanks for joining me, Samson, on Business Insights and Plus TV Africa. Thank you very much, Justin. The pleasure is mine. Let's just write into it as it is. Now there are several definitions, you know, aspects to employee engagement. In your perspective, how can you break it down so that we can understand very well? Okay, thank you very much for this lovable opportunity to actually raise this medium in the need to actually reach out to the public. Now, in context of what we're treating right now, I'd like to address issues from the true root word or root meaning. First of all, let's look at what employees are all about before even mentioned alongside with what engagement is. So an employee in a nutshell is just an example of when an individual has been contracted after going through processes of questioning called in quotes here interview and found worthy to feel a particular sport, obviously because he or she has actually met all the criteria set for that particular role. These are ways to talk about the knowledge, the skill and the ability. So such a person is actually, you know, given the documents to state that okay, fine, going from these moments, you will have to work for us and all terms and conditions also to will be included in that document. Outlining these are the periods that you're going to work and these are the days or the number of days you're going to work in the week. These are the set objectives or goals from the organization that is required of you to meet and what that is understood. Now, such a person, he or she is regarded as an employee committed to a brand working on the auspices of a non-railer to achieve that organizational goal. Then now treating what engagement is. Now engagement is just like a term when you say, I'm giving you a particular thing and the purpose for giving you these haven't explained that to you and you have said yes. Now, if you have said yes in the information, okay, so keep up. Now I understand this thing. Then I am committed to actually drive this alongside with you. And there is a mutual concept between myself and the opposite. So that ordinarily is what I class as engagement. Now to now make the two together, employee engagement is in a situation where an employee has been duly officially contracted to deliver on a set goals or set objectives and find the roles and time period he or she is supposed to deliver on this what was that goal. And I have said yes and I am running without vision. So it means if I stay longer needs that makes me engage and it means that I am happy and if I'm delivering results it's also too happy. All right. Still trying to understand the whole engagement of employees as it were. There are talks about M3Cs. I don't know how true that is. I hear that you need to consider the career, the competence and the care. Just how do all of these work all in hand in hand? Thank you very much, Justin. A particular individual to fill a role will not be duly considered for a particular role and later engage if he or she does not or fails to meet a set parameters set by the system. And these parameters are hinged on competencies. Competencies or possibly skill sets as defined by the system or by the job role. So these are the things that I need an XYZ for you to have, for you to deliver on these sets. So if you have two out of three most likely you might not be considered as the right fit to actually consider yourself as being engaged or possibly being employed. All right. Okay. So what exactly or why exactly do we really need to engage employees and for people who are having hard times in engaging the employees, how can they improve upon it? Okay. So it's very necessary for employers, individuals that are looking for third parties to actually fulfill or meet their set goal, engaging the opposite in the sense that because you cannot do it all by yourself or possibly you can do it, but you need a time to also to concentrate on other things. Hence you need the opposite to actually coming into the system or into your space to have that delivered for you. So it is very necessary for people to consider, from the opposite side, helping them to achieve ordinarily what they would have achieved and if it's not taken also to so far, the set goals that they have, that they have measured. But in the long case as well too, sometimes certain things get to go wrong during the course of when an employee is in court right now said to be engaged in the sense that, okay, at first an employee has fulfilled all requirements and he or she has set or has been set online or in sprint and obviously the activities are starting. Then comes maybe one or two factors that may have triggered negative impression or perception that could have demotivated such an individual. Before you know it, this particular person tends to disconnect or possibly fail to run with that particular pace he or she has started with. Now, one has to be very careful also to when you are in this contractual agreement also to make sure that you actually fulfill your own part of the bid is for you to make sure all necessary resources are provided and from time to time keep on checking the contracted individual by documents that he or she is in a high spirit, he or she is also on the right track to actually run with the vision and most likely also to produce results. So what we see in the long of these days right now is that most employees halfway or even before the journey gets to a reasonable distance, they get themselves themselves are discolored and obviously because of one thing or the other, either attitudes, the attitudes from fellow employees or possibly leadership style or organizational culture. The majority of these lies on organizational culture and possibly some certain characters or features within the system. Alright, something I was going to talk about. Thank God you mentioned the issue of organizational culture and you know, team spirit and all of that, because sometime on this show I talked about workplace toxicity and how some people, you know, don't tend to work very well with others just because of some sort of disconnect and it's actually affecting productivity. So let's still look at all of this vis-a-vis motivation, team bonding and team building. How do you bring all of that into play in employee engagement? Okay, so from the onset, we have to be very careful when we try to draw up plans to engage people to do surveys or commit the service towards inextricable money in the sense that necessary parameters as factors have to be put in place. You don't get to wait until an individual gets disconnected from what has been discussed from the onset. Other than that, it should be classed as being reactive to such circumstance. So now to be a bit proactive for most organizations, I would recommend that you hold up to the time when your ball rolling. I'm sure you get it right in a way. Now, if it is an existing organization, experience would have been in your favor, having worked with different individuals. You have experience of how classes of employees or categories of employees will be here. Let me just pick an example. Imagine right now you have just employed, for example, right now a human resource practitioner just like me and he or she is made or set to achieve some certain results. One of it will be to ensure your drive employee engagement. You make sure you set the cultural rights. And this particular individual also to balance welfare, motivation and the likes of them. And this particular individual has been doing this over a period of time. Now, this particular professional has been fulfilling, helping other employees and the organization to grow meeting needs. And he or she also too is not being paid attention to. In code right now, our target has been recognized. Now, over and over, this individual has mentioned to the organization, okay, I have fulfilled, I have met and I have achieved so and so milestones. However, if I also do get my own work activity reviewed and what's called appraised. Now, if organization pays a blind eye to these, a whole lot of the time you see these individuals that get it demotivated and a whole lot of exceptions that coming in. So it is advisable for organization to put in place certain factors, certain resources that will help improve the motivation of the interest of the organization and the interest of motivation in the system. The reason is when you're employing a new employee, ensure that you your own body process is delivered maximum day to the fullest. Other than that, what we see in most organization is an employee is brought into the system and maybe one or two days, he or she is made to go through induction. And before you know, they already have some where else the system should have been that this individual is taken by hand, obviously through a body. Maybe other employees in the same unit or possibly somewhere else, I mean, someone else who has more experience in that particular role, so that this individual will get to see or will get to know how activity is, how he or she can achieve results. Then it brings it about if this individual do out and will achieve results. Other than when these things are not fully met at this individual along the get this engagement or this comment. All right, something that we'll take a quick break. Now when we come back, we'll be looking at retention of employees, especially right now, where there's this and Jack Basingham and lots of people are actually leaving their jobs in search of greener pastures. Let's see how we can actually motivate and actually talk about productivity as we should be doing when we return from this quick break. It's still business insight and plus TV Africa. We'll be right back to join us again. All right, welcome back. It's still business insight and plus TV Africa and we have been looking at employee engagement and something Robert O'Kara is my get. He is an HR and marketing and professional and we has been trained so much insight on the show today. Many thanks for staying with us, Samson. Thank you very much. All right, just before the break, I talked about employee retention. Most of businesses, aside from the fact that most people would actually want to go look for greener pastures abroad with the Jack Basingham and all of that. Some organizations are actually having it tough retaining their staff. Could it be that they are not well motivated or what are the issues or what can you actually advise? Okay, so it's not here, not there, but for me, I will plus it as a mixture of different factors. Let me be very frank with you. I set aside some certain organizations that have fantastic processes, fantastic leadership and also to genuine purpose for doing business. A whole lot of the time, most organizations that are in the system are actually doing some exciting things that are not really in compliance to maybe obviously standard practice or possibly that are not meeting the objective or the expectations of people that works for them. Now, it is, I wouldn't say it's a surprise that we are seeing people living, working or possibly let's look at it contextually, living in a geographical landscape of Nigeria to Europe, obviously for greener pastures. Let's press this part. Now, a whole lot of the time, I think people believed that better remuneration, better culture, better benefits are better made available in those developed organizations simply because of where they are presently, most likely either they are not recognized or it is totally absent all of these things. Now, you and I can also do resonate with the fact that the foreign exchange of our dear country today is no longer smiling as it is right now, most likely impacting on the strength on their ability of the lead to currency that you earn in terms of salary or income at the end of the month, meeting the basic and primary needs of people. To a large extent also to, these are also to force before people will actually take on the so-called jacquard syndrome or moving from one organization to another, they would have gone through series of difficulties, series of challenges. Imagine if an employee is entitled to let's say about 20,000 Naira, as only the 20,000 Naira in X, Y year was better and after X, X year, the economic standard status started to change. So the so-called 20,000 Naira may not fit into this year's X, X, X years. That the 20,000 Naira may not just be realistic anymore because of the current realities. Exactly. So and even if an employee had gone through an organization, it would be to management or leadership to make them understand that I think I need a raise, obviously I need you to look at me, even if you don't want to look at it from the perceptible emotion, emotion-based, okay, used performance-based management system to great my work and have me evaluated, most likely at the end of time I feel I should be able to or get entitled to a raise that can at least help me, drive me reasonably through months, running into months and out of months. But if it's, I mean, even if it's not recognized or if they're not given attention, they start considering what is the next opportunity for them to actually take a leap from where they are to somewhere that is able more better and these things actually cause a retention problem in our system here. Now to be very frank with you, we have so much a large percentage of organization here in this country whose in nature, there's something we call turnover rate or turnover rate and so much is so much evident in an organization, simply because that obviously they are not looking at the directions where they need to pay attention to, which in case is within the system for them to actually control. And I bet I will advise also to organization, if at all they are listening to this show that they should all sit down, people need to sit down and look at what exactly can they do to actually have Mr. A and Mr. B omit to them or to their activity for a longer period because they tend to also to benefit from this. Imagine when A and B jets out from your system, obviously recognizing the number of years of experience they have gathered and how much they have delivered over the years to another organization. Obviously they are pulling or they are taking something out from you, having done it somewhere and continue with productivity over there. So who is losing right now? It is company A on this other side. So we need to look back and check what we have in the system. If actually employees are actually getting satisfied with their stay in the system and these you can actually achieve by conducting a survey. All right. And our advice also to professionals as well to begin to conduct survey to take to determine where or identify where people are no longer becoming happy or satisfied with organization before it turns red. All right Samson, there is so much to say concerning employee engagement specifically when we talk about the retention and productivity, but time is never ever your friend there when you are actually having so much from. But then we have to call it a wrap on the show for today. We must say a very big thank you to you for all of the wonderful insights that you have provided on the show for today. We do appreciate them. Thank you very much. All right. My guest has been Samson, Robert O'Curry and we have been looking at employee engagement and vis-a-vis retention and productivity. And that's the size of the show for today. I am Justin, Accademy Business Insight will return to your screen same time. Bye for now.