Role of Technology in Employee Engagement

Technology has become one of the main topics of discussion when it comes to the survival of organizations. Every organization should focus on how technology can be used to become successful in the changing business world. Organizational competitiveness and Technology changes drastically increase every day. The organizations should work hard to identify changes in technology quickly and apply them to organizations, to have a technical competitive advantage. The use of new technology helps organizations speed up organizational products and services (MacCormick, Dery, and Kolb, 2012; Shaik and Makhecha, 2019). Nova Medical Centers (2018) highlights seven factors as to why organizations should include technology to become successful.

                        Staying innovative.

To survive in the business world, organizations need new ideas to be present to their customers. With the huge information accessing capability, organizations can be creative and innovative with a small idea in their minds. Being innovative attracts new clients and it will help organizations to survive in the challenging business world.

Computational accuracy

With the use of new technology. Organizations can systemize their data. The accuracy of these data is higher than the data entered manually.

Industry Efficient

Organizations should always be mindful of the technological updates happening around the world. Including the latest technologies in production will help the organizations to compete with other organizations.

Communicate better, collaborate more

Without wasting time by waiting for each meeting member to be present on the organizational premises, they have the capability to have discussions anywhere anytime with the use of technology which accelerate the processes.

Security and Safety.

In the past, stealing important organizational documents was easy. Nevertheless, with technology, organizations can have innovative high-secured systems that make the disappearance of important data impossible.

Maintain organization.

With technology, organizations can gain the capability to manage employees efficiently by assigning tasks, checking progress, communicating, etc. with the help of software. This helps them to have everything organized.

Increase employee productivity.

The management can always track the employees’ productivity through software and keep them update on the deadlines to achieve the company goals. With the evidence visible to both employees and employers, rewarding the best has become easy and conflict-free with the use of technology (MacCormick, Dery, and Kolb,2012).

Organizations that are not willing to take the challenge of technology have a huge chance of not achieving organizational goals in the current business world (MacCormick, Dery, and Kolb, 2012).

In addition, studies show that the use of technology has a major impact on employee engagement. Shaik and Makhecha (2019) highlight in their study that organizations now focus on Global Virtual Teams (GVT) to have highly engaged best talents connected using technology from all around the world. According to Writer (2020), employee engagement can be increased through technology by:

a).Collaboration through online chat platforms, which increases the involvement of employees in decision-making.

b).Use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) recognition through P2P platforms to help each other and grow as a team.

c).Use Gamification techniques that turn the job process into a game that gives the employees to enjoy what they do (This is more useful in employee training).

d).Improve Mobile learning capabilities for the employees, which will give them the flexibility to work effectively.

e).Allow Social-media engagement in the workplace, which will help in improving employer-employee relationships. This helps organizations to grow fast as a brand too.

f).Grant Technological freedom that allows employees to work on whatever device they want which gives the employees a comfortable environment to work.

According to the findings of MacCormick, Dery, and Kolb (2012), 48 percent of the employees use their mobiles to complete organizational tasks. However, the research further highlights that only 23 percent of employers provide employees with devices to be technically connected. Since the 21st-century employees grow up with technology, organizations should pay extra attention to new technologies to be included in the organization to win the talent hunt and retain the best talent. The management of the organization is responsible for improving employees’ technical capabilities all the time because technically updated employees will bring the best to the organization.

It is true that technology improves employee engagement and organizational performance if used correctly, but it has its negative impacts on employees too. Organizations should be careful not to burn out the employees with excessive workload and the organizations should work on ways not to have hyper-connected employees (Ter Hoeven, van Zoonen and Fonner, 2016; MacCormick, Dery, and Kolb, 2012). It is the Organizations responsibility to make their rules and regulations innovatively to keep the employees away from technology at least once a week. This allows them to recharge themselves to perform well.

 

References:

MacCormick, J.S., Dery, K. and Kolb, D.G., 2012. Engaged or just connected? Smartphones and employee engagement. Organizational Dynamics, 41(3), pp.194-201. 

Nova Medical Centers. (2018). The Importance of Technology in the Workplace - Nova Medical Centers. [online] Available at: https://n-o-v-a.com/blog/the-importance-of-technology-in-the-workplace/ [Accessed: 16 April 2022].

Shaik, F.F. and Makhecha, U.P., 2019. Drivers of employee engagement in global virtual teams. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 23.

Ter Hoeven, C.L., van Zoonen, W. and Fonner, K.L., 2016. The practical paradox of technology: The influence of communication technology use on employee burnout and engagement. Communication monographs, 83(2), pp.239-263. 

Writer, G. (2020). Role of technology in boosting employee engagement. [online] HR Katha. Available at: https://www.hrkatha.com/special/employee-benefits-and-engagement/role-of-technology-in-boosting-employee-engagement/ [Accessed: 16 April 2022].