Employee Engagement, training and talent
Acquisition
BUSI 240-Organizational Behavior 1
Liberty University
2022
Employee Engagement
In today’s challenging environment, no employer can afford to have its employees physically
present but ‘checked out’ mentally (Dessler, 2013). According to Dessler (2013), engagement
refers to being psychologically involved in, connected to, and committed to getting one’s jobs
done. The study engagement indicators are work life balance, communication, total reward, and IT
systems. These indicators enhanced psychological contract.
Employee engagement facilitation involves a number of components right from new hire, stay to
employee exit (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). According to Truss, Delbridge, Alfes Shantz and
Joane (2014) every day connotations of engagement refer to involvement, commitment, passion
enthusiasm, absorption, focused effort, zeal, dedication and energy. The Institute of Corporate
Productivity in Dessler (2013), defines engaged employees as those who are mentally and
emotionally invested in their work and contributing to an employer’s success.
Dessler (2013) noted that poor attendance, voluntary turnover, and psychological withdrawal often
also reflect diminished employee engagement. High performance is achieved by well- motivated
people who are prepared to exercise discretionary effort – independently do more than is expected
of them (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Dessler (2013) further noted that today’s human resource
managers need the skills to foster and management employee engagement.
Albretch, Bakker, Gruman, Macey and Saks (2015) posited that new hires when they enter
organizations are typically excited about their new job and organization but also have feelings of
uncertainty and anxiety. This emphasizes on the need for on-boarding. The views of outgoing
employee’s is key in improving engagement mechanism, and this put more emphasis on off-
boarding in the current 21st Century organizations. Ariani (2014) noted that the practices of
employee engagement will motivate employees to be fully involved in the organization and remain
committed to their work, care about the organization and their colleagues.
Albretch et al., (2015) in their study noted that contemporary HCM research and practice
recognizes that high caliber job applicants are increasingly looking for job roles that include
opportunity for challenge, growth, autonomy, skill variety and engagement. Truss et al.,(2014)
indicated that that engagement is the personal expression of self-in-role. Employees will be
engaged when they feel that the leader cares about their well being. Christian et al (2011) quoted in
Albretch et al., (2015) argued that individual personality traits are also likely to influence the extent
to which employee experience and demonstrate engagement at work.
Training
Training is the systematic acquisition of skills, knowledge and abilities to enable one carry out a
task effectively. Argwalla (2010) explained that the purpose of training in any organization is to
develop the skills of the individual and to satisfy the current and future manpower needs in the
work situation. In the study the indicators of training include: needs analysis; design; programme;
implementation; evaluation techniques, and it systems. Akhar et al., (2011) discovered that training
has an optimistic association between motivations along with job engagement involving employees
in the organizations. Khanfar (2011) argued that employee performance is provided by training
acquired.
According to Armstrong and Taylor (2014), training is the systematic ‘acquisition and
development of knowledge, skills and attitudes by employee to adequately perform a task or job or
to improve performance in the job environment. According to Victor (2013), Training indicators
such as on-the-job, off-the-job and its relevance serves as a motivating force in improving the
efficiency and productivity of the workers and many organizations have seen it as a veritable tool
to enhance their organizational performance.
Muzaffar, Salamat and Ali (2012) indicates that, to increase the employee’s performance, it is
crucial to inspire the employees by means of satisfying the space in between skills necessary and
the owned or operated by means of staff through delivering applicable training. Farooq & Khan
(2011) in their study concluded that role of the valuable training is to improve the quality of task
process that brings improvement in the performance of employees application of formal processes
to impart knowledge and help to acquire skills necessary for them to perform their jobs
satisfactorily.
Talent Acquisition
Talent was defined by Armstrong and Taylor (2014) as the sum of a person’s ability, his or her
intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character and drive.
Armstrong and Taylor (2014) further noted that talent also includes one’s ability to learn and grow.
Talent acquisition is identification and attracting the right talent. Strategic Talent Acquisition
(STA) integrates the entire pre-hire stages of the employee lifecycle from creating the job
requisition to on-boarding a new hire in a way that engages candidates and drives business
outcomes (Cepin, 2014). In the study the talent acquisition indicators are: hiring techniques,
sources of hiring, talent development and IT systems.
Increasingly, many HR leaders have to answer questions that have an economic issue at their core –
the allocation of scarce resource called talent (Deloitte, 2013). Talent Acquisition is now
mainstreams embraced by 21st Century organizations as the strategic approach to identifying,
attracting and on-boarding top talent to efficiently and effectively meet dynamic business needs
(Cepin, 2014). The increased mobility and social media have erased boundaries creating a global
talent pool (Deloitte, 2013). These theories help in psychometric testing, assessment centres,
interviews, General Mental Ability Test and; Situation, Task, Action and Result (STAR test).
Over the past decades, shortage of critical skills has made the process of identifying and attracting
talent a critical business objective (Laurano, 2013). Varuni & Suresh (2014) describe talent
acquisition as strategic intervention to gain competitive advantage by integrating organizational
talent with organization’s mission. According to Cepin (2014) excellence in talent acquisition
results from a combination of strategies, capabilities and enabling technologies. Talent acquisition
has evolved from a tactical, back office process to a strategic endeavor that directly impacts
organizational growth (Laurano, 2013).
The Global Resourcing Trend (GRT) survey in 2016 revealed that internal hiring helps
address employee retention (GRT, 2016). Thus for organizations to stay at par with
dynamic global demands and competitiveness, organizations must adopt strategic talent
acquisition (Cepin, 2014). Cepin (2014) further noted that elements of talent acquisition
include talent acquisition planning and strategy, workforce segmentation, employment
branding, candidate audience, candidate relationship management and metrics and analysis.
According to Cupin (2014) that four steps to creating your talent community include
building a hub such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram;
spreading the word; share the content and scale the brand.
REFERENCES
Ababneh, H. T. & Shrafat, F. D. (2014). Human Capital Information Systems; An
Introduction.
International Journal of Business and Management, 9(1)
Abeba, M. A., Mesele, D. A. & Lemessa, B. (2015). The Impact of Training and
Development on Employee Performance and Effectiveness: A Case Study of
District Five Administration Office, Bole Sub-County, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 3: 188-202
Adams, A. V., Silva, J. S. & Razmara, S. (2013). Improving Skills Development in the
Informal Sector, Strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa, International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington DC
Aderinto, A. A., & Omotoso, O. (2012). Assessing the Performance of Corporate
Private Security Organizations in Crime Prevention in Lagos State, Nigeria,
Journal of Physical Security 6(1), 73-90
African Development Bank Group (2014). Kenya, Country Strategy Paper, 2014-2018,
EARC, Nairobi, Kenya
African Union, Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Development Bank and
United Nations Development Program (2017). Africa Sustainable Development
Report of 2017, Taking Progress on Agenda 2063 and The Sustainable
Development Goals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ajisafe, O, E., Orifa, R. A., & Balogun, J. A. (2015). Influence of Human Capital
Management on Organizational Performance. Journal of Resources
Development and Management, 14. 2422-8397
Akpor-Robaro, M. O., Achumba, I. C. & Ighomereho, O. S. (2013). Security
Challenges in Nigeria and the Implications for Business Activities and
Sustainable Development, Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development,
4(2)
Albretch, S. L., Bakker, A. B. Gruman, A. J. Macey, W. H. & Saks, A. M. (2015).
Employee Engagement, HRM Practices and Competitive Advantage an
Integrated Approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness People and
Performance, 2. (1)
Aligu, A.A., Bello, U, M., Kasim, R., & Martin, D. (2014). Positivist and Non-
Positivist Paradigm in Social Science Research: Conflicting Paradigms or
Perfect Partners? Journal of Management and Sustainability, 4(3)
Alogo, W. R. (2015). Strategies Adopted by Private Security Firm to Deal with Crime
in Nairobi, Kenya. A Research Project Submitted for the Award of The Degree
of Master of Business Administration, School of Business, and University of
Nairobi.
Alzbeta, K. (2013). Managerial Approaches to Understanding the Human Capital,
Human Resources Management & Ergonomics, 7(1)
American Association for Public Opinion Research (2015). Standard Definitions: Final
Disposition of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys, (8th ed.), AAPOR,
Retrieved from www.aapor.org
Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of Employee Engagement and their Impact on
Employee Performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management, 63 (308 -323)
Anyango, C., & Aila, F. (2017) Employee Voice and Job Satisfaction among Security
Guards, International Journal of Scientific Research and Innovative
Technology, 4(2) 2313 – 3759
Argwalla, T. (2011). Strategic Human Resource Management, (9th ed.)India: University
Press Ariani, D. W. (2014). Relationship Leadership, Employee Engagement and
Organizational
Citizenship Behavior Department of Management, Atma Jaya Yogyakarta
University, Indonesia
Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S. (2014). A Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, (13th ed.) London: Kogan Page Publishers
Baker, S. E., & Edwards, R. (2012). How Many Qualitative Interviews is enough?
Expert Voices and Early Career Reflection on Sampling and Cases in
Qualitative Research, National Center for Research Methods Review Paper.
Retrieved from eprint.ncrin.acuk
Ball, B. (2012). A summary of motivation theories. Retrieved from
http://.www.yourcoach.be/blog/wp-content?upload on 26/2/2018.
Baran, M. L., & Jones, J. E. (2016). Mixed Methods Research for Improved Scientific
Study, USA, Information Science Reference, (An Imprint of IGI Global)
Bohloul, M. S., Konhansal, M, Ali., Alimoradi, Z. (2013). The Impact of Knowledge
Sharing Mechanisms on Employee Performance, International Journal of
Business Performance Management. 14 (30)
