each question half page one reference

Q1

Engaged employees are known to be passionate and feel a profound connection to their company. I currently work at Duly Health and Care as an Ancillary Receptionist and I believe the employee engagement within myself and my coworkers within my work group under my manager is high. Each and every one of us want try our best to help each patient that walks through the door to the best of our ability, I can attribute to this to not only quality employees, but more importantly, the great manager/leader that we have. Our manager is one that is compassionate and understanding, and a leader that wants to bring out the best engagement in their employees is "one that should know their people — who they are, not just what they do. Every interaction with an employee has the potential to influence his or her engagement and inspire discretionary effort" (Reilly, 2016). I can speak on myself and my coworkers that my manager does a great job at bringing out engagement in employees, for example in our one on one meeting at the end she always asks if there is anything that she can do better as a manager to us, I told her no as I believe that she does a great job at holding compassion and empathy all while getting the job done at the same time. She says she is able to do this because in her time when she held our position, she understood how poorly her manager treated her, proving that "Great managers empower their employees, recognize and value their contributions, and actively seek their ideas and opinions" (Reilly, 2016).

An initiative to improve the level of employee engagement is to coach managers and hold them accountable for their employees' engagement. Employees are the product of their managers mindset and work, and "companies should coach managers to take an active role in building engagement plans with their employees, hold managers accountable, track their progress, and ensure that they continuously focus on emotionally engaging their employees" (Reilly, 2016). Although it is the employees responsibility to remain engaged in their workdays, it is also the manager's responsibility to stimulate the employees and support them in their work.

Q2

The organization I work for is a healthcare system and hospital in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. Employee engagement is a concept in which “employees are willingly go the extra mile, work with passion, and feel a profound connection to their company. They are the people who will drive innovation and move your business forward” (Reilly, 2014, para 2). Employee engagement helps improve profitability, productivity and several other performance factors in a healthcare organization (Kendall, 2017). 

At my organization, I would consider the employee engagement to be at a good level but can be improved. In my department specifically, I do know that nurses will go out of their way to assist other individuals in assessing eligibility for medicare patients on specific tests and procedures. Insurance specialists will contact schedulers about unauthorized tests even though it is not part of their job description to do so. My manager specifically will go out of his way to make sure that employees have all the necessary tools to complete their daily tasks. This motivates me at least to put 110% into my work and go that extra mile in my responsibilities. Employee engagement at high levels will significantly improve turnover, productivity and several other factors in a healthcare organization. 

I would approach an initiative to improve employee engagement by improving recognition programs for employees and to improve the culture across the department or organization through listening. Recognizing employees on milestones and accomplishments increases employee engagement. From experience, I can support that this does in fact improve productivity and engagement. In terms of using listening to improve the organizational culture, it is important to acknowledge employees’ feedback, questions and concerns. This will prevent employees from feeling disengaged or dissatisfied with their workplace and job.