Driving performance and retention through employee engagement

Our nation is at risk in the global race for talent. To increase competitiveness, we must educate, train, attract, and invest in employees who are able to compete and grow in the 21st century. Organisations in the 21st century are facing more challenges than ever before. These challenges are not unique to any specific organisation or industry, but affect all organisations, regardless of their structure or size. Employee engagement is becoming more important than ever before because organisations need to ensure that those individuals who add value to the bottom line will want to stay in the organisation and will want to continue pouring their effort into their work to the benefit of the organisation. Engaged workforce gives a big contribution to organizations because they perform and behave on achieving organization's goals. Furthermore, workers who are committed to their organization are happy to be members of it, believe in and feel good about the organization and what it stands for, and intend to do what is good for the organization. The importance of committed work force, the factors affecting it and how organisations should build competitive work force is the aim of this study. Whether an organization builds talent, buys it, or uses a blended approach, attracting and retaining qualified people is the key to success. With the

talent shortage here to stay, victory will come to those who cultivate human resources in new ways. We can't just assume that talent can be bought, because it makes the assumption that supply will always be adequate and that people will perform consistently in any work environment. At the same time, we can't assume talent can be built, unless we create an environment that nurtures it. This paper aims to highlight how present organizations understand that engagement of committed workforce is essential to ensure continuing success. Data were generated by means of questionnaires to 200 employees of Service Sector in North Kashmir. Responses from the survey were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS. This study helps to better understand the relationship between employee engagement and organizational performance. The results of the study indicate a statistically significant relationship as well as reveals organizational strengths and areas for improvement. The implications of this study include the need for various service sectors to demonstrate high level of commitment to employees for performance enhancement.