Better Together: Employee Engagement and Performance ManagementJune 26th, 2009 |
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Last month, we were involved with a great Webinar with HR.com. It featured presenters Steve Roesler CEO of Roesler Communications and blogger at the popular All Things Workplace, and Kathy Anthony of O’Sullivan Creel, a long time Halogen customer.
The webinar was focused on performance management and employee engagement - why they work better when they are fully entwined together. Steve argued that to truly engage employees, organizations must meet their need to be “in the game” - they don’t want to feel like commodities; they want to feel productive and satisfied from work, and actively manage their future using good information. That’s why performance management must hinge on an always-active, people-centric process. Otherwise managers and employees are just going through the motions - and too often that ends up with managers humming one tune while employees write their own lyrics. Sort of like the webinar on sculling that Donna blogged about last week. If we’re not all pointed in the same direction, we’re just on a treadmill.
At the intersection of managing performance and engaging employees is the sweet spot for strategic HR. A performance management process needs to help your managers and employees have the most fulfilling conversations. Because reviews should not be scary, and they need to be tangible. They should be focused on doing - on next steps and where we go from here.
Employees disengage if they’re not challenged. So the old adage of “he’s not ready” won’t work in today’s workplace. To truly engage employees, you have to challenge them. And then with a talent management process that’s ongoing, you can track their process, and remediate where needed, before any major mis-steps can be made. Goals can be constantly re-assessed and mini-steps on the road to success can be rewarded.
At the end of the day, an employee has spread his wings; the organization has managed risk, and guess what? You’ve got employee engagement!
Kathy Anthony backed up this theory with some great results from her recent employee satisfaction survey, completed after using automated talent management processes. She said that all responses were higher than past years, and in particular:
- I believe my pay increases are related to how well I perform: up 34%
- I understand my performance expectations and how I will be evaluated: up 13%
- I have received helpful coaching and career guidance from my office’s management team: up 13%
The numbers speak for themselves! Does your organization focus on employee engagement from a performance management perspective? Let us know how you keep employees in the game.
Tags: employee engagement, performance management, talent management |
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3 Responses to “Better Together: Employee Engagement and Performance Management”
By Debbie Norris on Jun 27, 2009 | Reply
Good observation re: providing challenges. You can only “buy” so much real engagement. At some point, it does come back to the job itself and providing a challenge is one way to make that meaningful.
By Anthony P on Jun 27, 2009 | Reply
Keeping your ‘employees in the game’ is a challenge for leaders with our current economic climate. However, I’ve found that employee performance management can be a tricky thing, as people start to expect pay increases due to performance, even when it’s not being addressed in a formal evaluation process.
Great Leaders Create Healthy Working Environments. The ambiance at work can be uplifting and nurturing, promoting the development of the individual or it can be depressing and discouraging chipping away at one’s character and sense of well-being. Leadership styles can make or break the work environment.
You can read more in my site’s feature article from February, Leadership Styles: What’s Important for an Employee’s First Day?
By Debbie Norris on Jul 18, 2009 | Reply
You’re right about the need to challenge employees. This needs to be done artfully though, doesn’t it? There seems to be a fine line between challenge and making individual workloads too hefty in relation to salary, etc.
It’s an interesting balancing act.