Effective performance management processes are critical to high levels of employee engagement. Employees who are engaged with their jobs demonstrate investment and care for their company and work to contribute towards its success.
A company with a highly engaged workforce will enjoy increased productivity and bottom-line performance, while reducing costs related to hiring and retention.
On the other hand, low employee engagement ultimately leads to recruitment issues, high turnover, absenteeism, low quality output and increased risks. Unengaged employees are more likely to leave for another job, or throw one too many sickies!
For the above reasons, employee engagement has become a top priority for companies of all sizes. An engaged workforce doesn’t just relate to employee satisfaction and retention, but also a business’s profitability and competitive advantage.
Therefore, it is critical to evaluate employee engagement as part of the performance management process. Use your performance management tools to understand how to motivate employees to ensure they have a strong personal interest in helping the company reach its goals.
To achieve optimal levels of employee engagement, consider adopting the following tactics in your business:
1. Performance management for career development
Rather than focusing on past performance, align your performance evaluation process more closely to the employee’s future career development. While past performance is important, if employees feel that the purpose of performance evaluations are partially there to help them advance in their careers, they will be more motivated to participate in the process. Remember, the top drivers of employee satisfaction are: Learning opportunities, professional development, and career progression. So if you want to focus on engagement, be sure to include individual development plans in the performance management process.
2. Goal-oriented performance management
Ask your employees if they have any specific goals of their own, such as learning a new skill or achieving a certain certification. Helping employees achieve their personal career goals may add to or fit into your existing business plan. In fact, communicating big-picture plans for the company to staff is a great way to boost engagement by getting everyone on-board with the vision.
3. Conduct regular performance reviews
While performance reviews traditionally occur annually, evaluating your staff quarterly or even monthly will align your expectations more closely with your employees. Regular check-ins about ongoing work, priorities, and completed work will give managers an opportunity to provide feedback and refine processes. Increased communication with staff only benefits the business by driving better performance, understanding, and the ability to achieve goals.
4. Conduct ‘stay interviews’ during performance reviews
While the practice of exit interviews has long been established, the relatively new concept of ‘stay interviews’ is emerging. Stay interviews are one-on-one meetings between a manager and their employee to discuss the reasons they are staying with the company and what circumstances would lead them to depart.
5. Performance management to empower employees
Employees need to feel they have freedom to make their own decisions about how they work. We aren’t saying completely hand over the reins to your employees, but micro-managing will lead to a disengaged workforce. Why pay attention to detail or invest yourself when the outcome of the task isn’t your responsibility? So in the performance management process, focus on increasing responsibility and encouraging employees to be accountable for certain deliverables.
Performance management is a great tool to engage employees and get them on board with the goals for the business. It doesn’t have to be a time when employees are under scrutiny or put to the test, but rather, an opportunity for mutual gain.
enableHR comes with inbuilt employee performance management capabilities, including our Online Performance Review (OPR) module. Contact us for Australian and New Zealand enquiries.
