PS Reviews: J. Harter’s Gallup Article on Factors Driving Employee Engagement
In his recent Gallup article, “4 Factors Driving Record-High Employee Engagement in U.S.,” Jim Harter reviews the top employee engagement factors of high-development companies and how effectively implementing them translates into higher employee satisfaction, production and performance. A consistently tight labor market has made employee engagement – and talent management in general – a top priority to many organizations. The key points of Harter’s article are consistent with the features and benefits of Performance Scoring’s Employee Performance Management Application, which promotes employee engagement and development with real-time, continuous performance data. “Team members with higher levels of engagement:
- produce substantially better outcomes
- treat customers better and attract new ones
- are more likely to remain with their organization than those who are less engaged”
Each of these benefits of employee engagement have been exhibited in Performance Scoring’s own case studies, which can be viewed here. The first factor that Harter mentions is that “high-development cultures are CEO- and board-initiated.” The starting point to employee engagement for most organizations is an overhaul to their performance management process, and that must be presented with leadership buy-in.
Culture, Coaching and Communication
Once leadership buy-in has been expressed, it must cascade through every level of the organizational chart (done literally by Performance Scoring’s Dynamic Performance Org Chart). “High-development cultures educate managers on new ways of managing – moving from a culture of ‘boss’ to ‘coach’,” Harter explains. Performance Scoring directs managers where coaching and engagement are needed with both team and individual real-time performance data broken down into areas of high, medium and low performance. This objective performance data drives employee development, but also represents a culture shift to leadership and accountability. “High-development cultures hold managers accountable,” explains Harter. Leadership and accountability are accompanied by a third pillar: transparency. “High-development cultures practice companywide communication,” Harter points out. Transparency and communication are fundamental to Performance Scoring. The web-based application automates communication to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are informed in real-time as factors occur, and the built-in instant messenger further bolsters the application’s communication functionality. The importance of employee engagement continues to increase daily, and many forward-thinking companies are already experiencing the benefits of employee engagement by switching to continuous performance management – get started today!