2 - People: Employee Engagement and Retention (From Study Group) Flashcards
Appraisal Meeting
Proper documentation is critical:
- Timely
- Specific and objective
- Accurate and consistent
- Discuss and agree on ratings
- Set objectives for next period
- Create plan to implement
- Discuss follow-up
- Discuss what will be accomplished
Authoritarian Culture
- Power resides with top-level management.
- Employees have no involvement in the decision-making or goal-setting processes.
Business Case
Connect engagement with drivers of organizations strategic goals
Career Development
- Opportunities for advancement
- Access to and support for learning and development
Category Rating
Performance Appraisal Method
- Graphic scale
- Checklist
- Forced choice
Challenges of Engagement
External Stressors
- Global competition
- Economic conditions
- Continuous innovation
- New technology
Internal Stressors: Difficulty maintaining work/life boundaries
- Mobile workplaces
- 24/7 contact
HR needs to make the business case for investing in employee engagement
Common Engagement Drivers
- Satisfying work and job opportunities
- Confidence and trust in leaders
- Recognition and rewards
- Timely and orderly communicaiton
Comparative
Performance Appraisal Method
- Ranking
- Paired-comparison
- Forced distribution
Compensation and Benefits
- Competitive wages and benefits
- Work/life balance programs
Desired Outcomes of Performance Appraisal
- Constructive feedback and improved productivity
- Training and developmental needs
- Clear expectations
- Commitment and mutual understanding
Determining Actions from Survey Results
- Identify drivers of engagement with each survey.
- Identify which engagement drivers can be realistically addressed.
- Make action plans realistic and measurable.
- Track and communicate efforts and results.
Employee Engagement
- Embodies broader concept than employee satisfaction, commitment, and morale
- Involves employee behaviors that positively influence individual- and business-level performance
- Characterized by a desire to stay with the organization in the future and willingness to “go the extra mile”
Employee Engagement & Well-Being
Employee Engagement Benefits
Gallup analysis of data from 230 organizations showed a correlation between employee engagement and business results.
- Customer ratings
- Profitability
- Productivity
- Turnover
- Safety incidents
- Shrinkage (thefts)
- Absenteeism
- Quality (defects)
Employee Life Cycle (ELC) Phases
Employee Surveys
Purpose: Collect and assess employee perceptions about the work environment
Benefits: Numerous if properly designed and administered and results are communicated and visibly acted upon
Types of Employee Surveys
- Attitude
- Opinion
- Engagement
Engagement Metrics
Focus on:
- Measuring outcomes with strategic significance.
- Specific metrics before and after implementing an engagement initiative
Metrics could include:
- Employee absence rate.
- Workers’ compensation incidence rate.
- Monthly voluntary turnover rate.
- Revenue per employee.
- Yield ratios.
Engagement Outcomes
Engagement Drivers
- Say—Speak positively about the organization
- Stay—Have an intense sense of belonging and a desire to be a part of the organization.
- Strive—Are motivated and exert effort toward success in their job and for the company.
Engagement Practices During Separation
The employer brand is strengthened by:
- Humane and honest behavior during workforce reductions.
- Exit interviews that uncover obstacles to engagement.
- Well-handled separation processes.
- Creation of an alumni network.
Maintaining awareness of engagement during separation can lead to the eventual return of valued employees or valuable referrals of new employees.
Engagement Strategies
- Commit long-term
- Measure consistently
- Connect engagement to business results
- Seek employee input
- Gain leadership support
Errors in Performance Appraisal
- Halo/horn effect
- Recency
- Primacy
- Bias
- Strictness
- Leniency
- Central tendency
- Contrast
Evaluating Retention
- Examine employee turnover.
- Review absenteeism rates and the number of discrimination claims.
- Audit.
- Collect exit information.
Evaluating the Performance Management System
Approaches to measuring effectiveness of performance management system
- Track training of users.
- Track completion of activities.
- Review performance standards periodically.
- Review alignment with organization’s strategic goals.
- Confirm positive relationship of appraisal results with promotions and pay increases.
- Gather feedback from users.
Facets of Employee Engagement
- Trait: personal characteristics - curiosity
- Behavioral: effort invested - high performance
- State: workplace conditions or practices - variety
High-performance Culture
- Talent is championed.
- Innovation, elevated performance, customer-centric strategies, relationships, communication, and other characteristics are driven from the bottom up.
HR Role in Recognition
Improving Employee Retention
- Treat retention of key employees as a proactive, strategic part of talent management.
- Know what motivates each segment of the workforce.
- Conduct ongoing research to monitor motivation and workforce trends.
- Develop a deep understanding of the reasons employees want to stay or leave.
- Link the ability to retain and develop high-value talent to managers’ performance evaluations; reward appropriately.
- Keep employees informed about the organization.
- Monitor retention and turnover rates.
- Work to align systems, departments, processes, and procedures to improve retention.
Keep Employees Engaged
Key Engagement Areas to Explore
Learning Culture
- Organizational conventions, values, practices, and processes encourage individuals—and the organization as a whole—to increase knowledge, competence, and performance.
- Shared and continuous learning are embraced.
Management and Employee Engagement
HR needs to support manager behavior that:
- Reflects concern for employees’ professional and personal well-being.
- Expresses gratitude for contributions.
- Amplifies employees’ accomplishments.
- Values communication and emphasizes positive feedback.
Mechanistic Culture
- Tasks and responsibilities are defined clearly to the employees and shaped by formal rules and standard operating procedures.
- Communication processes follow the direction given by the organization.
- Accountability is a key factor.
Narrative
Performance Appraisal Method
- Essay
- Critical incidents
- Field review
Online Surveys
Advantages:
- Higher response rates
- Improved responses to open-ended questions
- Quicker results
- Immediate status of survey progress
- No interviewer bias
- Ease and flexibility of aggregation and analysis
Disadvantages:
- Requires computer access
- Requires e-mail contacts
- Need for pilot testing
- Space limitations that discourage extended open-ended answers
- Virus-checking software
- Need to secure data
Participative Culture
- Collaborative decision making and group problem solving are embraced.
- Employees actively participate in the decision-making or goal-setting processes
Performance Appraisal Methods
- Category Rating
- Comparative
- Narrative
Management by objectives (MBO) and behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) may be used to overcome appraisal challenges.
Performance Management
Maintaining or improving employee job performance
Performance Standards
Management expectations translated into
- Behaviors: What the organization wants the employee to do
- Results: What the employee must produce or deliver
Standards should be objective, measurable, realistic, and stated clearly in writing (or otherwise recorded) and communicated throughout the organization.
Purpose of Performance Appraisal
- Provide feedback and counseling
- Help in allocating rewards and opportunities
- Help in determining employees’ aspirations and planning developmental needs
Realistic Job Previews
- Help a candidate make an informed decision
- Allow the organization to objectively portray the job
- Increase the potential of a good match
- Examples:
- Videos about the organization and its brand
- Tours of the workplace (virtual or walk-throughs)
- Interviews with future coworkers
- Job-related videos
- Simulations that replicate working conditions
Relationship with Management
- Communication with management
- Autonomy
- Recognition
Retention
The ability to keep talented employees in the organization
- Involves strategic actions to keep high performers motivated and focused
- Preserves and develops an organization’s human capital
- Reduces voluntary turnover costs
Retention Drivers
Why are high performers more likely to stay?
- They believe they are doing meaningful work.
- They are recognized for going above and beyond.
- The organization provides tools/resources needed to succeed in job.
- Performance management systems are fair, consistent, and transparent.
- The organization offers appealing incentives and perks.
Retention Practices and Strategies
- Organization’s good reputation in community and with employees
- Good matches of skills and culture
- Competitive compensation and benefits
The imperative for an organization is to sustain and increase and employee’s engagement
Rewards and Recognition
- Tied to strategic goals and organizational values
- In a form meaningful to individual recipient
- Use positive and negative reinforcement of desired behavior (Skinner’s behaviorist school)
- Positive: adding something desired
- Negative: removing something not desired
- Financial
- Bonuses
- Prizes
- Nonfinancial
- Public or private recognition
- Opportunities
- Grater autonomy or access to resources
- Work/life balance benefits
Role of Culture in Engagement
- What organizational culture have we created?
- Is this culture helping us achieve our strategic goals?
- How can our culture be expressed in a way that increases employee engagement?
Survey Development Principles
- Prepare employees - communicate the purpose
- Survey significant areas
- Guarantee confidentiality and anonymity
- Provide timely and actionable feedback on the results
Types of Organizational Cultures
- Authoritarian
- Mechanistic
- Participative
- Learning
- High-performance
Work Environment
- Job-strategy connection
- Organizational culture
- Relationships with coworkers
Work Experience Drivers
Engagement Driver
- Engaging leadership
- Managers and leaders
- Talent focus
- Brand
- Performance management
- Rewards & recognition
- Staffing
- The work
- Empowerment
- Work/life balance
- Job satisfaction
- The basics
- Job security
- Safety
- Agility
- Collaboration
- Customer focus
Work/Life Balance Programs
- Convenience/concierge services
- EAP/development programs
- Family assistance programs
- Flexible work arrangements
- Leave of absence
- Miscellaneous programs
- Total working hours
- Wellness programs
