This summer, I read about the practice of giving employees a shorter workday on Fridays. While many workers are having lunch, employees at some companies have already started the weekend.
The existence of shorter workdays speaks to something bigger than giving people time to enjoy the weather, certainly a luxury here in Chicago. Leaders at these companies understand that certain perks can drive employee engagement, ultimately contributing to stronger performance, greater productivity and a healthier workplace culture.
However, based on a recent survey of human resources executives, more than half of the respondents indicated that companies aren’t doing enough to drive employee engagement. According to the assessment of performance management, 58 percent of the executives questioned said their current performance management approach drives neither employee engagement nor high performance. The same percentage said their performance management practices were an ineffective use of time.
How many businesses would survive if consumers disapproved of nearly 60 percent of their products?
Why, then, are we as leaders permitting so many of our employees to be disengaged from their work?
Leaders, it’s up to us to fix this.
Deloitte recently took a hard look at performance management in an effort to identify ways to engage employees. What we found are three objectives that we believe are at the heart of the matter.
- The first is to recognize performance, in particular through variable compensation, as many organizations do.
- The second is to see performance — that means asking our team leaders about their own future actions toward the team member they’re evaluating.
- The third objective is to fuel performance, which equates to more regular check-ins between managers and employees. Our thinking? If you want to engage people on their best work in the near future, you need to do it more often.
Like those companies with shorter workdays, we’re striving to make the work experience and environment more flexible and engaging. Colleagues and clients alike are increasingly embracing telecommuting arrangements, for instance.
But merely letting people work from home or outside the office won’t likely help solve the engagement riddle. We have to understand the marketplace we live in and the workplace we wish to create.
Researchers estimate that roughly a third of U.S. workers today are contingent, creating additional demands for HR departments that must recruit, administer and oversee this segment of the workforce. Millennials, the largest demographic group in America, want to work for managers who’ll provide opportunities to focus on societal or mission-driven problems.
It’s our job as leaders to make sure employees are engaged. This is key to the performance and future of your company. Measure and understand your employees’ motivations. Create meaningful experiences for them. Engagement starts with you. Your people, your customers and your company can benefit tremendously.
Byron Spruell is Vice Chairman, Chicago Managing Principal at Deloitte LLP.
