Five Questions to Evaluate Employee Engagement
Doyle Slayton | Jul 06, 2008 | Comments 4
When I think of employee engagement, I think about organizational commitment, empowerment, communication, and results! I think about employees who strive to “be the brand!” The following is a list of five questions to evaluate employee engagement.
1. What kind of relationship does the employee have with their manager?
You can tell very quickly whether an employee and their manager have good business chemistry. Observe their interactions, the depth of their conversations, and their body language. Watch for the way they interact with each other compared to their interactions with others. Do they “click” and understand each other? Listen to the things they say about one another when the other person is not around.
2. Does the employee have clear goals that are measured and reported on a regular basis?
Sales professionals expect to be measured against their goals. Statistics tell a big story. They paint a picture of what’s working and what’s not. Talking numbers is fun, especially if you are putting up BIG numbers! Depending on the length of the sales cycle, measurements might be daily, weekly, and at most, monthly. I’ve seen sales people who have complete hands-off autonomy with little or no interaction from their manager. Chalk that up as a “career limiting move” by both parties. Get in the game, get plugged in, and keep your finger on the pulse!
3. Does the manager provide consistent feedback along with a customized development plan for that employee?
The more an employee communicates with their manager, the better they understand each other. I like the idea of getting into each other’s head… understanding the way each other thinks. It plays an important role in shaping behaviors and building strong working relationships. See Also SCORE – Get Into Each Other’s Head!
4. Is the employee accountable for improving year-over-year?
Create an expectation for getting better month after month and year-over-year! It’s not ok to sit back and do what we’ve always done. Shake things up. Create new opportunities for developing new business. Enhance the client relationships you already have. Look at your year-over-year results for the past three to five years. How do they compare? Have you improved every year? Develop yourself and your teammates to have significant opportunities to be recognized, advance their careers, and make more money.
5. How is the employee rewarded for meeting or exceeding performance goals?
Cash, trips, public or private recognition, career advancement, and the list goes on. So often we think that “everyone” is motivated by money… not so. I recently sat down with a sales person who always figures out exactly what it’s going to take to be right at 100% of goal. Money is not a factor for him. He says his family has plenty. He wants to come to work, be a resource to the team, and make steady improvements over time. You may not want to believe it… but you have people on your team who share a similar mindset! Find out what drives each employee. Establish expectations for acceptable progress, and then coach to that result!
Notice that every question involves both the employee and the manager/company. It’s all about communication, coaching and development. Aside from those rare individuals who are highly-driven, self-starters, most employee engagement levels will depend on the manager and the company’s involvement in creating an employee development culture.
How do you keep yourself and/or your employees engaged?
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Filed Under: Blog • Leadership • Sales
I engage my team in entrepreneurship mode. Just as you said, it is not money alone. Everyone including me want holistic growth on the parameters that matter to us (which would include money as well) addressing our priorities in the time-table we define. This is what I call as entrepreneurship mode of engagement.
In this mode of engagement, the change management implementation becomes easy as everyone is looking for a change that would meet their goals. The actions reflect their goals aligned to the environment they operate in. Those with less than desired alignment fall as scabs do from our body (they leave the organization). This is what I call as aligned aspirations platform.
To ensure success in this model, the manager must operate in a peer-to-peer network model than the hierarchical model. When you treat your team members as fellow-entrepreneurs then, relationship becomes one of client-supplier model. This enables a free flow of feedback for continued value exchange.
When I head a team or a new member is inducted into my team, I define their role as that of an entrepreneur offering services to their client (Me) in exchange for holistic value. The progress is measured by everyone in a transparent and visible way to reduce/eliminate hidden agenda.
One technique that I use for smooth implementation is that I design the roles and then draft the team members. This eliminates/minimizes duplicity in skill base. When duplicity of skills is needed to deal with volume, I seek low cost automation (may be IT systems) to reduce duplicity. The need for duplicity in skill base is the root cause for all the undesirable effects on the performance of the organization.
I think this is a wonderful post. As a consultant & trainer I work in hundreds of companies each year. I am often called in because”the sales team is not performing”. Once inside, it frequently becomes apparent there is a total disconnect between the reps and the manager and, of course, the manager points the finger rather than looking inward. I truly appreciate the succinctness of your points and will keep the post in my head as I help bring my clients to increased profitability.
This is an excellent post – and points well taken. You are right on that the relationship between a manager and their direct reports is KEY when it comes to employee engagement. In fact, the best money to spend on employee engagement initiatives is to ensure you are hiring managers who know how to build relationships with their employees and continually train them on how to reward and recognize effectively.
These highlights will definitely challenge managers and also employees to reconsider their priorities at their working place. I find the article is very educative and helpful and it certainly contributes to a healthy working environment.