Lord-and-Taylor-Holiday-Window-2015-Gingerbread-Kingdom‘Tis the season for the large department stores in New York City to unveil their holiday windows. Months go into their planning and development; many people are involved. And the public decides whether they are good or not. Employee engagement is very similar. After months of planning and research by many people, a company will “unveil” its new approach to better engage its employees.  And it’s the employees that decide whether it is meaningful or not.  Is employee engagement just window dressing at your company?

 

Many companies are beginning to address employee engagement. The Washington Post reported on two of the most talked about strategies in the news this year:

“More US Companies Moving Away From Traditional Performance Reviews”1

“Why unlimited vacation is basically a no-brainer for employers”2

 

I applaud these efforts and the increased focus on the employee experience. However, these programs require much more than just implementing a new process. 

 

Performance reviews tend to be subjective and biased. Unlimited vacation leaves employees wondering whether there is a catch and so they end up taking even less vacation. Both these programs require something that most companies haven’t yet developed…trust.

 

Without trust, employees will be skeptical of any program meant to “make” them more engaged.  Direct managers play an important role in the experience an employee has with a company and that experience can vary widely within a company depending on the manager. That’s why companies need to focus on identifying and developing their managers first. Employees need to be able to trust that their direct manager wants to help them succeed.

 

Deloitte is a company that is focused on developing more engaging programs while positioning their managers as trusted advisors. They are leading the charge in performance reviews by asking themselves, “Is performance management at root more about “management” or about “performance”?” 3

 

In the Harvard Business Review article, “Reinventing Performance Management,”4 Deloitte reveals how it looked at the “Science of Ratings”5 and then undertook a “Radical Redesign”6 to remove as many “idiosyncratic rater effects”7 as possible. This new process gives employees a better understanding of how their annual performance will be evaluated and builds trust in managers by demonstrating how the process has been developed to be as fair as possible.

 

Deloitte isn’t into window dressing. They’ve pulled back the curtain on performance reviews in order to develop a new, better, more engaging performance management process while building trust in the employee-manager relationship.

 

 

What are your thoughts on the current trends in employee engagement? What other companies can you offer as examples?

 

 

 

1 Cunningham, Lillian, and Jena McGregor. “More U.S. Companies Moving Away from Traditional Performance Reviews.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
2 McGregor, Jena. “Why Unlimited Vacation is Basically a No-brainer for Employers.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 8 Oct. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
3 Buckingham, Marcus, and Ashley Goodall. ” Reinventing Performance Management.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review, Apr. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
4 ibid.
5 ibid.
6 ibid.
7 ibid.

Photo: Lord & Taylor 5th Avenue Holiday Window 2015 – Gingerbread Kingdom

 

 

Let’s Engage!

I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.

Employee engagement is a critical mission. I hope I can count on your help! Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest intelligence/insights and/or register to make entries in the comments log.

Photo of Gregory F SimpsonYou can follow me @agtinengagement.
Email me at g…@a…t.com.
Connect via LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/GregoryFSimpson.
Learn more about me at gregoryfsimpson.com.

 

 

P.S.  First contact? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement community. Explore and join fellow employee engagement operatives in targeting a known thief – alias: Disengagement. Together we can bring this thief to justice and make the world a better place for all companies and their employees.

Other recent Agent in Engagement data/reports by Agent Gregory F Simpson: