A computer programmer working overtime to complete the deliverables for a customer demo, without being asked to, is a perfect instance to explain the ownership & ‘Employee Engagement’. To win in the marketplace one must first win in the workplace – it is the key to activate a high performing workforce to achieve high levels of Employee Engagement.
The drivers of employee engagement vary from one company to another company, from one person to another person. For some, it is a good workplace, for some it is great career opportunities, for some – it could be the joy of customer delight. Yet, few of the main drivers of employee engagement that an organization should pay significant importance to are transparent appraisal process, recognizing and rewarding the employees for their performance and achievements, etc..
The conventional model of annual appraisal process is losing its significance in this new digital age. It is due to the reasons that we don’t report to one boss, we often work on global projects in collaborative networks and not a single team. And, people are looking for more collaborative and frequent discussions rather than waiting for annual reviews. If you look at the way how school systems (CBSE board) have evolved, many have moved out of annual assessments into monthly/quarterly assessments. Similarly, in work environment too, things are changing.
Another common trap which makes the appraisal process a less efficient one is the psychology of bosses – many tend to forget what happened during the first 9 months and remember only the most recent performance (Recency error). This leads a good performer of previous months to lose his morale and so the productivity.
The above two challenges are addressed by a new concept called continuous feedback. Employees working on different projects can register their contributions on an ongoing basis instead of waiting until the end of a period. This brings an employee into lime light for his performance or could be registered for training based on their performance. This makes him delighted and keeps him more engaged. This also makes him aware of his self by knowing his strengths and the areas in which he has to improve.
Some organizations now use internal social media and crowd-sourcing approaches to recognize individual’s efforts outside of the traditional cycle. This also contributes to the appraisal process by keeping in track of the achievements along with the shortcomings (flaws) of an employee’s performance and thus making the appraisal process a more transparent one. This in turn leads to highly engaged employees and thus a high performance work culture.
Visit: Synergita
