Do you have the right management for Employee Engagement?

The right management will increase Employee Engagement, the wrong management will increase Disengagement

According to Gallup’s estimates the right management (direct supervisor) accounts for more than 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. This relationship is a key factor in the low worldwide employee engagement scores (in 2013 only 30% US and 13% worldwide are actively engaged). The scariest statistic however, is that over the past twelve years these low numbers have not changed much despite engagement programmes being in vogue. Unfortunately until organisations change the way they reward high performers, grow individuals and select managers (and leaders) this trend is likely to continue. What is worse is that this acknowledgment and reward, or lack thereof, entrenches the culture of the organisation. Performance or disengagement is embedded through the way we manage our people.

Just because someone is an excellent salesperson, accountant or engineer doesn’t mean they have the skills to manage people.

Many organisations use outdated principles of succession to find the right person for the role. Often hiring and promotion decisions are made based on the individuals’ past experience or they give them the manager job as a reward for their length of service or performance in another role. This method of promotion, overlooking people management talent is often damaging to the culture and performance of the organisation.  Managers promoted beyond their level of experience or skill tend to become easily disengaged.  Gallup estimates that these disengaged (non-people skill) managers cost the U.S. economy between $300 billion and $400 billion annually.

Gallup’s research shows that organisations fail to choose the right candidate to manage a team 80% of the time

Organisations that choose managers based on people management talent, however, have a much greater chance of choosing high performers. Naturally talented managers know how to develop and engage their employees. They create enthusiastic and energised teams that focus on moving their company forward and doing right by their customers. But what is talent? Gallup defines it as the individual’s natural capacity for excellence. Gallup believes that people can learn skills, develop knowledge and gain experience, but they cannot acquire talent (as talent is innate). When an individual has the right talent for their role, they think and act differently than their peers, are easier to motivate and tend to excel. They often don’t think of it as “work”, but instead feel energised by what they do. This is not the case for people doing something outside their area of talent; they often feel drained by what they have to do each day. When organisations fail to hire for talent, or promote based on longevity they often end up with significant variance in performance. Organisations can give their employees the same information and support, create a great working environment and offer them the same knowledge, but without the right talent fit these organisations will end up with some high performers, some middle-of-the-road performers and some low performers. Talent paves the way for consistent excellence in performance.

The cascade effect of disengagement 

The right management are supposed to engage the members of their team, but according to Gallup’s research over 50% of managers are disengaged and have essentially checked out themselves. The managers’ own attitude has dire consequences for their teams. The research clearly shows that a manager’s engagement levels directly impact the engagement levels of their employees, what Gallup calls the cascade effect. In over 190 diverse industries (finance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, etc.) it was found that managers who are supervised by highly engaged leaders were 40% more likely to be engaged themselves. This link is greater when it comes to employees. Those managed by highly engaged managers were 60% more likely to be engaged than those supervised by actively disengaged managers.

Picking the right management is not about about picking the best role talent (salesperson, accountant or engineer, etc.), it is about finding those with people management talent.

Does your performance management process help you identify the right management? Leadership development and succession planning are difficult without the right tools. If you need a solution that radically re-engineers your annual rated performance reviews in your organisation contact us today.

SaveSave

• About
• Latest Posts

Follow me

Richard Riche

Change Communication and Employee Engagement specialist at One Clear Message Consulting

Richard specialises in helping you build real human communication skills. Employee Engagement / Experience, Emotional Intelligence skills, building high performance teams and a great place you want to work. TED style speaking and presentation skills. Training, consulting and coaching.

Follow me

Latest posts by Richard Riche (see all)

• Harnessing the power of psychological safety at work - 2 January 2019
• 5 keys to creating sustainable continuous improvement - 19 November 2018
• Using organisational voice to support Change Communication - 28 September 2018