By: Luis Esparza

Research has shown that companies with highly engaged employees perform better financially and have higher customer satisfaction. Yet many organizations fail to provide employees with the four key elements for meaningful engagement:

1. Clear goals that are role-specific yet still tied to company objectives

2. The opportunity to use and develop their skills

3. Recognition for their contributions

4. A good relationship with their direct manager and coworkers.

Clear Goals

In Bruce Kasanoff’s Forbes.com article, “Employee Engagement 101,” Bruce states that “Employee engagement depends on a shared mission, because that’s what elevates individuals to higher levels.” He goes on to ask, “Are your metrics and compensation plans and products and services and client service teams and culture all designed to reflect this reason for being?”

While most employees are given performance goals, how these goals tie to the company mission are often poorly defined. In addition, many companies lack an objective, data-driven means to measure an employee’s performance against their goals. Without an automated, activity-capture model for tracking and monitoring their performance achievement, employees may not trust the data and perceive their contributions as not being fully recognized or equitably compared against others.

Skill Development 

Engaged employees are often given opportunities to use and develop their skills and abilities. By understanding and cataloging skill sets, companies can begin to create career paths and cross-training opportunities for motivated employees, as well as coaching and training programs for those who might be struggling.

Recognition 

Being seen and acknowledged publicly as a valued contributor can greatly enhance an employee’s engagement. However, to be most effective, the recognition needs to be timely and specific. Organizations need a real-time, automated means of identifying when performance standards are exceeded.

Manager Relationship 

One of the most important relationships for employees is the one they have with their direct manager. Automated, data-driven performance reporting tools can help managers identify and address issues quickly—before they become larger problems. These tools also help enable managers to have more productive, forward-looking discussions with their employees vs. time spent debating historical performance.