A recent article in Gallup suggests that if we reframe the concept as performance development, and not performance management, we start to unlock the real role for managers and motivation for employees.  Managers can start to think in terms of being a performance coach, not as a boss, and refocus the conversations to:

1. establishing expectations
2. continuous coaching 
3. creating accountability

With these focuses, manager-employee discussions feel encouraging, purposeful and rewarding in ways that many current interactions do not.

Establishing Expectations

Clear expectations and collaborative goal setting are especially critical for new employees, but all employees need their managers to check in with them consistently and reconfirm and clarify priorities and expectations.  A few simple tips for managers in achieving this include:

• Be Clear.  Determine and agree the employee’s duties, define what success looks like and how it is measured and what the priorities are.  Expectations are not clear until they are prioritised.
• Be Collaborative. Both managers and employees are responsible for focusing on the right activities and goals.  The employee’s voice is important in setting goals that are fair and challenging.  
• Be Aligned.  Employee goals should be aligned with team and organisation goals.  

Continuous Coaching

Coaching is about maximising performance through people – it is not micromanagement.  The purpose of continual coaching is to create more natural relationships with staff that are aimed at developing the employee and improving personal performance.  To help achieve this, managers should ensure their conversations are:

• Frequent.  Understand each employee’s preferences around frequency but strive to touch base with them at least weekly to provide some form of coaching.  Address improvement opportunities immediately so staff can quickly incorporate small changes into their daily work.
• Focused.  Have a clear purpose and expectation for each conversation before it starts.  Concentrate on topics that are relevant to the needs of the employee, addressing progress, successes and barriers to further achievements.
• Future-oriented.  The best conversations proactively provide advice and strategies for achieving future performance.  Where corrective actions are needed, focus on what can be done differently in the future.

Create Accountability

With clear expectations and ongoing coaching, manager-employee conversations can focus around progress.  A progress review frames the conversation towards the individual’s achievements and journey towards excellence.  Accountabilities are clear to both parties.  Successful process reviews are:

• Achievement-oriented.  Spend time recognising employees’ accomplishments and strengths.  Build an encouraging tone.  Don’t ignore coaching needs or improvement areas, but remain centred around success and future opportunities.
• Fair and accurate.  Measures of employee success should be consistent across the team, while goals and contribution are individualised to truly reflect on the person.
• Developmental.  Leave the conversation with a clear understanding of the employee’s opportunities to learn and grow, and with a clear plan for how the employee will experience those opportunities.

The bottom line

Play to your teams strengths and unlock ways to motivate each individual to keep them engaged, focused and accountable. Invest time and effort in developing a high performing team rather than simply managing one because when employees thrive so does the business.

Looking to improve employee engagement? Read about the four building blocks here.

When those development needs are consistently met, employees are more likely to become emotionally and psychologically attached to their workplace, their team and their work. In this environment, individual performance improves and they propel their team to improved outcomes around such critical areas as quality, productivity and safety.

Employees need to be equipped to perform and then positioned for individual and team success. The first three levels – basic, individual and teamwork needs – create the environment of trust and support that enables managers and employees get the most out of the fourth level.

These development levels provide a roadmap for managers to motivate and develop their team members and improve the team members’ performance, with each level building on the previous. For example, employees may feel connected to their team members, but if they don’t know what is expected of them (a basic need), don’t have the appropriate equipment (a basic need) or are not able to do what they feel they do best (an individual need), then their connection with the team is less likely to have a positive impact on performance.

These levels do not represent phases that managers can ‘finish’ and move on to the next level. They must work to ensure that all basic needs are being met, whilst simultaneously meeting the needs of the second, third and fourth levels. The best way to sustain progress is to keep doing more of what works and using this hierarchy as a framework for understanding how best to support employees.

Organisations have more success with engagement and improve business performance when they treat their employees as stakeholders in their future and the organisation’s future. They put the focus on concrete performance management activities, such as clarifying work expectations, getting people what they need to get their jobs done, enabling development and promoting positive team relationships. Approaching this as a business strategy yields clear and better results including:

• 10% improvements in customer metrics and a 20% increase in sales
• 41% lower absenteeism and a 17% increase in productivity
• 28% reduction in shrinkage and a 40% reduction in quality defects
• 70% decrease in employee safety incidents

How do your employees feel about your 4 building blocks of engagement?

Most workplaces will make allowances for specific employee circumstances. With changes announced in October, FairWork have now clarified that employers must make reasonable effort to accomodate the specific needs of their employees in relation to family friendly working arrangements. From our reading of the change it seems that employees are now within their rights to ask that a workplace accommodates their needs. The business owner must consider it and show reasonable cause why it cannot be accommodated. Seek advice if you believe this applies to your workplace.

There has been considerable press around unpaid entitlements. Arising from the Workpak vs Scene 2018 case, the government changed the Fair work relations bill to assist businesses that face the issue of unpaid entitlements arising from the specific case where a permanent part time has been misclassified as a casual. The case is quite specific but from our reading of their announcement it looks to be that employees may have been employed as casuals and paid to that effect, but have been rostered as permanent part time. In this case they would be able to claim for back payment for the entitlements under the National Employment Standards (NES). The government has said that casual loading amounts can be used to offset those payments. If you believe this may apply to your workplace, please speak to your advisors.

These two announcements show how the balance of workers rights and business impacts is delicate. Family friendly working arrangements address the stress out juggling home and work life. The use of casual loadings to offset against claimable entitlements limits business liability. These two examples show the balancing act that FairWork and the government have to manage.

This post is not advice, and cannot be relied upon with respect to the interpretation of Australian Law. Please contact your advisors if the information in the post may apply to you or your workplace.

Potential employees are increasingly approaching the job market with a clearly defined, well thought through list of wants and needs. These may range from pay and conditions, to flexibility, skills development and community engagement. It is up to the organisation to show these potential employees how they can satisfy these wants and needs. It is no longer enough to simply populate job advertisements with catch phrases. Companies need to have an employer brand that is authentic, based on the company’s real values and uniquely captures your ‘why?’.  Job seekers will differentiate authentic employer brands from those that are confused or misleading.

Companies that take time to develop an employee value proposition (‘EVP’) will best be able to answer the question of ‘what do I get for working here?’, something all job seekers will ask themselves. The EVP will not only include the hygiene factors of benefits and rewards that employees can expect, it will also reflect company culture. It will be in alignment with your company’s shared values, behaviours and will be a true reflection of day-to-day practices. Great EVPs will create a bridge between the employee and emotional and behavioural elements of work. These elements can be difficult to verbalise but they matter when you want to create a personal connection with current and potential employees.

EVPs are not intended to be a candidate drag net. Rather, a great EVP will resonate with right candidates for your company. It will attract those people who are aligned with your values and for people who will thrive in your environment. It will speak directly to the candidates who are the best fit, whilst simultaneously filtering out those candidates that are poorly matched.

While the EVP reflects the employee experience, the employer brand is the public perception of that experience. It is the employer brand that will be discussed between friends at a barbecue or over a coffee. While employers cannot control what is being said over that hamburger or that coffee, they can participate in that conversation in abstentia. There are both formal and informal ways that employers can promote their EVP and employer brand. That word-of-mouth marketing opportunity is a critical moment in time for your company’s ability to attract and retain the right employee.

Just like consumer brands, an employer brand needs ambassadors. An employer brand ambassador is that person who—unprompted and authentically—speaks out on an organisation’s behalf and advocates with zeal and sincerity. Gallup research has found that 71% of job seekers turn to family, friends and current employees when they are considering opportunities.

Ensuring that you have employer brand ambassadors requires that you create a compelling brand promise and consistently deliver on that promise over time. Just like your consumer brands, your employer brand requires consistency of message and behaviour—always delivering on your employee value proposition.

So we ask, do your staff advocate for your business?

Businesses should also want their employer brand – their reputation as an employer of choice – to be as strong and compelling as their consumer brand. A strong employer brand helps to attract and retain staff. When that employer brand always delivers what it promises to your staff, they too will become advocates and ambassadors for your company.

Unfortunately, employee branding is often overlooked and few resources are dedicated to building the employee value proposition. This strategy is unsustainable in the medium term. With Gallup research showing that 51% of employees are actively seeking a new role, companies that fail to build their employer brand may miss their opportunity to keep talented staff and suffer from higher turnover and lower productivity.

More than one-third (36%) of respondents to Gallup recent survey rated as ‘very important’ the employer brand or reputation when evaluating job opportunities. They wanted to be able to say to themselves ‘I like what this company stands for’. When making a choice between two jobs where the candidate considers everything else to be equal, brand and reputation can be tiebreaker.

Making your employer brand visible through easily accessed stories and online content that highlight your values. This may be customer or employee testimonials, evidence of community involvement via social media channels or simply promoting that employee awards are widely celebrated.

Potential employees want to be clear what a company stands for and how it’s employer brand connects through to an authentic, unique employee experience.

And so we ask – are your employees really buying what you are selling?