Employee Performance vs. Engagement
Managing employees these days can seem like a balancing act between evaluating their performance and keeping them engaged in their position. In the modern workplace, both are important and often linked to one another.
Performance
As you know, performance is evaluated by how well the job-related activities of an employee are completed and executed. For every position, the standards and tasks will vary.
Engagement
In recent years, employee engagement has become more important in workplace evaluations. Engagement is evaluated by how fully absorbed by and enthusiastic an employee is about their work. Gauging performance makes sense, but why has engagement become important as well?
How they’re connected
It all comes down to productivity, which is a focus of performance evaluations. Studies have proven that employees who are more engaged in their job and company are more productive.
How to engage employees
With the rise of importance on employee engagement, a focus on work-life balance has also increased. This is not a coincidence. In fact, studies have reported that employees who are satisfied with their work-life balance are more engaged in their jobs and are more productive, which translates to higher work performance.
Here are some ideas to balance work with life and keep your employees engaged:
- Create a team environment. If your employees feel like they are part of a team and their feedback has real value, it will keep them motivated to contribute to the workplace in their job role and beyond it.
- Set clear goals and expectations. Employees can get frustrated and burned out if what is expected of them and others is not clear or consistent. Set goals and expectations for every employee that are achievable and communicate them on a regular basis.
- Let go of perfectionism. Workplaces have become increasingly diverse. From person to person, there will be differences in education, backgrounds and experiences. Not everyone will do everything the same way and holding employees to a perfect standard can be difficult for everyone.
- With advances in technology, employees could potentially be available 24 hours a day. However, this can burn employees out quickly. Make sure you are communicating the need for downtime with your employees and sticking to it.