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Paying Attention to the Employee in Performance Measurement There has been a consistent and growing emphasis on organizational performance measurement and accountability. This emphasis often ignores employees, who create those performance outcomes, and who bring to bear their dreams, hopes, fears, anxieties, skills, talents and expectations on all they do in the workplace. Employees are expensive to keep and expensive to replace. What can we, as managers, do to support them, and why is it important to do so? As managers, we know that human beings resist being controlled and reduced to a measurement, and that the number one reason employees leave is because of the manager. We know we have an important role in creating conditions that are motivating to employees and include the opportunity for meaningful work, achievement and recognition. We know that it is important to engage employees. (A 2007 study of employee engagement, completed by the Towers Perrin Consulting firm, found only 29% of employees were engaged and contributing to organizational productivity and quality!) We can control some of the top drivers of employee engagement: interest in employee well-being; employee skill improvement and expectation of advancement; employee input into decision making; expectation of high standards and social responsibility; good relationships between employees and their supervisors; and the encouragement of innovation. We spend at about half of our waking lives working, traveling to work, thinking about work, and talking about work. Making work meaningful leads to better performance. We can link concern for employees and a focus on performance measurement by:
Being aware daily of how we, as managers, create a workplace that is physically, mentally, socially, intellectually and psychologically healthy. |
© Copyright 2008, American Association of Certified Public Managers®
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