Another problem CHCOs and HR leaders identified is that the levels of engagement and satisfaction employees feel for their jobs is in decline, partly as a result of furloughs, scant resources, and last year’s partial government shutdown.
Also impacting engagement are uneven workloads, a lack of commitment to improving employee engagement among lower-level managers and supervisors, and a lack of effective feedback and communication between managers and employees.
A commonly cited negative impact on morale – and reinforced during the interviews – is that the failure to adequately deal with poor performers undermines a work unit, and that’s propagated because of difficulties with current performance management systems. On the flip side, incentives for recognizing and rewarding high performance are scarcer (driving home the need to get creative with non-monetary awards).
The report recommends that senior managers be held accountable for taking action to improve employee engagement, with metrics included in managerial performance plans to track success.
Additional recommendations include: analyzing employee survey data in detail; holding managers accountable for spending sufficient time managing employee performance, including dealing with poor performers; providing employees with realistic and constructive feedback with a focus on developmental needs; making better use of probationary periods to address problems are early as possible; expanding the use of multisource feedback (or, 360-degree reviews); and identifying options to use nonmonetary incentives, such as developmental assignments, to encourage high performance.
