Elevating Employee Engagement through Performance Reviews

Unless you've been living under an HR rock for the past few years or are in complete denial about it, you're aware of the link between employee engagement and job performance.

What is more uncertain is what role employee interviews play when it comes to engaging the employees. Can employee interviews help to create commitment? Should employers manage and try to improve employee engagement as part of employee engagement?

The answer to both questions is the same: It depends.

But let's start with the undeniable: An important part of HR management consists of setting goals and helping employees understand whether they are meeting expectations. It goes without saying, regardless of what you think about the whole conundrum of employee interviews as a driver of engagement.

Then look at determining and evaluating the employees' goals in the light of employee engagement. Guess what? Employees who are highly committed experience to a much greater extent that they are given clear performance targets, that they receive routine and valid feedback on how they are doing in relation to these targets, and that managers are actively involved in the process.

In fact, three of the six steps that Gallup's State of the American Workplace 2013 suggests for improving employee engagement relate to setting and tracking employee performance goals. "Managers who focus on their employees' strengths," the report says, "can virtually eliminate active disengagement and double the average employee engagement rate in the United States."

By making employee engagement part of the performance management process, it not only becomes an ongoing and constant topic instead of an annual survey, it also signals to the employees that it is important and that the organization is concerned with improving employee engagement.

So should you try to improve employee engagement as part of the appraisal process? All indications are that you should. But even if you

think it makes sense, you need an employee engagement system that allows key drivers of engagement to be included in the process.

Integrating employee engagement into performance reviews fosters a continuous focus on goals, feedback, and active management involvement, promoting commitment and efficiency. A solution such as IceHrm makes the employee interview more strategic. The result is that everyone involved sees the same goals, and you will see better results and increased commitment.