A healthy manager-employee relationship is essential to any business. A good manager will take the time to understand what makes their direct reports tick and form deep connections that are focused on bringing out the best in their employees. But what happens to employee engagement when there are problems in this relationship?
Employee engagement affects nearly every important aspect of your organization, including revenue, customer experience, and retention. Impacting engagement can have challenging impacts on a business. Is admin enable the answer?
In this article, we’ll look at the role of the manager, identify potential challenges, discuss the impact of manager burnout, and explore how enabling managers can help improve employee engagement.
Understanding the role of manager
The role of a manager is often multifaceted and includes various responsibilities and skills, such as training and developing employees, critical thinking and decision making, conducting performance reviews, and planning and goal setting.
Managers are the vital link between a company’s executive team and the employees. Their role is a delicate mix of keeping both the C-suite and direct reports happy, driving operational excellence throughout the organization, and meeting the demands of their individual roles.
Given the level of responsibilities managers face, coupled with challenging socioeconomic times, including a recession and quiet resignations, it’s no surprise that burnout impacts nearly 30% of American workers.
Burnout is classified by the World Health Organization As “a syndrome conceptualized as a result of chronic job stress that has not been successfully managed,” burnout is represented as follows:
- feelings of exhaustion or depleted energy
- increased mental distance from one’s work, feelings of negativity or cynicism related to one’s work
- reduced professional effectiveness
How burnt-out managers and employee engagement connect
Have you ever heard the phrase, “people don’t quit their jobs; Do they leave the managers?” A burnt-out manager is a problem for any business because an underperforming manager impacts critical business metrics, including employee engagement, retention, and revenue.
And when a manager isn’t engaged, it creates a disruptive situation that Gallup calls the waterfall effect — where a disconnected manager creates a disconnected employee, further impacting the business. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to how bad managers affect employees.
Employee engagement or lack thereof is a big problem. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, actively disconnected employees cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, an amount equivalent to 11% of global GDP. Additionally, 15Five’s 2022 Workplace Report found that unsupportive management is the leading reason employees leave companies.
Other gallup investigative report found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units, and only 35% of managers are committed to their work.
So how do you solve the problem of disengaged managers, manager burnout, and falling employee engagement levels? Focus on manager empowerment.
Administrator enablement: everything you need to know
What is administrator enablement?
Manager empowerment is a strategy that ensures managers are given the tools and resources they need to do their jobs well and stay engaged with the company. For example, manager empowerment could focus on setting and aligning goals, training and upskilling managers, and creating a culture of open feedback.
What are the benefits of enabling administrator?
Ineffective managers can have a huge negative impact on the workplace and its employees. On the other hand, investing in manager training can generate positive results, such as:
- Higher levels of employee motivation and productivity.
- Increased employee satisfaction and loyalty
- Improved retention rates
- Positive impact on organizational culture and reputation
How to empower managers and drive employee engagement
Commit to training, skills upgrading and development opportunities.
Even managers need direction and development. But don’t just connect them through the same tired tracks. Instead, focus on developing interpersonal skills, such as providing feedback and delegating, and more business-focused skills, such as interviewing skills or financial planning, to help keep managers engaged in their role.
By enhancing the skills of managers, it promotes a culture of continuous learning and improvement and enables managers to expand their skills and knowledge. This not only gives managers the opportunity to further their professional and personal development, but upskilling improves employee engagement and performance, impacting the success of your business.
Provide easy-to-use performance management software
Make your manager’s life as easy as possible and empower them with performance management software that helps you stay engaged and organized. For example, 15Five has a full set of features, including performance reviews and management, OKR and goal setting, feedback tools, weekly check-ins, and engagement reviews, all in one convenient platform.
By having a standardized and easily accessible process, managers can actively focus on performance management and ensure that their direct reports have growth plans, development conversations, regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings, and check-ins, helping both cohorts to Stay engaged with the company. and drive success.
Furthermore, such technology can also be extremely beneficial for the HR team as it can provide insight into the performance of managers and discern which managers may need additional support or training.
Some examples of touch points where having technology can amplify the impact:
- Receive a notice for high five/acknowledgment at the end of a check-in
- Get pinged to review an employee’s priorities every Friday to ensure alignment
- Have an accessible and documented high-level performance conversation at least twice a year
Create an open feedback culture
Giving feedback to employees can be a daunting experience for both junior and experienced managers. But by developing a company culture that promotes open communication and accountability, managers will feel more comfortable and confident in providing feedback rather than ignoring problems.
By providing ongoing, actionable feedback, managers stay on track to create engaged employees. For example, research on zipia found that 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week, and a staggering 98% of employees say they tune out work when they receive little or no feedback. Oh!
To help develop feedback, 15Five includes a built-in feedback feature that includes an automatic request feature to give employees the opportunity to request feedback when they need it and gives managers an asynchronous platform to respond to requests.
Invest in Manager Enablement today
Managers play a crucial role in the success of a business by leading and engaging their teams. But burnout among managers can cause employee disengagement and negatively impact critical metrics like revenue, customer experience, and retention. To address this, companies need to focus on empowering managers by providing tools and resources for effective management.
That’s where 15Five’s Transform Coaching and Education comes in: it’s a blended learning solution that offers intensive skills, coaching and action planning. We help managers achieve business goals by leveraging strengths, setting goals, motivating and inspiring action, driving performance, and providing feedback for growth.
Schedule a demo today to learn more about our cyclical approach to leadership training and coaching and how it can improve your business results.
