Personal relationships between a manager and his or her direct reports are the most influential factor in Employee Engagement.
Though it may sound simple it pay dividends for first-line managers to get to know their direct reports as individuals, recognising their foibles as human beings and the variability of their engagements levels.
Research shows employees aged 40-49 often become less engaged as they face external family pressures. Supervisors who get to know their employees on a personal level and care about their private lives can counteract this disengagement.
These caring activities are one of the four most important factors in employees’ perceptions of manager credibility and trustworthiness.
Training the immediate managers to care about employees and to have the skills to manage their teams’ engagement levels can have a major and direct impact on business performance and productivity.
According to a research by Performance Equations, only one-third of employees believe their manager cares about them on a personal level. Of those who did believe their manager cared about them, 54 per cent reported themselves as being fully engaged. Among the two-thirds who do not believe this, only 17 per cent are engaged.
Courtesy: www.achieveforum.com
