In the changing work environment of today, establishing employee resilience should be top priority. For doing so, giving solid support to managers and having the most efficient tools for calibration and performance are imperative to building a resilient workforce.
Given the sheer importance of this topic, I thought it would be helpful to you and your team for me to share three proven means of actively creating a resilience workforce:
- BEGIN BY SETTING CLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS
Ensuring that role expectations are aligned for everyone at your organization is crucial for driving sustained superior performance. Doing so should start with ensuring that your chosen Human Resources Platform provides: efficient competency matrixes, clear goal setting mechanisms, and accurate goal progress tracking. Thus, such a platform ensures that managers can easily communicate expected outcomes for each employee, as well as allowing employees to get real-time clarity on what they should be focused on and how to be successful in their particular role.
So how does expectation-setting become the foundation for a resilient workforce? Here is how:
- Establishing clear expectations and goals provides employees with a sense of purpose and direction, thereby helping them stay focused and motivated, especially during challenging and competitive times.
- Providing regular performance check-ins against previously communicated expectations creates a framework for employees to receive constructive feedback as well as adjust their behaviors or positioning accordingly, fostering resiliency through their own continuous, self-improvement efforts.
- By knowing that employees are focused on the right things and successfully achieving their goals, employees become more confident. It also reinforces the employees’ belief in themselves and their ability to successfully overcome challenging obstacles.
So, what are the best tactics for creating clarity on role expectations?
Here are three of the best of these tactics:
- Have your managers work with their direct reports to establish SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for each employee that are in complete alignment with the organization’s overall objectives. Have your managers regularly check the employees’ progress regarding these goals during your frequent one-on-one meetings with their direct reports.
- Establish a grounding framework that standardizes expectations for everyone within a certain level across the organization. Including core-competencies by job responsibility will provide a layer of context to help employees develop their job skills and responsibilities.
- Encourage and empower employees to take ownership of their goals and progress by involving them in the goal-setting process. In addition, ensure that your managers hold the employees accountable for tracking progress on their own goals.
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- ENCOURAGE AND PROMOTE ON-GOING CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Encouraging and promoting employees’ career development is another key to building employee resilience. Doing so also allows you to retain employees without necessarily promoting them. As such, your Human Resources Career Development Platform should give employees access to their own specific career development plan and progress, thereby putting them in the driver’s seat of their professional development. Your Human Resources Career Development Platform combined with the proper Learning & Development (L&D) resources should also enable employees to see the clear connection between areas in which they are interested in growing, and ways that best support the organization’s goals and profitability.
So, how does career development drive employee resiliency? Here is how:
- Career development opportunities create a sense of advancement and progress. When employees know that they are making progress in their career, it also gives employees a greater sense of fulfillment and purpose, as well as reinforces the employees’ belief in their own ability to learn, advance, and succeed.
- Exposure to diverse experiences and roles through project-based career opportunities also increases an employees’ skill sets and leads to greater adaptability.
- Career development and providing career coaching will also align the employees’ personal goals and aspirations, thereby increasing morale, motivation, commitment, and engagement.
So, what are the best tactics for creating on-going career opportunities? Here are three of the most proven tactics:
- Make it a priority to provide opportunities for career development across specific spectrums where employees are looking to advance. Even with a limited budget for employee promotions, proffering strategic initiatives will give employees the opportunity to develop and master specific job skills and capabilities.
- Offering cross-functional career development programs will also be a way to expose employees to new areas and job roles that may be lateral, but more fulfilling to advancement in their career.
- Calibration of employee performance should happen regularly. As such, your managers’ one-on-one performance conversations should focus on the specific details of their employees’ career development. Managers should tirelessly work with employees to identify their key strengths, interests, and long-term career goals, and provide a detailed plan to support them in achieving those career development goals.
- PROMOTE CONTINUOUS CALLIBRATION
Make it a point to have your managers offer regular feedback loops and iterative performance calibration to their direct reports. Doing so will help orient these employees with keen growth insight, as well as provide corrective performance reflection. As such, your chosen Human Resources Platform should easily provide your employees with competency-based feedback. The end result will be that performance is contextually relevant for each employee based on their role, as well as ensure that performance feedback is equitable for all employees.
So, exactly how does performance feedback fuel sustainable employee resiliency? Here’s how:
- Giving employees regular feedback even for small things, rather than all at once and for several big things, helps build the muscle around giving and receiving feedback, thereby fostering a more growth-minded approach to problem-solving for these employees.
- With continuously learning and regular iterations on performance behaviors, employees will become more adaptable and versatile in their roles. As such, these employees are better equipped to handle frequently changing job demands and competitive market trends.
- When managers and coworkers provide continuous feedback, it exposes employees to diverse perspectives and learning experiences which allow these employees to uncover blind spots and enhance their confidence and resourcefulness. The end result is that these employees are more enabled successfully to navigate obstacles.
So, what are the most proven tactics for building continuous calibration feedback loops? Here are four of the most effective means of doing so:
- Make every attempt to have your managers move away from the ubiquitous annual performance reviews to quicker short form goal and competency-based assessments. By doing so, these managers will be more able to accurately assess performance outcomes against previously defined performance goals.
- Strongly encourage your managers to align employees’ performance goals with the employees’ competencies, thereby making it more likely that these managers will successfully achieve their work groups and the organization’s performance and profitability goals.
- Implement competency-based feedback mechanisms enable your managers to more effectively and clearly coach and develop their employees in a forward, specific, and growth-oriented manner.
- Experiment with something like “Feedback Fridays” where employees are tasked with giving at least one person performance feedback for that work week.
Building resilience in the workplace demands a comprehensive approach to both performance and development. By using the correct Human Resources Platform, your organization can empower your employees to set clear goals, embrace growth mindsets, pursue the correct career development opportunities, embrace ongoing feedback and support, and prioritize work-life balance and well-being.
About the Author
Kevin Sheridan
Kevin Sheridan is an internationally-recognized Keynote Speaker, a New York Times Best Selling Author, and one of the most sought-after voices in the world on the topic of Employee Engagement. For six years running, he has been honored on Inc. Magazine’s top 100 Leadership Speakers in the world, as well as Inc.’s top 100 experts on Employee Engagement. He was also honored to be named to The Employee Engagement Award’s Top 101 Global Influencers on Employee Engagement for five years in a row. Kevin was also the winner of the 2022 Best In Evanston Award For The Category Of Management Consulting.
Having spent thirty years as a high-level Human Capital Management consultant, Kevin has helped some of the world’s largest corporations rebuild a culture that fosters productive engagement, earning him several distinctive awards and honors. Kevin’s premier creation, PEER®, has been consistently recognized as a long-overdue, industry-changing innovation in the field of Employee Engagement. His first book, Building A Magnetic Culture, made six of the best seller lists including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He is also the author of The Virtual Manager, which explores how to manage remote workers most effectively.
Kevin received a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 1988, concentrating his degree in Strategy, Human Resources Management, and Organizational Behavior. He is also a serial entrepreneur, having founded and sold three different companies.
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