A good manager can make all the difference in the way employees operate within a
company by utilizing the “human capital management” concept. In fact, Gallup
estimates managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in employee
engagement scores across businesses.
The term “human capital management” describes an approach to staffing where people
are perceived as assets whose value grows through investment. The employees who
work for your company hold incredible value and are capable of producing great things.
But in order for them to operate at peak performance, they need a good manager.
Here are a few tips that can help dramatically improve the way you manage your
people:
1. Know your employees’ names (and use them).
Sometimes it’s easy for employees to feel unimportant or like one of many, especially in
the vast ocean of employees in a large company. Though you may not interact with all
employees frequently, ensure you know who each employee in your organization is and
what they contribute to the team.
Create employee profiles to help you keep track of important employee facts such as
date of hire, roles, and background of skills. Store profiles digitally in a place where you
can access them easily for a quick reference. Allow employees to access and edit their
profiles so they can personalize them and keep them up-to-date.
When you pass by new employees in the hall, say “hi” and use their names. If you have
time, tell them how glad you are to have them working on the team or project they are
working on. Watch how their faces light up as they realize you actually know who they
are and what they do. Employee engagement will skyrocket.
2. Recognize employee milestones.
Another trick to boosting employee engagement is to celebrate employee milestones
and other important events. Use a calendar to keep track of these important events and
keep team members in the loop to help you execute these celebrations.
If you use a human capital management platform like Namely, the calendar integrates
with employee profiles, ensuring everyone on the team is notified of birthdays and
anniversaries. But take it a step beyond the birthdays—recognize other milestones like a
successful turnout at the first event an employee planned or a project lead’s job well
done.
3. Accelerate the approval process.
I often see blockages that impede an employee’s morale in the following areas:
- Time-off requests: Requesting time off is often a long and drawn-out process involving too many forms with multiple signatures, and then days or weeks before a response. It’s all very frustrating to employees. Workers need to be able to plan their lives outside of work, and anything that makes that more difficult can make employees feel anxious or discouraged.
- Project-related approvals: Managers often need to approve projects or aspects of them before employees execute them. However, managers sometimes take several days to return their comments to employees or give them the green light. During this time, employees cannot move forward, and not only do they search for other, more menial tasks to fill their time, they can begin to overanalyze or doubt their ideas as they await feedback.
Because it’s so easy for approvals to become buried in emails, use a program that
notifies you instantly when an employee requests time off or has a question about a
project.
A mobile-enabled program that integrates all aspects of project and human capital
management would be ideal here. You could have all the information you need to make
a decision right in your hands. You could access your calendar to approve time off
requests with just a tap, look at comments under the task manager, or view shared files
to ensure a project is going in the right direction.
4. Simplify HR processes.
Whether you work with or directly in HR, you’ll probably agree that stone-aged
processes like disjointed programs and paper forms just add more clutter to a workload.
Simplify the process through automating all aspects of human capital management and
integrate them into one platform. This will eliminate the need for duplicate data entry
and multiple programs that don’t communicate with one another. Performance reviews
will be easy with all employee data in one place, and HR will have more time to focus on
other tasks.
Managing a company and the people within it can be overwhelming at times. To reduce
some of the stress, try seeking out ways to make less work for yourself and those you
work with. Integrating your human capital management system will help you manage
your people more efficiently and give you the tools you need to boost employee
engagement.