It may seem obvious that a more effective manager has a more engaged team, but Achievers Workforce Institute is based on science, not assumption, so we wanted to prove it with data.
The brand-new Manager Empowerment Report data showed a strong correlation between manager effectiveness and engagement with 89% of respondents who would recommend their manager also reported being highly engaged. This shows the importance of improving manager effectiveness to boost company-wide engagement.
For business leaders, this means that your frontline managers play a crucial role in supporting your efforts to engage your entire employee population. By empowering managers, you can cause a ripple effect that will increase engagement throughout your organization.
“Imagine the impact on your organization if you could ensure that every manager was empowered to be effective,” says Dr. Natalie Baumgartner. “By investing in the right tools, resources, and training to empower managers throughout your organization, you can scale manager effectiveness so every individual at every level has the support and leadership they need to excel.”
What is manager effectiveness?
Manager effectiveness is the degree to which people leaders, from frontline managers to the C-suite, are able to connect with, motivate, and optimize their teams. This report looks at the factors that contribute to manager effectiveness and how we can measure it day to day.
Why does it matter?
Third party research shows managers make up 70% of their employees’ engagement level (Gallup, 2015) and better managers are more able to attract and retain top talent (Lazear et al., 2012).
How are we measuring manager effectiveness?
There is no universal way to measure manager effectiveness. We asked respondents whether they would recommend their manager to another employee. This is the metric we are using to determine manager effectiveness. Think of it like a Net Promoter Score (NPS) for managers — those whose employees would highly recommend them are having their needs met or exceeded every day. This report builds on the Achievers Workforce Institute Manager Empowerment Model to measure key levels for effectiveness.
How can organizations drive manager effectiveness?
Many organizations are missing low-hanging fruit when it comes to empowering managers.
Less than half (48%) of managers have been trained in one-to-one meeting best practices, with less than a third being trained in professional development or recognition.
“With less than half of employers training managers to coach and lead their teams, it represents an area of risk for organizations. Our data shows that manager effectiveness directly impacts employee engagement, with recognition and professional development playing especially big roles in driving effectiveness,” says Achievers Chief Workforce Scientist Dr. Natalie Baumgartner. “Organizations need to offer widespread training to all managers to empower them to better lead their teams. If an organization can empower all their managers to be great leaders, they will see direct business impact at every level.”
Organizational leaders simply cannot expect managers to effectively support and engage their people without providing them with the tools, resources, and training to do so. Good managers become so through insight, development, and support — essentially, empowerment. Conversely, bad managers are often simply under-supported, under-developed, and under-engaged. Thus, it’s imperative that every organization empowers all of their front-line people leaders with regular, consistent, cross-functional training.
Learn more about manager effectiveness and empowerment in the Workforce Institute Manager Empowerment Report.