Performance Reviews for Heightened Employee Engagement: Yes? No? Maybe?

Unless you’ve been living under an HR rock the past several years or are in extreme denial, you’re aware of the link between employee engagement and job performance. (Of course, leading research organizations like Gallup and respected employee engagement survey companies like Modern Survey could have it all wrong.

We don’t think they do, though.)

What’s less certain is the role that performance reviews play in engaging employees. Can employee assessments help drive engagement? Should employers manage and attempt to improve employee engagement as a part of the review process?

The answer to both questions is the same: It depends.

But let’s start with what’s undeniable: A key part of workforce management is laying out goals and helping employees understand whether they’re reaching expectations. That’s a given, regardless of what you believe about the whole performance reviews-driving-engagement riddle.

Then look at setting and assessing employee goals through the lens of employee engagement. Guess what. Employees who are highly engaged are much more likely to feel they receive clear performance goals, that they get routine and valid feedback about their progress toward those goals, and that their managers are actively involved in the process.

In fact, of the six steps that Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace offers for improving employee engagement, three are related to setting and tracking goals for employee performance. “Managers who focus on their employees’ strengths,” the report says, “can practically eliminate active disengagement and double the average of U.S. workers who are engaged.”

Going a step further, researchers at the University of Toronto and University of Guelph concluded that performance management absolutely should evaluate and focus on employee engagement in addition to job performance.

“Making employee engagement part of the performance management process not only makes it an ongoing and constant issue rather than a once-a-year survey, it also signals to employees that it is important and the organization is committed to improving the engagement of its employees,” according to paper co-author Alan Saks.

So, should you try to improve employee engagement as a part of the review process? The odds seem to say you should. But even if you think it makes sense, you’ll need a performance review system that makes it possible to include key drivers of engagement in the performance review process.

A Web-based, automated solution like Reviewsnap makes the employee performance review more strategic. As a result, everyone involved sees the same goals, and you’ll see better results and increased engagement.