Survey Confirms: Focusing on Helping Managers Improve is Critical to Boosting Overall Workforce Performance

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Betterworks, the leading enterprise HR software for Continuous Performance Management®, today released the second in a series of reports based on insights from their 2018 State of Continuous Performance Management Survey. This report focuses on the critical role that people managers play in motivating employees, and how HR professionals can help boost their impact across the organization.

The report reveals that while HR professionals and people managers agree that managers are the linchpins that unlock greater levels of performance, there is significant disparity between managers' self assessments around the quality of their coaching and feedback, and how HR evaluates their abilities.

Overwhelmingly, the survey found that managers hold a high opinion of their ability to coach and provide feedback to their team. 89% of managers surveyed agreed that their boss would say that they are doing a good job coaching or mentoring, while 76% are confident that they know how to best coach their team. Additionally, 87% agreed with the statement, "I am a good coach."

HR professionals, on the other hand, hold a very different view of managers' abilities. Most reported that they see significant inconsistencies in manager performance, with 89% responding that some managers are better than others at having the right conversations and the same percentage expressing a belief that some managers are innately more talented.

Overall, HR pros tended to give their managers' abilities significantly lower overall ratings, with fewer than ⅓ of them strongly agreeing that:

• Their managers do a good job coaching and developing their teams
• Their managers know how to best coach their teams
• Their employees find their manager's feedback helpful
• All of their employees have a career development plan

However, while managers gave themselves high scores, 90% of those surveyed also expressed a desire to improve their skills. Additionally, 65% wished they had access to better systems to collect feedback, both from their teams and their peers. But despite this desire to better their skills, most managers also communicated a lack of support from HR in making these improvements. Just 35% of managers strongly agree that HR is doing a "good job" of supporting them, while 52% stated that they don't have the tools they need to improve. 

To address these concerns, HR leaders see improved technology as a means to guide managers toward having the continuous conversations necessary for sustained employee motivation:

• 87% of HR leaders say that managers would benefit from tech that would help them solicit and manage feedback
• 84% say that technology helps them have the relevant conversations they need to be having with their employees
• 82% say that technology reminds managers to have relevant conversations about performance and development with employees on a regular basis

"It's no exaggeration to say your people managers make or break your organization's performance. They're the critical layer of connective tissue between the strategic priorities of your business and the employees who execute them," said Doug Dennerline, chief executive officer at Betterworks. "The findings of this year's State of Continuous Performance Management Survey underscore the critical need for HR to support and guide their managers through the crucial conversations of setting and aligning goals, giving and receiving feedback, and recognizing and developing everyone on their team."

Continuing into 2019, Betterworks will release additional findings from the Survey, organized around critical business objectives such as uncovering opportunities for HR teams to make a larger impact on business leadership and revealing the most important elements for driving a culture of coaching and feedback. In addition to these publicly available resources, HR professionals attending local Betterworks Motivate Days will also gain exclusive access to additional insights, tools and reports.

Methodology:

The 2018 State of Continuous Performance Management Survey, conducted with Market Cube, involved nearly 800 participants working at enterprise companies with 500 or more employees. Respondents were HR specialists as well as people managers serving in non-HR roles. 42% are people managers at the director level or above, and 38% of HR-specialist respondents are at the director level or above. Three out of four respondents work at companies with more than 1000 employees, and one out of three works for a company with more than 5000 employees.

Related Resources:

• More results from the 2018 State of Continuous Performance Management Survey
• Betterworks Product Overview
• Betterworks Events
• Learn more about Continuous Performance Management®

About Betterworks
Betterworks ® is HR software to align, develop and activate your workforce for business growth. Organizations are able to replace outdated, ineffective, universally loathed annual review processes with powerful Continuous Performance Management® programs that help managers be better at the goal alignment, feedback, coaching and development conversations necessary to inspire and motivate the entire workforce to collectively achieve an organization's top priorities today and be ready for tomorrow's challenges.

SOURCE Betterworks

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