Views On the News: New Report Highlights the Impressive Impact of a Skills Strategy for Performance Management in 2024

Keeping the critical talent – which you have already recruited, trained, and coached on your culture is one of the most essential elements of long-term business success. Yet, in the post-pandemic years, employee retention and engagement have both more essential, and more complicated.

Thankfully, Betterworks’ State of Performance Enablement Report has unveiled several eye-opening statistics that highlight the current state of employee perceptions and needs, so you can provide the career development support your team needs to do their best work this year and beyond.

Let’s delve into these key findings and explore how a strategic skills development approach can transform your performance management in 2024.

Key Stats & Takeaways from Betterworks’ Report

With over 40 pages of insights, the report is organized into six main takeaways:

1. Employees who have confidence in their performance management review process have much higher trust in their organizations.
2. Many employees see performance reviews as biased, with downstream effects that show up in higher levels of quiet quitting.
3. Employees feel generally positive about work, ranking fairness as their top concern for a good employee experience.
4. Employees don’t feel supported in their careers.
5. Managers – especially newer managers – want and need help having conversations with employees on career, advancement, and professional growth.
6. Half of employees are not getting adequate performance enablement – such as goal setting and tracking, feedback, and meaningful, ongoing conversations.

For the sake of this article, we’ll focus primarily on findings four, five, and six, diving into why today’s employees don’t feel like they’re getting adequate support to perform their best at work. We’ll also explore how a strong skills strategy can provide teams with the framework they need to set performance goals and, most importantly, help their staff achieve them.

Better Supporting Employees with an Eye to Retention

To start with the good news, a striking 75% of employees in the Betterworks survey expressed a desire to stay and grow within their organizations. Unfortunately, less than half of them see a clear path to career advancement within their current company.

This gap highlights a huge need for businesses today to connect with their employees.

It also leads up right into our next focus statistic: Only 46% of surveyed employees reported feeling supported in their career aspirations. Interestingly, those who engage in regular career check-ins with their managers tend to feel significantly better supported (more on this later).

What does that mean for the state of performance management? The report revealed that only about half (52%) of employees receive what they consider to be adequate performance enablement.

This, unsurprisingly, comes down to the underlying systems and technology at play. Just around half of the workforce has access to dedicated tools for feedback, performance, and career or skills development. And only one in four employees have performance management integrated into the tools they use daily.

The report’s data reveals that employees who have access to and like their dedicated tools for performance and career development feel adequately enabled at an impressive rate of 92%. In contrast, only 26% of those without these tools feel adequately enabled.

A Powerful Duo: Skills Strategy and Performance Management

Now that we’ve absorbed the report’s insights surrounding employee experience and performance management, let’s consider how organizations can address these issues in 2024.

A strategic skills development approach is key to bridging the gap between employee experience and performance management. Here’s how it can make a difference:

1. Clear Development Paths: Implementing a skills strategy provides employees with a visual roadmap for their skill development and career progression. This not only boosts their motivation and gives them purpose, but also helps them see the tangible steps required to advance their careers.

2. Regular Check-Ins: Encouraging regular career check-ins between employees and managers is a vital component of a skills strategy. These check-ins foster a sense of support and help align employee aspirations with your business’s strategic goals.

3. Enhanced Enablement: Skills-focused tools provide a framework to empower employees with resources and opportunities for learning and growth. This leads to better outcomes for your organization like increased productivity and engagement.

4. Integration of Tools: Integrating your performance management and skills development tools into a single platform like Workday helps keep these resources readily available and easy to use for employees.

5. Personalized Development: A comprehensive skills strategy empowers leaders to build out personalized development plans for their team, catering to individual employee strengths, weaknesses, and career aspirations.

By adopting a skills strategy that encompasses all these aspects, organizations can significantly improve their performance management and deliver a stellar employee experience. This, in turn, boosts retention rates, productivity, and overall job satisfaction.

Making the Most of 2024: The Importance of a Skills Strategy for Your Performance Management

In conclusion, Betterworks’ State of Performance Enablement Report underscores the urgent need for organizations to address the gaps in career support and performance enablement.

A skills strategy that incorporates clear pathways, regular check-ins, and integrated tools will help businesses empower their employees, enhance their sense of support, and ultimately lead to a more productive and engaged workforce.

As we step into 2024, let’s seize this opportunity to create a workplace that fosters growth and development, benefiting both employees and organizations alike.