Are you 'over-measuring' your work performance?

Since the mid-1990s a steady stream of research has shown a link between the way employees are managed, their level of work engagement, and organisational performance.

Linked to this, more and more organisations are relying on measurement approaches, such as employee surveys, to gain insight into how the people in their organisation add value.

Of course, "measuring people" using employee surveys is not new.

But JRA research director Dr Neal Knight-Turvey says that rather than the focus on morale and worker satisfaction that typified early measurement efforts, today's workplace surveys concentrate on identifying the connections between employee experiences and engagement levels with organisation performance.

"They are in effect strategic business tools aimed at improving organisational functioning and effectiveness."

As the insight provided by these measurement tools has become more widely recognised, Knight-Turvey has noticed that the "we don't want to over-survey our people" argument has become much less common.

"Not undertaking regular measurement of your financial performance, your market share or your IT performance would be unthinkable for most organisations, and increasingly we are seeing organisations recognising that regular measurement of workplace attitude and opinion is equally important - are we doing better or worse than last quarter, how do we compare to the market, and so on," he says.

"Many organisations who have been surveying for a while now view workplace surveys as an important part of normal business planning."

The same applies to the 'it's not a good time to survey' argument, something Knight-Turvey has also seen changing over time. Most often the "not a good time" view appears during times of great change or uncertainty, and ironically reflects management's suspicion feedback may be negative.

"But this confuses the real purpose - and value - of the survey, and it's exactly times like that when you need to connect with your people," he says.

"By keeping in touch you are able to address critical workplace attitudes before these translate into negative behaviours such as lower productivity, poor customer service or resignations. Without regular measurement - in bad times as well as good - you really are flying blind."

This year's JRA Best Workplaces Survey is being run with the Herald, and is available until August 31. Registrations are now being taken.

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