KEY POINTS:
There are many ways for businesses to improve their workers' engagement, but one of the most effective is simply to set clear tasks to be achieved, and then reward people when they achieve them.
The notion of building a performance culture is central to the success of many New Zealand companies.
Gráinne Troute, general manager for group services and human resources at SKYCITY Entertainment Group, says an effective performance-based culture requires clarity of strategy throughout an organisation.
"A transparent organisational strategy, one which cascades from the CEO to the departmental managers and through to the individual front-of-house employee, is at the core of SKYCITY's performance culture.
"It's really important for us to create clear, consistent targets so that our employees understand their function in the business. Strategy needs to be tangible and translated into action plans so employees have a sound understanding of their role, and what the company expects from them."
SKYCITY Entertainment Group includes six casino and hotel complexes in New Zealand and Australia, which employ more than 6000 people, as well as the SKYCITY Cinemas and Rialto cinema chains in New Zealand and Fiji.
Ms Troute believes the manner in which a performance culture is implemented is important, allowing for effective measurement of results and change of focus as appropriate.
"We reassess our progress regularly. Were it not for measurability - from macro to micro level - we would be unable to assess the efficiency of the strategy or the employee's abilities."
SKYCITY is exhibiting at the Herald Your Career Expo in Auckland on September 27-28. Workplace survey analysts JRA (NZ), which are sponsoring the Great Places to Work pavilion at the expo, have found that the very best workplaces understand the importance of recognising good performance.
JRA has found that while it is important to provide fair pay, one of the keys to creating an outstanding work environment is making people feel appreciated and recognised for the work they do. Reward and recognition programmes let workers know that their efforts count.
Analysis of the 2007 unlimited/JRA Best Places to Work survey showed that employees from the top 25 per cent of organisations were twice as likely to feel they were suitably rewarded for outstanding performance and received recognition for doing good work than the norm, and as a result felt their contribution was valued more highly by their organisation.
JRA's research director and GM of its Australian operation, Dr Neal Knight-Turvey, said many organisations were reluctant to implement a reward and recognition programme for fear of the costs involved.
"But there are many ways to recognise the contributions of your people - and some don't cost a cent. There are few people who wouldn't appreciate some praise for their efforts - a simple compliment from a supervisor for a job well done."
In conjunction with the Your Career Expo, JRA is running an online poll which measures the engagement profile of New Zealand. Go to www.jra.co.nz/poll to complete the quick, six-question survey and let's see what the engagement profile of employees looks like this year.
