If you’re a
leader looking to improve employee engagement and performance at your
organization, it pays to spend time working with the people who can deliver
more impact than any other—managers.

Middle managers
play a key role in employee engagement, creating a respectful and trusting
relationship with their direct reports, communicating company values and
setting expectations for the day-to-day business of any organization.

The relationship
between an employee and their manager is one of the top drivers of employee
engagement and leading indicators of employee turnover. When that relationship
is strained, it can create a disconnect between an individual and their
motivation to do their best work. When a manager is leading effectively, their
team members are much more likely to be engaged.

But middle
managers need to be empowered by being given larger responsibilities, trained
for their expanded roles and more involved in strategic decisions. If an
organization’s executives and HR professionals want to hold managers
accountable for the engagement levels, they should:

Make sure that
managers and employees have the tools to do their jobs correctly.

Periodically
assign managers larger, more exciting roles.

Give managers
appropriate authority.

Accelerate
leadership development efforts.

Ask managers to
convey the corporate mission and vision and to help transform the organization.

In fact,
research shows higher manager capability increases the likelihood of both
employee engagement and performance. And that, in turn, supports bottom-line
results. Organizations that see highly engaged, strong performers are almost
twice as likely to report growth in revenue and profitability compared to those
with low performance and engagement.

Bringing
managers into the fold and giving them ownership over engagement initiatives
can be hugely beneficial and make transformation happen faster. After all,
managers know the day-to-day challenges of employees best, and the organization
can only win when teams are firing on all cylinders.

Invite managers
to partner with your leadership team to determine ideal employee engagement
outcomes. Then, give them the space and autonomy they need to come up with
creative solutions to achieve those goals. Let them take ownership of how
changes are implemented and how those changes are communicated to employees.

The truth is, a
frontline manager can be an executive’s greatest ally in the war against
lackluster employee engagement. The challenge for business leaders is making
sure their managers are set up for success.