It’s the start of a new year and with that comes time to reflect, refocus and reset your employee performance objectives and associated performance development plans.

There are many good reasons for taking a fresh look at your people development plans, including to support performance targets and to address capability gaps, however one of the most compelling for many organisations in 2022 will be to counter the ‘Great Resignation’.

Improve employee engagement

Last year Microsoft reported that more than 40% of people globally were considering leaving their employers (as reported by the ABC). The ‘Great Resignation’ is a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic which forced people at all levels of the workforce to reconsider what was important to them – and how their work life was impacted.  This meant that people started to look for more work-life balance, role satisfaction or even a new career. Employees are now actively looking for ways they can reshape their work life – so it’s a good time to consider what your organisation does to retain staff.

We’ve been in the people development and coaching world for over 30 years and we’ve seen time and time again that organisations with high levels of engagement have high employee satisfaction and retention levels. Simply, the more engaged your employees are at work, the more likely they are to stay.

So how can you lift engagement? There are many ways to keep your people motivated, and a fundamental one is to encourage people to take an active role in the creation of their personal development plans.  A development plan that considers people’s personal career aspirations can drive personal growth and lead to a range of benefits for your employee and the workplace.

Ask your people what they want professionally and seek opportunities within your organisation to support those goals. Helping people to meet career goals, learn new skills, or lift capability to meet a performance target will show employees, in a practical way that your organisation wants to invest in its people.

Let your people know that you’re putting them first by centring their needs and personal development goals.

Achieve your organisation’s mission

What’s your organisation’s mission and how does that translate to employee development goals? Now’s a great time to look at your business’s mission and vision and consider what that means for your people development plans.

Are there opportunities to update your approach to goal setting based on the organisational mission?

How do you create a personal performance plan?

 Take the time to consider the ways you can support people:

Use your coaching sessions to uncover people’s personal aspirations. Ask the right questions and really listen to the answers.

Spark conversations that address people’s needs and areas for personal growth. There are many areas of personal growth in the workplace ­– make sure you’re not solely focused on outputs and performance measures.

Look for practical ways to support people to achieve their career goals. What are the resources that you’ll need to provide? Are there workplace opportunities, such as giving people the opportunity to run a team meeting or work in another role, you can give your people to help them grow?

Remember to track how your people are going. Are they engaged? Are they still journeying towards their performance goals or has the performance plan been forgotten (if so, you’re likely to have an unengaged employee)? Use dedicated coaching sessions to keep on top of the plan.

Ask your employee to drive the process. Ask them to identify and write out their longer-term career aspirations, short term performance goals and the targets that they want to achieve daily.

Log the goals. Make sure both you and your team member have real time visibility over their performance plan by using a system like YakTrak.

Why not find out how you can use YakTrak to improve engagement and coaching in your organisation or get in contact with us today.