Employee Management: Definition, Processes & Examples

Do you know that employee management is a crucial factor in determining your organization’s success or failure? It is becoming increasingly evident that an organization’s success depends on the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of its employees.

Organizations thrive when they effectively harness the power of their employees’ unique strengths. At HIGH5, we understand that employee management can be the most challenging aspect of a manager’s job, particularly because each individual brings their own set of goals, motivations, and talents to the table. This is where a strengths-based approach becomes invaluable. By utilizing tools like the HIGH5 strengths assessment, managers can gain deep insights into each employee’s inherent talents, making the task of employee management not just manageable, but truly transformative. This approach allows managers to align tasks with natural abilities, fostering a work environment where employees feel valued, engaged, and empowered to contribute their best.

However, because employees are essential to your organization’s success, employee management is a skill you must master. In this article, we will help you to understand the definition, importance and benefit of employee management. We will walk you through the five-step employee management process.

You will also discover the common mistakes to avoid and strategies to implement employee management effectively in the workplace. We will also show you how to measure employees’ performance and choose the right tools to implement them.

What is Employee Management? Definition & Meaning

Employee management is an approach to supporting your employees to reach their peak performance and meet your company’s goals. Employee management is a comprehensive process that encompasses practically all aspects of human resources.

It includes talent acquisition, employee onboarding and employee engagement, performance management, and compensation and benefit. Talent acquisition entails discovering and recruiting the best candidates to fill open positions within the organization.

Onboarding and engagement refer to engaging and motivating new and existing employees. It includes giving employees training and resources to learn about their roles and responsibilities and align with the company culture.

Performance management is the process of assessing and evaluating employee performance. Praise, recognition, and monetary prizes are part of compensation and benefit. Managers provide incentives to employees as a result of their outstanding performance and contribution in the workplace.

Managers’ skills in motivating, communicating, and creating trust with their subordinates are crucial to effective employee management. Great manager knows that they should act as a coach for their employees. They recognize the employees’ contribution, and at the same time, will challenge them to improve continuously.

Why Employee Management Process is Critically Important & List of 4 Key Benefits

Improves the efficiency of your organization’s workflows.

You’ll have no trouble simplifying workflows if you manage your employees well. Furthermore, when your company has a proper structure and system in place, you will be able to:

• Hire individuals that have the right skill set for the job.
• Easy to monitor employees’ work deliverables to verify that tasks/projects are running smoothly.
• Communicate effectively with employees to ensure that they are aware of the project’s requirements.
• Congratulate and reward them for their outstanding work to keep them motivated.
• Step in and resolve the problem when things are not going as planned.

Boosts employee’s productivity and motivation

When employees feel unappreciated, they often become disengaged, significantly impacting their productivity. This is where a strengths-based approach, like the HIGH5 strengths assessment, can be transformative. By identifying and leveraging each employee’s unique strengths, managers can create a work environment where employees feel genuinely valued for their inherent talents. The HIGH5 test not only helps employees understand their top strengths but also guides managers in appreciating and utilizing these strengths effectively, leading to increased engagement and productivity.

Having a proper employee management system in place allows you to connect with your employees more personally. You can also solicit feedback from them to improve your current work systems and processes.

You will also give the impression to the employees that their input is welcomed and considered when making company-related decisions. As a result, employee engagement improves because they feel that they are a part of the organization.

Keep your data safe and secure

Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the rise of remote working around the world. Thus, it becomes increasingly vital to keep all your sensitive and confidential business data in a secure place.

By keeping a close eye on and managing your employees are essential in keeping your confidential files and data safe.

Reduce employee costs

One of the biggest problems that many organizations are facing is employee turnover. The average cost of replacing a salaried employee, according to a CAP survey, is 6 to 9 months of their annual income.

Therefore, employee turnover is considered one of the most costly expenses for organizations, big or small. As mentioned above, happy and engaged employees are the outcome of effective employee management. When your employees are happy in the workplace, they are less inclined to leave your organization.

Pro Tip From HIGH5

Use the HIGH5 strengths assessment to create a ‘Strengths Map’ of your team. This visual representation can help you understand how different team members’ strengths complement each other, allowing for more effective task allocation and team building.

Employee Management – 5 Steps for Effectively Manage Your Employees

Step 1: Adopt an Open Communication Policy

As a manager, you should create an open and safe environment for your employees. It gives employees a safe place to express their ideas and opinions without fear of criticism and judgment. You can provide updates and announcements to keep everyone updated with the latest news in the organization.

Step 2: Set Clear Expectations

Make sure that you know what needs to be done before setting any goals. Then, be as explicit and as straightforward as possible when you convey it to your employees.

If your employees are clear about the goals and expectations, they can start getting to work immediately. Setting SMART goals is an excellent method to ensure you set clear expectations and goals.

Step 3: Invest in employee development

Providing new challenges and responsibilities tailored to employees’ strengths can significantly boost motivation and professional development. The HIGH5 strengths assessment offers a powerful tool for identifying these inherent talents. By understanding an employee’s top five strengths, managers can assign tasks and responsibilities that align with these natural abilities. This strengths-based approach not only expands employees’ skill sets but also allows them to contribute more meaningfully to your company, as they’re operating from a position of strength and confidence.

Step 4: Create a sense of trust

Employee productivity and motivation are influenced by their level of trust in the organization. If employees do not believe you trust them enough, they will most likely be demotivated and perform poorly at work.

Step 5. Provide reward and recognition

Rewarding your employees shows that you recognize and value their effort. Most organizations have a reward system that is closely linked to employee performance. As a result, employees are motivated to be more productive and efficient to earn monetary rewards.

Strategies & Techniques for Employee Management in the Workplace

Rewarding your employees shows that you recognize and value their effort. Most organizations have a reward system that is closely linked to employee performance. As a result, employees are motivated to be more productive and efficient to earn monetary rewards.

Build trust

Creating a trustworthy environment is essential for building strong relationships with your employees, and a strengths-based approach can be a game-changer in this process. By utilizing tools like the HIGH5 strengths assessment, managers can gain deep insights into each team member’s unique talents and potential. This understanding fosters trust as employees feel seen and valued for their authentic selves. Moreover, when managers use this knowledge to assign tasks and roles that align with individual strengths, it demonstrates trust in employees’ abilities, further strengthening the relationship and creating a positive, high-performance work culture.

Here is how to go about it:

• Respect their privacy: Allow your employees enough freedom and space to do work on their own.
• Stop micromanaging: Checking everything or telling your employees to do things your way will make them feel insecure.
• Avoid giving constant feedback: Practice giving employees feedback when it is necessary. Don’t jump in with your two cents on every little detail.

Invest in employees’ development and career growth

Here are some ideas for how you might assist your employees in their professional development:

• Provide them with in-house training, coaching, or mentorship programs.
• Ensure that your company instills a culture of learning.
• Work together with employees to determine their development goals.

Encourage open communication

One way you can do this is by being visible and transparent. Maintain an open-door policy to show your employees that you are always accessible to chat with them. Spend time walking around the office and talking to your employees.

Remember to listen with genuine interest when your employees are talking to you. It’s critical to communicate to your employees that their needs are your priority.

Set clear goals and expectations

Keep your goals and expectations SMART:

• Specific – Don’t be ambiguous about your objectives. Tell them exactly what you expect and want.
• Measurable – Make sure goals are quantified so you can track your progress.
• Achievable – Set goals that can be attainable with the available resources and skillsets of your employees.
• Relevant – Set realistic expectations and ensure that the goals align with the company’s broader business objectives.
• Time-bound – Provide your employees with a realistic deadline to achieve the objectives you set.

Pro Tip From HIGH5

In your next team meeting, have each member share one of their top strengths from their HIGH5 assessment and how they’ve used it recently in their work. This exercise promotes open communication and helps team members appreciate each other’s unique contributions.

5 Examples of Employee Management Systems

1. Performance Monitoring Tools

Such tools can help you to monitor your employees’ productivity level, tasks and duration they spent working on each task. It can also help you to guard against employees who may be inactive during work hours.

Some performance monitoring tools have distraction management and report analysis. This feature allows you to monitor your employees’ use of websites while at work and how they spend their time working.

2. HR Management Tools

If you plan on adopting a successful employee management system, HR management tools are essential. HR software streamlines your HR activities to make better decisions. It also allows you to keep all your employee data and information under one platform.

3. Communication Tools

It doesn’t matter if they work remotely or in the office; communication is key for collaboration. Employees need to be in frequent contact with each other to ensure work gets done. That’s why investing in an app that can help your employees to streamline the communication process is highly critical.

4. File-Sharing Tools

One of the essential components of employee management is having everyone on the same page. Employees can keep each other up to speed about project advancements with cloud-based file-sharing software. It is also an excellent tool to help your employees to collaborate and share important documents.

5. Project Management Tools

Choosing the Right Tools for Employee Management

Asana: A regular team project management app. It helps you to manage your company’s objectives, goals, and tasks.

Slack: Slack helps you to simplify your team’s communication. The tool is a feature-packed but straightforward messaging tool.

Google Drive, Dropbox, or Evernote: A cloud-based storage system where you can save all your important documents (such as employee handbooks and forms). All this information is available on the cloud and is accessible by your employees wherever and whenever they need it.

How to Measure Employee Performance?

Improving employee performance is an ongoing process that involves not just measurement and evaluation, but also understanding and leveraging individual strengths. While traditional metrics are important, incorporating a strengths-based approach, such as the HIGH5 strengths assessment, can provide a more holistic view of employee potential and performance. By identifying an employee’s top five strengths, managers can align tasks and goals with natural talents, leading to improved engagement and productivity. This strengths-focused strategy complements traditional performance measures, offering a more nuanced and effective approach to reaching organizational goals.

Here are a few ways you can assess your employees’ work performance:

Surveys using Likert scales.

A typical survey employs a Likert scale to grade an employee’s relative performance in specific categories, such as 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. The scales are usually used to measure the behavioral elements of employees. You can customize the scales to fit your company’s needs.

360-degree feedback.

This method is used to get a holistic view (comments, opinions, and judgments) of an employee’s performance from different stakeholders. The stakeholders are usually the employee’s team members, peers and direct supervisor. You can find out the positives, negatives and trends of an employee’s performance through multiple input sources.

Self-Evaluation.

It can be beneficial to ask an employee to evaluate his/her performance. Self-evaluation form can be in multiple-choice questions, essay-type answers or a combination of both formats. Comparing an employee’s self-evaluation to your appraisal can help you uncover similarities and differences. It can also give you a better understanding of the employee’s performance.

Management by Objectives (MBO).

It is a process that involves collaboration between employees and managers to set goals. They will set goals aligned with the organization’s broader goals and ways to measure performance together. MBO allows employees to feel involved in the process, which can improve communication and team motivation.

Pro Tip From HIGH5

Incorporate strengths-based questions in your performance reviews. Ask employees how they’ve used their top HIGH5 strengths in their recent projects. This approach not only measures performance but also encourages employees to consciously apply their strengths in their work.

Common Mistakes in Employee Management

1. Employees are not viewed as people

Outside of work, employees have a life too. Their loved ones, hobbies, and interests are all important and could impact their work. Recognizing this and striving to get to know your employees as a person can benefit the organization in many ways. You can also develop a group of committed and loyal employees.

Understanding your employees at a deeper level makes you a better manager. You will also become more responsive to their needs, life events and emotions.

2. Provide judgemental feedback

You risk alienating your employees when you pass your judgment during feedback sessions. Instead of blaming employees for their mistakes, you can guide them to learn from those mistakes.

3. Not giving enough feedback

4. No clear direction and goals

Employees will feel more empowered and motivated if they have clear expectations of what they are expected to do. Making every assignment a priority, or failing to prioritize anything at all, can be irritating for employees.

Managers should assign work, establish priorities, and keep employees accountable for the quality of their work.

5. Not being transparent and honest with your employees

To be more transparent with your employees, you can share your plans or business updates directly. By doing this, you will build a sense of ownership and enthusiasm among your employees. You will also create an open and honest environment where they can contribute their ideas to solve problems faster.

6. Ignoring Employee Input

Dismissing employees’ opinions and ideas is a way you will lose their trust very quickly. A manager should encourage employees to voice their concerns and ideas. Spend time understanding from them which area, system, or process that the company can improve.

Making sure that you implement change based on their input is a way of demonstrating that you value their opinions.

Bonus Tip: Employee Management for Small Business

Few companies are adept at managing their employees, keeping them happy, and maximizing their potential. If you can find a way to become skilled in these areas, you’ll gain an unrivaled competitive advantage over your competitors.

Here we will share a few tips on how you can manage your employee effectively as a small business owner.

1. Don’t stop recruiting.

Recruiting is a form of networking. When you look at it this way, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t hire somebody even if you don’t have an opening to fill. You’re merely preparing your company to be ready for an unexpected change or opportunity.

2. Master the Interview.

Recruiting is crucial, but more importantly, it is the kind of employees you hire. Dig deeper and find out how candidates think, in addition to asking competency and experience-based interview questions. This will assist you in weeding out people who may have a negative influence on your workplace culture.

3. Make Onboarding Smoother.

The first impression of your company is usually made during onboarding. An unsatisfactory onboarding process breeds resentment, misunderstanding, and a lack of trust. Put effort to create a smooth strategic onboarding process that is easy to replicate.

4. Streamline Payroll Management.

Using an all-in-one payroll and HR software helps you to automate all HR-related administrative tasks for you. Investing in HR software is worth it in the long run. It is significantly less expensive and saves you valuable time.

5. Hire From Within.

Hiring from within allows you to fuel your employees’ optimism and engagement. As a result, you can also improve employee retention by keeping talented employees longer within the company. Employees who believe they have a chance for promotion will stay longer to see if they can get it.

Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Management

Why is Employee Management Considered as a Continuous Process?

Employee management is a set of interconnected functions and processes. It’s the method by which management forms, runs, and directs an organization through systematic, coordinated, and cooperative effort.

How can Effective Employee Management be Influenced and Maintained?

Managers can influence employee performance in several ways, including constructive feedback, performance appraisals, etc. These strategies, however, will fail unless the manager understands his employees’ aspirations and goals.

An authoritative manager will receive less loyalty and productivity from their employees.

What Employee Management Books Should I Read?

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
2. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You
3. Crucial Conversations
4. How to Win Friends and Influence People