Why We Need To Do Yearly Employee Assessments

Around 85% of the world’s workforce are not engaged or actively disengaged at work, according to Gallup’s 2017State of the Global Workplace report. In a breakdown of the figures, Gallup’s research – covering more than 150 countries – suggests that 18% of people are actively disengaged at work, while a staggering 67% are simply not engaged. The latter group makes up the majority of the workforce. While they’re not the worst performers, they are the workers who are doing little more than the bare minimum in their time at work.

Globally, it is estimated that this trend in employee engagement costs companies an astonishing USD7 trillion in lost productivity. To put that into perspective, that’s more than Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and just less than China’s GDP. A leading scientist in workplace management practice, Dr Jim Harter puts it,

“This global engagement pattern provides evidence that how performance is managed, and specifically how people are being developed, is misfiring.”

Interestingly, Harter’s point on development is a key ingredient for how organisations grow.

Are you developing your talents well? 

If talents are being developed well and progressing within their role, engagement, creativity and morale increases. If employees feel like they’re simply showing up to clock their time, that’s a situation where no one wins.
As a business leader, can you really afford to have people giving you their time but not their best ideas or strongest commitment?

Today, our world doesn’t just provide challenges for leaders in terms of industry competition – there’s also the recognition that employees have so many options now compared to decades ago. One of the most important factors for employees in their career choices is to consider how well they are being developed and how many opportunities for growth they receive within an organisation.

From an employer’s perspective, it creates significant benefits to have employees who are not only motivated, but who are self-aware in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, and how they can build on those strengths and make improvements where necessary.

READ: A Candidate’s Guide To Assessment Centres

A strong case for employee assessment

At Leaderonomics, employee assessment is taken very seriously. We built our Assessment business, with the determination to help organisations and their people make the most of their capabilities and potential in a way that boosts moral and engagement, and translates it into greater productivity. For organisations to stay ahead of the game, assessment services provide valuable, holistic insights into key areas of performance, competencies, creativity, and innovation. But we didn't stop there. We realised that employee assessment should be not just a yearly process but a daily, weekly and even monthly process (in addition to being able to give good quarterly feedback to employees on their performance, areas to improve and ideas to incorporate into their work). And, through technology, we have built an app called Happily and Budaya, that allows you to be able to get daily input, understanding and intelligence on your employees.

Check out this quick video below:

Some leaders might wonder why talent assessments are necessary, and while there are many benefits to undertaking annual assessments. Here are three key reasons why assessments are vital:

1. They set the standard for performance management and employee development.
2. They enable the implementation of a solid succession plan and leadership pipeline.
3. They provide clear indication of areas in which change needs to happen within an organisation.

Real people, real benefits 

At Leaderonomics, we aim to align our assessment services to reflect as closely as possible the everyday working environment of an organisation. To that end, we never take a one-size-fits-all approach to our assessments, but rather provide services that are tailored to the needs and vision of each business. Among the things we do differently includes having employees being assessed while engaging in real conversations, conflicts and challenges through usage of real experiences and gamification. With our services, there are unique benefits for employers who enable a robust plan of action for significant growth, development and empowerment.

These benefits of our assessments include:

1. Greater accuracy compared to conventional recruitment/promotion process
2. Standardised, reliable measuring tool for all candidates
3. An objective report based on select competencies
4. The opportunity to thoroughly differentiate candidates who appear similar on paper

Invest now for tomorrow’s growth 

Gallup’s extensive 2017 research shows that organisations who take part in regular interventions, such as annual talent assessments, enjoy an increase of between 10–19% in sales compared to those who don’t. In additions, organisations who invest in their people through talent assessments see a rise in profits from between 14–29%, compared to companies who struggle to raise the bar in terms of profitability and productivity. As noted by Gallup, countries such as Malaysia in Southeast Asia need

“rapid expansion of its formal-sector economies to achieve growth in the number of good jobs.
“The growth will depend largely on how well existing businesses can harness the energy and enthusiasm seen in much of the region through people-centred management.”

Compared to times gone by, when employee engagement and regular assessment were seen as peripheral luxuries within the business world, they lie at the heart of organisational growth and expansion. Effective people-centred management is now a must for business leaders who wish to retain their high-performers and see their organisations to thrive.

Unleash your people’s potential

The team at Leaderonomics are constantly aware of the potential and opportunity that exist within Asia’s talent pool and industry. That’s why we take our assessments seriously, providing a range of services such as psychometric profiling and ability tests; business simulations; role plays; presentations and pitch outs, and so much more. In fact, according to our key customers, the experience of a Leaderonomics Assessment not only open the eyes of individuals to their development gaps and areas to improve, it is also a major development intervention in their professional growth and maturity as a leader.

While it’s worrying that 85% of the global workforce is disengaged from their work, we believe that it doesn’t have to remain that way. In fact, many of our clients have noted impressive turnarounds in their productivity and engagement levels after working with us.
The assessment team at Leaderonomics like to remind organisations that we don’t create their potential for them, we just give them the tools to help them discover and unleash the best of their people and company culture. From there, there’s no limit to what organisations can achieve.

To find out more about assessment or culture transformation projects that may work for your organisation, email info@leaderonomics.com