Empowering Managers to Enhance Employee Relationships

A positive Manager employee relationship in an organisation plays a pivotal role in overall engagement and low turnover. Empowering Leaders with the right tools to become authentic Managers goes a long way in enhancing the Manager employee relationship.      

In PwC Australia’s Future of Work outlook found the ability to build and maintain relationships in the workplace has been compromised and impacts the overall experience in the workplace. Someone might join for the pay or that promotion but stay because of their networks and relationships. In Gallup’s global survey, measuring the engagement of 27 million employees, it concluded that one in two employees have left a job to get away from a manager.  

Much of our research shows a strong correlation in recognition and rewards activity, and a stronger manager relationship. To achieve that, organisations need to empower Managers with the right recognition and rewards tools. But let's take a look at what that actually means, and how BI Worldwide can better empower your managers.  

Manager Discretionary recognition 

Turnover is 4x higher among employees with the lowest ‘recognitions with awards’ receiving rates compared to the highest rate of receiving recognition with awards.  
^{(Source BI WORLWIDE meta-analysis global study)}

Receiving praise from a leader goes a long way in feeling appreciated for the effort that we are putting in. Recognition with a personal comment from a leader has a material impact on the level of commitment and intensity of that commitment. Adding discretionary award points magnifies that impact and empowers leaders to give meaningful rewards to their team members. DayMaker is our comprehensive employee recognition online platform, offering a comprehensive range of modules in recognition, nominations, rewards, learning, gamification, incentives and much more.  

On The Spot cards 

Managers’ ability to effectively reward and recognise achievement can increase employees’ discretionary effort and intent to stay with an organisation by up to 22.7% and 31.6%, respectively.
^{(Source: Corporate Executive Board)} 

On The Spot (OTS) cards are a great way to reinforce an observed behaviour. OTS cards are physical cards containing points that are handed to recipients. Some common behaviours are project milestones or project completion, holiday giving and appreciation, or a thank you gesture. It brings in an element of surprise and delight to the recognition experience while keeping it meaningful. Awarded points can be redeemed for a wide array of rewards including merchandise, travel, and experiences. 

Celebrations Moment 

Employees who believe their managers understand them are 12 times more likely to feel they belong and to feel inspired at work. 
If managers neglect their employees, they are 8 times less likely to feel valued for their work and be committed to their organisations. 
^{(Source: BIW 12 Rules of Engagement Surveys)} 

The lines between work and personal have blurred, with many of us working from home and giving our co-workers glimpses of our pets, children and dining rooms that double as desks. Those lines continue to intersect as many companies have a work from anywhere policy or an established hybrid model. And when we’re not together, it can become more difficult to stay connected and feel inspired. 

A BI WORLDWIDE global survey found employees want to be recognised authentically for ALL the moments that matter, such as. 

• Job promotions 
• Retirements 
• Outstanding performance 
• Team accomplishments 
• Personal milestones 
• New births 
• Birthdays 
• Engagements / weddings 
• Retirement / Farewell  
• Sports and Wellness 

People want to celebrate personal and professional milestones and organisations want to foster a sense of belonging. This is evident in our research highlighting a clear link between celebrating these moments and a high employee Net Promoter Score. Therefore, these milestones and achievements deserve to be recognised and celebrated in style.  

BI WORLDWIDE’s Celebration Moments Module is a quick and easy way to create an unforgettable celebration experience, in a personalised and memorable way. It empowers Leaders and employees to celebrate work and personal achievements seamlessly online, and invite colleagues to contribute creative and unique messages. 

Equity and Inclusion Advisor 

Nearly half of employees believe their manager gives some employees preferential treatment. 
When we asked managers, 88% of them said I want to be an equitable and inclusive leader. But when we asked employees to rate their managers, only 52% of employees rated them as such. 
^{(Source: BIW 12 Rules of Engagement Surveys)} 

As humans we all have some level of unconscious bias, no matter how well intentioned they may be. That is why it is important to empower Leaders with the tools to better understand how inclusive their recognition and rewards activity is among their team members.     

Our Equity and Inclusion Advisor Module does just that. Equity and Inclusion Advisor synthesizes all recognition activity and distills into clear, need-to-know feedback for managers to be more equitable and inclusive. Managers can act on the feedback in just one click. 

• Informs managers about their team’s activity, distribution of recognition and points, and individuals at risk for isolation.  
• Fights unconscious bias by nudging managers giving unbalanced recognition to review.  
• Encourages cross-functional connections and recognition from leadership to lower-level employees.  
• Suggests behaviours for managers to recognise that are tied to inclusive cultures in our global research. 

Recieveing meaningful recognition fairly and authentically from Managers makes employees feel more inspired, more motivated to take on learning and development intititives, and feel more inclusive (BIW 12 Rules of Engagement Survey). And in addition and most importantly, employees feel they had a stronger manager relationship.