This report from the Aberdeen Group dives into the manager’s role in employee engagement and the importance of manager tools in driving success in the workplace. Through an aggregated view of research, surveys, interviews, and data analysis, Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success examines the new role of technology in talent management.

1. This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies provide for objective fact-based research and
represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc.
and may not be reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by Aberdeen Group, Inc.
March 2013
Empowering Managers to Drive Employee
Success
Today’s workforce is in a state of constant change. Organizations both large
and small struggle with global expansion, the retirement of Baby Boomers,
and the shortage of key skills. As a result, the practice of Human Capital
Management (HCM) is no longer an HR initiative but a critical business
endeavor. Yet, according to Aberdeen’s HCM Trends 2013: It’s a Brave New
World report, only 38% of organizations align their talent and business
strategies. One way that organizations think more strategically about their
HCM efforts is by empowering managers with the data and tools they need
to drive employee success. In order to improve business results, managers
need solutions to help them understand activity within their team and
highlight areas to manage and optimize top talent. Unfortunately, most
managers lack the competencies needed to develop and engage employees
and most technology providers fail to deliver in this area. Achievers is one
provider that understands the critical role managers play in driving business
outcomes. Through its latest product release, Einstein, it has made a
commitment to improving both employee performance as well as business
results.
The Business of Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is a top priority for today's managers. It is now
embedded in corporate brand strategies, communication from senior
leaders, and organizational value statements. Yet, despite this enthusiasm,
engagement levels are still dangerously low for many organizations and most
managers lack the insight and resources to tackle this challenge. According
to Aberdeen’s 2012 The Rules of Employee Engagement: Communicating,
Collaborating and Aligning with the Business report, the top pressures facing
today’s organizations all have a direct impact on managers more than any
other role in the organization including productivity, retention, and agility
(Figure 1). In order to overcome these challenges, organizations need to
revamp their strategies and directly involve managers in employee
engagement efforts.
Analyst Insight
Aberdeen’s Insights provide the
analyst's perspective on the
research as drawn from an
aggregated view of research
surveys, interviews, and
data analysis.

2. Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success
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© 2013 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
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Figure 1: Pressures Driving Employee Engagement
Source: Aberdeen Group, July 2012
When managers are responsible for employee engagement, they are more
likely to link these strategies to performance. Engagement becomes more
than a buzzword and instead, an initiative that is directly tied to employee
success and the bottom line. Too often engagement and performance are
disjointed strategies without a vision to align them. Aberdeen’s 2011 The
Engagement / Performance Equation report found that when engagement is
linked to performance, many other critical, company-wide metrics are
improved as well, including hiring the best talent, bench strength, overall
organizational performance, and customer retention (Figure 2). Clearly,
managers are the key to linking engagement to performance in order to give
organizations a competitive advantage.
Best-in-Class Definition
In Aberdeen’s July 2011 The
Engagement / Performance
Equation report, the following
key performance indicators
(KPIs) were used to distinguish
the Best-in-Class (top 20% of
aggregate performers) from the
Industry Average (middle 50%)
and Laggard (bottom 30%)
organizations, with mean
performance among the Best-
in-Class as follows:
√ 71% of employees rated
“exceeds expectations” on
their most recent
performance review
√ 62% of employees rated
themselves as “highly
engaged” in the most recent
engagement survey
√ 11% year-over-year
improvement in employee
retention

3. Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success
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© 2013 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897
Figure 2: Impact of Engagement and Performance
Source: Aberdeen Group, June 2011
Managers Make a Difference
Most organizations focus on how HR will identify, manage, and optimize
talent yet ignore the role of the manager in this process. Additionally, few
technology providers offer solutions that target managers when considering
workforce and talent initiatives. Achievers is focusing on managers and the
critical role they play in driving employee success. With the launch of their
Einstein product, Achievers links engagement and performance by offering
managers greater analytics, integration, and transparency.
Analytics
With the right analytics, managers will have the right information to make
data-driven decisions around their team, such as identifying high-performers.
Despite a high demand for better data, analytics in HCM remains incredibly
complex and complicated. Few HR professionals and technology providers
have been able to simplify the process in a way that organizations can collect
data, assemble it into useful information, and deliver reports to senior
leaders. As HCM professionals look to become more strategic for the
business, analytics is only useful to the point of decision — to help managers
take action and drive business results. According to Aberdeen’s 2012
Analytics in Action report, one way that organizations simplify analytics is
through dashboards provided to both senior executives and managers. The
Best-in-Class are 70% more likely than Industry Average and Laggard
organizations combined to provide these dashboards.
Best-in-Class Definition
In Aberdeen’s March 2012
Analytics into Action report, the
following KPIs were used to
distinguish the Best-in-Class
(top 20% of aggregate
performers) from the Industry
Average (middle 50%) and
Laggard (bottom 30%)
organizations, with mean
performance among the Best-
in-Class as follows:
√ 87% of organizational goals
achieved in the past year
√ 52% of employees received
an "exceeds expectations" or
better rating in their most
recent performance review
√ 73% of key roles have at
least one ready and willing
successor identified

4. Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success
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© 2013 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897
Figure 3: Visibility of Dashboards
Source: Aberdeen Group, April 2012
Improving and simplifying analytics is a key objective of Achievers’ Einstein
release. Through easy-to-use, customizable dashboards, managers get the
information they need to identify team and individual performance based on
recognition information. Managers have different options for viewing these
dashboards, and the entire solution is self-service, which means that
managers can pull the reports whenever they need them. In addition to
customizable dashboards, Einstein's reports can be exported in any format
and also shared through social media.
Integration
The current HCM technology space is incredibly fragmented. A majority of
organizations operate with disparate solutions for areas of talent
management, workforce management, and core HR. Even many of the
solution providers who have acquired new products over the years have
failed to integrate them. In fact, according to Aberdeen’s 2013 HCM Trends
report, integration is a top criterion for technology selection in 2013 (28%)
after price (41%) and ease of use (38%). As Figure 3 below shows, this
systems integration between talent and workforce management pays
significant dividends. What is even more telling of the benefits of integrating
workforce and talent management systems is their impact on readiness.
Organizations with an integrated view across workforce and talent data are
more likely to have engaged employees as well as to be focused on
developing their employees and ensuring that they have the right succession
plans in place to power future business results. Seventy-one percent (71%)
of organizations with integrated systems have employees that rated
themselves as engaged compared to 58% of organizations with no
integration.
Best-in-Class Definition
In Aberdeen’s January 2013
Human Capital Management
Trends report, the following
KPIs were used to distinguish
the Best-in-Class (top 20% of
aggregate performers) from the
Industry Average (middle 50%)
and Laggard (bottom 30%)
organizations, with mean
performance among the Best-
in-Class as follows:
√ 81% of employees rated
themselves as “highly
engaged” in their most
recent engagement survey
√ 71% of key positions have a
ready and willing successor
identified
√ 13% year-over-year
improvement in hiring
manager satisfaction

5. Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success
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© 2013 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897
Figure 4: Impact of Integration (Year-over-Year Improvement)
Source: Aberdeen Group, May 2012
Einstein can serve as the integration point between various HR systems and
the point of entry for employees and managers. It integrates with every
human resource information system (HRIS) system and can help connect
these systems with various talent management and workforce management
systems in place. Deloitte Canada is an example of one company that
leverages Achievers and its “Stand-Up” employee recognition program to
bring together various social enterprise solutions.
Transparency
To make the most of HCM, talent and business leaders must work together
to achieve shared objectives and create greater transparency. Currently,
73% of Best-in-Class organizations in Aberdeen’s 2013 HCM Trends report
have key business stakeholders involved in HCM strategies compared to
51% of Industry Average organizations and 34% of Laggard organizations.
This step is a critical foundation to get everyone aligned and on the same
page before adopting the most common organizational capability cited by
top performers: holding line of business leaders accountable for recruiting,
development, performance management, and other aspects of talent
management within their teams.
Einstein helps organizations achieve this level of transparency and
collaboration through their “Managers Corner” tools, which consists of
three major features: Results-Driver, My Team, and Connections. These
solutions help organizations address a wide variety of both talent and
business challenges, including improving employee referral programs,
increasing company loyalty, addressing the transfer of knowledge between
generational groups, and implementing wellness campaigns.

6. Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success
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© 2013 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897
• Results-Driver allows organizations to create campaigns to address
business challenges and develop goals that will translate into actions;
• My Team gives managers real-time insight into their teams'
performance, recognition, and communication activities;
• Connections allows managers to see their “sphere of influence” and
how their teams work together by tracking who is being recognized
and when.
Key Takeaways
As business evolves, organizations need to rely on a different set of tools
and strategies to address shifts in the workforce. Above all else, HCM
objectives must align with business objectives and managers must play a
critical role in creating this synergy. When managers have the right
information, tools, and resources to help manage and optimize their talent,
they are able to drive business outcomes such as engagement, performance,
and productivity. Achievers is one provider that focuses on the ways that
managers can promote employee success through its latest release, Einstein.
Managers will now have greater access to data, stronger usability and
integration between HR systems, and the tools necessary to help improve
talent and business initiatives.
For more information on this or other research topics, please visit
www.aberdeen.com.

7. Empowering Managers to Drive Employee Success
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© 2013 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897
Related Research
The Talent Acquisition Lifecycle: From
Sourcing to Onboarding; September
2011
Assessments 2011: Selecting and
Developing for the Future; May 2011
The 2011 HR Executives Agenda:
Automation, Innovation and Growth;
December 2010
Talent Acquisition Strategies 2010:
Candidate Experience and Relationship
Management Come of Age; August 2010
Succession Management: Sustainable
Leadership for the Future; July 2010
Competency Management: The
Foundation for Talent Success;
December 2009
Author: Madeline Laurano, Research Director, Talent Acquisition Solutions
(madeline.laurano@aberdeen.com)
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This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies
provide for objective fact-based research and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless
otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc. and may not be
reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by
Aberdeen Group, Inc. (2013a)