The role of the line manager in employee engagement

The link between employee engagement and business performance is well documented. However, the link between the line manager and employee engagement is rather less well understood. That is one of the principal conclusions of a 2003 study into the relationship between organisational performance and the way people are managed, conducted by the Bath University School of Management for the CIPD¹. It makes the point that while senior managers and HR play the lead part in policy design, it is usually the line manager or team leader who is responsible for translating policy into company practice. Figure 1, below, shows the influence that line managers have over both performance and engagement.

Bath Model of People and Performance

(Click on the diagram to view the Bath Model of People and Performance)

Those conclusions are supported by Digital Opinion's own research. In our view line managers and team leaders do, indeed, play a key role in determining how effectively desired practices become embedded within the organisation and, through that, how engaged people are.

Our data indicates that, in many respects, line managers appear to be doing a good job. As a rule they appear to approachable and willing to listen, they provide guidance, are supportive and treat people with dignity and respect. Not surprisingly most employees report a good working relationship with their line manager.

However, when we look at how well line managers translate specific company policies into practice we tend to see a rather different picture, particularly in the area of performance management. Our data shows that very few line managers or team leaders are good at setting specific personal performance targets for their people or conducting useful performance appraisals or training reviews. Most notably, few are able to deal effectively with individuals who do not perform well.

The reasons are not hard to find. Line managers or team leaders might be expected to play a key role in people management but they seldom receive adequate training in that area. Nor is their own performance measured on the basis of how effective they are as people managers, or how well they engage their teams. As the Bath School of Management/CIPD report says: line managers are a critical but neglected resource in the delivery of performance.

Therefore, companies seeking to properly engage their people need to recognise the importance of line managers and team leaders in that process and review the time and resources they commit to developing their people management skills. They also need to start thinking about linking line managers' and team leaders' pay to people performance and engagement metrics. For many companies that would be a major step, but if we believe the evidence linking engagement to business performance, the rewards are potentially very high.

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