With the New Year, we tend to focus on new things: the new project we want to work on, the new employees we’ve been authorized to hire, or our new budget year. However, some things continue to weigh on our mind. For instance, employee engagement continues to be a challenge.



According to Dale Carnegie, 80% of employees are dissatisfied with their direct manager. 70% of employees lack confidence in senior leadership. And only 54% are proud of their company’s contributions. Disengaged employees cost business over $11B annually. Yes, that’s B as in Billion.



There is no silver bullet when it comes to solving employee engagement. But there are ways to increase engagement within the organization. One way is to maximize the potential of your talent management solutions. Here are five ways your talent management technology can help build employee engagement:



1. Onboarding – A key driver to employee engagement is making employees feel they contribute to the company’s success. What better way to do that than by making sure an employee starts their career the right way. An onboarding solution can welcome employees, answer their questions, and allow them to focus on becoming a productive member of the team. If you’re looking for some creative inspiration for your onboarding portal, check out SilkRoad’s ebook on Killer Portals.



2. Goal Setting – Once an employee has been welcomed into the organization, it’s time to set some goals. Ideally, an employee’s goals should directly relate to the department and company goals. This is easier said than done. Check out this infographic talking about the alignment of talent and business goals. A performance management solution as part of a talent management solution allows companies to make sure their goals stay congruent and provides employees a mechanism to track their progress towards completion.



3. Collaboration – Okay, so employees have goals. In order to accomplish them, they have to work with others. Goals are rarely accomplished And managers don’t have time to handle every question. Employees need to be self-managing. With today’s mobile workforce, employees need to connect with co-workers in different locations that work at various times. An enterprise collaboration solution offers employees the ability to seek out answers on their own.



4. Recognition – Employees that do good work and achieve their goals should be recognized. But we all know that employee recognition isn’t a “one size fits all”. A talent management system offers managers the ability to recognize employee accomplishments on a company-wide basis. It also allows other team members to congratulate an employee on their success. And you can create some healthy competition using gamification techniques for employees to earn top status on leaderboards or achievement badges.



5. Performance Management – All of the items we’ve discussed so far lead to one thing – excellent employee performance. Chances are employees who have been set up for success, given realistic and achievable goals, worked as a member of the team, and recognized for their work, aren’t dreading their performance appraisal. And chances are the employee’s manager isn’t either. A performance management system gives managers a way to document and discuss performance that helps employees grow with the organization.



Technology has the ability to touch every aspect of the employee life cycle. From welcoming employees to celebrating their successes. It’s possible you already have the capability to improve employee engagement in your existing talent management system.

- See more at: http://blog.silkroad.com/index.php/2015/01/5-ways-talent-management-system-can-improve-employee-engagement/#sthash.HYTusJGh.dpuf