--- title: "Performance and Engagement: Better Together" customer: "Lattice" customerWebsite: "https://lattice.com/" datePublished: 2026-09-08 dateModified: 2026-09-08 sourceAssetType: "ebook" topics: ["employee-engagement", "performance-management", "manager-feedback", "employee-recognition", "retention"] canonical: "https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/" --- # Performance and Engagement: Better Together Integrating engagement and performance helps retain top performers, lift productivity, and improve business results through feedback, recognition, and goals. ## Key takeaways - Employee engagement and performance management reinforce each other: engaged employees perform better, and high performers are more likely to stay engaged. - The best starting point is to measure engagement regularly, segment results by top performers, and combine quantitative and qualitative feedback. - Recognition and feedback work best when they are specific, timely, regular, and supported by company-wide norms and tools. - Clear goals with employee buy-in increase commitment, intrinsic motivation, and day-to-day engagement. ## Why should employee engagement and performance management be integrated into one people strategy? Employee engagement and performance management should be integrated because they reinforce each other. When employees are highly engaged, they tend to be more productive, proactive, and motivated to contribute to the company’s success. When employees are high performing, they can see how their work positively affects the organisation, which makes them more likely to stay engaged and remain at the company. Decades of organisational research support this relationship. In a market shaped by declining average tenure, a widening global skills gap, and the continuing impact of the Great Resignation, integrating engagement and performance gives organisations a competitive edge in talent retention and development. The business case is strong. One report puts employee turnover at around 30% of an employee’s annual salary. Josh Bersin estimates turnover can cost organisations anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5x to 2x an employee’s annual salary. By contrast, engaged employees are more profitable, more productive, and more likely to stay. Gallup reports that engaged employees are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive. Research also shows that when organisations increase engagement by 1%, new business increases by 0.6%. Gallup reported that organisations that prioritise engagement can improve sales by 20%. ## How should organisations start measuring whether engagement is affecting performance? Organisations should start by measuring engagement regularly and segmenting the results by top performers. That approach helps HR teams see how high performers experience life at the company and identify when they may be at risk of becoming disengaged. Engagement surveys are effective because they capture both positive and negative employee sentiment. The most useful approach combines quantitative and qualitative feedback: - Quantitative feedback is the numerical data collected in an engagement survey, along with measures such as eNPS, which tracks how likely employees are to recommend the organisation as a place to work. It helps teams understand overall sentiment, the factors shaping engagement, and trends over time. - Qualitative feedback adds richer context. It helps explain how employees feel, highlights frustrations and roadblocks, and surfaces new ideas. It can come from one-to-one meetings, conversations, survey comments, or active listening across the organisation. By combining both types of feedback, HR teams get a clearer view of employee experience. By segmenting that data by top performers, people leaders can identify the specific drivers shaping engagement for the people most critical to the business. Performance does not exist in a silo. Employees are whole, complex humans, and their ability to perform is affected by how they feel at work. For example, engagement data from a marketing team may show that top performers in the London office are disengaged because of management issues. That insight helps HR teams identify at-risk segments, make proactive changes, and reduce regrettable turnover. When organisations combine engagement data with other people metrics such as tenure, promotion frequency, and exit data, they gain a stronger understanding of what helps top performers thrive. ## How do recognition and continuous feedback improve employee performance? Recognition and continuous feedback improve performance because people are hardwired to respond to praise, clarity, and a sense of progress. Recognition helps employees feel valued, while feedback helps them understand what they did well and what to repeat next time. A recent study found that 82% of employees consider recognition a key part of their happiness at work. Harvard Business Review reported that 72% of survey respondents considered performance management the most impactful way to drive engagement, especially when high-performing employees are recognised for a job well done. Recognition also affects the wider organisation. Organisations with strong recognition and feedback cultures are more likely to retain employees, and employees who receive regular developmental feedback demonstrate higher levels of commitment to their organisation. Research on employee motivation shows why this works: praise and recognition make people feel more valued, help them connect their contributions to a bigger picture, and increase their sense of competence in their role. In simple terms, employees perform best when they feel good about the work they do. Employees globally do not feel they receive enough recognition. A Capterra report found that 79% of employees said they would work harder if they felt more recognised for their contributions. ## What makes feedback effective in a performance strategy? Effective feedback is specific, timely, and regular. Those three qualities make feedback easier to act on and more likely to improve future performance. Research cited in the ebook points to three core traits of effective feedback: - Specific: Feedback is more effective when it includes detail. Employees need examples of what they did and how it contributed to broader goals. - Timely: Recognition and feedback have more impact when they happen in real time because employees can connect their actions to outcomes. - Regular: Frequent feedback supports alignment, course correction, trust, transparency, and learning. If feedback is vague, employees will not know what to repeat. If it arrives too late, they cannot connect it to the actions that earned it. If it is too infrequent, the organisation misses opportunities for growth. When feedback is specific, regular, timely, and positive, employees experience a sense of reward and satisfaction. That sense of pride and pleasure helps condition the behaviour they are more likely to repeat later. HR teams can reinforce feedback through several people processes: - Performance reviews: These create a structured opportunity to review accomplishments over a longer period and connect achievements to longer-term goals. - Ongoing feedback: Feedback should be part of the culture, and everyone at every level should feel empowered to give it, including peers and team members. One study found that peer recognition has twice the impact of praise from a superior colleague. - Public praise: Public praise can be shared in company all-hands meetings, on communication channels, on social media, or through awards ceremonies. Not every employee wants the spotlight, so delivery should be meaningful to the individual. Thoughtful tooling can extend the effect of feedback across the organisation. Company praise walls, whether in person or in tools such as Slack, help make recognition visible. Performance management tools like Lattice, which includes an inbuilt Praise feature, can also make praise easier to share across the company. ## How should leaders use goal setting to drive both engagement and performance? Leaders should use goal setting to give employees clarity, challenge, and a sense of direction. When goals are clear, specific, relevant, and supported by employee buy-in, they increase both satisfaction and engagement because employees can connect their individual contributions to a larger context. The ebook cites a 1990 study co-authored by psychologists Gary Latham and Edwin Locke, which identified five key principles for effective goal setting: - Clarity: Effective goals are clear and specific. - Challenge: Goals should be challenging enough to motivate, but not so easy or difficult that they become demotivating. - Commitment: People need to be involved in their own goal-setting process to set meaningful, realistic targets. - Feedback: Goals should be reviewed regularly and adjusted as needed. - Task complexity: Larger goals should be broken into smaller, more manageable sub-goals. Involving employees in goal setting matters because it taps into intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the satisfaction people get from doing something because it is enjoyable or fulfilling, rather than because of an external force such as a bonus, deadline, or punishment. Business goals are often extrinsically motivating because they involve imposed targets such as revenue or customer growth. When managers involve employees in setting those targets, employees are more likely to see the goals as meaningful, fair, and realistic. ## Frequently asked questions ### How can organizations connect employee engagement and performance management into one people strategy? Organizations can connect them by treating engagement and performance as mutually reinforcing parts of the people strategy: measure engagement regularly, build strong feedback and recognition habits, and use clear goal setting to link individual work to business outcomes. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#how-can-organizations-connect-employee-engagement-and-performance-management-into-one-people-strategy) ### What should HR leaders measure first if they want to understand whether engagement is affecting performance? HR leaders should start with engagement data. Regular engagement surveys, eNPS, and both quantitative and qualitative feedback show how employees feel, while segmenting results by top performers reveals which drivers are affecting the people most at risk of leaving. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#what-should-hr-leaders-measure-first-if-they-want-to-understand-whether-engagement-is-affecting-performance) ### How do engagement survey results and manager feedback help spot high performers who may be at risk of leaving? They help HR teams identify which high performers are becoming disengaged and why. Survey data can be segmented by team, manager, department, or performance, and paired with tenure, promotion frequency, and exit data to pinpoint at-risk groups earlier. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#how-do-engagement-survey-results-and-manager-feedback-help-spot-high-performers-who-may-be-at-risk-of-leaving) ### How can recognition and continuous feedback help keep employees motivated and performing well? Recognition and feedback help employees feel valued, understand how their work contributes to larger goals, and build competence. The most effective feedback is specific, timely, and regular, and it works especially well when it is built into everyday management, peer recognition, and performance reviews. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#how-can-recognition-and-continuous-feedback-help-keep-employees-motivated-and-performing-well) ### Why do high performers and engaged employees tend to reinforce each other? They reinforce each other because engaged employees are more productive, proactive, and motivated, while high performers can see how their work contributes to the organization and are more likely to stay engaged. That makes engagement both a driver and a result of strong performance. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#why-do-high-performers-and-engaged-employees-tend-to-reinforce-each-other) ### What is the best way to use both qualitative and quantitative employee feedback in a performance strategy? Use quantitative feedback to track sentiment, eNPS, and trends over time, and use qualitative feedback to understand context, frustrations, roadblocks, and new ideas. Combining both gives a fuller picture of what is helping or hurting performance. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#what-is-the-best-way-to-use-both-qualitative-and-quantitative-employee-feedback-in-a-performance-strategy) ### How should people leaders think about engagement surveys, recognition programs, and ongoing feedback as part of the same employee experience? People leaders should treat them as connected parts of one employee experience. Surveys identify issues, recognition reinforces desired behavior, and ongoing feedback helps employees course-correct, grow, and stay aligned with goals. [Direct link](https://theintelligencelibrary.com/lattice/performance-and-engagement-better-together/#how-should-people-leaders-think-about-engagement-surveys-recognition-programs-and-ongoing-feedback-as-part-of-the-same-employee-experience) --- [Get the report](https://contents.thedigitalb2bdesk.com/LandingPage/Lattice/4.html?utm_source=theintelligencelibrary&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=performance-and-engagement-better-together) Published by [Lattice](https://lattice.com/?utm_source=theintelligencelibrary&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=performance-and-engagement-better-together).