Discover effective strategies to boost employee performance, enhance productivity, and create a motivated workplace environment
Employee performance affects the company’s overall productivity, growth, and success. There’s a clear difference between a high-performing employee and a low-performing one. The high–performing employee is a problem solver, accountable, punctual, and improves the company’s value. The low-performing employee is less concerned about how his/her action influences the company or the team. This means you may get to see your clients walk out in frustration or anger.
Maximizing team performance boosts organizational efficiency, helping achieve goals promptly and cost-effectively.
Here are several key reasons highlighting the importance of improving employee performance:
As a leader looking for how to improve employee performance at work, here are 14 best strategies.
The Problem: Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings and inefficiencies. It’s responsible for 70% of corporate errors - US firm Gartner.
Why it works: Effective communication breeds proper coordination between the manager and the employee. It also enhances collaboration and teamwork, boosts productivity, and enhances customer relations.
Problem: Unaddressed underperformance can drag down overall team productivity.
Why it works: Identifying and resolving performance issues helps improve individual and team efficiency, and helps employees understand their weak points.
Problem: Lack of recognition can lead to demotivation and disengagement.
Why it works: Many employees feel valued and appreciated when their employers value their efforts. It also sets the tone for a positive work environment and gives room for constructive feedback in the future.
Pro tip: Make sure to select what works best for your organization and don’t give out praises too frequently so it doesn't lose its value. Your praise should be something your employees should always look up to.
Problem: Unclear goals and unachievable expectations can lead to confusion and lack of direction.
Why it works: Clear goals provide direction and measurable outcomes for both managers and employees.
Problem: Tight deadlines make the goals unachievable and decrease employee morale and motivation.
Why it works: Deadlines keep the organization running and also keep your employees on their toes. However, when used harshly, it may lead to burnout, disengagement, and bad quality of work.
Problem: Lack of collaboration can stifle creativity and problem-solving.
Why it works: Collaboration fosters brainstorming sessions and ideation and employees may come up with quicker, smarter and more innovative solutions.
Problem: Micromanagement is excessively supervising and controlling your employees, creating an environment of mistrust and fear. It doesn’t allow the employees to make decisions or act according to their skill/knowledge reducing the motivation and willingness to take initiative.
Of the people who reported working for a micromanager, 68% said it had decreased their morale, and 55% claimed it had hurt their productivity. - Accountemps
Why it works: Avoiding micromanagement fosters employee autonomy and trust, leading to increased job satisfaction, creativity, and productivity.
The Problem: Employees that lack updated skills or knowledge, lead to inefficiencies and errors.
Why it works: Employee training helps build the number of top talents in the company, and as such gets work done swiftly and efficiently.
How to Implement:
92% of workers think workplace training positively impacts their job engagement - Axonify
Problem: Without feedback, employees may not know how to improve.
Why it works: Feedback helps employees understand their strengths and areas for improvement.
The Problem: Insufficient resources hinder task completion and efficiency.
Why it works: Ensure that your organization has the right tools. These should assist your employees in working faster, smoothly, and efficiently.
Problem: Inconsistent performance tracking can result in overlooked issues.
Why it works: These systems provide data-driven insights for performance improvement.
Problem: Disengaged employees are less productive and more likely to leave.
Why it works: Employee engagement Boosts motivation, commitment, and performance, driving overall organizational success and employee well-being.
Problem: Poor work-life balance can lead to burnout and decreased performance.
Why it works: Balanced employees are less stressed are comparatively motivated.
The Problem: Negative company culture leads to low employee morale, high turnover rates, and decreased productivity.
Why it works: Enhancing a positive culture in the workplace helps create a conducive and engaging environment for your employees. A place where they can work steadfastly according to the company’s goal, improving the overall wellness and morale of your team.
After implementing employee performance improvement strategies, you must validate the results. You’ll need to track their quality of work, speed, ability to meet deadlines, communication skills, and more to be able to identify areas for further improvement.
Here are the following ways to measure an employee's performance:
Performance Metrics offer an objective view of the performance level of the employee against the company’s aim. Once the goal is determined, you can identify the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are the quantifiable metrics that are relevant to a specific role or task. For example, the number of lead sales generated within the last quarter, the increase in client rating in July, etc. These KPIs can allow managers to effectively collect data. It also tracks each employee's progress towards achieving the tasks.
A 9-Box Grid method can also be used to measure an employee's current performance level and their potential future progression. It is usually between a (high, medium, or low) performer and a (high, medium, or low) potential.
Surveys can be used to identify areas of improvement, request feedback on workload and deadline, attain employee’s perception of the company’s practices, recognize skill gaps and training needs, and more. However, your employees may feel reluctant to provide an honest review. This may be because of the fear of being dismissed or reprimanded. To avoid this, ensure confidentiality and anonymity.
To understand how to measure employee performance with periodic analysis, you’ll need to identify key points/areas that reflect progression to the company’s objective. For example, a weekly analysis of sales figures can be used to identify top performers. Likewise, a monthly report can be done to track the completion of milestones. This strategy particularly accurate when used in combination with other methods. It can also be used to discover areas that need change or employees that require more training.
Direct manager feedback is accurate since managers have a close-up view of the employee's work traits and skill set. A manager's constructive feedback highlights the employee’s performance at work and identifies areas where the employee faces challenges, and further training is required. This method may not be suitable for all employees, especially in a large company sector as it will be time-consuming. Also, there may be a risk of bias or influence from interpersonal relationships. For better results, you can incorporate a 360-degree feedback system. Here, feedback may be obtained from other colleagues and leaders.
You can use Employee Performance Monitoring tools to track your employee's usual activities at work like computer activity, keystrokes, usage of time, work rate, etc. It’s also a non-invasive way to supervise remote employees. It ensures that they are logged in and actively working during designated hours. With Intelogos, you can identify top and low performers with ease. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of your employees based on AI-driven data. Plus, it offers effective recommendations that can boost the company’s productivity.
You can tell that you’ve improved your employee performance when:
There’s no one-way solution to improving employee performance. If you’re looking at how to improve employee performance, you can implement the 14 strategies highlighted above.