There are no buttons that you can press to solve performance problems. There are no easy solutions ; no quick fixes.
But there are proven ways to go about improving employee performance on their job. They’re based on extensive research which explains what superior performers actually do.
- 1. Acknowledge Their Competence
Acknowledging means publicly and openly recognizing that your people have a contribution to make. Their experience and prior skills are a significant part of that contribution.
People who feel good about themselves do better work. They’re more concerned about issues such as quality and superior performance.
So acknowledge the skill and knowledge that they’ve built up before they joined you and since they’ve worked for you.
- 2. Train for Success
Make sure that there’s a clear link between the training that your people receive and improved on job performance and better business results.
That’s training for success.
The objectives of your training- what the trainee will be able to actually do at the end of it – should be specified with absolute clarity so that both you and the trainee will know when the training has been successfully completed.
Make sure you train, in and for the real world. Train people only in skills and knowledge that they are going to be able to use on the job immediately not in 6 or 12 months.
Remember that research shows that training will solve performance problems in only about 25% of cases.
- 3. Set Clear Performance Standards
Dr. Thomas Gilbert, a famous authority on improving on job performance, says that there are three reasons why people don’t do better work.
… They’re not clear on what’s expected of them.
… They don’t get adequate feedback to let them know how they’re doing.
… Their reward and incentive schemes don’t reinforce the first two reasons;
I’d add a fourth reason people respond to standards not goals.
You can’t expect superior performance if your people aren’t crystal clear about what you expect.
“Firing up” the staff with exhortations to “greater productivity” are the crutches of managers who think they can enhance the performance of their people with fine and fiery words. They can’t!
Without specific, measurable performance standards all the theatrics and exhortation in the world are next to useless.
- 4. Remove Impediments to Performance and Accomplishment
Accomplishment in the workplace isn’t merely a question of behavior, it’s a question of working environment and culture too.
In simple terms: if the systems are poor the people will fail.
You can select, train and motivate effectively. But if the way you do things in your organization prevents people from putting that training and motivation into practice, you’re impending performance and accomplishment.
You may have staff who aren’t particularly skilled. But if you have systems in place that enable them to use their limited skills to achieve the performance that you demand you’ll have a better performing person, group and organization than where the systems are poor.
- 5. Rewards Superior Performance Publicly
When you reward superior performance publicly, whether in money, materials or other forms, you are virtually saying to your people “this is what gets you the recognition in the form that you’re after.”
That’s a strong motivation influence to those people who want to succeed and develop themselves.
Do you have any way of publicly recognizing not only superior performers, but the groups they are part of and the support groups who help them become superior performers?
Be careful about placing too much emphasis on individual recognition. The fact is that no individual can succeed without the help of others.
Incidentally, you can have performance standards about relationships, customer relations, complaints, compliments, and a whole range of issues that aren’t “tough and hard- nosed.”
Conclusion
There are no magic formulas for improving employee performance. You can’t just apply a poultice and fix the boil! Bandaids don’t work very well either.
The 5 Proven Methods are interrelated. One without the other isn’t enough.
By: Mrs. Resie R. Baluyot | Teacher III | Orion Elementary School | Orion Bataan
