subject: Improving Employee Performance [print this page] Your employees are one of your organisations greatest assets and, therefore, it isessential for you to help them perform both efficiently and effectively. Employee performance improvement is not rocket science. However, as managers you need to look beyond processes and equipment and considerthe wider context of your peoples work.
Employee performance improvement, in simple terms, means helping your people to consistently perform at a high productivity levels. This occurs when people have the knowledge and skills to confidently undertake theircurrent responsibilitiesplus the ability to quickly gain the new knowledge and skills required when things change. They also need to be happy, motivated and challenged. This wont happen overnight, but there are some things you can do to speed up the process:
Create a clear, shared vision with your team of what you aiming to achieve
Ensure this vision is aligned with organisational objectives and strategy
Set SMART goals to achieve the vision
Create a motivational and encouraging environment to work in
Measure performance and provide regular, constructive feedback
Encourage the sharing of knowledge and expertise
Identify upcoming challengesor changes and proactively plan for them
Setting goals are integral to building a high performing team. Without goals you cannot measure progress. One way of helping your employees produce results is usinga goal setting strategy, such as SMART goal setting. The SMART, in SMART goal setting, is a mnemonic for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. So when defining a goal to ensure it is:
Specific you have been very clear about what it is you are aiming to achieve
Measurable you have some way of telling when you achieve it
Achievable it is something that can be realistically accomplished
Relevant the goal aligns with the organisations overall objectives
Time-bound you set a timescales within which to achieve it.
The SMART goal setting technique can also be used for defining the companys objectives. Such defined objectives can make it easier for employees to fulfill their roles and contributions by aligning to them.
Once you have all these elements in place the final thing you need is time. You wont immediately see a performance improvement as the way of working will be, to some, strange and new. However once the new practices become business as usual you will find productivity and employee engagement increase.
