Ways To Boost Employee Performance
Retaining and cultivating a competitive and highly skilled workforce isn’t just something that happens all by itself; it’s an environment in which business owners, managers, and leaders must participate actively to create encouragement and support within any business. It doesn’t matter what sector you’re in; if you want to be the best, your team needs to be the best.
If operations are not meeting the expected standards, then it’s time you took a step back and asked yourself where you’re going wrong, what you can do better, and what it is your employees need, to be able to deliver the results and standards both you and your customer expect and deserve.
These ‘Ways to Boost Employee Performance’ are not just a guiding light but a roadmap for you, the business owners, managers, and leaders, to steer your team toward increased employee performance and satisfaction.
5 Effective Ways To Boost Employee Performance
Ways To Boost Employee Performance #1
Feedback
Before you rush headfirst into making a plethora of changes you think need to happen, why not ask for feedback from everyone as a whole? This includes your managers, receptionists, customers, vendors, employees, and anyone who has contact with the company.
Anonymized feedback allows people to express themselves without fear of rebuttal, and all feedback needs to be taken on board. Improvements can then be made based on what you receive.
- Ask what you are doing well and what isn’t working.
- Stress the importance of constructive criticism.
- Leave any direct complaints from employees and managers for a separate time.
- Ask for ideas and suggestions on how they think things can be improved.
- Seek suggestions of methods, technology, or strategies to try to make the required improvements.
Further Reading: 3 Simple Ways to Encourage Health Amongst Your Colleagues
Ways To Boost Employee Performance #2
Improve Scheduling
Scheduling can be tricky as some companies require employees to work at set times to support business operations and in specific places. For example, in retail and hospitality, people must perform their designated job roles on the premises. But in any way, you can offer improved scheduling that meets the needs of the business and supports flexibility where possible. Avoid over/or under-scheduling and have staff available where needed based on your working hours, busy times, or periods of increased demand. Software like the Sling employee scheduling app can allow you to improve how you schedule employees, allowing for greater flexibility in creating rotas.
In addition to this, if possible, allow for staggered start times based on workloads, remote working where possible, and working with employees to help find workarounds for sticking points or significant issues that affect their ability to work, e.g., college students around course times, parents around school times, to accommodate hospital appointments, etc. without neglecting the needs of the business.
Ways To Boost Employee Performance #3
Training
It should go without saying that trained employees will perform better than those not equipped with the required skills and knowledge. One study found that 45.5% of all enterprises invested in employee training, with an average of 3.2 days spent on training courses and around €250 spent per employee on training.
Your training needs to include everything an employee and, indeed, manager needs to know about the company itself;
- The standards you need to uphold.
- Your company values.
- The work you do.
- The sector you are in.
- Customer service.
The more they know, the easier it will be for them to get the job done without finding people to help, or making errors and mistakes that could have been avoided – helping them to improve their output consistently.
Training itself should be ongoing and adaptable for your workforce. It should be part of their working day as standard and encouraged to be completed as and when new materials or refreshers are scheduled and updated. From here, you can identify gaps in skills and areas where employees may be struggling. Work with employees to address these ‘weak points’ and develop their skill set to push them further to be their best.
Ways To Boost Employee Performance #4
Improve Company Benefits
In Ireland, desirable company benefits can entice employees to stay where they are and work towards job security. These benefits include;
- Comprehensive health insurance.
- Flexible work-from-home policies.
- Generous paid sick leave.
- Performance-based bonuses and incentives.
- A robust pension plan.
The more you offer employees, especially those benefits that can be integrated into performance, the more they will strive to work their best for you.
One study found that happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees’
Cared-for employees are happy employees, and if you want the best from your team, then you need to invest in giving them the best, whatever that means for your business. Health insurance that is fully subsidized means that they don’t have to worry about being sick as they won’t have any medical bills, and a pension plan means they can rest assured that they are contributing to their retirement, making it preferable for them to remain with your company and not want to lose their jobs.
Ways To Boost Employee Performance #5
Improve Communication
Good communication is the backbone of any company. You must foster a company culture based on effective and clear communication, and it needs to start from the top.
You need to look at how you currently communicate with everyone and how messages get to those who need to know, whether through written or verbal communication.
- Does something need to pass through many people before it gets signed off, and is this necessary?
- Can you improve how you abbreviate assignments or projects?
- Are you clear and concise in conveying information, and does everyone understand your instructions the first time round, or do they need to reevaluate more than once?
The clearer your communication, the easier it will be to improve internal communication so you can improve it across the board. Look at your body language, the words you use, and how you communicate. Be clear, concise, and direct about how you express what needs to happen, and then encourage all employees to follow suit. Look for apps or software that can allow you to improve communication between departments and team members so everyone gets the memo at the same time in the same way.
Improving employee performance requires many different actions to eradicate inefficiencies and ensure that your company is always working at its best.
Photos by Vitaly Gariev
PIN: Work Life: 5 Effective Ways To Boost Employee Performance
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