Companies tend to choose employees with high qualifications in the recruitment process. It was only the beginning. Maintaining employee performance to keep showing their best is more important. If companies want to achieve long-term success, they must recognize that their employees are valuable assets to them. When an employee does not perform well, it will affect the company's achievement.
Employee performance can be observed from the work quality completed, the ability to meet deadlines, as well as the way they communicate both with customers and colleagues. Many companies find it difficult to improve employee performance and motivate them. It only needs a simple-basic thing, that is better communication.
Tell the employees what kind of performance we expect them to perform, and give them feedback on their work progress and result. Give the best commitment to do it regularly, day by day, to support our employees in improving their performance. But first, make the expectation clear.
How Do You Define High Performance?
The term "high performance" may be interpreted differently by many people. We can say high performance is achieving better than expected results consistently. Other literature says high performance is the capability in dealing with a high standard. So, a high-performing employee is someone who consistently overachieves the expectation set for them.
Setting clear goals and identifying how to asses employees’ performance is necessary before improving their performance. Here are some ways to define high performance.
1. Map employees according to their characteristics, skills, and abilities to set a baseline. Identify the high-performing employees of the team and find out what makes them better than their peers when performing the same role. Discover the traits, skills, and competencies that enable them to drive them success in the role. We can set a baseline for every specific role and use it to improve all team members’ performance.
2. Connect individual outputs to strategic value. Every role has potential impacts. Review the job descriptions and determine the most expected outcome for each role. Identify which outcome has the most strategic value and sort the tasks of each role according to priority. It will help employees to focus their best efforts on those outputs when plays a specific role.
3. Generate a standardized criteria to assess employees performance. Evaluating employee performance so far has been difficult, because there are no clear criteria. Often managers as assessors are subjective, only using their perceptions or preferences. Without clear criterias, managers can only estimate whether the performance is adequate. Managers should assess each employee performance based on the outcomes achieved. To consider whether an employee performs high-performance, list the specific outcome for each role after setting up the baseline and determining each role strategic impact.
Why is it important to improve employee performance in a workplace?
Employees' performance plays a critical role in the company's success. If the employees are productive and well-motivated, it will be easy for them to meet the targets. The more employees perform high performance, the faster and easier the company achieves its goals. Otherwise, the company may spend more time and energy to get the employees nailed on the target set up for them.
Maximizing employee performance makes the employees work more efficiently. It will make the company accomplish its goals earlier and cost more effectively. Moreover, this can increase employee satisfaction with the company so that employee turnover rarely occurs. We all agree that the employees' experience in a role influences their performance. If it happens too frequently, it will affect the quality of the work.
Top 4 Ways to Improve Work Performance
There are many different strategies to improve employees' work performance. You can manage the daily practices better and create better communication. You can start defining the expectation clearly, communicating effectively, listening more, avoiding micromanaging, creating a performance improvement plan as needed, conducting employee training, and encouraging feedback.
You can also improve employee performance by creating a better workplace culture. Here are the top four ways to improve work performance.
- Demonstrating authenticity
Show that the company supports and respects authenticity. Leaders must demonstrate the company's values in their daily actions. It will increase employee loyalty and respect for the company so that their performance will also increase. Leaders also need to reward employees for their high performance, for example showing verbal recognition in meetings to increase employee pride in their work. So, there will be good collaboration between the leaders and the employees to find better and faster solutions.
- Creating a culture of a transparency
You can create a culture of transparency by letting employees feel the performance of everyone in the company so they can see whether their contributions fit in. It can make everyone motivated to work better and get higher results. You can also declare objectives and main results framework to create transparency. The employees can see how their work relates to the company's goals. With this perspective, employees can build self-awareness and can improve their performance.
- Encouraging Stretch goals
Get the employees to move out of their comfort zone by encouraging them to set stretch goals. Stretch goals are ambitious goals and may seem impossible to achieve. It can make them continue to do self-improvement and learn. Even though this seems risky, encouraging employees to set stretch goals can make them feel that the company trusts their capability and values their contribution.
- Appreciation
Employees who have worked according to expectations and targets need to be given appreciation. You can give appreciation by making them employee of the month to encourage others to be on the same spot. Don't forget to give souvenirs or corporation gifts to lift their spirit to pursue being the best every month. If employees are well motivated and keep at good performance, you can plan to hold a field trip or office vacation once a while.
How to improve employee performance is crucial in helping the company achieve its ultimate goals. The company should not hesitate to invest in one of its most valuable assets. Many companies provide proper training to boost their employees' performance. It might take time, cost, and effort, but it will be worth it. If the employees' performance is improved, their productivity is also increasing. They will accomplish the targets better and faster. So, the company needs less time and energy to achieve its goals. It is one step closer to the company's success.
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