10 Positive Ways To Improve Employee Performance

Professional production is an important metric to gauge in any type of business. While it’s important to measure profit and growth, it is also important to measure how well employees perform—or not. After all, without employees, profit and growth are not only impossible, but irrelevant.

Business owners and managers are in charge of not only their own performance, but of their employees’ performance as well. In this day and age, during times in which technological innovations complete a lot of business operations, a shift in focus has occurred between technological performance and employee performance. At some companies, improving employee performance has fallen by the wayside all together; as long as technology completes required business operations, employee production is inconsequential.

But for those companies that know the importance and necessity of professional employee production, they know that an employee’s improvement and growth is essential for continued organizational success. It is the business owner and management team’s responsibility to ensure that improvement and growth take place.

So what are some tips to improve employee performance? The following ideas are ways in which leaders can help their employees grow and improve so the company continues to succeed.

1. Set comprehensible and achievable goals and expectations.

If leaders do not communicate clear goals and expectations to their teams, employees will not know what to do. It is important that the goals and expectations business owners and managers have for their employees are not necessarily easy, but achievable. It is important for you to reveal what excellence looks like.

2. Value and encourage open communication.

Business owners and managers should encourage open communication between everyone on their team. Leaders need to listen to their employees so as to address their questions and concerns effectively and without criticism.

3. Proactively encourage professional reputation, values, and ethics.

Employees feel motivated to do well when they commend the leaders they work for, appreciate the products and services they offer, and respect the company for which they work.

4. Promote company culture.

Business owners and managers should encourage their employees to find their personal and professional place within the culture of the company they work for.

5. Establish trust.

Employees watch their leaders to see if their “walk” matches their “talk.” It’s important that leaders do what they say they will do, as it will establish the trust they have with their employees. Employees also watch each other so as to determine if their actions reflect what they say; this establishes trust as well.

6. Create engagement among teams.

It is important that business owners and managers use the resources they have at their disposal to encourage engagement among team members. This could include team-building activities, group outings, or even friendly competition within the office. By fostering engagement, employees will feel valued and part of the big picture.

7. Encourage employees to share their innovative ideas.

Engaged employees are more apt to share their innovative ideas than employees who feel isolated and/or unimportant.

8. Build a strong team environment.

The professional website Meliorate had this to say about a strong team environment: “Strong employee engagement is dependent on how well employees get along, interact with each other and participate in a team environment…Non-work activities that foster relationships increase employee engagement.”

9. Give consistent positive feedback.

Employees do not only need to hear feedback about what they need to improve on, but about what they do well, too. This will not only encourage them, but motivate them to continue to persevere, grow, change, and improve. This will boost employee morale.

10. Acknowledge the growth and work of employees.

Meliorate also had this to say about how managers can support their employees’ work and growth: “How many of you have responded to a subordinate’s idea as brilliant or even good? Success begets success. You can support employee growth by providing education and learning opportunities, cross training, coaching, and any other interactions that support employees’ personal development.”

By implementing these 10 tips to improve employee performance, small business owners and managers will inevitably watch their employees improve and grow, which will undoubtedly aid in their company’s ongoing success.