6

Why is it important to address employee performance issues?

• All workers are expected to carry out their tasks effectively and
efficiently.
• But, it is inevitable that issues may develop at work. The productivity
of an entire team can be impacted by the activities of just one
person, whether performance-based, behavior-based, or both.
Addressing employee performance related issues benefit the organization and
employees in the following ways:
• Improved employee engagement and motivation
• Better talent retention
• Set clear expectations and objectives
• Identify development and progression opportunities
• Highlights training gaps
• Identifies potential risks
14 ways to improve employee performance

• Foundational approaches managers can adopt to boost productivity and morale.

• Here are 14 ways you can improve employee performance as a manager:
• 1. Analyze performance metrics
• To understand how employees are performing, it's a useful to analyze
performance metrics on a regular basis. Performance appraisals can be held at
regular intervals that may lead one to identify the root causes behind
performance metrics. After identifying such causes, one can build systems with
the expressed goal of providing better support for employees to succeed.
• 2. Be purposeful while communicating
• When employees understand their jobs, duties and purpose, they're more likely
to reach the goals set for them. With this, you'll want to be purposeful when you
communicate such information—starting employees out with a clear and
actionable description of their responsibilities . Also, establishing relevant
performance benchmarks.
• 3. Stay goal-oriented
• If employees have clear expectations set out for them, they can more easily meet
or exceed those expectations. Establish explicit goals that help employees better
understand their roles and how their responsibilities fit into the mission of your
organization. It can even be beneficial to create workflow maps for teams with
visuals that help employees picture how tasks are connected, where
collaboration may be helpful and what the end goal of a particular project is.
Further, by maintaining a goal-oriented mindset on a team, can better enable the
team to measure its members' ability to reach objectives, which can help you
provide real-time support and intervention whenever necessary.
• 4. Manage expectations
• When setting goals for team, team leader/manager needs to manage their
expectations and maintain a realistic perspective. Even if you're clear with
your directions, provide specific objectives and design benchmarks the
manager will use to measure the team's success. Managers must be
generous and allow members enough time to meet deadlines while
producing high-quality work. This can help team members stay engaged in
working together toward a common goal.
• 5. Make accountability a priority
• Keeping team accountable for meeting specific standards is an important
part of improving employee performance. Enforce positive accountability
and offer increased responsibility or constructive feedback. Balance
accountability measures with rewards and constructive feedback
6. Encourage feedback
• Building feedback opportunities into employees' workflow can help them understand how
their performance is meeting manager’s expectations. These feedback opportunities
should occur on regular intervals and be reciprocal.
• Comparatively, when giving feedback, tell employees about areas they're excelling in and
where they may need some improvement. Implementing such a system can help both you
and your employees receive clear, obtainable guidance on how you can work together to
achieve goals.
• 7. Offer incentives
• One of the best methods for improving employee performance is through encouraging
them to be more efficient by offering rewards and other benefits, enabling employees
perform highly and produce excellent work. Instill different incentive programs such as
offering additional paid time off, gift cards, bonuses, late passes, meals, wellness
programs or professional development opportunities to show your employees that you're
invested in motivating their success.
• 8. Train and develop your team
• It is important to implement robust training programs when
employees transition into roles that will prepare them to succeed and
perform their jobs with precision. From here, you can also encourage
continued employee development through supplemental training
programs, professional retreats, conferences, workshops and
coaching systems. These tactics can help your employees expand and
strengthen their skill sets, which in turn, can help them improve their
performance. In addition, investing in an employee's development
can help foster a culture of loyalty and respect that may reduce
turnover and increase engagement.
• 9. Promote internally
• The prospect of promotion can be an incredibly effective incentive for employees
to improve their performance and maximize their efficiency to reach
organizational goals. Consider current staff when searching for a candidate to fill a
senior role—not only do organization's already-trained employees understand
mission, values and objectives, but awarding them with a promotion can serve as
the ultimate reward for excellent performance. With the potential for career
advancement at stake, employees may take action and improve their work.
• 10. Embrace flexibility
• Employees often highly value flexibility in their roles. Offering flexible work
schedules and telecommuting options to employees can help them be more
productive overall and foster a sense of trust among your staff and, they can
maintain their energy levels, engagement and productivity in a way that may
otherwise not be possible—it could lead to higher performance levels overall.
• 11. Build a culture of well-being and support
• It's important to recognize that employees often perform better when they feel valued
and satisfied with their roles.. Managers can build a culture of well-being and support for
your employees by offering competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits packages,
workplace perks, professional development opportunities and a healthy environment to
work in.
12. Create opportunities for collaboration
• It is important to purposefully create opportunities for team members to collaborate on
projects and tasks. Collaboration can lead to major benefits in individual employee
performance and build trust among team members that can lead to better results in the
long run. Managers can do this by assigning pairs to tackle projects, designating
connected sets of tasks or setting up full-team collaboration sessions. While collaboration
isn't always a natural instinct for all employees, fostering a work environment where
teamwork is the norm can help develop such skills. This can help team become more
efficient, come up with innovative solutions and improve overall team morale.
• 13. Celebrate wins
• Managers should take the time to congratulate their team members
on their high-quality work . Team leader/manager can celebrate wins
by praising team in a company-wide meeting, taking team out to
dinner, holding a happy hour or simply crafting a thoughtful,
hand-written Positively reinforcing an employee's fantastic
performance, is more likely to lead to cpnsistent better performance
• 14. Find technology solutions
• Part of improving employee performance is empowering them to do
their jobs efficiently. If employees have the right tools at their
disposal to succeed, they often take the initiative to do so. Therefore,
you should actively seek technology solutions that can help
employees do their jobs faster, easier and better. An overhaul of the
technology used in an organization's processes can lead to an
improvement in performance. In addition, since new technologies are
always being developed, members should stay up to date on the
different mechanisms, changing technology available in the industry
that can improve employees' day-to-day performance.
• SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant,
and Time-bound.
• These are the criteria that a good goal should meet to ensure that it is clear,
realistic, and meaningful.
• SMART goals help employees and managers to set expectations, track progress,
and evaluate results.
The Importance of Performance Appraisals & Goals

• Performance appraisals and goals are key to the long-term growth

and success of any company. Performance management is so
important because it provides employees with clear expectations and
objectives, helping to align their efforts with organizational goals.
• Additionally, performance appraisals and goals offer a structured
mechanism for feedback and assessment, enabling employees to
track their progress, receive guidance, and make necessary
improvements, ultimately contributing to personal and organizational
growth.
What is underperformance?

• Workplace underperformance occurs when an employee’s quality of

work has decreased below the required level. The characteristics and
severity of these situations vary, but the following behaviors often
demonstrate underperformance:
❑ Failure to execute duties to meet expected standards.
❑ Disruptive, negative, or unacceptable conduct.
❑ Deteriorated compliance with rules, procedures, or policies.
Impact of under performing employees

• Impact of Under performing employees. Underperformers can have an

undesirable effect on your company in several respects, including:
• Decreased productivity – An underperforming employee will not be
offering the output that their position requires. The work may be late or
not completed, forcing other team members to have to pick up the slack.
• Diminished quality of work – Employees who do their tasks at a subpar
level will not produce quality results, causing customers and others to have
a poor perception of the company.
• Declined morale and collaboration among employees – Poor performance
from one person can cause resentment and frustration that undermines
teamwork.
 Causes of underperformance
• Don't have a reason to care: Managers must provide constant
feedback to your employees and you should expect to get some in
return. If managers are overbearing or do not seem to care about the
well-being of their workers, it can lead to underperformance. If
employees have a sense of ownership, they’ll work with a sense of
purpose.
• Don't know what their job is: If their job description isn't clear, that
could explain why they're not doing it. If this is the case, it is important
to define the job for the employees as a manager would see it. When
roles and responsibilities not clearly defined, it can lead to confusion,
feeling of being taken advantage of and disinterest, among workers.
• See no reward: Most employees will eventually slide into a negative pattern if
their good work goes unnoticed and unrewarded too long. To counter it,
establish creative incentives and publicize good work. When employee see
little worth in their work or see no reward, they are likely to
underperform. Emphasize the value of peer respect for a job well done and
give your staff several ways to show appreciation for their co-workers.
• Expect a reward regardless of performance: Some employees expect a medal
just showing up. They do not perform to their optimum level because they
know they can get away with it. Managers should never reward mediocre
performance, nor should they ignore poor performance.
• Illness or other personal issues: Employees may underperform due to ppor
health and chronic ailments. Also, personal problems may weigh heavy on
their minds while at work, leading to frustration and lack of focus.
• 1. Express/communicate expectations
• The first thing to determine is whether or not the staff member is aware of what
is expected of them. Within the first two years of employment, employees
typically cannot file a claim for unfair dismissal, thus in order to minimize risks,
managers should make sure that an underperforming employee is managed
effectively during this time. Furthermore, in order to promptly handle any
concerns, it is suggested to establish a probationary period and dedicate time to
both monitoring and coaching newly hired personnel during that time. By doing
this, you'll be sending a strong message to staff members that you appreciate
excellent work and will not put up with subpar performance.
• 2. Monitor and provide feedback to manage poor performance
• It is easier to manage performance if companies have appropriate ystems in place.
Probationary policies, appraisal schemes and capability procedures will help with this.
Also, a culture where managers and employees are comfortable giving and receiving
feedback constructively should be promoted and encouraged.
• When addressing poor performance, the following is recommended:.
a. Calmly explain what the issue is and why you are raising it with the employee.
b. Stick to the facts – don’t make the issue personal or subjective.
c. Describe the consequences or impact of the employee’s behaviour.
d. Tell the employee what is expected going forward.
e. Ask the employee for their opinion of this assessment of their performance and if they
are struggling with anything.
f. Provide support or advice where required.
• 3. Performance evaluation without taking official action
If issues persist, schedule a follow-up appointment with the worker to go over the
concerns in more detail. Tell the worker that although the organization is prepared to help
and offer more training, the performance gap must be closed in a predetermined amount
of time. It's probable that the individual is being impacted by circumstances unrelated to
their job. Managers must ascertain whether the employee's performance is being
impacted by any work-related issues. If this is the case, managers should talk to the worker
about the concerns and come to a mutually agreeable solution for as much of the issue as
feasible.