Employees are any company’s biggest asset. Without high-performing employees, your company can only progress so far, so it makes sense to monitor how well your employees are performing. It is also a good idea to implement incentive schemes, so you can encourage mediocre employees to try that bit harder.
To improve employee performance, you first need to come up with a way to track it. Tracking employees is one of the fundamental tasks of a manager. You can do this by setting targets and observing what your employees get up to. Maintain activity logs and make use of software and applications to monitor engagement and performance. Once you have measures in place to track your employees’ performance in the workplace, it is time to improve their performance.
Incentivize employees
Most employees need an incentive to come to work and do a great job. We rarely go to work for the love of our employer. A fair wage is a great incentive, as are performance related bonus schemes, but it isn’t always about money. Employees expect a bit more from their job and employer, so bear this in mind.
A great pension and benefits scheme is attractive to employees, but they also need to feel valued. Provide training opportunities so employees can boost their existing skills and learn new ones. You can find out more about the best learning management systems online, which is handy as online learning is flexible and easy to implement in the workplace.
Effective communication
You can’t expect your employees to be efficient little worker bees if they don’t have a clue what they are supposed to be doing. All managers need to be effective communicators. Most of us rely far too heavily on email when it would be much easier—and quicker—to pick up the phone. Think before you send an email. Time is money, so use yours wisely.
Streamline workplace efficiency
Lean workplaces are the future. Holding meetings for the sake of a meeting is a waste of your time and energy, and it does nothing to help motivate employees. Consider whether daily progress meetings are an essential tool or a massive time-sap. Can you reduce them to a weekly event, or manage the meetings better so they take one hour instead of three?
Investigate the principles of Lean and eliminate waste in the workplace. Ensuring employees work more effectively as a team will boost productivity and efficiency, which in turn boosts your bottom line.
Allow flexible working
Flexible working is the future. Employees tend to be more productive when they have the freedom to work from home when necessary. Many employees, especially women, have family responsibilities, so rather than forcing people to stick to rigid working days, let them adopt flexible hours and encourage working from home. The more flexible you are, the more hardworking your employees will be.
Hire the right people
Lastly, hire the right people for the job. Trying to force a square peg into a round hole is not going to end well.
