Keys to increasing employee performance

How well do your employees understand what's expected of them, and how well do you or they manage those expectations to increase performance and meet company goals?

Effectively managing staff and communicating each employee's role are perhaps two of the most difficult tasks you will face as an entrepreneur or executive. Performance expectations based on performance may appear bipolar depending on whether the employee knew what was expected of them. Many good-hearted managers are well-intentioned professionals who advanced into management based on their own job performance.

As a result, unless they receive proper training or coaching, these managers lack many of the skills required to skillfully manage employees and positively impact performance and productivity.

To add fuel to the fire, many companies lack the tools necessary to adequately address an employee's work performance because job descriptions are either dated or may not exist at all.

Lack of both job expectations and the knowledge it takes to communicate the expectations can take its toll on properly managing employees because employers constantly must redefine employee roles.

In a perfect world, the astute employee would know what's expected, and would turn those expectations into increased performance, and, ultimately, an increase to your company's bottom line.

So how can you redefine employee roles to increase performance? Perhaps it's best to follow Stephen Covey's advice and begin with the end in mind.

However welcome or dreaded, a well-delivered performance review is a good indicator of not only expectations, but how well the employee is progressing within his or her role. The evaluation also is a good time to set next year's goals and expectations.

Here are five ways to establish expectations and align employee roles with performance.

1. Maintain an updated job description with written expectations. It is difficult for you to create an evaluation without a benchmark.

It is even tougher for an employee to self evaluate on an ongoing basis if s/he has only a vague idea of what results s/he should achieve.

A job description and a statement of written expectations provide the criteria to perform the employee evaluation while leaving the employee with a clear set of job expectations.

2. Meet one-to-one with the employee. Periodic (monthly or quarterly) meetings can help you and your employee monitor progress and performance. For example, a short, scheduled meeting provides the time to review past objectives and professional development. You become more aware of the employee's strengths, accomplishments and areas to develop, while the information focuses the employee's performance on key behaviours.

3. Provide a monthly progress report. Continuous reports help you gather information on employees' performance and allow them to track their progress.

At the end of each month, ask employees to submit a short report stating their accomplishments, major tasks in progress, any training received and areas identified for improvement. Your job is to review this report, discuss it during the one-to-one session, and keep the reports as a reference tool for annual and semi-annual performance evaluations.

4. Conduct a self-evaluation. Most employees welcome the opportunity to provide constructive input. Ask each employee to draft a self-evaluation.

These personal insights will help you immensely with setting performance goals and aligning your expectations with employee competencies.

5. Other forms of feedback. Without being too intrusive or sly, solicit feedback from customers and co-workers about each employee's performance. Concentrate on behaviours, not subjective ideas about a person's motivations. For example: Johnny attends to customers in a slow manner vs. Johnny is lazy and isn't concerned with attending to customers. A word of caution: Be sure the information you receive is accurate and sources stay protected.

What can a job description do to help define roles?

A good job description will:

* establish, communicate, and document management expectations and employee understanding and acceptance;

* form a basis for establishing employee goals and for conducting employee performance evaluations;

* communicate and document changes in employee responsibilities during the course of a performance year;

* identify training needs;

* help determine employee job classifications;

* inform job candidates about prospective positions; and

* assess employee workload so managers can make strategic staffing decisions.

Most employees want to hit the target; often, they just don't know what the target is. Taking these points into account can help ensure performance meets expectations, but more than that, it helps produce skilled, knowledgeable employees who will work even harder to produce your desired results.

Ways to keep your employees engaged for the long term

Listen to your employees. Most people want to work for an employer who cares enough to listen. The best way to know what your employees need and expect is to ask them-and to listen carefully to their answers.

Provide clear, consistent expectations. Vague policies and unclear expectations can make employees feel irritated, unsafe and even paranoid. This leads to your employees becoming disengaged. They click into survival mode instead of focusing on how to help the company succeed.

Give employees a sense of importance. This has a greater impact on loyalty and customer service than all other factors COMBINED.

Develop opportunities for advancement. The chance to work your way up the ladder is a tremendous incentive for productivity, bonding, and employee engagement.

Create good relationships with others in the workplace. If you have a toxic relationship with your employees, you can forget about asking them to put their shoulder to the wheel for the company.

Offer regular feedback. If you want to keep your employees moving forward, give them the occasional rudder report.

And don't forget positive feedback, which should ideally outnumber the negative by about 5 to 1.

Celebrate and reward for successes. Set realistic targets, then reward and celebrate when they are reached.

And don't wait for the end of a big project to celebrate. Pick landmarks along the way and go nuts when you hit them.

Move from "the company" to "our company." The heart and soul of engagement is ownership. As long as your employees feel they are working to help YOU make YOUR company succeed, engagement will be low.

Once you get them to see themselves as partners in the endeavour -making decisions, staying informed, sharing in the company's ups and downs-everything changes. Engagement soars.

Respect all your employees. Put-downs and sarcasm hurt people. Teasing usually pleases the teaser far more than the tease. Treat everyone with courtesy.

Be true to your word. Whatever you promise, big or small, deliver it. If you can't deliver, proactively seek an equally attractive alternative and explain the situation honestly. The more you deliver on your promises, the more your employees will deliver for you.

Support employee personal needs as your budget permits, from the simple - stamps and greeting cards available for sale at the receptionist's desk, the local laundry offers pick-up and delivery service, to the complex - onsite child care, a gym, an ATM.

Praise specifically. "The way you summarized the Smith meeting in your report was very concise, very helpful. Thanks." "Fixing the timing mechanism so quickly got us back on track for that big order. Thank you." Specific praise is more meaningful than general.

Fix the problem, not the blame. The employee knows he/she has messed up. More lambasting only demoralizes your employee further.

Move on to problem solving as quickly as possible.

Break solutions down into small manageable steps.

Too large a goal is a set up for failure. People are motivated by success. Many small goals achieved lead to a successful final outcome.

Let your suggestion box live up to its name. The more seriously you consider an employee's suggestion and let it be known who's idea it is, how great it is, and how you're using all or part of it, the more beneficial those suggestions will be.

Show employees where they fit in the bigger picture. Every job is important. Make sure each employee knows exactly the value of his/her contribution.

Reward often. Don't wait for major accomplishments to give rewards. Reward frequently with a "congrats!" email or card, a humorous "gold star," a free lunch or designer coffee.

Diluxshy Mariyan

Eastern University,

Sri Lanka.