A dip in employee performance can ripple through an organization, affecting both job satisfaction and overall success.
Picture this: Team members take on extra workloads to compensate for underperformers, leading to burnout and subpar work quality. Managers rely on ineffective strategies like micromanagement, and the cycle continues.
But, there’s good news. Managers have multiple ways to enhance employee performance and maintain engagement and job satisfaction.
Let’s delve into these strategies in more detail.
Table of Contents
Causes of poor employee performance
Poor employee performance can be the result of several issues, including:
- Farfetched targets,
- Vague objectives,
- Work overload, and more.
While some may attribute underperformance to negligence or incapacity, the truth is often different.
A leader’s job is to retain and grow top talent, which is only possible when employees sharpen their focus.
More often than not, employees need a bit more support and guidance from superiors to deliver a good day’s work. This highlights the crucial role of managers in empowering teams and fostering a sense of responsibility.
Here are several strategies you can use to do so.
#1 Set clear expectations and goals
With unclear expectations, we usually feel like we have little stake in how things pan out at work.
Soon enough, goal alignment with organizational objectives dissipates, and the bare minimum becomes the standard.
It’s a nightmarish scenario, but one you can avoid by setting clear goals that give everyone a deeper understanding of their role and the overall business vision.
When assigning tasks, it’s a good idea to discuss the project’s end goal and how each employee is expected to contribute. You could also mention how the tasks are interconnected and encourage collaboration among your team.
Don’t forget to remind employees that you’re available to answer any questions that may crop up along the way. In case of roadblocks, your intervention or input can reassure workers that help is always available should they need it.
Of course, if you set unrealistic goals, everyone will simply shoot in the dark, struggling to achieve them.
For this reason, before defining objectives, think about these questions:
- Which task is the most urgent?
- What skills are necessary to complete it?
- What is a reasonable deadline?
The answers will allow you to keep team goals realistic and put less pressure on employees.
💡 Pumble Pro Tip
If you want more insight into setting explicit goals in communication, check out this detailed guide:
#2 Establish regular feedback and communication
After your team develops a goal-oriented mindset, you need to let them know how they’re progressing in meeting expectations.
Feedback is a give-and-take interaction. While you must regularly check in with employees, they should speak up about how supported they feel. This type of information can shed light on what you can do to better guide your team.
In addition to discussing areas for improvement, you can also touch on the good work your employees have done. This approach reinforces your mission to improve employee performance without creating unnecessary tension.
However, checking in can be challenging, especially if you’re managing a hybrid or remote team. Moreover, scheduling an in-person meeting with each team member could be time-consuming when businesses scale and hire new employees.
In such cases, business communication apps are a handy solution.
Thanks to their video conferencing features, you can schedule both 1-on-1 and group meetings to discuss progress and provide feedback.
Even direct messages are excellent opportunities for constructive feedback. You can send a task review or ask your employees for additional details. DMs are useful because employees don’t always have to respond with walls of text — a time saver when you’re in the middle of a project.
They can participate in group discussions even when they’re miles away from coworkers by:
Feedback loops help improve team performance when there’s ample flexibility, so it’s imperative to establish several communication options.
#3 Invest in training and development opportunities
Did you know that 75% of frontline organizations report trouble scheduling time for employees to complete training?
That’s a pain point for many industries, particularly for hybrid organizations. When employees have unique schedules, coming together in a room to work on improving performance can be continuously delayed.
Not to mention, if you’re bringing in an expert outside of your organization, you’ll also have to cater to their schedule.
Given these issues, it’s unsurprising that many businesses often don’t provide enough training and development opportunities. This is a grave mistake, as training directly affects on-the-job performance. When supplied with relevant information, employees are more confident in their roles and are more adaptable when faced with future challenges.
So, how can you organize training sessions that accommodate conflicting schedules?
Virtual meetings are a viable solution. If you use the same platform to organize meetings and share files, everyone can access training resources in one place.
With guest access, you could invite lecturers and trainers to join your workplace for the duration of the training courses. Set up their accounts so that once this period ends, so will their access to your digital space, keeping all business info safe.
Setting up these avenues is well worth it, as employees welcome development opportunities that improve their performance and job satisfaction.
#4 Provide recognition and rewards
For many businesses, offering incentives such as benefit packages and rewards has been a tried-and-true method of improving performance.
While end-of-the-year bonuses are a nice touch and inspire employees to take charge, you can provide recognition and praise year-round. This will keep morale up and running.
For example, a thoughtful DM praising an employee could be the kick they need to keep going the extra mile.
Similarly, both private and public channels allow you to publicly recognize your employees’ efforts. Use mentions to draw attention to excellent work, and others can also show their appreciation via emoji reactions.
You have many communication mediums at your disposal, so choose one that gives your words maximum impact.
💡 Pumble Pro Tip
To learn more about the importance and power of professional recognition in the workplace, check out this post:
#5 Create (and maintain) a supportive workplace culture
A positive work environment where everyone feels satisfied and valued can go a long way in boosting employee performance.
Not to mention, a strong culture also:
- Improves retention, and
- Bolsters psychological safety.
Hence, as a leader or a manager, it’s crucial to create a strong culture that adequately shows respect for team members.
The first step is prioritizing diversion, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. McKinsey’s data on diversity indicates that more diverse teams surpass competitors by 36% in profitability.
However, a supportive and collaborative environment crumbles without communication. To make sure trust and rapport don’t suffer, managers can hold weekly Q&A sessions in public channels, encouraging everyone to share what’s on their minds. Team members can use emoji reactions to indicate which questions they want answered first.
Of course, a supportive culture urges employees to prioritize work-life balance and log off when the work day is out.
Use the status feature in your communication app to let coworkers know whether you’re:
- Commuting,
- Taking your lunch break,
- In a meeting,
- On vacation, and more.
When we know someone is unavailable, we can plan and adjust our tasks accordingly. But, our workplace culture should never pressure us to constantly stay logged on and risk burning out.
#6 Use metrics for performance monitoring and management
Without defined metrics, managers may turn to unconscious biases to rate employee performance.
When there’s no scale to measure the quality of output, excessive monitoring ensues. A manager frequently calls or messages their team to track their every move — not ideal conditions for doing your best work.
It’s easy to imagine a combo of excessive oversight and proximity bias taking over, with on-site employees being rewarded simply because they spend more face-to-face time with their superiors.
Fortunately, collaboration metrics such as key performance indicators (KPIs) can help us put a stop to needless micromanagement.
KPIs look different for every business, as they depend on the customer base and organizational goals.
However, it’s important that:
- All team members understand the KPIs and how they relate to their roles,
- You revisit and change KPIs to keep up with business growth, and
- You don’t set too many KPIs.
With these metrics in place, managers can analyze data related to employee performance and evaluate outcomes.
You can use the data to measure and interpret:
- Work quality,
- Productivity,
- Adaptability,
- Goal achievement,
- Time management, and more.
You will not only get a clear picture of organizational and employee performance but also see in which areas your team needs more resources and support.
Free team communication software
Try Pumble, a secure, reliable, and easy-to-use communication tool.
Outperform competitors with Pumble
In the challenging world of business growth, you can build a robust foundation for success with:
- Clear expectations,
- Regular feedback, and
- Continuous training.
And, you don’t have to do it alone.
Tools like Pumble can help streamline communication, making it easier to:
- Provide feedback,
- Recognize achievements, and
- Maintain a supportive culture.
Sign up today, and watch your team’s performance soar!
To make sure your employees always stay on top of their game, you can check out the CAKE.com Productivity Suite. In addition to Pumble, you’ll get access to 2 more superhero products at an unbeatable price — Clockify, our time-tracking app, and Plaky, our project management platform.
