Businesses go through cycles. Sometimes, everything is going well. Good growth, great profits. Sometimes, nothing seems to work out. Irrespective of the good phases or bad, there is one thing that doesn’t change much. There are always some employees you aren’t too happy with. These employees don’t seem to understand what’s expected of them. You expect a certain level of performance from them. At most times they don’t come up to that level. No matter how hard you try, they just don’t perform at the level you expect.
Many businesses are quick to say that getting good employees is increasingly difficult. And that’s true. With many new opportunities available, attracting talent is difficult. That’s an uncontrollable factor. Are there some changes you can make within your business that will make your employees superheroes? As well as make your organization an irresistible magnet for the right professionals? You bet! Here are some of those changes you can make.
Share your vision
It’s nice to have a clear vision and strategy in your head. It’s even nicer to have it well articulated and shared with employees. It gives employees a common goal to aspire to and provides purpose to the work they do. Don’t forget to keep reminding employees how their work fits into the overall goals of your business.
A reason often cited for not sharing a business plan with employees is confidentiality. What if competition poaches the employee? They get access to all your plans. Well, that risk certainly exists. Yet, if your competition spends their time trying to imitate you, look at it as a positive. In any case, goals and business plans are meant to keep evolving. Keep sharing those evolving plans with your employees. And stop worrying about employees sharing those plans with others.
Make responsibilities clear
Maybe Messi or Ronaldo don’t need to be given specific instructions on their role in a game. For the rest, being sure of what’s expected of you is important. You need to have clear roles and responsibilities for each employee. And make people truly own those responsibilities. Performance Goals and associated Appraisals should have a significant linkage to employee responsibilities. Documented business processes also play a key role in letting employees know their responsibilities.
An important point to note is that what’s clear to a leader isn’t necessarily clear to an employee. You might have a crystal-clear view of what you expect the employee to do. And think that you’ve made it abundantly clear to the employee. Yet, the employee might understand their responsibilities very differently. It helps to have roles and responsibilities written down. A clear, succinct document which lists down expectations from an employee is an important document.
Communicate, communicate
Who can give a business invaluable customer insights? The employees. They meet customers and other stakeholders throughout the day. Yet, employees need to feel safe enough to express their views and share insights. Else, they’ll keep all those valuable insights to themselves. To ensure those insights reach you, lower the power distance between yourself and the rest of the organization. Give employees psychological safety. There should be an environment where employees aren’t pulled up for speaking their mind. Talk to your employees. Anytime you get the opportunity. Understand what drives them. Explore issues and challenges they face.
Recognize and reward
Keep celebrating small successes. Recognition is important to employees. It shows that their effort is being noticed and appreciated. Rewards need not be monetary. Even a certificate of appreciation or something similar works well. While doing this, be sure to create a differentiation between a great performance and a mediocre performance. If everyone gets the same award or certificate, it soon loses its exclusivity.
Be careful of the halo effect
We all have our favourite employees. And it’s fitting that performing employees get amply recognized. What’s not nice is assuming that everything a ‘great employee’ does is great. That’s a demotivator for the rest of the team. That employee starts thinking that nothing he does will give him the recognition that the great employee gets.
The person needs to be differentiated from the values, trait or particular performance. So, articulate the specific performance being rewarded. This allows other employees to understand what they need to do to perform better. Besides, it’s a great check that you are awarding an employee for the right reasons.
Give them the right tools
As much as we would like, employees don’t come with all skill sets required. They need training in specific skill sets to enable them to do their job. Equally important, they need the right tools to do their job. You can’t, for example, expect an employee to make a detailed project plan without Microsoft Project or equivalent installed on their computer.
Be careful not to make training a formality. There are a lot of trainers and quality varies widely. The temptation to send employees to the most easily accessible training program is high. Instead, do some research and send employees for well-structured programs. Online training programs have made many excellent programs accessible. And once one employee does a training, make sure they train formally train others. Its spreads the knowledge amongst the team.
Keep your commitments
Promised to discuss something with your employee? Keep your promise. Told an employee you will take a decision about something? Either make the decision or tell the employee that there will be a delay. When you keep your commitments to your employees, they feel valued. And know that you are there to support and guide them in their work. Once you keep your commitments to your employees, you’ll find that they are more likely to keep theirs to you.
Be fair
Though last, this one is possibly the most important. Be fair in all your dealing with employees. Whether its fairness in compensation (does matter significantly!), leave, timings or anything else. When an employee feels they are being treated fairly, they are much more likely to give their best to an organisation.
Closing note
What happens when an employee doesn’t add value despite all your best efforts? One option is to redeploy them into a role more in line with their skill sets. The other option is to part ways. While parting ways may be distasteful, it’s sometimes the best option for the employee. Inertia keeps many employees stuck in jobs misaligned with their skills. Being pushed to search for new opportunities gives them a much greater chance of finding something they are passionate about.