Managing Employee Performance – The What and the Why
As your business grows, you will find yourself needing some help managing your team. This is an exciting time, but it also means you need to make some tough decisions. For example, do you hire an internal HR manager for your business? Or do you outsource the function to an HR company?
Managing employee performance on an ongoing basis is one of the more important jobs of the HR department and something that is often overlooked; therefore it is important that you find a solution that is proactive.
At Guildford HR we support local businesses in all aspects of their people management. We can support you with the whole Employee Life Cycle, from when you bring on a new employee to when they leave. Our team is there to help you support your employees and get the best performance from them and the company. We also offer specific line manager training on how to conduct performance reviews and appraisal policies, so that you know you’re effectively managing your teams and their performance.
Why Measure Employee Performance?
After all, just because your organisation is meeting its targets doesn’t mean your employees are meeting their own performance potential. Measuring employee performance on a regular basis allows the business to understand where there are resource gaps, identify areas where effort needs to be made to improve performance, and give you the information needed to make key decisions about the business’s future.
Measuring employee performance also means that line managers can provide their teams with valuable feedback, make it clear what’s expected of them, and provide praise and recognition for their efforts. It gives an opportunity to tailor progression plans, put extra support in place if needed, and improve the mental and emotional well-being of all team members. All of this strengthens the relationship between manager and employee and contributes to better overall performance from both.
How To Tell If Your Team Are Performing
The big question many businesses have is – how do I know how well my team are performing? In most cases, you can collect some form of data on the output of each employee, known as people analytics. KPIs are a good place to start, but they aren’t the only way to gauge performance. Of course, low output doesn’t always equate to low performance, so it’s important to take the following into account too:
Task Performance: How well / effectively each team member is doing the specific activities related to their job. For example, if their job role is IT support, how many tickets are they taking on, what’s the resolution rate and how effectively are those problems being dealt with?
Contextual Performance: Any activities that are outside of their direct job description but benefit the company as a whole. For example, mentoring new colleagues, taking on additional roles within the office or acting as an ambassador for the business.
Adaptive Performance: The employee’s ability to respond to unexpected changes, for example, a crisis situation or a sudden change in team dynamic.
Bringing all of that information together, you start to get a better view of each individual’s overall performance, which allows you to move on to the next step.
The Importance of Regular Performance Reviews
There’s little point in putting time and effort into improving employee performance if you’re not reviewing the results. The best way to do this is through regular performance reviews or appraisals, which give the manager time to sit with each employee individually and discuss their work, air any concerns and work together to create a plan to improve performance if needed. Many managers see these reviews as pointless, but in fact, 24% of workers would consider leaving their jobs if their managers provided inadequate performance feedback – so these reviews are just as important to the employee as the business.
Appraisals are an important part of the process as it gives managers and employees a chance to reflect on the last 12 months (or whatever period of time you choose between reviews), evaluate successes or failures, and identify areas where support and improvement are needed. This is a critical step in performance management. When done well, performance reviews themselves can boost employee performance moving forward. For example, well-done performance reviews can result in:
- 27% of employees receive feedback during performance reviews that helps them work better
- 40% higher employee engagement
- 25% lower staff turnover
- 15% boost in productivity
If you would like more information on Employee Performance please contact us.
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