What is the extent to which a person receives clear information about performance effectiveness from the work itself?

Next, you need to take the findings from the evaluation and create an improvement plan which works to fill any opportunities or areas of development that have been presented.

Table of Contents Show

9 effective steps to improve employee performance
1. Investigate why the employee isn’t meeting expectations
2. Discuss both the highs and lows
3. Provide consistent feedback as they progress
4. Create a positive workplace culture
5. Prioritise learning and development
6. Set measurable and realistic goals
7. Regularly recognise great work and improvement
Reward and recognise your employees no matter where they are with Perkbox
8. Maximise job satisfaction
9. Act when you don’t see improvement
Defining Results
Performance Objectives
Identifying Actions & Behaviors for Success - Performance Dimensions

9 effective steps to improve employee performance

1. Investigate why the employee isn’t meeting expectations

The list of reasons why an employee isn’t performing as expected can be endless. If you don’t get to the bottom of these, it’s almost impossible to take the right steps to improve it.

Start with an open and frank discussion and find out if the employee feels anything is affecting their ability to perform. It could be that they feel the business is holding them back from reaching their full potential, they could be lacking resources, don’t feel aligned with company goals or aren’t receiving the proper guidance or training.

It’s also possible that factors affecting work may be unrelated to work itself. Personal reasons such as an employee may be going through a time of poor mental wellbeing or experiencing issues in their personal life can also impact performance.

This conversation can provide a basis for you to give more effective support.

2. Discuss both the highs and lows

Performance reviews shouldn’t just be focused on what’s not going well – even though improvement is your end goal.

Focusing just on areas for improvement could knock your employees’ confidence and could lead to resentment if they feel that their hard work in other areas is going unnoticed. Be sure to let your employees know what they’re doing well and point out any stand-out moments in performance since their last review, as well as the areas for development.

When you recognise their hard work, employees will know that they’re a valued member of the team and will continue to put this effort into their work. Nevertheless, when you do discuss challenges and areas for development, you have to be clear about any problems. The easy road would be to ‘soften the blow’, but by not being clear on what the problem is exactly, you’ll make any problems worse in the long term and the relationship could become more hostile.

Make sure that the employee leaves the conversation with a clear understanding of their strengths, any areas for development and the steps that should be taken to get there, as this will minimise stress. When delivering feedback you must always consider your employee's wellbeing. It's a good idea to check you're not giving them too much to do. Or, that they feel out of their depth.

3. Provide consistent feedback as they progress

The most efficient way to improve employee performance is to provide regular feedback. By frequently feeding back, you can help employees stay on track as they work to improve, rather than any issues being saved for a more formal review. By then, the effects of poor performance may have been detrimental to the team or business.

Frequent feedback helps employees to become more comfortable with receiving feedback in general. It can also stop any negative connotations that people associate with receiving feedback. That’s because frequent feedback is more likely to be a mix of positive and constructive comments, which can help to keep employees engaged and encouraged rather than disheartened.

It's important for performance improvement that employees know where they stand and how they’re progressing. They’ll then be more aware of how they’re doing and what steps need to be taken to improve further. Putting this information into a performance improvement plan can help both of you.

4. Create a positive workplace culture

A positive workplace culture helps to pave the way for higher engagement, greater motivation and better performance.

Review elements such as how aligned employees are with the company vision and mission, the employee benefits offered and how the business operates – for example, the work environment and elements like flexibility or holiday policies.

The workplace culture should give employees the stage to perform to the best of their abilities. A strong, high-performance workplace culture allows employees to be focused and engaged without any negativities distracting them and with the support of a positive workplace to drive them forward.

The most simple way to find out if your workplace culture is right for your employees is to ask them! Use a confidential survey tool to ask your employees what they think about how your business operates. As this is a confidential platform, your employees will feel free to be honest about anything that they would like to see improved.

Not only can this help you to make changes to anything in the business that may be affecting performance, you can also show your employees that you value them by making changes based on their suggestions. This helps to make your people feel valued but also improve engagement levels.

5. Prioritise learning and development

Often, poor performance can be attributed to a skill or knowledge gap. By creating a focus on learning and development, employees are reminded of best practice, not to mention gaining new skills while taking valuable steps along their career path.

Work with employees to create individual L&D plans as, when you give employees a say in how and what they learn, they stay engaged and it helps to bring extra motivation.

6. Set measurable and realistic goals

To help drive performance improvement, an employee needs to know what’s being measured. This way they can monitor their own performance and, in turn, work to improve this. If goals aren’t measurable, employees are left guessing about whether they’re improving and they might feel that their results are subjective to their manager’s opinions.

Secondly, goals must also be realistic. Of course, you want to aim big, but anything that feels too unachievable could overwhelm employees and add to burnout. On the other hand, goals that are too easy will not provide any motivation. Be sure to find the right balance right.

You also need to ensure that it’s clear when you expect these goals to be completed by. Set two dates, one to come back and see how things are progressing, and another for an expected completion date.

7. Regularly recognise great work and improvement

When you recognise and reward good work, you're letting employees know that their effort is noticed. By creating a process which allows for regular recognition, you keep high performers engaged. Who then can lead by example and help others.

Our Celebration hub is a great way to make reward and recognition routine as it facilitates peer-to-peer recognition. In addition to making it easier for managers to send rewards to exceptional employees. You can learn more about Celebration hub in this quick introductory video.

One error that leaders often make is spending too much time focusing on under-performance and not on the wins their teams achieve every day. To keep your teams happy and productive you must show appreciation and not consistently criticise their work.

Reward and recognise your employees no matter where they are with Perkbox

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8. Maximise job satisfaction

Often, employees only want to put in what they’re getting out of a role. If they feel they aren't getting paid enough, aren't getting the benefits that they could be getting elsewhere, or feel like their workplace is lacking in resources - they may not try as hard to perform. Take a look at rival employers to ensure you are offering the right benefits to keep your staff happy, engaged and productive. For example, if rival employers are offering their London-based employees a London weighted wage, you should look into doing the same.

9. Act when you don’t see improvement

If you’ve worked with your employee to set clear goals, expectations and a plan for improvement, and they still aren’t working to make a change – you have to act on this.

If you don’t, employees will feel that it’s fine to underperform or have to be micromanaged. This is also demotivating for those who are performing well. As if they feel that poor performance receives no consequences, they’ll wonder why they are putting effort in.

Address the issue and lack of improvement with a written or verbal warning. By marking how important this issue really is with a warning, it can help employees to take more notice as they are shown the severity of the situation.

Even little things which are left to fester can become bigger issues and drive down performance. By monitoring development and acting on this, you’ll maintain a productive and performance-oriented workplace.

To perform well, employees need to know what is expected of them. The starting point is an up-to-date job description that describes the essential functions, tasks, and responsibilities of the job. It also outlines the general areas of knowledge and skills required of the employee an employee to be successful in the job.

Performance expectations go beyond the job description. When you think about high quality on-the-job performance, you are really thinking about a range of expected job outcomes, such as

What goods and services should the job produce?
What impact should the work have on the organization?
How do you expect the employee to act with clients, colleagues, and supervisors?
What are the organizational values the employee must demonstrate?
What are the processes, methods, or means the employee is expected to use?

In discussing performance expectations an employee should understand why the job exists, where it fits in the organization, and how the job's responsibilities link to organization and department objectives. The range of performance expectations can be broad but can generally be broken into two categories:

Results (The goods and services produced by an employee often measured by objectives or standards)
Actions & Behaviors (The methods and means used to make a product and the behaviors and values demonstrated during the process. Actions and Behaviors can be measured through performance dimensions.)

Performance expectations serve as a foundation for communicating about performance throughout the year. They also serve as the basis for reviewing employee performance. When you and an employee set clear expectations about the results that must be achieved and the methods or approaches needed to achieve them, you establish a path for success.

Expectations should always be set in accordance with UC policies and union contracts. For additional information, please see:

Defining Results

Performance objectives and standards are two of the most common methods to define expected results. Both objectives and standards are most useful when, in addition to being written down and verifiable, they are:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely
Specific – Objectives and standards should let employees know exactly which actions and results they are expected to accomplish.

Measurable – Whenever possible, objectives and standards should be based on quantitative measures such as direct counts, percentages, and ratios..

Attainable – The objective or standard should be achievable, but challenging, and attainable using resources available.

Relevant – Individual goals, objectives and standards should be in alignment with those of the unit and the department in support of the University’s mission.

Timely – Results should be delivered within a time period that meets the department and organization’s needs.

Objectives and standards identify baselines for measuring performance results. From performance objectives and standards, supervisors can provide specific feedback describing the gap between expected and actual performance.

It can be very useful to define both objectives and standards for a position, but it is not necessary.

Standards are directly linked to job-task completion. Example: Ensure that all grant requests are written, reviewed, and submitted to the granting agency/foundation by the required deadlines. Objectives are broader in scope, go beyond day-to-day standards, and are clearly linked to helping the organization or department meet its goals and objectives.

Example: Identify three new grant/funding sources by the end of FY 2006.

In some cases, you and the employee may find it better to set a series of standards with only a few objectives, while in other situations it may make more sense to set objectives alone.

The advantages and disadvantages outlined belowcan give guidance on when to use objectives or standards or both.

Objectives – Advantages

Objectives – Disadvantages

Standards – Advantages

Standards - Disadvantages

Ties unit/organization’s objectives to employee’s objectives.

Specific to individual.

Facilitates employee and supervisor communication.

Future – oriented. Flexible.

Can be put into place for all employees, but more easily used for employees with a broader scope of responsibilities, and a mixture of non-routine and routine work.

Can focus on annual results, while ignoring routine aspects of job.

Care must be taken to ensure objectives are realistic.

Can be compromised by changing circumstances. Too much flexibility.

Must be consistent with culture and can be time consuming to implement a fully integrated system.

Tied to job duties and responsibilities.

Best when applied to any employee performing the same job duties.

Facilitates communication.

Makes it very clear how performance will be measured.

Standards can exist for any job. They are particularly useful in jobs where for health, safety, legal and/or operations reasons work must be done in a certain way. They are also more easily put into place for jobs that have a large number of routine tasks required.

Can become too task oriented.

Less flexible when responsibilities of a position change. If standards are not reviewed and updated regularly, it can hold the employee and unit back.

May not provide enough challenge for employee.

Takes time to develop.

Performance Objectives

A performance objective is a future state of achievement that helps the organization succeed and create value. It is a direct link between the work an employee does and the department and organization’s overall objectives and mission. As the organization’s needs change and direction shifts, so will an employee’s performance objectives.

Performance objectives express mutually understood agreements for results that an employee is expected to produce during the performance review period.
Performance objectives are not separate from an employee’s job, but part of the job.
Performance objectives are “ends” towards which you and your employee direct effort and focus resources.

For these reasons it is best not to dictate objectives, but set them through discussion, negotiation, compromise, and agreement.

While much has been written about differences between objectives, targets, and goals, there are no real differences. There are some authors who may make a distinction based on scale and time, but for our purposes the term “objective” will be used.

Objectives force you and the employee to think of planning for results, not just planning activities. Identifying objectives encourages you and the employee to continually look for ways to improve overall department effectiveness and efficiency, and link individual and departmental operations and results to the overall planning and mission of the University. Objectives set through a collaborative process between the employee, supervisor, and department elicit commitment.

It helps to set objectives using the following format:

To [Action verb] [Key Result] by [Date] at [Cost of (if applicable)]

Examples of Performance Objectives:

Implement update of on-line graduate application program by October 1, 200x
Reduce telephone expenses by 15% within the first half of the fiscal year.
Identify three new funding sources by the end of FY 200x, and ensure that all grant requests are written, reviewed, and submitted to the granting agency/foundation by the respective deadlines.

The following questions may help generate ideas for performance objectives. Based on departmental/unit objectives:

What can this employee do to improve the overall effectiveness of the work unit?
Has the employee suggested program or process changes that help us meet our objectives and can be completed during the appraisal period?
What needs to be done to improve the quality of our service? What refinements can we make to our operations? What needs to be introduced or eliminated?
What are we ready to do now that we could not do last year (due to increased resources, system modifications, changed priorities, updated skills, etc.)?
What skills, processes, products must be updated to meet client (student, faculty, staff, community) demand?

You and the employee should develop objectives together whenever possible.

Set short-term goals with a long-term view. Objectives are generally set for periods of a year or less, which may sacrifice long-term gain to generate results in the short-term.
Identify critical issues and possible obstacles
Do not underestimate resource needs.
Build in flexibility. Regular status update and check-in meetings make it much easier to identify problems or shifts in unit priorities and change course.

Click on any of the following items for additional information:

Characteristics of Performance Standards

Standards describe the conditions that must exist before the performance can be rated satisfactory. Performance standards are approved expressions of the

Performance threshold(s),
Requirement(s), or
Expectation(s)

employees must meet to be reviewed at particular levels of performance.

A standard focuses on task completion. It is specifically tied to duties/responsibilities. A performance standard should:

Be realistic, in other words, attainable by any qualified, competent, and fully trained person who has the authority and resources to achieve the desired result
Be “exceedable.” Employees should know that they can and should exceed expectations. Standards should not be used as an excuse to maintain the status quo if change is needed.
Describe the conditions that exist when performance meets expectations
Be expressed in terms of quantity, quality, time, cost, effect, manner of performance, or method of doing
Be measurable, with specified method(s) of gathering performance data and measuring performance against standards

The terms for expressing performance standards are outlined below:

Quantity: specifies how much work must be completed within a certain period of time, e.g., enters 30 enrollments per day.
Quality: describes how well the work must be accomplished. Specifies accuracy, precision, appearance, or effectiveness, e.g., 95% of documents submitted are accepted without revision.
Timeliness: answers the questions: By when, how soon, or within what period, e.g., all work orders completed within five working days of receipt.
Effective Use of Resources: used when performance can be reviewed in terms of utilization of resources: money saved, waste reduced, etc., e.g., the computer handbook project will be completed with only internal resources.
Effects of Effort: addresses the ultimate effect to be obtained; expands statements of effectiveness by using phrases such as: so that, in order to, or as shown by, e.g., establish inventory levels for storeroom so that supplies are maintained 100% of the time.
Manner of Performance: describes conditions in which an individual's personal behavior has an effect on performance, e.g., assists other employees in the work unit in accomplishing assignments.
Method of Performing Assignments: describes requirements; used when only the officially-prescribed policy, procedure, or rule for accomplishing the work is acceptable, e.g., 100A Forms are completed in accordance with established office procedures.

Write performance standards for each key area of responsibility on the employee's job description. Focus on tasks that have the greatest importance; it is not necessary to write standards for every task.

Standards are usually established when an assignment is made, and should be reviewed if the employee's job description is updated. Whenever possible, have employees participate in developing standards. The discussion of standards should include the criteria for achieving satisfactory performance and the proof of performance (methods you will use to gather information about work performance).

In departments where more than one person does the same task or function, standards may be written for the parts of the jobs that are the same and applied to all positions doing that task.

Remember, changes in performance standards may require notice for represented employees. Teamsters 2010, for example requires notice. In addition, there are contracts that cover specialized professions, such as Nurses and Police, that have their own standard-setting and evaluation processes. Refer to the appropriate labor contract and contact Employee Relations when setting standards.

Identifying Actions & Behaviors for Success - Performance Dimensions

In addition to objectives and standards (which focus on end results) it is important to consider other aspects of performance. As discussed earlier, Performance Expectations = Results + Actions & Behaviors.

Understanding the actions and behaviors that employees can use to perform the job is often as important to success as end results. Behavior is the day-to-day activity in which people engage to produce results and relates closely to the process side of work.

Focusing on the way people go about their work is based on the belief that doing things correctly will lead to positive organizational results. However, many actions and behaviors are not easy to measure. For this reason, managers and employees should discuss difficult to quantify aspects of performance in terms that are

Specific,
Observable,
Job-related, and
Behavioral.

When described in this way, behaviors and actions can be grouped into performance dimensions that can be used to review job performance.

For example, if success in meeting an objective such as “updating an on-line graduate application program” requires strong interpersonal skills, then the employee should know that s/he will have to build solid relationships, collaborate, and incorporate ideas and suggestions made by colleagues. Performance will be reviewed on how well behaviors associated with the dimension, interpersonal skills, are demonstrated in reaching the objective.

Performance dimensions are defined based on the job and the work itself.

In creating a performance dimension you start with the job and state the range of behaviors employees must exhibit to successfully meet or exceed job expectations. These behaviors are then grouped into broad categories that we are calling “dimensions.” Performance dimensions help answer the question: “How does someone act and/or behave when s/he does the job well?”

Since dimensions are broad categories, a specific dimension generally applies to any employee working in a given job. It is also possible for departments and units and even entire organizations to have dimensions that apply to any employee who works in the group.

In addition to strong interpersonal skills, other examples of performance dimensions include:

Customer Service Orientation
Teamwork
Effective Communication
Valuing Diversity
Analysis and Problem-Solving
Decision-Making and Results Orientation
Adaptability
Fostering a Safe and Secure Environment

This list is by no means exhaustive. Each organization should agree on the definitions used for a dimension and the job or job groups to which a dimension will be applied. It is common, for example, to have a series of dimensions that apply to all supervisors and/or managers in an organization. The definition and validation of dimensions is a key objective of the Staff Infrastructure Steering Committee (SISC) Performance Management Working Group.

For dimensions to be an effective means of measuring performance, they must have two characteristics:

Have a clear general definition, and
Have well-defined levels of performance at each point along a rating scale.

This definition of Teamwork is one example of a performance dimension definition.

The Teamwork Dimension describes how employees build alliances to solve problems and achieve objectives, work cooperatively and respectively with co-workers, use diplomacy and tact when interacting with others, diffuse tension, help manage conflict, collaborate, foster collegial and cooperative attitudes, relate well to all kinds of people regardless of level inside or outside of organization, and contribute to the overall success of their work units and departments by sharing knowledge and information.

Teamwork is then defined for each point along a rating scale. For the 2008 Performance Rating Scale, please see the Performance Rating Scale.

Performance dimensions focus on the actions that need to be taken by anyone doing that job to get the work done. As discussed above, performance dimensions are groupings of behaviors/actions and are defined based on the requirements and expectations of the job.

In contrast, a competency is a cluster of knowledge, skills and abilities that describes a general trait that an employee has or should have to perform a job. While competencies relate to the individual, performance dimensions relate to the job.

For example, a performance dimension for a Budget Analyst’s position may be to “Prepare budget documents and reports.” It will then be useful to measure how well an employee holding the job:

“Presents information in a clear, concise manner that illustrates budget issues that need to be resolved”,
“Produces timely budget documents and reports that are tailored to each customer’s needs. and,
Frequently uses graphics and other aids to summarize and synthesize data.

If the person holding the position is a highly competent communicator and knowledgeable about the budget process, then there is an overlap between the performance dimension “Prepare budget documents and reports” and the employee’s “communication” and “technical knowledge” competencies.

Since competencies focus on an employee’s traits they are useful in hiring and development. Performance dimensions, which focus on the job, are useful for performance management and review.