Managing day-to-day employee performance
Many small business owners are reluctant to hand over responsibility and control or believe that they alone can do the job properly or can get it done more efficiently. This perception often has more to do with poor communication and management skills than it has to do with the ability of staff to perform the tasks.
This article outlines the steps for small business owners to follow to avoid falling into the “have to do it all myself” trap and to enable you to manage the day-to-day operations of your business and build up a positive “can do” culture and strong team spirit.
On this page:
- Set achievable goals
- Communicate your expectations clearly
- Provide adequate skills, tools and time
- Step back, but be available
- Give regular feedback
- Use coaching to improve performance if needed
- Encourage new ideas and innovation
Set achievable goals or tasks
Your employees won’t see the point of trying to achieve a goal if they feel doomed to fail before they even start. Rather than encouraging better performance, it will act as a demotivator. Make sure all your business goals and tasks are reasonable and achievable, and get staff buy-in or agreement on these goals.
You don’t need to aim unrealistically low. However, if you want to quadruple sales over the next two years, for example, while market conditions don’t allow this because of a global recession and a volley of local natural disasters, then expect demotivated and disgruntled staff, not a stellar sales performance.
Communicate your expectations clearly
Clear communication is key to delegating and managing effectively. It’s accepted management practice to explain what you want done, and then ask your employee to verbalise their understanding of the task in their own words. This gives you a chance to identify any miscommunication and address misunderstandings straight away.
If you give a verbal brief or job description, follow it up with written instructions. Often instructions seem logical and clear until you sit down and try to execute them. That’s when you notice the missing pieces, or the wrong assumptions made about the job. Written instructions can help to clear these up and avoid any wasted time and effort.
Provide adequate skills, tools and time
Like unrealistic goals, unrealistic deadlines will act as a demotivator. It’s important to make sure your staff have the right skills and tools, and enough time to do the job you’re expecting. Skills, tools and time are essential ingredients. If any of these are lacking, your employee will either take longer than expected to do the job or won’t be able to produce the quality work you expect.
Step back, but be available
Try to find that delicate balance of allowing your employee enough space to get on with the job, while being available to problem-solve, trouble-shoot, or bounce ideas off. Avoid the temptation to step up and take over at the first sign that things aren’t going smoothly, and try not to watch over your employee’s shoulder – it can be intimidating.
While you’ll have a set, tried and tested formula that you know works, don’t insist that your employee follow the same exact process. If they’re able to achieve the desired outcome (or better) by following a different process, allow them to explore these options. You could discover new ways to improve your business’s productivity.
Don’t let your employee give up and hand a task back when they encounter problems. Instead, try to guide them to solve the problem. Ask leading questions such as: “How do you think we could solve this?” and guide them to a solution that will work. This will increase their confidence and ability to handle future problems.
Give regular feedback
Stepping back and allowing your employee to get on with the job doesn’t mean you abdicate all responsibility. You’ll need to monitor progress and give regular feedback as your employee learns what’s involved in any new task. This function doesn’t stop once they know what to do, but you can ease off on the monitoring and rely on weekly updates or regular progress reviews.
Feedback is always important, whether an employee is underperforming or exceeding your expectations. Positive feedback helps to establish a culture of good work. It reinforces the behaviour of star performers – and might also inspire other employees to try harder.
Nobody likes to tell someone they’re not performing to standard, but avoiding doing so means the person is not given a chance to improve. Focus on your employee’s performance, not their character, and try to offer constructive feedback and support, rather than negative feedback.
Instead of attacking an employee who is routinely late for work and giving them a verbal lashing about time management and arriving late for work, rather explain how it affects company morale and creates a negative impression. Find out if there are any personal circumstances exacerbating the problem, explore ways they can overcome their time-management problem and then set performance goals and monitor them. Read up more about conducting performance appraisals.
Use coaching to improve performance if required
One-on-one coaching or mentoring can be an effective way to help train an employee for new responsibilities. You don’t have to do this yourself if you have staff who can assist. Shadowing someone doing the job or having someone else explain the job requirements and details in a different way might make it easier for your employee to understand and better grasp the new role they need to fill.
Encourage new ideas and innovation
One of the ways your business will grow and improve is from your employees finding ways to work smarter – so welcome new ideas and innovation and give staff room to experiment. Encourage people to come to you with suggestions, or use a suggestion box. NZ Post has, as an example, saved thousands of dollars by implementing staff suggestions for cost savings.
Try to avoid being prescriptive when you assign new tasks. Explain how you go about it, and the desired outcome, but don’t insist employees do it your way just because it works for you. Allow them to experiment (within reason) to find the most efficient way to get the job done. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results. Read up more about fostering innovation.
