How to Improve Employee Performance
| The ability of an organization to achieve its goals depends largely on employee performance—employees who are fulfilled and productive can be instrumental assets in steering an organization toward success. Despite this, though, many managers find it challenging to motivate employees and improve their performance. As a manager, it’s vital that you purposefully design workplace structures and supports that can help lead your team to prosper. In this article, we discuss How to Improve Employee Performance.
Work continues to evolve at dizzying speeds, and technology enables us to become more efficient than ever before. And yet, managing employees’ performance and productivity have never been more challenging. You can implement processes for improving employee performance, though, and the best solutions are often simple ones. Better communication, clear expectations, and feedback go a long way toward improving work performance. Look no further—the answers are right in front of you. We gathered up five tips to help you boost employee performance and avoid burnout:
1. Establish employee mentorship programsTo perform well, employees need to be refreshed—they need to feel connected to their workplace, not overwhelmed. To that end, one of the most effective tools for higher performance you can give your sales associates is each other. Ryan Carruthers of Together Software, a company that builds mentorship program software, says that businesses that implement mentorship programs help avoid burnout and increase employee performance. “The best way to help employees grow and find fulfillment in their roles is by connecting them. Of course, organizations need to address the issues of unsustainable workloads, but that’s the first step. Employees also need to feel part of a community. Communities with shared values make our work more meaningful, an effective antidote to burnout.” A mentorship program means your employees never stop learning, as top performers connect with new employees and workers with lower sales numbers. Both parties have best practices enforced this way: the mentor reinforces what it is they’re doing that’s so effective, and the mentee picks up the more intricate tips of the trade. It also fosters community and friendships, which can help employees enjoy their work more. Using data from your point of sale is a good way to identify your strongest and weakest sellers. You can start by pulling reports for total sales at the end of shifts and making a note of who’s on the floor when you have the highest and lowest sales. If you’d like to dive a little deeper, try measuring upsells and customer value by the employee (get more tips on how here). 2. Inspire employees to consider a career in retailWhen your employees feel they’re part of a budding career, they’ll feel like their work has meaning and like they’re important, and as such be more motivated to sell. It might sound obvious, but training your employees properly is key to motivating them to sell more. Many busy merchants limit training to showing new employees around and training them on a point of sale. But to encourage your sales associates to see retail as a career they’re invested in, you should keep the training going. If you want your employees to perform well and stick around, ongoing training opportunities should be related to the career paths you plan together. For example, retail giant H&M motivates its employees by explaining the paths to long-term careers in retail as opposed to hourly wage jobs. You can do the same for your sales associates. Show your employees what a career in retail looks like and where they could end up based on their strengths and interests—such as shift, store or district managers, visual merchandisers, or buyers and planners. By making these career paths tangible, you can boost employee performance as they take on long-term goals related to their development. To continue to enforce an employee’s ownership of their career, it’s important to give your employees routine feedback. What did they do well and how could they improve? Make time for quarterly reviews where you go over your employees’ goals, accomplishments, areas of improvement, and compensation increases. In addition, have frequent informal one-on-one discussions with them and make sure they’re allowed to share their thoughts and concerns. 3. Use incentives and perks to improve employee performanceWell-compensated employees are motivated to sell more. Revising your compensation and incentives could be more effective at boosting sales than any advertising you might do—some companies find it 50% more effective, in fact. Commission models are one of the more traditional ways of offering incentives to sales employees. Be warned, however: offering commissions can motivate sales associates, but can sometimes lead to resentment and unhealthy competition among staff. You want your staff to work as a team, but you also want to keep in mind that they want to make money just like anyone else. By giving the whole team a commission based on total sales, they’ll still be motivated to sell, but won’t fight over customers. If a commission model isn’t right for your store, you can still offer fun perks to keep employees happy. Martin Seeley, Chief Executive Officer at MattressNextDay, advises retailers to boost performance through rewards that employees can use in their personal time. “Aside from salary increase, you can provide other perks and benefits that they can enjoy personally. Some discounts, gift cards, and even online streaming subscriptions that they can use during their free time can be so much appreciated by employees.”
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