Employee performance plays an important role in the success of your company. When productivity and effectiveness suffers, it affects overall organizational health. Therefore, if you identify an employee that is struggling to meet deadlines or achieve goals, it’s up to you as a leader to take action and improve employee performance. As such, here are four steps to improve employee performance.

Four Steps to Improve Employee Performance

Identify the behaviors that need improvement

Firstly, to improve employee performance, you must identify the behaviors that need improvement. Are they delivering subpar work? Are they showing up late to work too often? Identifying the specific performance problems will make it easier to communicate the problem to the employee, as well as make it easier to determine potential solutions.

Communicate your expectations and the behaviors that are hindering their performance

Talk to the employee about what it is that you expect from them. Does it seem as if your employee has a thorough understanding of their work assignments and objectives? In addition, explain to your employee which behaviors are keeping them from achieving those objectives. Be sure to let your employee know that your goal is not to discipline, but rather to work with them to improve employee performance. Lastly, give your employee the chance to voice their thoughts. Do they see the same problems as you do? Are they unsure about how those specific problems relate to their responsibilities or your expectations?

Discuss potential solutions and implement a plan of action to improve employee performance

After you have clearly communicated the problems at hand, talk to your employee about potential solutions that would correct the problem and improve employee performance. In addition, it may be necessary to discuss any barriers that limit your employee’s effectiveness, and to determine if you can help them remove those barriers. After agreeing on a solution, identify key takeaways and specific action items for both the employee and yourself. Make sure to list out the KPIs that will signal whether the implemented solution is working or not.

Follow up with employee recognition and progress checks

 This step is arguably the most important if you want to improve employee performance long-term. Schedule periodic meetings with the employee to discuss progress and any challenges the employee might be facing. In addition, recognize when your employee is performing well. This reinforces which actions and contributions you consider valuable. In addition, empower and encourage your employee. In other words, let them know that you believe they have the ability to perform at peak levels and that you are rooting for their success.

Final Thoughts

High-performing employees lead to high-performing teams and high-performing organizations. Therefore, it’s critical that leaders work with their teams to improve employee performance. Moreover, supporting employee performance should start before you notice an issue—it should start as early as the employee’s first day on the job.

If you’re in need of temporary employees that will contribute positively to your organization, Staff Force is the staffing agency of choice for employers across Texas. We understand the importance of matching great candidates that fit the needs of the company. We go beyond the resume to provide employers with candidates that also have the right personality for the company’s values. Your focus should be on your employees—we’ll handle recruitment. Contact Staff Force today for your staffing needs.