Strategies And Tools For Improving Employee Performance
- April 5, 2021
- Humantelligence
Each employee within a company has the power to boost a company’s success. For better or worse, the inverse is also true: Each employee has the power to drag down productivity and the organization’s bottom line. Business leaders have become increasingly focused on finding strategies to improve the performance of employees to better serve and delight customers. At some point, each business leader needs to devise a high-functioning HR performance improvement plan that gets results.
If you’re struggling to develop an action plan for non-performing employees, it’s probably time to take a deeper look at the issue to discover the right performance improvement plan (PIP) for your organization.
Keep reading to learn how a PIP can help streamline your employee performance improvement process.
What Is an Employee Performance Improvement Plan?
A PIP can become a powerful tool to help struggling employees succeed or let ambivalent employees go for immediate issues and any thereafter. You might think of it as an on-the-spot, essential performance evaluation. When you and your managers become painfully aware of a recurring or worsening employee performance issue, you must resolve the issue quickly and effectively. More employers today are relying on performance improvement plans, which are formal template documents that feature details regarding the specifics of your employee’s performance issues. Further, it gives you the opportunity to create a clear list of goals that the poorly performing employee needs to succeed and a timeline to allow him or her to reach those goals. A performance improvement plan isn’t always (nor should it be) a negative experience for an employee. Many employers also use it to help driven employees determine and plan professional goals and create measurable steps to achieve those goals.How to Determine If Employees Should Face a Performance Improvement Plan
Here are key steps to take to determine whether a PIP is warranted for your troublesome employee:- Analyze the various possible factors regarding if the employee is not doing his or her job or meeting your organization’s standards.
- Remove external factors, such as an unclear job description or requirements, miscommunicated professional standards, or issues and incompatibilities with management and co-workers.
What Are the Benefits Your Organization Might Experience With a Performance Improvement Plan?
Employee turnover is expensive. You probably want to avoid termination and searching for a new employee. A performance improvement plan can help you correct a poor attitude, behavior or performance. Your employee might be experiencing personal turmoil. A PIP can help this individual see that his or her performance and productivity are failing. Your employee gets the chance to course-correct, and you keep a quality employee on board and avoid needing to invest in a recruiting mission.What Are the Components and Requirements That Comprise a Performance Improvement Plan?
Performance improvement plans include numerous steps that your employee needs to follow to improve his or her work performance. That said, it helps for you to understand and follow some integral steps:- Meet with and discuss the performance issue with the employee, letting him or her know you want him or her to succeed.
- Create achievable goals, such as hitting a certain sales figure or contributing input during team meetings, according to a set timeline.
- Maintain communications with the employee during the PIP process, providing accolades for improvement and questioning any lack thereof. Ask if the individual needs additional training or other assistance to facilitate his or her success.
- Evaluate the outcome when the deadline arrives. Make this meeting a discussion regarding how the employee feels about the process and outcome.
- Prepare to continue the improvement process. If you feel the employee is unlikely to succeed, you might consider an alternative solution, such as a transfer, demotion or termination.
What Steps Do You Need to Take to Create the Improvement Plan?
When determining that an employee is continually experiencing issues meeting deadlines, cooperating with team members, or providing customer satisfaction, it’s time to create a performance improvement plan. Here are some actions to take at that point:- Review the employee’s job description and expected performance.
- Analyze the times when the employee has fallen short and any notable circumstances surrounding the issue.
- Consider what might help the employee succeed, thereby creating a path to improved positivity and productivity.
When Is the Improvement Plan Needed?
You can usually detect when someone is struggling to fit in with the corporate culture. You might also have a gut feeling when someone has checked out and doesn’t care about his or her position anymore. Nevertheless, you can’t let detection and gut feelings rule your strategic decision-making. Here are some instances when you should implement a performance improvement plan:- Your company has taken on the PIP process as a means of dealing with performance issues.
- Your organization has no detailed prescription in your employee handbook for managing performance issues.
- You believe your employee is worth the effort that goes into a PIP due to a history of strong performance and a positive attitude.
- Your employee is experiencing personal challenges, and you want to offer him or her an opportunity to improve.
Humantelligence Provides a Highly Effective Three-Step Process
Humantelligence will help you improve employee performance without the stress and disruption that sometimes accompanies such a task. We offer a three-step performance improvement plan process that allows you to achieve a high-performing culture where everyone gets the opportunity and encouragement to shine. Our platform is here to help you measure and manage existing employees’ performance levels. With our help, you can also hire employees whose attitudes align with your company culture. Our employee performance improvement plan consists of the following:- Step One: Our quick and comprehensive culture self-assessment tool was designed to uncover your employees’ and prospective employees’ work motivators, behaviors, ideal work styles and life priorities.
- Step Two: Manage and optimize your workplace culture using data meant to culturally align your employees at the team, group, functional, organizational and departmental levels. Your accumulated data can help you understand why teams do or do not perform, and help you find ways to spur them to course-correct.
- Step Three: Hire effectively by using our talent fit tool and team analytics to find and hire prospects faster, speeding the process by 80%. Our talent management and development tool offers strategies and analytics to help you make the right decisions at every point in the employee improvement process.