Knowhow - Employee Engagement | Tips for managing direct reports 365 days a year
Motivating employees and creating a high-performance workforce is, at its heart, all about communication. How managers interact with their employees can have a dramatic impact.
An annual employee performance review is a good start, as it provides a communication framework; however, given today’s dynamic business environment, checking in once a year simply isn’t enough.
Companies manage finances 365 days a year. So if an organization believes its people are its most important asset — which they are — they must manage their people in a similar fashion. The concept of “Performance Management 365” means balancing the focus and priority of performance management throughout the year. The best practices outlined here are designed to help you do just that.
Focus the employee on what matters most. Managers should discuss, in layman’s terms, business priorities, their expectations of employees and SMART — Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound — goals with their employees.
Assign “stretch goals” for everyone. Providing an opportunity for an employee to strive for and achieve, a stretch goal will build confidence and in-crease motivation.
Remove roadblocks and provide resources. Employee performance increases when managers take time to understand challenges, then offer recommendations and actions to help remove roadblocks or provide another path forward.
Create a balance between feedback and coaching. Top performers, like top athletes, require proper coaching to reach new personal bests. They need specific, actionable feedback on what they are doing well and how they can continue to improve. Middle and lower performers require informal feedback that doesn’t need to carry with it the gravity of course corrections or specific behavior changes. Simply taking time to acknowledge a job well done can go a long way.
Be ready to course-correct. In this fast-paced world, changes are inevitable. Make sure you and your employees clearly understand changes in the organization, new goals, new priorities and employee/employer expectations.
Address poor performance head-on. A consistently low performer affects the morale of a team and you must work directly with this low performer toward a resolution.
Celebrate success. An appropriate celebration or a simple acknowledgement to recognize success helps build teamwork and commitment.
Provide honest evaluations. Focus the formal review on the positive and use feedback sessions throughout the year to coach and set expectations accordingly.
Be true to the company’s reward strategies. HR practitioners should make sure their managers understand the company’s compensation strategy. Consistency creates a more satisfied, productive workforce.
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Managers are not perfect and will make mistakes. Learn from experience, improve as you go and don’t be afraid to talk to your own manager about your challenges and triumphs.
In virtually every practice covered in this article, communication is the key. Invest the time and energy into developing healthy, positive, genuine working relationships with your direct reports. If you do, motivating and managing become easier and the outcomes will be more productive.
Jan Brockway is a product manager at Marlborough-based Workscape. She can be reached at janice.brockway@workscape.com.
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