Employee Performance
Learning Objectives:
I will be able to explain how performance is measured and managed within a business (Pass)
I will be able to explain how performance is measured and managed within a business (Pass)
Motivating employees and encouraging involvement can both increase the amount of work that employees are doing, as well as its quality. We will now look at how a business can make sure this is happening.
Measuring Performance
Whilst motivation is key to getting employees to work as hard as they possibly can, a business can only find out how hard employees are working if they measure their performance.
Performance Indicators
Businesses have different ways that they measure employee performance, e.g in production its how many products are made, in a supermarket its how many customers are served and products sold. In some industries it is more difficult to measure productivity than others. Sometimes it is qualitative data that it is important rather than quantitative data. How do you measure performance in a hospital, a restaurant, a school, a bank, a charity shop, an estate agent? It is also important to have methods of reviewing performance and to have targets set and appraisals.
Goal Theory
Goal theory is the practice of setting goals for employees to achieve. The best set of goals are achieved when the employer and employee work together to set goals that they both feel are important. Clear and challenging goals can give employees incentive and motivation to work more productively and achieve the performance that is required. This also helps the organisation meet its overall goal. It is important that the employee wants to achieve the goals and that they see the rewards for doing so.
SMART Targets
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This is a business tool used to work out how useful a set of objectives actually is.
S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R ealistic
T ime-constrained
They may be used to give employees set work or levels of sales to achieve. Measurement and review dates need to be included in the planning of SMART targets so that progress can be monitored and checked at the end.
S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R ealistic
T ime-constrained
They may be used to give employees set work or levels of sales to achieve. Measurement and review dates need to be included in the planning of SMART targets so that progress can be monitored and checked at the end.
Benchmarking
One way for an organisation to measure how well it is performing is to measure itself against others. This can be done with benchmarking. This means that an organisation tries to meet or better the performance level of another organisation. Sometimes a benchmark standard is set by the best organisation in industry, or by the government..
Managing Peformance
This involves monitoring the targets and goals employees have been given to see how they are progressing and what the final result is.
Probation
A time at the beginning of employment to see if the employee is suitable for the job and to decide if it is right for them. Can vary between one week and one year depending on the nature of the job. Why do you think this is?
Appraisal
Appraisals regularly record an assessment of an employee's performance, potential and development needs. The appraisal is an opportunity to take an overall view of work content, loads and volume, to look back on what has been achieved during the reporting period and agree objectives for the next.
Supporting Employees
Mentoring - A mentor is usually someone on the workplace who supports and encourages another employee to help them achieve their best performance possible. It is a one-to-one relationship and the mentor tries to pass on their knowledge, experience and skills to the employee.
Monitoring - This is the process of checking that an employee is making progress. It is usually formal (where the manager checks the employee in an obvious way) or informal (where they make more discrete judgments).
Buddying - This is usually where a new employee is supported by a more experienced employee. They are there to give the employee someone other than their line manager to talk to. It helps them feel supported and is a quick way of helping them get used to understanding the organisation.
Monitoring - This is the process of checking that an employee is making progress. It is usually formal (where the manager checks the employee in an obvious way) or informal (where they make more discrete judgments).
Buddying - This is usually where a new employee is supported by a more experienced employee. They are there to give the employee someone other than their line manager to talk to. It helps them feel supported and is a quick way of helping them get used to understanding the organisation.
Occupational Health
Making the work environment as healthy and relaxing as possible should be part of any employer's occupational health strategy. Feeling happy and safe at work can make employees feel less stressed and also improve performance.
Managing Workloads
One important way of making sure that employees do not feel under too much pressure at work is to ensure that everyone has a fair share of the workload. This requires careful management to make sure that it is done properly. Flexible working hours and the use of part-time staff can help to even out the workload.
Delegating Authority and Responsibility
Doing this can motivate employees, but it is extremely important to avoid employee errors, which could be costly for the employer in terms of both money and damage to the reputation, and may even result in dismissal for the employee.
Capacity
Using as much capacity as possible should lead to lower costs for the business, so employees need to ensure that employees are performing well without putting them under so much pressure that they suffer with stress and then become ill.
Competence
If someone is competent in their job, it means that they are fully trained and experienced enough to be able to carry out the tasks associated with it. Having competent staff leads to a more efficient organisation. Competency at work is achieved through experience and training, so employers must be prepared to invest if necessary. (Trollied video) Different organisations will have different sets of competencies they think are essential to do a job. Employees will need to be measured against these through observation, exercises or even tests. (Psychometric testing).
Autonomy
This means giving power and control over decisions to employees. This may involve an employee becoming responsible for monitoring their own performance, rather than managers. This can highly motivate them if they feel their targets and goals are achievable, but could lead to lower goal setting or looking to 'cheat the system'.
Linking Rewards to Performance
Making direct links between rewards and performance requires the monitoring of employee performance in order to ensure that desired outcomes have been achieved. Monitoring outcomes is as important as the setting of targets as giving a reward for performance is only effective if the right outcome is achieved.
Discipline
Without disciplinary procedures, under-performing employees may cause poor performance of the whole organisation as well as resentment amongst other employees who feel they need to work harder to make up for the shortfall.
Employee Development
This helps employees to keep developing and becoming better at their jobs, thus improving their performance. Employee development is extremely varied, as one what might suit one employee won't suit another. If an organisation commits to developing its employees and monitoring their progress it can help them to deliver maximum performance, which benefits the employee and the organisation. Different methods are:
Training
Learning
Job rotation
Accelerated promotion
Personal
Professional
Training
Learning
Job rotation
Accelerated promotion
Personal
Professional