How To Get The Best Out Of Your Employees

By Author: Rakesh Sharma
Total Articles: 8
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As per one research it has been found that approximately 15% employee in any business are actually engaged and delivering their best performance. Whereas 60% employees are only doing work to maintain and sustain their job. Around 20% to 25% employees are actively disengaged. These employees don't work themselves and also don't allow others to work effectively. Which means approximately 50% of the wage bill goes waste. If such a huge sum could be saved from wastage this would have added to profits of the organization directly. And this means a lot for organization.
Therefore the most imperative for any business is to inspire their employees to be the best versions of themselves. If engaged effectively, everyone on the team will not only be more productive and efficient, but also make them happier and satisfied with their jobs.
Managing employees and empowering them to do good work must be dealt with a systematic approach. As a matter of fact, inspiring and motivating employees is a learnable skill and can be learned just like programming skills or riding a bike. We suggest following steps that are simple, but ...
... time tested.
1. Keep the vision of organization alive:
Your vision has led you to where you are today, whether in establishing the business or acquiring new projects or when recruiting new employees. As a business leader or manager we transfer our vision to employees. But in the daily hussle and bussle of doing the business we forget the very purpose of doing the business. This blurs the vision for employees and they stop see the big picture. This disconnects them from the future of the business and they stop relating themselves with the mission and goals of organization.
So it becomes the responsibility of the leader or manager to make them see the bigger picture as the business leader need to see for themselves the bigger goals of the organization, project or company.
The best way to do this is to communicate the mission and vision, the goals, the expectations in an effective and meaningful way to the employees from time to time.
2. Use your communication skills effectively
It means that you are obliged to keep the employees updated on the progress that you have made together. Share the results, share the numbers with your employees. It is important to share the progress of the organization with employees. As business leader you must take out time to communicate them the achievements and the downside of a performance time to time. You must also take their viewpoint on important aspects of business.
It becomes even more crucial when the numbers are not typically flattering. Give constant and immediate feedbacks on both positive and negative achievements. Also explain how their job contributes to these achievements. It would prevent them from making up stories due to lack of information.
Keep the communication bilateral. Give them an opportunity to express their ideas, opinions and ideas, without criticism.
You have to be a good listener, not just a good teacher.
3. Encourage achievements, effectiveness
Employees want to feel good about their organization, work, product/service and overall reputation of the company they work for. They cherish being valued and recognized for their efforts. It shows appreciation. Create opportunities to recognize the good work of your employees. The more you appreciate their good work the more they tend to repeat it. Appreciation is the fundamental requirement of everyone. Create different types of methods to find out the good work of employees at all levels and appreciate them as soon as possible. Create work performance related recognition and reward. Incentivize very good performance.
Sending a birthday card or gifts on special life occasions can make a difference. It makes them feel valued not only as workers but also as human beings. Or, promoting non-working activities from time to time gives the employees a sense of belonging. It is also a great opportunity for the leader to meet and know his employees better.
4. Have high expectation from employees:
Your employees will deliver as you expect from them. Lots of research has happened in this area. Dr. Rosenthal conducted lots of research and found out that employees will deliver exactly what their managers expect from them. High expectations of managers lead to high performance behavior which finally result in higher performance of employees.
5. Clarify their role:
Role confusion is one of the biggest reasons for poor performance employees. If you really want to get the best performance from them make sure that their role is very clear to them. Also ensure to set the performance measures very clearly. Do not forget to review the performance time to time and give them constructive feedback. Well-structured root cause analysis and action planning followed by the periodic review will always help employees to deliver their best performance.
6. Promote team spirit:
Trust is the key to build teamwork. There should be mutual understanding and trust between employers and employees.
To stimulate strong team environment it is essential to conduct team building events. It promotes better interaction among employees, helps them tackle problems together, be more involved and have a greater sense of belonging.
Team problem solving is crucial. It provides a sense of empowerment to the employees and increases engagement overtime.
7. Be open to innovation:
When people are happy with their work, they are always finding a better way to do it as part of their own incentives. Innovation and incentives also carry the risk of failure. Many employees would not dare to try to opt for new approaches just from the fear of failure. Fear is not the best way to manage a team. Culture of experimentation should be strongly promoted.
Mistakes teach us so encourage innovation. It comes with taking a leap of faith and giving ownership to your employees.
They are allowed to take some decisions with the trust that they will take the best decision possible for a specific project and company in general. The progress should be monitored along the way.
This has been proven to be one of the best ways to inspire employee performance in the longer run.
Managers should use increased responsibility to boost performance to foster the professional growth of the employee.
It is advised to give them new responsibilities, to ensure trust in them, motivate them and teach them something new. If people keep doing the same work over and over again, may make them feel bored or even burned out.
Before any changes be sure the right people are at the right positions. They should work on things they are good at. Changes and flips are reserved as an upgrade of already mastered role.
It doesn’t cost much to be supportive towards your employees, but it brings unexpected outcomes.
It is advised to consult a sales and business coach to device your own employee performance management system and get the best out of your employees.

I'm Rakesh Sharma! The founder of Prime Performance Solutions. I am the Business Growth Architect.