Many employees can feel stressed, and even fearful, when it comes to discussing their professional skills and competencies.

In fact, in a 2015 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), only 55 percent of workers surveyed said performance management sessions were effective. These results suggest nearly half of the workforce doesn’t see value in regular performance-related discussions!

One reason employees feel this way relates to the feeling they lack of opportunities to give feedback. In this third part of our three-part series, we’ll look at how surveying team members results in increased engagement, workplace satisfaction, and productivity.

Here’s how to effectively use performance management techniques to energize and motive employees:

Measure Success and Areas for Improvement

Communication is key in this assessment stage. Employees need to know exactly what the company values are and how their personal work matches up to them. Simply stated, when workers don’t know what they’re working toward, they won’t perform as effectively in their jobs.

Begin by tying employee interests to company values. For instance, if the company’s mission centers on clear communication and client relations, show workers how a personable approach and customer centric presentation skills directly align with those ideals.

On the other hand, if the company is focused on technological innovation and the employee is fearful of change, create opportunities where the worker can quickly get up to speed on these skills through additional training and job shadowing.

Provide Pointed Feedback

It’s important to place a priority on regular employee communication. In the 2016 Office Vibe Employee Feedback Guide, a staggering 65 percent of workers surveyed said they’d benefit from more manager feedback.

Values-based performance management is focused on the daily behavior and output of workers and how they connect to the company’s mission and values. Without regular feedback, unwanted actions and attitudes are allowed to continue, which gives the impression that these undesirable traits are okay. Frequent feedback empowers employees to correct errors and also work in a state of continual improvement.

This information should be concrete and actionable. Employees must be provided with clear expectations and outcomes of their work to help them understand that they’ll have to explain the decisions they make. In addition to this accountability, team members should also know that the door is always open to questions and concerns as they relate to project work.

Keep the Process Fresh

Effective performance management is not a “one and done” endeavor. Instead, open communication and feedback must be ongoing. Performance conversations should be more frequent than the standard yearly evaluation.

Consider scheduling monthly one-on-one sessions where the employee’s performance can be regularly assessed. Having more sessions doesn’t mean more time as these meetings can be much shorter. Another method is to provide anonymous online surveys, where workers can provide insight into the current state of the workplace.

Also, as company goals are adjusted, employees should be kept up speed on these revisions and re-trained with each new aspect of their role. Keeping employees up-to-date makes employees feel more connected to the job and company, which builds a sense of belonging and camaraderie among co-workers.

We are experts at helping companies achieve their fullest potential. Discover how our personalized approach can help improve your company’s performance management goals.