Top 7 Strategies for Helping Your Employees Reach Their Goals and Improve Employee Performance

We all need to experience change every now and then. It is never too late to set new goals for ourselves or implement new strategies to help progress in our careers.

Every business leader knows that having productive employees is the key to business success. When it comes to being a smart business leader, your priority will always fall on your employees and how they perform in the workplace. Their performance levels and ability to set goals is not entirely their responsibility. As a business leader, you should help manage and track their progress throughout the year. Always take time out to monitor individual performance and help your employees reach their goals to boost employee morale and improve the chances of overall business success.

Here are seven strategies you can implement in the workplace to help empower your employees to achieve their goals and take your business to the next level.

1. Track Individual Progress

Get to know your employees inside out. Understand what motivates them, what annoys them, their hobbies and interests outside of work, personality traits and how they best performance in their working environment. Do they prefer to sit in a quiet space? Or are they more inclined to be more productive working alongside others in an open office?

You can monitor and track their progress by scheduling regular meetings with them. Draw out a plan of action and try to consider their needs as well as yours. Check up on them every once in a while in the office to see how they are getting on. If they seem happy and content then you are doing well!

2. Set SMART Goals

Are your employees aware of what their goals and expectations are? Setting Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely goals with set timelines attached, can help your employees feel motivated and determined when completing set projects and better managing their time more effectively.

Setting SMART goals is a great way of encouraging personal development and improving employee performance. When you involve your employees in their own goal-setting process it gives them autonomy and control over their goals.

3. Empower Your Employees

We all like to feel valued and respected. Have you told your employees lately how grateful you are of all their hard work? Invest in you employees’ long term career in the organisation and provide necessary resources and training that will develop them into talented individuals. Allocate budgets towards workshops, work trips, professional development courses and conferences.

4. Reward High Performance

Over time, high performers will become disengaged if they feel their efforts are not appreciated. You could end up losing them to competitors if they are not recognised for their hard work. Are they working overtime? Offer them financial incentives or a pay rise.

Furthermore, offering gifts, bonuses, promotions, extra holiday or being vocal about their hard work in team meetings are all effective ways to reward high performers. Modern working environments tend to provide regular feedback, be flexible with working arrangements and offer competitive salaries to high performers and achievers.

5. Foster a Positive Working Environment

Nowadays, there is plenty of opportunity to make the workplace fun and encourage creativity. Celebrate calendar events, like National Employee Appreciation Day and host a staff breakfast at work, or let your employees leave work an hour early.

Encouraging a positive organisational culture where employees feel safe and accepted regardless of their rank or position and feel their opinions are valued, then they are more likely to be invested in the business and its future success.

6. Increase Job Satisfaction

Are you offering the right salary for each job position you advertise? If you are for example offering £20,000 for a job that is often advertised at £25,000 then you are not respecting the nature and importance of the role and it is less likely potential candidates will be encouraged to apply.

Send round employee satisfaction surveys to gather feedback and assess how our employees are feeling or what they would change to improve the likeliness of them staying at the company.

7. Encourage Regular Communication

You really do not want to be known as the manager who is never in the office or is impossible to get hold of. This is bad news for your company and can leave your employees feeling demotivated, disengaged and undervalued.

To prevent this from happening, why not make the effort to be present in the office at least three times a week to check on everyone. Meet with your employees on a weekly basis to see how they are doing and discuss team goals and employee successes. Always leave your discussions open for any questions your employees may have and make sure your meetings are always focused, relevant and engaging.

We hope you can now implement the above strategies for your workplace and see the difference in employee performance and goal setting in the long-term. The impact these strategies will have is fundamental for the running of your business and hiring processes for the future.

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