In any organization, employees are the most important resource. They make the sales, put in the day-to-day work, and come up with creative ideas that can propel the company forward. Their performance has a direct impact on the organization's bottom line. Therefore, it is essential for organizations to measure and improve employee performance. There are a number of ways to do this, which will be discussed in this article.
Understanding the Performance of Employees and Measuring Their Efforts
Employee performance has always been a key indicator of a company’s success. The better the employees perform, the more successful the company is likely to be. Many factors contribute to employee performance, including motivation, ability, and opportunity.
Motivated employees will be enthusiastic about their work and as a result, will be willing to put in the extra effort to achieve their goals. In terms of ability, employees need to have the necessary skills and knowledge to do their job well. Finally, they need the opportunity to not only do their jobs but to thrive in them as well.
KPIs for Measuring the Performance of Employees
How to measure the performance of employees boils down to setting up key performance indicators (KPIs) and having one on one discussions regularly to determine what is going well, and what needs to improve.
There are a few KPIs that are commonly used to measure the performance of employees.
A few examples include:
- Sales Totals – Perfect for sales-based roles, this KPI measures an employee’s ability to generate sales. By tracking this metric, you can see which employees are successfully meeting their targets and selling products or services.
- Task Completion Rate – This number is determined by the number of people who successfully completed assigned tasks divided by the number of people who were given a task to complete. Whether a task was completed successfully or not will be dependent on the criteria you choose.
The task completion rate KPI works well in multiple departments such as sales and marketing, customer success, and even in developer roles.
- Customer Satisfaction Scores – Another important KPI is customer satisfaction. This metric is most appropriate for service-based employees like customer service agents or success managers and allows you to see how happy your customers are with the products or services they have received. If customer satisfaction scores are low, it could be an indication that employees need more training or support.
- Call Handle Time – This KPI is key in customer service jobs where employees are regularly on the phone. How long does it take them to successfully complete a call? While this can vary widely, excessive call time can drag down the overall performance of employees.
While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a starting point for measuring the performance of employees. That said, we'll close things out with how to improve employee performance.
5 Key Steps to Improving Employee Performance
The five key steps to improving performance are:
• Evaluate Objectively – Using your KPIs as a guide, keep an eye on how your employees are performing in their day-to-day activities. By using KPIs you take emotion out of it, and can keep it strictly professional.
• Identify the Areas of Improvement – Go beyond answering the question of where your employees are slacking on the job. How can they improve? i.e. If they are taking too long on customer service calls, do they need additional tools to expedite calls faster?
• Coach and Re-train – If many of your team members are having the same problems, there may be an opportunity to change how certain tasks are completed. In this case, you'll need to come up with new coaching and training programs to help your employees complete their assignments/tasks more efficiently.
• Determine if Motivation is an Issue – You can often tell when someone is motivated to do a task or not. When you start examining the performance of employees, you may find that the salary is not always what motivates people to complete tasks. In some cases, they need verbal motivation, and/or positive reinforcement when they are doing a good job.
However, it is worth noting that in some cases, creating a monetary incentive such as monthly and/or quarterly bonuses for achieving KPIs may be beneficial in improving employee performance.
• Take Corrective Action Where Necessary – It's never easy to tell someone they aren't meeting expectations, but in some cases, you may need to suspend, terminate, or change the job title of an employee. In other cases, your corrective action may simply involve automating systems and processes to improve the performance of employees. As you evaluate and course correct, you will be able to better determine what is necessary to improve efficiency and remove bottlenecks. Then, the key is to simply enforce whatever action you deem necessary. After all, a plan without action won't help you move the needle in your business.
With StemeXe's suite of products, you can simplify the measurement of the performance of employees using our no-code platform. You can also address automation challenges with minimal time and effort. Want to learn more about how our products can improve your employee performance? Click here.