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People performance
When your people are at peak performance, innovation increases.
Maintaining workforce motivation and measuring people performance is a core focus for all organisations. Having a motivated and productive workforce helps you accomplish your goals.
There is constant pressure to maintain and develop employee motivation. A survey by Inpulse, an employee engagement consultancy, found that employee motivation dropped by nearly a fifth over the past two years, from an average score of 21% to 17% in 2021.
The Inpulse survey concludes that businesses are experiencing negative emotions “like never before”, and that employers must take care to address the burnout and resilience problems of their workforces by accurately measuring and responding to employee sentiments.
To motivate your teams, you need to benchmark each employee to understand where they currently are and where they want to be. There are six core factors which are said to influence people performance:
- Job satisfaction
- Training and Development
- Employee Engagement
- Goals and Expectations
- Tools and Equipment
- Morale and Company Culture.
These factors are not static. They change over time as an individual’s personal circumstances change.
In recent research of more than 800 people about what they missed about the workplace, the results were stark:
- 24% said they missed nothing
- 53% said their friends and teammates
- 27% missed small talk at the coffee machine or water cooler.
With a changing workplace environment, HR will need to put in place a revised approach to Employee Performance. HR needs to adapt to flexible working, introducing new people into a hybrid workplace and maintaining motivation of their people in the new world of work.
Are you doing enough?
Find out and take the test!
Limelight’s Employee Engagement Assessment has been designed to show HR professionals their blind spots and provide instant, actionable steps on how to improve your employee engagement.
Eight recommendations
Maintain a motivated team by meeting their task-based needs
Many people still believe that the more work you get done, the more productive you are. This is a common misconception that must change. This issue needs to be resolved to ensure your employees are motivated and willing to add extra time and effort to produce better quality work.
Consider providing your people with visible training and learning opportunities, alongside tools and products to help them achieve the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)or standards required of them. Provide productivity packs and the best products and equipment for their routines and tasks. This will boost efficiency and reduce time spent on repetitive, mundane tasks.
Breakdown end goals into bitesize objective-based rewards
Define specific objectives and set out how to achieve each individual objective and champion each success. This approach is powerful for specific or project-based work to be carried out a step at a time. This method creates a culture of ‘working towards a common goal’. As each objective or milestone is realised those involved are aware of their achievement, this helps to improve moral and motivation.
Each stage can be rewarded with products and perks. Not only is the individual more aware of their accomplishments, but so are the team – encouraging others to strive for the same level of performance.
Rethink the way you develop your people and reward progress
Managers need the tools and framework to implement personal development plans based on reflection of an employee’s performance and needs.
Continually assess and help managers communicate progress with feedback that is timely, impactful and personal. Consider curating a selection of product-based perks, to be unlocked as teams and individuals achieve their goals.
Facilitate coaching or mentoring programmes to optimise employees’ strengths and identify areas for improvement. Add elements to assist with this process, for instance, training kits and tangible coaching aids.
Align the performance of your people with your values and vision
Careful and creative thinking to understand what motivates your people will lead to improved people performance. Running a company values workshop is an effective idea – for any size organisation. Take time to explain your ethos and purpose to staff, ask for their feedback and involve them in how to deliver against them. Include merchandise that reinforces the message and the experience, this also increases engagement and results in staff feeling valued.
Integrate core values throughout the employee experience
To successfully promote core values throughout your organisation, it’s vital that you integrate them into every employee-related process, from how and who you recruit, what performance management systems you instigate, through to the criteria for promotions and rewards, and even dismissal policies.
Work alongside your marketing team to ensure your values are incorporated in your branding, promotion and messaging. Encourage your people to become brand ambassadors based on performance – they should live and breathe the company values. Reward them with branded merchandise packs and products to acknowledge their contribution. Not only will your people be driven by a desire to perform, but their peers will recognise highfliers in your organisation.
Hire (or not!) based on your values
While experience and knowledge can be acquired on the job, values are not so easily transferable, and employing someone with the wrong fit can do more harm than good.
Values should be lived and breathed. Branded merchandise is a great way to communicate subtle (or obvious) references which will go a long way to embed values successfully (and subliminally). Sharing your values with the outside world can also be great for attracting new talent.
Encourage leadership to share anecdotes and regularly praise those who live by your values across the entire business. Everyone will have a clear understanding of the behaviours that see rewards. Just as importantly, employees displaying any conflicting or negative behaviours should be re-educated and managed accordingly.
Performance related rewards for people and teams
Employers can also opt for objective rewards on team-level performance rather than individual level. Both types work well; it’s important to match objectives to the nature of the work. For one job good performance may purely be a factor of individual application; for another it may rely more on teamwork and effort. When striking a balance between individual and team objectives, employers should be careful they do not undermine each other.
Look to productise a wide range of your performance-based rewards. This will provide a broader means to acknowledge performance and increases choice. After all, a reward that one team member may covet, might differ to another.
Sponsor and support team-building events and reap the rewards of engagement programs
Bring together diverse people and teams who share similar values across the company. This is a great way for HR to foster a great community and encourage cross and inter department collaboration.
HR can develop these engagement programs to better integrate employees, establish company values, objectives and direction, whilst surveying their attitude toward the company and provide avenues to continually explore and expand on the organisation’s values.
Branded merchandise is a tool you can deploy throughout these programs to promote a sense of community and belonging, motivating employees to do their part for the good of the team. They will also do their part for internal marketing and reputation management.
We can help!
Limelight believes that to get employees truly invested in your brand takes more than just unlocking the marketing cupboard and handing out some merchandise. Careful and creative thinking to understand what motivates your people will lead to improved people performance.
Running a company values workshop is an effective idea – for any size organisation. Take the time to explain your ethos to staff, ask for their feedback and make them feel involved. Add in some merchandise that reinforces the experience to add to the feeling of being valued.
