Are Your Employees Not Performing to Expectations?  It is Time To Uncover Out Why!

A new client said to me, “I have tried each incentive imaginable and the only thing I accomplished is divisiveness in my organization”. We have all heard horror stories about ill-created incentives and the troubles they produce nevertheless, this situation was distinct.  This client was attempting to use incentives to get people to do what was already expected of them.  While that might appear strange, I can assure you that it is a widespread occurrence.

How do these situations arise?  Are incentives the appropriate answer?  If not, what need to you, as organization owners and managers, do to get the results you anticipate?  There are several factors why employees could not be performing to expectation.  Here are a couple of.

Poorly communicated expectations

Most of you communicate your expectations, but the communication is not as total as it need to be.  One of the most frequently omitted pieces of data is the deadline (I’d like this by 10:00 am Friday morning).  Another component typically missing from the communiqué is the “why” behind your request.  Most employees will rise to the challenge of the most hard deadlines if they realize the project’s significance.

Inappropriate priority decisions

As business owners and managers, you require to investigate an individual’s workload prior to assigning new tasks and setting deadlines. If you assign further work with out thinking about the employee’s existing workload, the employee has only two selections :

make the new task a priority and let everything else slide
let the new task slide

Either way the responsibility for assigning priorities is placed on an employee who usually has not been told “why” this project is important or what its relative significance is to the other projects he or she is expected to complete.  This creates a lose-lose situation for the employee.  Why?  Because they do not have the identical details you do.  The odds of their priorities coinciding with yours approaches zero.

One more risk associated with letting your employees set priorities is that they usually do 1st that which they get pleasure from most.  It is human nature!  Now what do you believe the chances are of obtaining what you want in the time frame you want?  Nil?

Lack of follow up

Every single enterprise owner and manager I know desires to assign function then walk away realizing that it will be carried out.  You don’t like to waste time following up, do you?  Of course not, but if you don’t follow up on the due date, your employees are going to make one of two assumptions about your request.  They are going to think that you are either constructing cushions into your due dates due to the fact you do not trust them or flexing your authoritative muscle.

Either way, they resent having their schedules destroyed by management’s whim, which is precisely how they view lack of follow up.  Yes, I realize that you have a zillion other points on your mind, but your employees haven’t run a enterprise so they do not recognize the myriad of decisions you face everyday.

An additional advantage of follow up is that the employees have an chance to receive much more timely feedback, praise or constructive criticism, concerning their efforts.  This is the most powerful way to minimize future disappointments for both of you.  This feedback mechanism is an excellent tool for producing behavioral changes that will permit your employees to meet a lot more deadlines and minimize your follow up.

Unwillingness to use the axe

How usually do you hear the question, “Why cannot men and women just do what you ask of them?” You might have uttered it your self.   Typically the individuals asking the question are unwilling to terminate employees who, regardless of repeated attempts to coach them to better performance, consistently fail to perform according to expectations.

If you truly want to reduce the time you spend following up on assignments, (NOTE: I said reduce, not remove), you need to be willing to take proper action when your efforts exceed those of the employee in attempting to boost his or her performance.  Failure to remove underperformers causes the remainder of the organization to migrate to that lower level of performance.  Every solid performer in your organization will eventually ask, “Who’s stupid here – the people who refuse to perform and still get to keep their jobs or me?”  The finest employees will eventually leave simply because they know your organization isn’t going anywhere with these deadbeats blocking the way.

Now, I am not suggesting that you run out and fire everyone who has missed a deadline (you could be lonelier than the Maytag repairman).   I AM suggesting that you take those underperformers aside and let them know that you no longer intend to permit them to miss deadlines and performance goals.  That is fair!  You are, right after all, changing your operating policy.  Then, if they do not come around, let them go.

Incentives

Incentives need to be created to reward exceptional performance.  A nicely-constructed incentive will reward the employee Soon after the organization has benefited from his/her achievements.  I am a powerful believer in incentives, but it is straightforward to make mistakes in making these programs.  Here are a couple of design suggestions for you:

involve employees in setting the performance goals – it creates get-in for the goals
make positive the objectives are stretch goals
generate at least 3 or four objectives so that the employees do not turn into too narrowly focused
establish firm deadlines for achievement of the objectives
create a straightforward feedback program so that employees can monitor their own progress
weight each of the objectives according to significance
make sure the employees understand and are aware of this weighting – this helps them recognize how the incentive compensation will be calculated
make positive you recognize what the company’s gaining
pay out only a percentage of that gain

Extra guidelines

Let the employees know up front that as objectives are achieved, new objectives will turn out to be the focus of the incentive program.  They will need to recognize that the company’s success, as properly as their own, depends on life-lengthy understanding and skill development.  The incentive program is developed to obtain these objectives.

Do not remain with a flawed program.  As soon as you and your employees determine that you have made a mistake, fix it.  They don’t want to waste their time and skills on unproductive efforts any far more than you do.  Not only that, they know that if their achievements don’t produce bottom line outcomes there will not be any cash to pay the incentive.

Finally, wear the employee’s hat.  Ask your self, how can I abuse the incentive program that my employees and I just designed.  There are often 1 or two men and women who push the envelope.  If the risks are minimal, run with the program.  If not, revisit those aspects of the program involving the greatest risk.  Remember, no program is foolproof.

The right tool

Make sure that you are employing the correct tool for the job.  If you are not getting what would “generally” be expected, use the stick (expectations), not the carrot (incentives).  If you want exceptional outcomes, use incentives that pay soon after those outcomes are achieved.

Copyright ©? 1999, Dale Furtwengler, all rights reserved

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