How to improve the performance of your employees

One of the key factors for having a successful setting is to ensure that your staff are performing to the best of their abilities, both as a team and individually. We’ve put together a few steps to help you improve the performance of staff in your setting.

Observe them whilst they’re working

Being able to observe your staff whilst they’re working is crucial: you need to be happy that they’re doing their job to an acceptable standard and that they’re comfortable with the responsibilities assigned to them. Taking notes on your employee’s performance as you observe them will give you a better idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Have a one-on-one meeting

Once you’ve observed your employee’s performance, the next step is to discuss how they’re feeling and talk about some of your observations. You could begin by asking them how they feel about their role; what they think they’re excelling in and what they’re struggling with (make sure you’re taking notes of their responses, too!). You can then expand on what they’ve said by pointing out what you’ve picked up on during your observations.

Implement additional training

You should now be more aware of where improvements could be made within your team. With this in mind, you could consider refresher training or conducting some additional internal training. Where staff are taking courses or qualifications, you could consider a buddy/mentoring system, whereby you encourage experienced members of staff to support junior members of staff.

Encourage team building and motivate

Motivating your team is essential to their performance; you need to praise them where possible and encourage them when they’re feeling down. Even when you’re really busy, try to ensure you’re approachable so that your employees feel like they can easily come to you with any issues or concerns they’re having within their role.

Ensuring that your staff work well together is also important and you could consider organising team building exercises to improve relationships between staff members. You could even arrange days out as a team! You’ll find if your employees have a chance to socialise outside of work, then their team working and communication skills within work will start to improve, too.