How do you ensure good levels of performance across all areas of the business?

In order for a business to grow, you need to nurture a high-performance culture throughout the business. But how is this achieved?

Having worked in businesses known for driving high performance, I’ve noticed three key elements that need to be in place for this to happen. All three are equally important, although some might need to be tailored to the needs of your business.

1. Have a clear strategy and goals in place and align everyone’s role to them. Sometimes staff put a lot of effort in and work really hard, but it’s not really moving the business forward. Good alignment means that staff put effort into the right place and focus attention where it’s needed.

2. Have stretch goals (objectives encouraging staff to complete a challenging task). Different people need different goals, and some people’s goals will need updating often while others’ might be more consistent. But they should all clearly link back to the overall goals of the business.

3. Don’t rely on annual appraisals. Have regular forward-focused performance meetings to manage performance effectively. These meetings should give you the opportunity to:

1. 1. Recognise good performance
   2. Identify any poor performance and address it quickly
   3. Link their performance to the goals that have been set
   4. Focus on the future, not the past
   5. Identify where and if support is needed.

Getting started

Start with a good business strategy and clear goals for the company – this is paramount. Then you can build a people strategy, identifying how everyone’s roles fit into the plan.

Communicating the strategy

Sometimes the company goals are clear to the CEO but they don’t tell anyone else! You need to communicate them to everyone, no matter what their role is in the business. Set out the annual plan and give regular updates on how it’s going. Ensuring that everyone understands the role they play in achieving that plan.

Performance management

As mentioned above, annual appraisals are too infrequent to be effective in a fast-growing business. If it’s linked to pay review, you may need an annual formal process. But managers need to have frequent catch-ups with their team members to ensure that targets are being met, give recognition if they’re doing well and deal with any performance issues quickly.

Managers can often shy away from these conversations, especially when employees are not performing as expected. But actually, they don’t need to be difficult if done well. When we work with clients, People Puzzles HR Directors often coach managers to give them the skills and tools to have great performance conversations.

Measuring success

Performance should be measured by setting and regularly reviewing clear goals as well as ‘softer’ measures such as behaviour and values. An individual’s goals will depend on their role; hard quantitative measures such as sales targets and key performance indicators (KPIs) will work well for some roles but less so in others, where you may need to look at more qualitative measures.

Keep it simple

The good news for smaller businesses is that these initiatives are relatively easy to roll out in small companies. The bigger a company gets, the less the person at the top is connected to individuals’ personal performance and the more process-focused it becomes, by necessity. Smaller businesses have the advantage here, so why not seize the opportunity to get your staff aligned and working together towards greater success?

Our part time HR directors can help solve your ‘people puzzles’ and grow your business through driving performance – Call us on 020 3633 6830 to find out how.