As we continue our series on year-end clear-up projects, we turn our attention to our most important resources: our team members.
While a staff review may seem like a big challenge to take on at the end of the year, it can also provide extremely valuable insights when done correctly. Evaluating your workforce can be daunting, even when you only have a small team, but it is important to ensure that you develop your people in line with business growth. This way, you are preparing yourself for any challenges you might experience in the year ahead.
Performance reviews are the first and crucial step in evaluating your staff as a whole, but it is important to ensure you deliver positive feedback to your team members. A study conducted in 2005 showed how much positive interaction can uplift employee morale for the year ahead. Most importantly, a performance review gives you the opportunity to make sure your firm’s personnel are fit for purpose.
But what happens if you identify areas for improvement during these performance reviews? What changes can you make to ensure your employees have the right skills and attitude to take your company forward? Here are a few tips for you to consider when addressing challenges raised in an end-of-year staff review.
Resource allocation
Scheduling shifts in line with skills and experience could help you to choose the best available team members for specific challenges. This also means you prevent under or overutilization of your employees. A PMI survey on resource allocation tells us that only 26% of companies always use resource management to estimate and allocate resources, and only 36% do it often.
Allocating resources carefully allows you to learn more about each job role and if you have the right person doing the job. This can help you identify any potential problems and allow you to implement the changes early on. If someone is not the right fit for the project, it might be a good idea to switch them with an employee who is. This can also help keep your staff happier by giving them projects they are comfortable with and prevent any unnecessary pressure.
Offer training to your staff
Surveys conducted on the importance of training have shown that 68% of employees say training and development is the company’s most important policy. When you offer training to your employees, they become more efficient and able to perform their roles. Giving employees a greater understanding of their roles and responsibilities, training can even lead to a boost in confidence throughout your workforce.
Training is also shown to improve the levels of productivity and innovation within a company and to help create a stronger reputation at the same time. With a successful training strategy, your firm will greatly benefit from refining and developing new skills.
Hire more employees
Studies on recruitment have shown that 82% of employees agree that a great onboarding process improves employee retention. Not only that, but recruiting more employees can add a breath of fresh air to the organization and opens an opportunity to train and develop a diverse team of employees. The new recruits will help to grow your company and bring added value to the team with fresh ideas and expanded perspectives.
New employees can also provide new, innovative concepts for management strategies, creating a forward-thinking approach that stimulates both staff development and business growth. Seek to encourage and motivate current employees to achieve more and set higher goals, so next time a job is open, they will be considered.
Offer promotions
Offering promotions to your employees is a great way of increasing their morale. Surveys have shown that 56% of employees believe that they do not have any career advancement opportunities. When employees know that there are opportunities for a promotion, they stay motivated, and it provides them with an incentive to work harder. Promoting from within the company is also known for saving money and boosting morale by increasing retention rate. It also sends the message to employees that loyalty and hard work is always rewarded.
Adopt an open feedback culture
Giving and receiving feedback is one of the most important parts of running a healthy workplace. If you don’t already have one, you should create a channel for your team to share feedback on how processes could be improved. Coupled with supportive advice on how your team can meet their goals, two-way feedback communication is a great way to make your employees feel like their voices are heard.
Try a suggestion box or an employee survey. It sometimes helps to get a different perspective, and your employees may raise something that hadn’t occurred to you. You could do this by allocating a time slot for giving and receiving feedback on a weekly or monthly basis. If you have remote workers, try taking the concept online by allowing your team to message you with any queries they have—at any time.
Build a positive experience
If you think that staff could perform better in your workplace, take a step back and look at all your opportunities to improve. Could you allocate your resources better by scheduling shifts more efficiently? Is it perhaps time to offer training or promotions to your staff to build on their skills and boost team morale? Is there a lack of two-way feedback communication throughout your workforce or a need to hire more employees?
It is important for both managers and staff to collect their thoughts and become more familiar with areas that are working well and with the areas that need more improvement. But a staff review doesn’t have to result in panic and anxiety. When done right, end of year evaluations can be one of the best tools for developing your team members’ careers with your company. By making it a positive experience and addressing any issues, you will be well on your way to achieving a more efficient and successful business for the new year and beyond.
