(NOT AI generated, this is the result of personal learnings & understanding of my subject.)
Intro
Did you know you can legally remove employees for lack of performance?
But… a big BUT, how is performance being measured & who should be measuring it?
From my experience in business and in coaching businesses these last 8 years, around 85% of people working in businesses have no measurement of their performance at all.
As a business owner you are always looking to get more from the business, or looking to make improvements, so why do so many businesses put up with under performers in their teams?
Measuring Performance & Ownership
So who should be measuring performance? I hear a lot that business owners can’t start measuring performance because it will be “bad for morale” or “they’ll think we are checking up on them all the time” or “they’ll think we don’t trust them” or any one of several other excuses…because that’s all they are, excuses.
How interesting would Football or Rugby🏉 be if there were no score or league tables?
🏆 Instinctively, everyone wants to know how well they are doing.
A common approach is “we tell them at their annual review” Huhh. How reliable are emotions anyway and how often does emotional state change?
Emotions are at best erratic, and feelings are fleeting from one moment to the next, so every year........ Really?
If we are in Business we swap money for our people's time and for that time we need to get a financial return, otherwise we are not a business we are a Social Enterprise.
The truth is that employees want to know where they stand and the measurement of performance should be primarily for them. At the end of each day they should know if they have achieved their goal and be able to congratulate themselves for a good day's work.
👍👎 This leaves the ownership of the measure with them and they can then hold themselves accountable, and they will also know if they are falling short.
Of course the measure is part of your business system so you are also a stakeholder in this data to run your business. This then makes it relatively simple to have logical discussion about the numbers without it descending into an emotional train wreck.
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So how do we communicate the performance measures?
Position contracts
A business in its basic form should be a system for turning money into more money for its shareholders, so in order to start with our Team Members from the beginning we need to create a system for that.
A “Position Contract” is not a contract of employment. It is a simple 2-page management tool to manage the team. Each role in the business should have its own contract which states who the position reports to, key tasks, results & standards expected, and the measures of performance for the particular role.
When a team member accepts a role in the business the employee & the Manager sign the contract. This then agrees that performance is to be monitored and should there be an issue with under-performance a “performance Improvement plan” can be put in place in line with statutory employment law.
👍 (we provide a template Position Contract as part of our process)
Part of the Induction process should include an introduction to the vision of the business
Induction process
With new employees a comprehensive induction process is essential to make sure they know what they need to achieve and to make sure they get started in the right way.
Part of the induction process should also include an in-depth introduction to the Vision of the Business & the rules of the game.
Rules of the game & values fit
As part of a recruitment process always use your Values & Rules of the Game as part of the deselection process, so that applicants can consider if they want to buy into the way you do things.
Will v’s Skill
Under-performance of course is usually driven by one of 2 things; either they don’t have the relevant skills (then logic says “just train them”)
Or, often it’s a case of not having the will to do the job, or play by the rules.
“You cannot train someone who does not want to change & improve”
(Contact me for a Free tool to assess your people)
So the question would need to be, “Do they want to improve?” or is it a case of managing them out of the business and finding someone with the skill, attitude and a match to the values of the business?
Performance measurement system
Having a system that objectively measures performance is essential, and if you can create a system that objectively measures the subjective things as well, then again, you can get into conversations on a logical level.
(We have a system for measuring this. Ask for further details)
Performance is the responsibility of the performer, but as a business manager it is still for you to hold them accountable to their numbers.
Feelings & Emotion.
As I mentioned at the beginning, about 85% of people working in business have no measures of performance in place at all, so decisions effectively are made based on feelings. There are often emotional ties that affect the decision making, and a common thing I hear is that a business owner may be fearful of losing certain key individuals, because they’ll be impossible to replace, so they feel it’s easier to just put up with it.
If that’s a thought that goes through your head, is it time to do something about that?
At the end of the day you will get the team that you deserve.
Creating the systems for the team to follow is the job of the business owner. If you put in the effort to create and then test your systems, you will accelerate your route to a business that can be run for you, by your team, whether you’re there or not 😍
For further details
Email Chris@kingsmanrecruitment.co.uk
Text / Mob. 07711 124270