Coaching Employees to Better Productivity

08/20/08

Improving employee productivity is one of the most profitable investments business owners can make. Consider: An hour of coaching which improves an employee’s productivity can potentially add thousands of dollars to the bottom line — and continue to pay off year after year for as long as the employee stays with the company. What’s more, a properly executed system for conducting employee performance reviews can help prevent wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuits.

The right tool
To help you and your managers improve employee performance and potentially reduce liability exposure, G.Neil has developed a lawyer-approved, turnkey performance appraisal system, the S.T.A.R. (Straightforward, Tactful and Responsible) method. It is designed to help you give your managers a system that will ensure performance evaluations are effective, accurate, legal and fair.

As a minimum, an employee evaluation system should accomplish the following:

Improve productivity

Reduce stress — Clear and candid evaluations make life easier for workers and managers alike.

Prevent lawsuits — Documentation of hires, promotions, disciplinary actions and terminations, along with the reasons for the action, is vital to deterring and defending against lawsuits from disgruntled current or former employees. Every performance evaluation policy should include an effective system for journaling and documentation.

Identify key outperformers — so you can retain and promote them.

Identify underperformers — so you can improve their performance or let them go in an appropriate manner.

Be clear and fair — Workers who believe they are being treated fairly are more loyal, productive and more profitable.

S.T.A.R. (Straightforward, Tactful and Responsible) Performance Management System