How to Improve Employee Performance: 8 Actionable Strategies

Your employees attend work, follow your processes, and check things off their to-do lists. But are they performing at their very best? Is the quality of their output high and exceeding customer expectations? Employee performance is integral to business success, but motivating your workers to give their all and modeling how to do that requires some effort.

This guide describes eight strategies to improve employee performance, including your leaders’ involvement in this initiative. We’ll also discuss how to handle any employee performance issues effectively.

8 key strategies to improve employee performance

Handpick the most relevant strategies from the list below based on those that resonate best with your organizational needs.

Provide role clarity

Your employees can only excel in their roles if they understand what they should be doing. Unfortunately, Gallup research shows only 45% of employees fall into this category. If your workers express or demonstrate confusion about their responsibilities, prioritize the following:

• Creating, documenting, and distributing clear role descriptions for every position in your org chart—these should include the skills, competencies, and experience required at every job level
• Conducting role clarity exercises to see practical, real-life examples of how your employees would jump to tasks in specific situations
• Communicating expectations during onboarding so new hires can quickly understand the scope of their role and who to turn to with any questions

Set and manage expectations

Even if you’ve provided clear details about what you expect from each role, new situations will emerge as your business progresses. For example, if you go through a merger, your employees will need guidance on handling the changes happening in their everyday activities. To help them succeed, remember to:

• Be transparent about what you expect from them as individuals and as a new team. If there are any new performance metrics or targets, make sure they’re aware of them
• Communicate regularly so your workers know where they stand in relation to those expectations, if they need additional support, or if something is not meeting your standards
• Provide resources and training for any new processes or tools the company has introduced to improve overall performance

Set clear and achievable goals

Individual performance goals ensure employees don’t remain stagnant in their roles. Instead, they continuously work toward a tangible goal measuring their success.

The challenge is selecting the right goal for each individual, which you can achieve by using the SMART goal-setting process. This involves setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals to provide employees with the direction they need to become high-performing at work.

Example of a SMART goal: “I need to increase my sales by 10% in the next quarter. I’ll do this by improving my pitching skills and reaching out to at least five new prospects each week.”

Another option is the WOOP goal-setting process, which identifies each employee’s wish, outcome, obstacle, and plan. The main difference between WOOP and SMART is the nudge to pinpoint potential roadblocks to overcome as the employee develops.

Example of a WOOP goal: “I wish to become a more effective leader by communicating clearly and efficiently with my team. My desired outcome is improved teamwork and productivity. My tendency to avoid confrontation is the obstacle I may face, so I plan to practice assertiveness in weekly team meetings.”

Align individual career development and company goals

Whatever goal setting framework you choose, aligning individual goals with overall company objectives is essential.

Example: You may have an incredibly motivated employee to work toward a certification in their field. But suppose you already have this skill covered by other roles in the organization, and your business is expanding into a new area where you need talent. In that case, the employee’s career development goals may not align with business needs at this time.

Use regular check-in meetings and formal appraisals to uncover what your employee aspires to achieve during their time in the organization. Use performance review questions like the following to reveal the answers you need:

• What would you like to achieve next year? How about five years from now?
• What do you hope to accomplish during the coming evaluation period [e.g., quarter, half year, year]?
• What would you want your next position in this company to be?

Encourage continuous learning and development

According to LinkedIn, L&D team’s top learning and development priorities include:

• Aligning learning programs to business goals
• Upskilling employees
• Creating a culture of learning
• Helping employees develop in their careers
• Improving employee retention

This list demonstrates the need for workers to have a thirst for knowledge and continuously acquire new skills throughout their professional careers to hit ever-moving performance targets and remain relevant.

In return, highly skilled employees directly impact performance by enabling them to take on more challenging tasks and reducing the need to recruit from outside.

Employers can use a variety of training strategies to improve performance, such as:

• Mentorship programs to pair seasoned professionals with junior team team members
• Learning management platforms which provide access to a wide range of training content
• Competency-based learning, which focuses on the specific skills and knowledge needed for a particular job or task
• Formal courses, either in-person or virtually
• Job rotations and secondments where internal employees learn from others in different roles or departments
• Social learning activities such as lunch and learns, book clubs, or team workshops

Provide ongoing feedback

Employee performance will likely improve as a direct result of training. However, managers can offer further fine-tuning by giving regular feedback—both reinforcing (positive) and redirecting (constructive)—to keep employees moving forward.

Annual performance reviews are one opportunity to deliver this valuable guidance, but unfortunately, they’re not regular. If you don’t want to wait a year for performance to improve, make frequent employee feedback a priority.

360-degree review cycles are an ongoing performance management trend, involving collecting multi-source feedback from peers, managers, direct reports, and self-appraisals to provide rich, full-bodied insights from several angles.

Special consideration is required for giving regular performance feedback to remote employees, which you can read about in our detailed guide.

Offer workplace coaching

Workplace coaching is another option for managers, where they work with employees one-on-one to help them develop their skills, address any challenges and set goals. Coaching differs from feedback as it encourages self-reflection and growth rather than simply providing information.

Improve employee engagement and motivation

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report finds only 23% of global employees feel actively engaged in their work. This is disappointingly low and has significant repercussions on employee performance. In a separate study on engagement, Gallup also found notable differences in companies in the top and bottom percentiles for employee engagement. Here’s how performance and business outcomes compare for these very different types of organizations:

• 41% in quality
• 10% in customer loyalty and engagement
• 18% in productivity
• 23% in profitability

If disengagement has already taken root in your organization, there are no overnight fixes to turn the situation around. However, some of the following strategies will allow you to move the needle on engagement over time:

• Promoting work-life balance
• Providing a psychologically safe workplace
• Encouraging open communication and transparency
• Recognizing employee achievements and rewarding them appropriately

On this last point, expressing praise and gratitude for your employees’ contributions can cause them to dig in and work harder. Research suggests that 83.6% of employees are more motivated to succeed at work when they receive recognition, and 77.9% would be more productive if these instances of recognition happened frequently.

How to address performance issues effectively

Moving an employee’s performance from adequate to exceptional is one thing, but improving substandard performance requires a different approach:

Make work purposeful

Traditionally, the purpose of working was to exchange physical labor and hours worked for an adequate wage. While extrinsic motivators like compensation are still important, modern employees need more from their employers than this transactional arrangement. They need to find their work purposeful—a fact 79% of leaders know is key to business success.

People with a purpose-driven mindset want to make a positive contribution, and this can be achieved in the workplace. If your employees have been struggling, stress that their work is meaningful, valued, and clearly linked to your organization’s goals.

Have honest and transparent conversations

Guesswork and rumors don’t help your employees in hitting their performance goals. That’s why it’s key to encourage open, two-way dialog between employees and their managers. Regular check-ins, whether informal or formal, provide space for employees to ask clarifying questions or access support when they need it most.

If performance issues are present, managers must address these with respect and sensitivity by:

• Being specific about the issue and providing concrete examples of where performance has fallen short
• Listening actively, suspending judgment, and seeking to understand the root cause of performance issues
• Collaborating on solutions, such as setting goals together or offering further training and support
• Clarifying what needs to improve and setting a reasonable timeframe for improvement
• Following up regularly and providing feedback along the way, recognizing any improvements, and addressing any ongoing issues

Identify the root causes of underperformance

Part of examining an individual’s underperformance is understanding how it relates to any broader issues. For example, if this specific employee has a hard time collaborating with team members, could this be related to a poor onboarding process? Taking steps to understand the root causes of underperformance could prevent similar issues from occurring with other people in the future.

Unfortunately, the origins of performance issues aren’t always immediately obvious to managers, leaders, or even the employees themselves. Dig deep by:

• Conducting one-on-one meetings with the employee to gain insight into their perspective
• Seeking feedback from other team members or colleagues who work closely with the underperforming employee
• Reviewing workload and task distribution to ensure it is fair and manageable
• Considering any potential external factors that could be impacting the employee’s performance, such as personal or family issues
• Checking other relevant data, such as previous performance evaluations or customer feedback
• Consulting HR for advice and support if necessary

Create an actionable improvement plan

Once you’ve pinpointed any specific performance issues, support your employees by creating a structured performance improvement plan (PIP), which typically includes:

• Performance expectations: Clearly communicate what you expect from each employee and how you plan to measure individual performance—for example, perhaps your sales development representative needs to increase qualified leads by X% each month
• Specific areas for improvement: Identify each area where the employee needs to improve their performance. Using the example above, you might highlight the need for better communication and negotiation skills
• Resources and support: Outline what tools or training the employee must access to help them improve
• Timeline: Set realistic deadlines for when improvements are expected to be made and reviewed
• Consequences: Be clear about the consequences of not meeting performance expectations, such as potential disciplinary action

Focus on accountability

Accountability happens when employees and managers take responsibility for certain tasks, processes, and business goals. It’s not about passing the buck or saying, “No one told me,” but about proactively managing assigned tasks and finding solutions for any obstacles encountered.

Setting clear expectations is the first step in encouraging accountability, so employees understand the scope of their roles and the boundaries of others. Modeling is another way to nurture a culture of accountability; for example, you might say, “I’m going to take the lead on X project. Who is handling Y and Z?”

The role of leadership in enhancing staff performance

Nudging employees to be accountable doesn’t give leaders an excuse to be entirely hands-off. We’re not talking about micromanagement here—it can be highly disengaging when employees feel under constant surveillance. But leaders must also be accountable for their role in driving engagement by:

Setting examples for their teams

Leaders who walk the talk are more likely to motivate their people. This means demonstrating an exemplary work ethic and setting expectations for their team members by modeling positive behaviors. For example, they might discuss a leadership development course a team member is currently taking and how they plan to translate what they’ve learned into their daily work.

Creating a collaborative environment

Organizational culture comes from the top down. It’s up to leaders to foster a positive and supportive climate where employees believe they’re safe and nurtured. Most importantly, they should feel capable of taking risks without getting into trouble or damaging their chances of progression.

Team-building activities, brainstorming sessions, and collaborative projects all contribute to a stronger team dynamic. Leaders can also create space for employees to share their challenges openly and recognize and celebrate successes together.

Investing in resources

Employees can only perform at their best if they work for a company that supports them emotionally and financially. Your staff needs an investment in their development, which could mean gaining buy-in for a new L&D budget or committing time for employees to commit to coaching sessions within their work hours.

Analyze the numbers, draft a plan, and present a case to stakeholders demonstrating why their talent investment will boost company performance. Once you receive the go-ahead, follow through with your promise of resources and support for staff development. By doing so, you’ll connect the dots between leadership investment and employee success, which should motivate team members to return the favor with better performance.

Building a high-performance workforce with Deel Engage

Deel Engage offers the tools you need to seamlessly incorporate employee development into your company’s operations. With features like a skills matrix, training needs analysis, and career progression frameworks, you can:

• Evaluate your team’s performance and current skill sets
• Identify learning interests and ambitions to determine if some employees are better suited for new projects or roles
• Highlight potential career advancement opportunities within your organization
• Design personalized AI-generated learning paths to help your employees gain new skills and thrive in their roles
• Bonus: Deel HR, our fully global HRIS solution, is always available at no additional cost

Ready to create a high-performing workforce? Schedule a Deel Engage demo to discover how our solutions can bridge performance gaps and inspire your team.