How to optimize employee performance

As an employer, you know the expense that goes into hiring and training people. For that reason you want your employees to be productive. This is important for a number of reasons. First of all, when employee performance is not optimized, things don't get done. This could make you lose customers. Second, it results in lost money. You are paying employees for their time, when they are not really working.

The following are some ideas for optimizing employee performance:

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• Monitor hours. Keep a close eye on those employees who are clocking out early or staying late. If people are leaving early consistently, it may indicate that they don't have enough to keep them busy. And if you have employees who are putting in overtime but don't have a heavy workload, you may want to step in. Letting employees know they are being monitored will also help to reduce wasted time.


• - Train when needed. If you feel employee performance is lacking, hold extra trainings that will help them to improve their skills. Or, have a refresher course to go over basic requirements for work. Sometimes employees will get lax and cut corners or skip important steps that would improve the quality of their work.


• - Require that overtime be approved. Some employees who need extra money will sometimes put in overtime, even though it is not necessary. Employers are obligated to pay their hourly workers overtime (time and a half) when more than 40 hours a week are put in. This can really add up. Sometimes overtime is necessary, but if you are finding that the workload doesn't match the overtime, it may be time to step in and say something.


• - Know what your employees are doing. It's not a bad idea to make sure you know who is doing what in terms of work. That way, if you know an employee doesn't have enough to work on, or if their work load is winding down, you can assign more and prevent them from wasting company time with nothing to do. Or, keep track how long a delivery should take. If an employee is gone for 2 hours delivering something that should have only taken an hour, you know something is up.


• - Create an atmosphere conducive to productivity. While you should trust employees, it is best to create an atmosphere that minimizes distractions. Make sure everyone has their own workspace. If your employees use a computer, remove games or limit internet sites that can be visited. This will help cut down on the things employees are tempted to do while at work that wastes time.


• - Offer incentives. Offering incentives or other motivational tools for being productive and getting work done is a good way to step up the productivity and optimize the performance of your employees.


• - Start holding performance reviews. If you are not doing this already, you should be holding performance reviews. This helps employees see what they're doing well, as well as things they can improve on as well as setting goals. It also shows them that you are aware of their productivity levels.

If you find that your employees' performance has not been up to par lately, there are many things you can do to optimize employee performance and make your business productive and thriving. The above are a few tips for helping your employees to optimize their performance on the job.