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How should I performance manage my staff?

People & Team questions

You want to get the most out of your people but you just don't know how best to do it. Performance management often sounds like a big business dark art, but it doesn't have to be. Smaller businesses can take advantage of more open lines of communication and a better sense of togetherness to create processes which help individual members of staff understand their roles and responsibilities in the company, acquire relevant skills and take on new responsibilities which help a business improve and expand.

Ways to help you deal with it:

Action plan

Improve your employee appraisals process

Appraisals are a process conducted in very varying degrees of quality by businesses of all types. Done well and they provide clarity, direction and a renewed sense of purpose.

ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

We explain why each step is important
Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

Action plan

Managing a challenging member of staff

Effort : Medium

Impact : Medium

Left unaddressed, challenging or disruptive members of staff can start to have a big impact on business culture, atmosphere and performance. Getting to the heart of the underlying emotion is of upmost importance and, more often than not, can lead to quick and impactful improvement.

Action plan

Increasing overall staff engagement

Effort : Medium

Most of your team will know where their day-to-day responsibilities lie and what doing their job well looks like. However, engagement in the company's wider goals and ambition is equally important to ensure efforts feel united and you don't fall into the trap of having siloed parts of the organisation. Getting staff interested and engaged in topics such as the company's financial situation and what goes on at board level discussions will make it far easier to get buy in and involvement when increased levels of effort are required or more challenging times are reached.

Guide

An introduction to performance managing staff

Improving performance management is great for companies and their staff. Employees need to be motivated, have the resources they need and be held accountable to enjoy their role.

GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
Filled with real-world stories
Achievable steps every business can take

Other support that’s available

Manage performance for better productivity

Manage performance for better productivity

Your staff are the driving force of your business, so it's key to ensure their productivity. But they can't just be treated like robots.

Build a high-performing workforce

Build a high-performing workforce

There are tried and tested methods for measuring and managing performance review. Here they are explained.

How other businesses have tackled something similar

Liam White, Dr Will's

Real business story

Extending performance management to contractors

For performance management to be effective, everybody needs to be working within that framework. Managers should have the same goal setting processes – and there’s an opportunity to involve team members that aren’t permanent employees too.

Real business story

Developing good lines of communication throughout your business

Communication, communication, communication. It’s a buzz word that many of us might disregard, but in actual fact, communication is key to the success of many businesses.

Real business story

Radical candour stops challenging situations becoming bigger issues

Managing challenging employees is one of the most daunting parts of being a leader. Employee engagement is easier when things are going swimmingly, but what do you do when there’s an issue?

The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

Select a topic

Digital

How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments?

Leadership & Strategy

How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

People & Team

How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I run a better appraisals process? How should I performance manage my staff? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover?

Planning

How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business?

Sales & Growth

How can we develop new products and services? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I benchmark my business against competitors?