Mention employee management and often what comes to any business owner’s mind is a tricky and challenging task. Getting the best out of your employees, motivating them to improve performance, and instilling in them a feeling of responsibility towards the organization are the most prevalent issues that concern enterprises worldwide. The bright side of the coin is that there are strong employee management systems out there to help you make the most of your human resources.
Many company owners and business founders have to go through the painstaking process of hiring the most competent people to work for them. What a lot of them fail to realize is that hiring exceptionally skilled and experienced people is not the end of the story. To make them perform to their optimal level, rigorous and continually adapting employee management systems need to be implemented within the organization. So what are these systems really?
An employee management system is a holistic approach to helping your employees succeed at work and align with the organization’s overall mission and goals. Such a system can be viewed as a combination of five interconnected modules:
1. Employee Participation
Employee participation goes beyond the stated job responsibilities. How active are your employees when it comes to decision making, generating new ideas, and taking initiative? A positive answer implies that you have open communication channels in the office that help people share ideas freely. Providing them with sufficient information that helps them understand the importance and impact of their day-to-day jobs further boosts their interest in the company’s goals. It is also highly desirable that employees are encouraged to speak their minds openly and contribute to the important decisions of the company.
A very important key to improving employee participation is continuous goal setting. Every employee must have personal goals that are expected to be fulfilled. And by goals, one shouldn’t infer deadlines. Goals should be interpreted more in the terms of the value addition that an employee brings, their own career growth, the effort they put in the company’s social activities, and how effectively they collaborate with colleagues.
Another important factor that is a must for sustaining employee participation is the collection of honest and unbiased feedback, as well as suggestions. What is more important is to evaluate this content as valuable information and implement it whenever possible.
2. Work Allocation
Clear delegation of work is essential to maximize your employees’ productivity. It also helps avoid confusion, and enables employees to focus better on their work. An efficient employee management system tracks how the work is assigned to a particular employee, monitors the progress through the designated timeframe, and performs quality checks. The work allocation is done in a way so as to avoid errors and misunderstandings. This ensures that an employee receives a clear set of instructions regarding his or her responsibilities, domains of work, and what is expected from them. Work allocation must be done in a time-bound and regular manner.
3. Performance Evaluation and Feedback
Evaluation of output is not always welcomed by employees. The mistrust and skepticism generally arises from the lack of necessary information. Employees are often afraid that their work is going to be judged, and that it might affect their pay or how their role is perceived by the organization. Thus, it is imperative that employees are educated about how the performance evaluation systems function, why they are needed, and what kind of impact they can have on an employee or his position in the company.
Performance must be evaluated on the basis of parameters that are common to all employees in a particular designation. The evaluation procedure should be completely impersonal, and based on certain metrics or indices. The procedure must also clearly state the possible decisions that the management might take depending on the outcome of the performance evaluation system. Similarly, it must give equal weight to the employees’ opinions and contain a built-in channel for feedback through which they can voice their concerns.
4. Education and Training
Training and on-the-job education are important to help your employees grow and deliver their very best to the company. This is true for technical as well as non-technical positions. Educating your employees about new technologies, new equipment or software, and changing trends in the industry is a must to keep your organization in-line with the global picture. Many companies invest a lot of time and money into training their employees to learn new skills and share their knowledge with other co-workers. Training is essential when new hires are concerned, especially fresh college graduates. Since formal education is not of very high significance when it comes to specific job responsibilities, the company must ensure that the employee is fully equipped with the knowledge and skills he or she must possess to perform his job in the most effective and efficient manner. Check out our recent post on employee training programs for more details.
5. Recognition and Rewards
Employees that consider themselves an important part of the organization are usually the most responsible and stick to it through thick and thin. And there is no better way to help them bond with the organization than a lucrative and fair rewards and recognition system. This is a very critical component of any employee management system and plays a very important role in motivating employees and enhancing their productivity.
Appreciation in any form is always welcome. Recognition for outstanding performance, exemplary behavior and special feats is a great way to motivate your employees to work harder, follow ethical standards, and relate their personal goals with those of the organization.
Another factor that an employee management system must take into consideration is how soon the appraisals are made. Delaying a promotion is not an easy thing to do, knowing the persistent motivations of many young professionals and the fast paced organizational culture. It can even be misunderstood as defying the norms of making promotions solely on the basis of business results. It may also seem like challenging the discontentment of an ambitious but unrecognized subordinate, but taking the time to shape employees’ emotional aptitudes is not a luxury; it is essential in the development of real leaders.
