Did you know your employees could do a lot more for your business than they actually do? Well, if you didn’t know, the answer is yes. However, you have an important part to play as an employer. Maximizing employee ability doesn’t just happen. You need to motivate your employees to give their best at work. When you fail to do this, employees can easily feel unvalued, which decreases their engagement and ultimately their performance. What’s worse, this can have a detrimental effect on the company’s bottom line.
So, how can you ensure that your employees’ potential is maximized for improved performance? Here, we tip you on 5 things that you can offer your team.
Training and development opportunities
Providing training and development opportunities for employees boosts their potential in several ways. For starters, it bridges the skills gaps. This means that employees gain additional skills to perform their work better and even take on other roles effectively. In addition, it increases motivation and engagement. Employees are more likely to invest in an organization that invests in their career development. Moreover, employees give their best at work when they are highly engaged.
Think of ways to help your employees improve their skills. Assigning projects for experiential learning and offering mentorship programs go a long way. In addition, you can sponsor employees to take up various courses such as PMP certification training, CIPM certification, financial analyst training, sales certification, and SHRM certification, among others.
Also read: Managing Millennials Is Not Hard
Recognition and rewards
You may have a highly skilled workforce in place, but if you are not acknowledging their good work, you are impeding their ability to work at full potential. For employees to see that their capabilities matter in the organization, they need to feel and see that it matters to you as well. And, the best way to show them is by recognizing their efforts.
You may be shying away from this, thinking that it is expensive. However, most employees aren’t after glamorous and expensive rewards. A shout-out during the morning meeting, a pat on the back, or a genuine thank-you letter can go a long way. If the budget allows occasional gifts such as lunch vouchers, travel tickets, and things like these, can be a good potential booster.
Flexible working hours
Not everyone is wired to work an 8 to 5 job. Some people are highly productive early in the morning, others in the afternoon, and others late at night. Insisting on having such individuals at their desks the whole day isn’t only demoralizing, but also inhibits their potential. You can consider offering flexible hours for roles that don’t need the employee to be present full time.
Flexible working hours give employees an opportunity to improve their work-life balance. This results in happy and satisfied employees who are willing to work at their best. In addition, employees’ productivity and quality of work go up when they work during the hours that they feel most productive.
Constructive feedback
Giving feedback to your employees is one of the most effective tools for managing employee performance. It helps employees see areas of strength and motivates them to do better. Giving balanced feedback, which means including areas of weaknesses, helps employees improve on those areas.
However, for employee feedback to be effective in increasing potential, it has to be balanced as mentioned. In addition, make it two-way. Have the employees gauge their performance before offering your feedback. Also, ensure that it is objective and timely.
Also read: Drive Employee Engagement In 5 Simple Steps
Positive company culture
The work environment has a lot to do with how employees perform. Individuals work better in a positive culture that promotes psychological safety, wellbeing, teamwork, mutual respect, compassion, and healthy work relationships. Such an environment boosts morale and increases engagement, which inspires employees to work at their best. To create a positive culture, start encouraging social connections, show empathy and compassion, and be an approachable leader among other steps that make a happy and satisfying work environment.
Conclusion
Unlocking your employees’ full potential is paramount in increasing profits and achieving company growth. In addition, it increases engagement, which is important in reducing employee turnover and building a positive brand. You can enhance employee potential by nurturing your team’s skills, capabilities, and efforts as well as offering incentives that communicate to them that they are a valuable part of the organization. The above tips give you ways that you can do exactly that.
Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you enhance your employees’ potential? Book a live demo with us.
This article is written by Daisy Benson
Daisy is an industrial and organizational psychologist who researches to identify solutions to problems that improve the well-being and performance of organizations and their employees. Daisy is also a freelance writer and often writes articles for credible blogs.