24 Jul Managing Employee Performance Discussion Responses

Discussion responses

POST 1 : According to Forbes, the greatest barrier to employee performance is inadequate training. When employees are assigned tasks for which they are not trained or do not have the required skills, they will likely make more mistakes, work pressure mounts, and the employee morale decreases thereby decreasing performance (Thomas, 2018). Investing in training and development programs can help bridge the skill gap and improve performance. Another barrier for employee performance is feeling under appreciated at work (Thomas, 2018). This can be considered as leadership or management failure. Today’s workforce consisting of several millennials looks forward to appreciation and recognition as an important motivational factor in addition to good pay, and bonus. Managers must provide constant feedback, appreciate and thank employees for their contributions to overcome this barrier. Employee performance is also deterred when there are communication gaps due to lack of open communication, no clear definition of roles and responsibilities, no drive for innovation, inadequate teamwork, no empowerment (Kirkman et. al, 2020). These obstacles can be addressed by developing a good organizational culture. The leadership who play a significant role in developing the organization culture must ensure these aspects are addressed in a top down manner.Performance management is a strategic approach to creating and sustaining improved performance in employees. Several organizations are moving from year end appraisals to a system where the performance of employees is evaluated more often on a quarterly basis and constant constructive feedback and appreciation are provided (Valamis, n.d.). Managers can improve employee performance and help them achieve their goals by firstly ensuring that the goals are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. The next step is to follow up regularly with the employees to monitor progress and discuss any bottlenecks, training needs etc and provide necessary support. Building a supportive organizational culture is the key to performance improvement.

POST 2: There are many barriers that can hinder employees’ performance levels in an organization. The first barrier could be lack of training, if the employee has not been given proper training to reach performance expectations then that could be a big issue. When an employee is being on boarded all the resources that are available should be given to the employee to allow them to thrive. Another barrier is lack of goal setting, there can be times where employees do not know what to aim for. If there are clear goals that are defined it will help them reach them and give them a yardstick to improve their skills and performance. Barriers to workplace productivity can lower the morale of an entire department or business. If employees face obstacles to performing their jobs or to achieving advancement within the company, they may have trouble completing assignments (Small Business Chronicles, 2020).Managers can conduct performance evaluations first asking the employee to describe what projects they have worked on and their opinions on the outcomes. This method is a less formal way to conduct evaluations and makes it less of an awkward experience for all parties involved. Another way managers can conduct performance evaluations is to judge the employee based on the universal company code that an organization might have for employees. This method makes evaluations more standardized and thus more fair. Employees face many barriers in the workplace, but putting together different strategies to prevent these barriers is key. This will help with overall performance and job satisfaction.