Employees' Areas of Improvement: How to Identify

Unless you have the perfect employee, we’re sure you’ll be able to find at least one area of improvement for each member on your team. Use these along with periodic performance reviews to ensure your employees are working to their maximum potential.

1) Time Management

Time management is vital to your business’s prosperity. Without it, not many tasks would get done on time (if at all). That could be harmful to everyone involved.

2) Organise

Through organising skills, time management will be much easier. When you and your employees are organised, you’ll know what needs to be prioritised and done.

Encourage your employees to plan a daily schedule of the top three or four tasks (in order of priority) that they need to concentrate on. Then help them hold on to that list until it’s finished.

3) Interpersonal Communication

It doesn’t matter if you manage an eatery, a coffee shop, or a call centre, you and everyone else who works there can all stand to develop interpersonal communication. Even if it’s just between team members, being clear and direct in what you say (without offending) will enhance the way you work.

4) Customer Service

Great customer service is the foundation of every exceptional business. Even if your business already has a reputation as a customer-friendly company, this is an area of improvement for workers that you should always focus on

One of the greatest ways to improve your employees’ customer service skills is to show it in all you say and do. Then inspire your employees to follow your lead.

5) Cooperation

Unless your employees work by themselves with absolutely no human interaction, they’re going to have to cooperate with others at some point. And for your employees to operate at their full potential and overcome the obstacles in their paths, they’re going to need the help and cooperation of those on their team.

6) Conflict Resolution

Disputes among employees will happen even in the most well-adjusted teams. Sometimes, the stress just overwhelms and friction produces a flame.

It’s usually the manager’s responsibility to put out the fire of conflict, but if you can teach your employees to resolve their own disagreements, it will help your business 100-fold.

7) Listening

Effective listening is very important for communication and the success of your business.

When you encourage mature listening skills in all your employees, their productivity will improve, they’ll make fewer errors, and they (and your customers) will be much happier.

8) Written Communication

It’s correct that technology has made communicating with others quicker and easier. So much so that we tend to rely on it for everything. That technology, though, can’t make your employees’ writing better. Sure, it can help catch small spelling and grammar mistakes, but it can’t enhance the quality and clarity of their words.

If your business relies on written communication, consider creating an internal style book for your employees to use when they’re composing. Make that style guide available to everyone (perhaps in the employee handbook), and then encourage your team members to refer to it whenever possible.

9) Learning New Skills

Unless you have a perfect employee working with you, everyone will benefit by learning new skills. Doing so not only spurs thinking and creativity, but it also boosts the employee’s value to your business.

With new skills, you can use team members in different positions, and they won’t be a “one-trick pony” who is only good at one point.

10) Goal Setting

To encourage your employees to stretch and grow in the way they work, inspire them to set and strive to meet new goals.

A surefire way to help your team members reach their goals is to create an employee development plan they can follow. The development plan acts as a road map of sorts that shows team members the steps they need to take to succeed.

11) Accepting Feedback & Constructive Criticism

Feedback and constructive criticism are a critical component of improving the way your employees work. Without it, no one would know what they’re good at and what they’re not good at.

But accepting feedback and constructive criticism can be challenging sometimes. Especially when your employees are giving their best. Do your part to make feedback and criticism as painless as possible, but train your employees to accept the advice with an open mind.

12) Focus & Engagement

A huge part of your job as a manager is to keep your team focused and engaged. But your employees can learn how to improve their productivity and work performance on their own. There are lots of strategies they can use to keep themselves motivated and on track to succeed.

Whether you’re an owner, a manager, a team member, or all three, it’s important to love what you do. If you don’t, it’s going to be tough to produce the drive to improve. So, find happiness in your work.

Once you’ve got that happiness, it’s easier to identify your strengths and weaknesses. From there, you can take steps (or help your employees take steps) to learn, grow, and improve.

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