HELP Them

Your employee’s can only do their jobs if they have the correct tools and knowledge. Without them, you’re setting them up for failure. Here are four points to remember in helping your employee's

Knowledge – Your staff must know what’s expected of them. No one can improve and no one can get a fair performance review unless they know what to do. They need a job description and ongoing coaching to fulfill their requirements. Roles are constantly changing. You have to keep them up-to-date.

Materials and Equipment – Work cannot be performed properly, even with the appropriate knowledge, unless staff have the proper equipment. That means working properly, in-date, clean, up-to-date, appropriate amounts, etc. Without it, well, they just CAN’T properly function.
Recognition – If you’re not providing constant recognition and kudos, then YOU are part of the lack of motivation problem. You, as their supervisor, should be out there every day showing that you care about them, what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it.

Develop – You must continuously encourage further development in your staff. Not just their every day procedural training. Help them get into some seminars (http://www.nationalseminarstraining.com/index.html, http://www.amanet.org/individualsolutions/seminars.aspx?SelectedSolutionType=Seminars), join an association, let them teach a class at a staff meeting.

Some organizations like to hand off all or some of these four points to departments, most commonly to HR. They may be able to act as a coordinator on the ground floor level, but it’s up to YOU, as the employee’s supervisor, to see that it gets done. And by “done”, I mean it’s being carried out. This is not a four point check-off list that you go, “check, check, check, check, done”. You must constantly and consistently ensure that all of your employee’s are covered.

Realize that the success of your employee’s directly impacts the success of YOU!