WCG: Performance Improvement

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT: Moving to a Higher Level

Today’s workplace, whether it be industrial, production, or services oriented, is continually attempting to improve performance, productivity, and effectiveness while trying to stay within budget and achieving its goals.

There is a plentiful array of barriers that get in the way of performance. For instance, your steady state turnover rate jumped last quarter from an expected 20% (annualized) to over 30%! Increased production line losses and late deliveries led to a slew of related problems. When trying to understand what caused all this, it’s easy to look at the increase in turnover rate as the cause…….but is that really the case? Does this or other "events" happen repeatedly every 2-3 business cycles?

Under-attaining performance design and/ or expectations can be crippling.

Let’s look at a recreational softball league game. One middle of the pack team has eight players who consistently show up 30 minutes before game time, ready to play. The remaining two-three typically show up two minutes before game time, or often just before the 10 minute wait time before the umpire calls a forfeit.

All the team is hoping for at this point is to be able to play……and when it starts play, the team often can’t shift its focus to playing the game. When this happens in a business setting – be it personnel, technical, or organizational structure issues, longer-term organizational performance and effectiveness can decline significantly.

“Expectations and follow through . . . . . . . determine outcome and performance”

Cohesiveness and performance norms within work groups, a department, division or an organization drive their respective performance. Do you know where your team’s / work group’s performance norms and cohesiveness levels reside, and how do you know?

Understanding their drivers, when considered with management-employee expectations, recognition, motivation to perform, coaching, and decision making, helps leadership to take definitive steps to improve performance on the production floor, the IT department, the sales group, or the company softball team.

We at WorkPlace Cornerstone Group believe that many work groups have what it takes to improve and sustain measurable performance improvement, however aren’t achieving expected performance levels. We stand ready to facilitate your organization’s improved performance effort with training, coaching, and teambuilding to achieve these needed performance levels.

WorkPlace Cornerstone Group™