A Key Secret To Increase Employee Productivity

In one of my recent seminars on "Turning Around Turnover" we were discussing the flaws and foibles of most performance appraisals. One attendee stated they stopped giving performance appraisals, and instead gave training needs assessments. The idea was to find out what training it would take to improve their performance instead of the usual method of telling people where they needed improvement.

At the end of the training needs assessment, they asked staff to list any barriers to performance. I went bonkers (in a positive way) because he was right on target. In my seminars, I draw a large T on a flip chart and put the word "aids" on the top left of the T and the word "barriers" on the top right of the T. I state that when you have a performance problem, always refer to this diagram. My thinking is if you give employees what they need to do the job such as training, equipment, technology, and take away the barriers, they will do the job. This is a key secret to performance and productivity.