Want Better Employees? They Should Be Able to Answer These 6 Questions - The Edge from the National Association of Landscape Professionals

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Want Better Employees? They Should Be Able to Answer These 6 Questions

Bill Arman, NALP consultant member and partner in the Harvest Group, shares some tips about how to set your employees up for success.  Get more strategies during the People Academy Live 2-day in-depth employee development conferences in Orlando and Dallas in Jan. and Feb. of 2017. 

Your employees need to clearly understand their role and what is expected of them. When you and your people know the answers to these “6 Questions,” then you are providing them with clear guidance and expectations and your organization will be well on its way to success.

Question #1 – What am I supposed to be doing?   

Does your employee understand what the key activities are or actions they are supposed to be doing that will get them where they want to go within the organization? We call these your key leverage points and these are the activities on which employees should be spending between 50-60% of their time. You should know how your employees time is being spent – what percentage on which activity  ̶  and does it match up with want you want them to do?

Question #2 – What are my goals?

Set goals for your employees to hit. The following are some benchmark examples:

  • Sales Growth 20%,
  • Client Retention 90%+,
  • Quality Standards 85-90%,
  • Profitability 10-15%,
  • Safety – Worker Comp Accidents, etc. 0%

Question #3 – How well am I doing?

Are your employees meeting the goals that are set for them? When you have benchmarks in place, you and the employee can get a very clear sense of where the they stack up and whether there is room for improvement.

 Question #4-  What do I need to learn or how do I need to behave to be successful?

Identify skills that need to be developed in order for the employee to be more successful and discuss behaviors that may be preventing success. Now build a plan to improve these areas that need work and that could possibly be preventing the employee from achieving success.

 Question #5. What should I expect if I do all of this? A.K.A. – What’s in it for Me?

Employees should have an understanding and expectation of what the rewards are when they succeed. It is not all about the money but money doesn’t hurt. Share your organization’s desired vision so employees will know what their path to success looks like in terms of: salary, bonuses, promotions, special assignments, recognition, perks etc.

 Question #6. Where do I go if I fail?

Reality smacks pretty hard sometimes and we all have set backs along the path to success. When those moments occur, what does an employee do?

If your organization focuses on providing answers and guidance on these six questions, there will be a much keener sense of ownership, a clear path to success and a team of people that have clarity of expectation.