Seven Key Factors Affecting Employee Performance

Employees' individual performance, team performance, and organizational performance are interrelated and inseparable. The level of employee performance directly affects the company's profitability and the direction of future business development, and its importance is beyond doubt. On the basis of grasping both theory and practice, the author summarizes seven key factors that affect employee performance.

Factor 1: Personal interest

Interest is the motivation to do work. If employees are interested in a job, they will do more with less. Conversely, if employees lack interest in a job, they will do more with less. For example, if employee A is also engaged in marketing, he is very interested in marketing, so he will take the initiative to learn marketing knowledge, actively contact existing customers and tap potential customers, and also when he encounters setbacks. Will not give up easily; Employee B lacks interest in marketing work, his enthusiasm and initiative in developing the market and contacting customers will be significantly lower than A, and may also easily give up when he encounters setbacks, then at the end of the month or quarter When it comes to performance reviews, it's obvious who's scoring high.

Factor 2: Adaptability to the position

Everyone's personality is different. Some people are extroverted, good at talking, have strong interpersonal skills, and like to express their opinions in public; some people are introverted, honest and honest, and like to think independently. People with different personalities are suitable for different positions. For example, people who like to deal with people, we should arrange them in sales or public relations positions; for people who are more conservative, more introverted, and more careful, we should put them He is arranged in accounting or auditing positions; and for those who are good at independent thinking, it is more suitable to arrange for him to engage in academics.

Actually, for different people, there is no difference in ability, only suitable and unsuitable. Maybe in one position, A's ability is lower than B, but in another position, A may be higher than B. What we need to do is to put the right people in the right positions at the right time and make the best use of their talents. Under the same circumstances, employees whose personality is not suitable for a certain position and employees whose personality is suitable for a certain position will definitely achieve different performance.

Factor 3: Feeling Fair

Adams' theory of fairness states that employees often compare what they get to others. When the ratio of his own income to pay is smaller than that of other employees, he will feel obviously unfair. Either ask the company to increase its income, or reduce its contribution to the company. At the same time, he will also compare the ratio of his current income to his contribution with the previous value of the ratio of his own income to his contribution. When the former is smaller, he will also feel obviously unfair, and will automatically reduce his contribution to the company.

In either case, the employee's performance will be more or less reduced. Therefore, the company must take relevant measures to eliminate or prevent the sense of unfairness generated by employees, such as adopting a confidential wage system and proactively communicating with employees.

Fourth factor: Company incentives

The incentives here include two categories, one is material incentives, the other is spiritual incentives. Material incentives mainly refer to the company's salary and benefits, while spiritual incentives are mainly reflected in verbal praise and opportunities for training and promotion. If the company's salary is lower than the average level of the industry, it will affect the enthusiasm of employees to a certain extent, thus affecting the performance of employees. In the long run, the employee turnover rate will increase.

People are economic people, as well as social and self-actualized people. If the company has been using external recruitment to fill vacant positions, the company's existing employees will feel that their contributions have not been recognized by the company. In the long run, performance will also decline. In addition, whether it is material incentives or spiritual incentives, the principle of timely should be reflected. If the incentives are not timely, it will not have the desired effect.

Both Ventures (Beijing) Management Consulting Company, the intern unit where the author works, encountered such an employee when he consulted a clothing industry company in Jiangsu. For years, he worked in the sales department of the company. Strangely, his sales performance in the first year was far ahead of other employees in the same department, but his performance in the second and third years was comparable to the other employees, only in the middle.

When we interviewed him about this, we finally figured out what was going on. It turned out that when he achieved very good sales performance in the first year, the company leaders did not give him any other incentives, except that he received more bonuses than other employees in the same department. What he focused on was not only bonuses, but more It is a recognition of the wanted leader or the honorary title of an "advanced individual". It is because the company did not motivate him in time, which led to his mediocre work performance in the future.

Factor 5: Influence of the company's assessment system

Each company has its own assessment system, but according to relevant surveys, less than 20% of the total companies have an assessment system suitable for their own development. That is to say, most companies' performance appraisals are either mediocre, unfair, or not effective. For example, employee A in an enterprise is better than employee B in the same department in terms of effort and performance, but every time he is assessed at the end of the year, his score is the same as B, and his salary and bonus are also the same. of. Gradually, an impression formed in A's mind: Doing more and doing less are the same. As a result, he also becomes less hardworking and less proactive in his work, and his actual performance naturally decreases.

Factor Six: Work Environment

The impact of work environment on employee performance is huge. A good and comfortable working environment will make employees improve their work efficiency, which is conducive to the development of their own potential; a mixed, disturbing or uncomfortable working environment will make employees inefficient and not conducive to the development of their potential.

The working environment here refers not only to the geographical environment, but also to the human environment. When an employee is in a team that is full of energy and creativity, has the courage to develop and progress, and encourages and promotes each other, his personal performance will certainly be high; on the contrary, when an employee is in mutual suspicion and jealousy, and is content with the status quo , in a team that does not provide any assistance to each other, his individual performance is also bound to be low. This is the epitome of the impact of team norms on individuals.

Let's take another simple example: An employee of the company's workplace is far from home, and he has to take a bus for about two hours to go to work every day. However, the company did not take his actual situation into consideration and gave him a certain penalty every time he was late due to delays on the road. This greatly dampened his enthusiasm, resulting in a decrease in his work efficiency, and even the idea of leaving his job.

Factor 7: Is there a corresponding training and training effect?

When the company develops a new market or develops a new product or a new production line, there must be employees to carry out relevant business contacts or operate. But it should be pointed out that employees are not very familiar with new things, so provide them with training and guidance. In addition to the influence of its own factors, the performance of employees in the new field is directly related to the effect of training. In order to save costs, if the training provided by the company is not in place and only perfunctory, the consequences of this will be the unskilled and lack of skills of employees, which will affect their potential.

In addition, new employees who join the company must also provide training in related business or fields, especially college students who have just left the school. They may have solid theoretical knowledge but lack practical skills. The purpose of the training is to let them understand the company's culture and regulations as soon as possible, integrate into the company as soon as possible, and at the same time give them job and job guidance to improve their future work performance.

There are many factors that affect employee performance, such as the employee's psychological state, mental state and family factors. For the factors of employees themselves, we must actively communicate with employees to help them solve problems; for the factors affecting the company level, we identify the key points of the problem and deal with the problem in a timely manner, so as to improve the actual situation of employees work performance.

This article is a contribution from the author. The author's unit is the Business School of Central University of Finance and Economics.