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10 Things That Clear Performance Standards Tell Your Staff About You

By Leon Noone

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 21Aug2009
Word count: 467
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Summary. Millions of words have been written about the importance of performance standards. But the very fact that they exist says something about you to your employees. And what it says is worth a thousand pep talks.

1. Performance Matters. When you have clear performance standards you are telling your staff "performance matters". Without those standards, you invite your staff to decide what matters for themselves. Some staff will welcome that invitation and cause you much frustration.

2. Your Expectations. Performance Standards say what you expect, clearly and unequivocally. Staff can only give exactly what you want when they know exactly what you want. Creating positive expectation is a crucial people management skill.

3. Evaluating Work. Most employees want to know "how they're going". Sound Performance Standards make the answers to that question part of daily work. They specify job goals and how to know those goals are achieved. But they also provide a scoreboard to measure progress.

4. Puts Behaviour In Perspective. "Behaviour is what you take with you. Performance is what you leave behind." I can't remember who said that.. But Performance Standards tell employees that to you, good behaviour is no substitute for poor performance. And they enable you to reinforce the value of performance.

5. Makes Sense of Reward Systems. You simply can't have truly effective reward systems without sound Performance Standards. Employees know that. So should you. Lack of clear performance standards raises doubts about fairness in reward systems. Enough said!

6. Self Assessment. You can't "ride herd" on the work of all employees all the time. Performance Standards can and do. Not only that, they enable employees to assess their own performance without your intervention.

7. One Rule For All. Performance Standards say that you measure the work of all employees by how well they meet performance standards. They create perceived fairness in assessment. This shows you're concerned about equity and fairness in measuring performance.

8. Clarifies Place Of Support Systems. Your support systems can only provide true support when they clearly support stated Performance Standards. Without the standards, support will become sloppy and imprecise and worse still, a goal in itself.

9. Enhances The Value Of Information. Good Performance Standards are clear and well written. As vital corporate criteria, it becomes essential that other written information matches them for clarity and precision.

10. Where You Stand. Performance Standards tell your people that you know where you stand. They know that you know what you want. They may not necessarily like or agree with what you want, but they will know. That reinforces positive expectation in a way no talk can match.

Conclusion. Clear, positive Performance Standards have so many benefits that it seems absurd that every single manager in the world doesn't use and value them. If you had doubts before, I hope I've done my bit to dispel them.

If you've enjoyed this article, you might like to read my FREE, 42 page Special Report, "5 Proven Methods For Improving Employee Performance On The Job". It's yours to keep. You'll also get a free bonus eBook about setting Performance Standards for employees. Just go to http://www.leonnoone.com and they're yours. I work with small-medium business managers to improve on job staff performance without using training.

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