While good job performance is to be expected of employees no matter what, there are a variety of different techniques that employers can use to encourage employees to perform well. Encouraging and developing a harmonious and pleasant workplace, for instance, is one important element of promoting good job performance. Each employee must have a completely clear and unambiguous job description as well, so that he knows what he should be doing at any given time. Poor job performance should be punished but in a reasonable way, and achievement should be rewarded based completely on performance, not on favoritism. Employees are most likely to be productive when they work in a positive environment with a transparent and reasonable system of reward and punishment.
The first step to promoting good job performance is ensuring that the workplace is safe and harmonious. If employees need to deal with constant conflict or harassment, they are likely to divert attention to those problems and away from their work. It is also important to ensure that the workplace is generally comfortable and that employees have the resources they need to do their jobs. An employer cannot reasonably expect good job performance if he fails to provide an environment conducive to good work.
Ensuring that employees know how employers view their work is another important aspect of ensuring good job performance. An employee who never receives feedback is unable to judge whether or not his work is living up to the standards set by his employer. Employee reviews are good for this purpose. A supervisor can periodically meet with each employee to tell him how he needs to improve or to simply congratulate him on a job well done. Such feedback allows the employee to optimize the quality, speed, and priorities of his work to meet the needs of his employer.
It is, in some cases, impossible to promote good job performance without a system of incentives and punishments. Employees are less likely to slack and to perform poorly if they understand that their jobs and their hopes of advancement depend on good work. They are more likely to demonstrate good job performance if they understand that doing so increases their chances of advancement and higher pay. It is important for an employer to make his expectations very clear to employees and to base the system of punishments and incentives on those expectations. Failure to do so may communicate to employees that good performance is not essential because incentives and punishments are given out arbitrarily.
