How to Improve Employee Performance

When an employee’s performance drops, the easiest explanation is often that they are not trying hard enough.

It is also frequently the wrong explanation.

Performance can deteriorate because expectations are unclear, workload has become unrealistic, the employee lacks training, the process is inefficient, priorities conflict or a manager has failed to provide necessary support.

Understanding how to improve employee performance therefore begins with diagnosis rather than pressure.

Strong performance management brings together clear objectives, useful feedback, appropriate resources, learning and workplace development. It also considers motivation, working conditions and whether systems help or obstruct employees.

Improving productivity should not mean simply asking people to work faster or monitoring more of their activity. Sustainable performance means helping employees produce the required quality and outcomes effectively, while addressing genuine capability concerns fairly when improvement does not occur.

This guide explains how managers can identify performance problems, set better goals, develop employees, use feedback and technology responsibly, create performance improvement plans and measure whether interventions actually work.

What Is Employee Performance and Why Is It Important?

Employee performance describes how effectively someone carries out the responsibilities and contributes to the outcomes expected from their role.

Performance may involve:

quality;

quantity;

accuracy;

customer service;

deadlines;

team contribution;

problem solving;

reliability;

and role-specific results.

Different jobs therefore require different definitions of good performance.

A salesperson may be measured partly through revenue and suitable opportunities.

A customer-service employee may be assessed through resolution quality, customer outcomes and appropriate service standards.

A software engineer may be evaluated through delivery, code quality, problem solving and collaboration rather than lines of code produced.

This distinction matters.

Businesses sometimes use convenient measures because they are easy to count rather than because they represent valuable work.

An employee answering 60 support tickets per day is not necessarily outperforming someone answering 40 if the first employee repeatedly leaves problems unresolved.

Good performance management begins by defining what successful work actually looks like.

Why Employee Performance Declines

Poor performance is a symptom.

The manager’s task is to determine the cause.

Acas distinguishes capability problems from conduct problems. That is an important starting point because someone who cannot yet perform a task may need a different response from someone who can perform it but deliberately refuses to follow a reasonable requirement.

Performance can decline because of:

unclear expectations;

insufficient knowledge;

poor training;

unmanageable workloads;

conflicting priorities;

weak processes;

lack of resources;

poor communication;

low engagement;

changing responsibilities;

or inappropriate job design.

Personal or health circumstances may sometimes be relevant as well, requiring careful and lawful handling.

Managers should therefore ask questions before reaching conclusions.

Has the required standard been explained?

Did performance decline suddenly or has it always been weak?

Has the role changed?

Does the employee possess the required knowledge?

Are colleagues experiencing the same problem?

Is technology creating delays?

If several competent people struggle with the same task, the system deserves investigation.

Key Benefits of Improving Employee Performance

Effective performance improvement can create benefits well beyond one employee’s output.

Potential benefits include:

clearer expectations;
stronger accountability;
better quality;
improved customer outcomes;
increased productivity;
stronger employee capability;
fewer recurring errors;
better management information;
improved team coordination.

Development can also increase organisational capacity.

An employee who learns to handle a task independently no longer needs the same level of supervision.

A team that develops better problem-solving capability can address routine issues without escalating every decision to management.

Performance improvement may also help businesses identify unnecessary processes.

Sometimes the greatest gain comes not from making an employee perform a broken task faster, but from redesigning the task.

The objective should therefore be better outcomes, not simply increased activity.

Key Factors That Affect Employee Performance

CIPD’s current guidance provides a useful principle: employees need expectations, motivation, capability, resources and support.

These factors interact.

Expectations

People need to know what good performance looks like.

Skills

Employees need enough knowledge and capability to complete the work.

Resources

A skilled employee can still fail if systems, staffing or equipment are inadequate.

Motivation

People need a reason to apply effort and remain engaged with the work.

Management

Managers influence priorities, workload, feedback and development.

Work design

HSE highlights demands, control, support, relationships, role and change as important dimensions of healthy work.

Processes

Slow approvals or duplicated administration can reduce output regardless of individual effort.

Team environment

Performance can suffer when responsibilities overlap or colleagues do not share required information.

Managers should examine these conditions together rather than viewing performance as a fixed characteristic of the individual.

Best Employee Performance Improvement Strategies

The best approach depends on the cause.

A useful sequence is:

Define the gap

What exactly is below the required standard?

Avoid saying:

“Your performance needs to improve.”

Instead say:

“Three of the last five monthly reports were submitted after the agreed deadline.”

Understand the cause

Ask the employee what is happening.

Gather evidence before assuming lack of effort.

Clarify the standard

Explain what satisfactory performance should look like.

Identify support

This could include:

training;

coaching;

better resources;

process changes;

or clearer priorities.

Agree actions

Specify what both manager and employee will do.

Review progress

Improvement requires follow-up.

If performance improves, recognise it.

If it does not, determine whether the intervention addressed the actual cause.

Effective management combines support with accountability.

Helping an employee improve does not require lowering every legitimate performance standard.

Best Employee Goal-Setting Strategies

Goals translate organisational objectives into individual priorities.

Poor goals create activity without direction.

A useful goal should make clear:

what outcome is required;

how success will be judged;

when it is expected;

and why it matters.

SMART objectives can help make goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

However, metrics should not become artificial simply to satisfy the model.

Some work requires qualitative judgement.

Goals should also be within the employee’s reasonable influence.

Holding someone entirely accountable for a target dependent on another department’s uncontrolled decisions can create unfairness and encourage dysfunctional behaviour.

Balance outcome and quality.

For example, a sales goal should not encourage employees to close unsuitable customers merely to achieve volume.

Review goals when circumstances change.

An objective that was realistic in January may no longer make sense after a major change in staffing, customer demand or organisational priorities.

Goal setting should guide performance, not trap employees inside outdated assumptions.

Best Performance Management Strategies

Performance management works best as a continuing cycle.

CIPD’s current guidance highlights tools such as objectives, reviews, feedback, learning and development.

That means performance should not disappear from management attention for eleven months and suddenly become urgent during the annual appraisal.

Managers can use regular conversations to discuss:

progress;

priorities;

barriers;

development;

and feedback.

Formal reviews can still be valuable, particularly for documenting longer-term performance and development.

However, they should not contain major surprises.

If an employee hears for the first time during an annual appraisal that their performance has supposedly been inadequate for six months, management has missed several opportunities to intervene earlier.

Performance management should also be proportionate.

A capable experienced employee may need more autonomy than a new employee learning the role.

Consistency means applying fair principles, not managing every employee identically.

Best Employee Training and Development Strategies

Training should address an identified capability need.

Do not automatically prescribe a course whenever performance declines.

First ask whether lack of knowledge or skill is genuinely the problem.

If so, choose a learning method suitable for the outcome.

Possible methods include:

formal courses;

job shadowing;

coaching;

mentoring;

guided practice;

workshops;

and supervised workplace development learning.

Practical skills often require practical application.

Watching a video on negotiation does not prove that someone can handle a difficult customer conversation.

Similarly, completing an online management module does not by itself establish competence to supervise a team.

Strong workplace development connects learning with work.

After training, employees need opportunities to apply the skill.

Managers can then observe performance, provide feedback and identify remaining gaps.

Measure transfer rather than completion.

The important question is not:

“Did they finish the course?”

It is:

“Can they now perform the required task more effectively?”

Best Employee Feedback and Coaching Strategies

Useful feedback is specific enough to act on.

Compare:

“You need to communicate better.”

with:

“During the project meeting, the revised deadline was agreed but was not shared with the delivery team until two days later.”

The second version identifies observable behaviour and its context.

Effective feedback should usually explain:

what happened;

why it matters;

what should continue or change;

and what support is available.

Do not save positive feedback only for formal reviews.

Recognising effective behaviour helps employees understand what should be repeated.

Coaching takes a different approach.

When an employee has enough knowledge to think through the issue, workplace development managers can ask questions such as:

“What options have you considered?”

“What is preventing progress?”

“What would you do differently next time?”

Coaching helps develop judgement.

However, it should not replace instruction when someone genuinely does not know what to do.

Good managers know when to coach and when to provide a clear answer.

Best Employee Recognition and Reward Strategies

Recognition can reinforce useful performance when it is timely and credible.

This does not always require money.

Managers can recognise:

excellent customer service;

successful problem solving;

team contribution;

learning;

or consistent reliability.

Specific recognition is stronger than generic praise.

Instead of:

“Great work.”

say:

“The way you reorganised the handover prevented the two teams duplicating the same work.”

Employees then know what behaviour was valuable.

Financial rewards can also have a role.

However, reward systems require careful design.

If employees are rewarded only for volume, quality may suffer.

If individual bonuses dominate a role requiring teamwork, employees may become less willing to share information.

Do not assume that every employee is motivated by the same reward.

Development opportunities, autonomy, recognition, flexibility or increased responsibility may matter differently to different people.

Motivation is influenced by more than incentives.

Best workplace development Communication Strategies

Performance problems often begin as communication problems.

Employees need clarity around:

priorities;

responsibilities;

standards;

deadlines;

and change.

Managers should explain what matters most when several tasks compete.

Saying that everything is urgent is not prioritisation.

One-to-one conversations can help identify barriers before they become significant performance problems.

Ask:

“What is getting in the way of this objective?”

“Do any priorities conflict?”

“What support do you need?”

Communication should move upwards as well.

Employees closest to operational work may identify inefficient processes or unrealistic assumptions before senior management sees them.

Create an environment in which they can raise those issues without being labelled negative.

When organisational change occurs, communicate what has been decided, what remains uncertain and how the change affects employees.

HSE specifically identifies communication and employee involvement as important elements of managing change and work-related stress.

Best Employee Engagement Strategies

Engagement and performance are related but not identical.

An enthusiastic employee can still lack the required skill.

A technically strong employee may produce adequate results despite being disengaged.

Managers should therefore avoid treating an engagement score as a complete performance measure.

Engagement can nevertheless support performance when employees:

understand purpose;

have appropriate autonomy;

receive useful support;

feel their contribution matters;

and can raise concerns.

Employee voice is important.

Ask people what obstructs effective work.

Then demonstrate that the information is considered.

A survey asking the same questions every quarter without visible action can reduce trust rather than strengthen it.

Managers also influence engagement through everyday behaviour.

Fairness, feedback, recognition and clear decisions often matter more than occasional morale initiatives.

Effective engagement is built through the experience of work, not simply through social events.

Best Productivity and Time Management Strategies

Improving productivity means increasing valuable output relative to resources, not increasing visible activity.

Start by reducing unnecessary work.

Ask:

Which meetings can be shortened or removed?

Which approvals create little value?

Which reports are produced but rarely used?

Which tasks could be standardised?

Then help employees manage priorities.

Useful techniques include:

weekly planning;

clear daily priorities;

time blocking;

task batching;

and protecting periods for concentrated work.

Avoid filling every available minute.

Some roles need thinking time, problem-solving capacity and room for unexpected work.

Managers also need to watch workload.

HSE’s Management Standards specify that demands should be adequate and achievable in relation to agreed working hours.

A team consistently relying on excessive working hours may have a capacity or process problem, not a time-management problem.

Sustainable productivity requires realistic work design.

Best Technology and Automation Strategies

Technology should remove unnecessary effort rather than increase digital administration.

Good candidates for automation include:

routine reporting;

data transfer;

meeting scheduling;

simple approvals;

status notifications;

and repetitive record updates.

Start by mapping the process.

Remove unnecessary steps before automating them.

A badly designed workflow does not become good simply because software performs it faster.

Project-management tools can also improve performance when they create visibility around:

ownership;

deadlines;

dependencies;

and progress.

Collaboration systems can reduce information silos.

Analytics tools can reveal operational patterns.

However, tool proliferation creates its own performance problems.

Employees forced to update the same information across several systems lose time and confidence in the data.

The right technology stack should make work simpler.

Best AI-Powered Employee Performance Tools

AI can support employee performance in several ways.

Generative assistants can help with:

drafting;

summarising;

research;

planning;

data interpretation;

and routine administration.

Skills England’s October 2026 Employability Skills Framework explicitly incorporates responsible AI use across workplace development capabilities and stresses checking outputs rather than accepting them automatically.

Microsoft Viva provides another example of AI-era performance technology.

Viva Insights uses privacy-protected workplace development information to provide productivity and wellbeing insights to managers and leaders.

Microsoft’s current UK workplace development analytics and employee-feedback package also includes:

organisational insights;

employee surveys;

team pulse surveys;

and capabilities for examining AI adoption and impact.

These systems should support management judgement, not replace it.

Be particularly cautious about using simplistic activity measures as proxies for performance.

Number of messages sent, keyboard activity or hours appearing online do not necessarily measure valuable output.

Employee monitoring also raises privacy, trust and legal considerations.

Use technology to understand work better, not to create a surveillance culture.

How to Create an Employee Performance Improvement Plan

A performance improvement plan, often called a PIP, can provide a structured route for addressing a genuine performance problem.

It should not be used merely as paperwork to justify a decision that management has already made.

Begin by describing the performance concern clearly.

Include:

the required standard;

the current gap;

specific evidence;

what improvement is expected;

support to be provided;

how improvement will be measured;

and the review period.

For example:

Instead of:

“Improve client communication.”

a plan might state:

“Respond to assigned client enquiries within the team’s agreed service standard and ensure outstanding issues are recorded in the CRM before the end of each working day.”

The required standard should be reasonable and connected to the role.

Support might include:

additional training;

coaching;

clearer procedures;

or regular review meetings.

Keep appropriate records.

If health or disability may be relevant, obtain suitable HR or specialist advice and consider applicable legal obligations.

Formal performance procedures should follow organisational policies and relevant Acas principles.

A PIP should provide a genuine opportunity to improve.

How to Measure Employee Performance

Performance measures should reflect the actual role.

Useful categories can include:

Output

How much appropriate work is completed?

Quality

How accurate or effective is the work?

Timeliness

Are reasonable deadlines or service standards met?

Customer outcomes

Where relevant, what happens to the customer?

Team contribution

Does the employee support collective outcomes?

Development

Are required capabilities improving?

Behaviour

Are relevant professional standards met?

Avoid measuring what is simply easiest to count.

For example, call-centre employees evaluated only on call duration may feel pressure to end conversations before resolving the issue.

Software developers measured through code volume may be rewarded for creating unnecessary complexity.

Use several indicators where possible.

Performance data should support judgement rather than eliminate it.

Context matters too.

An employee handling the most difficult customers may produce lower volume but greater value than someone handling simple cases.

How to Provide Effective Employee Performance Feedback

Performance feedback should normally be timely.

A manager who waits several months to discuss a recurring issue makes improvement harder.

Prepare evidence.

Describe specific examples rather than general impressions.

Explain the expected standard.

Then give the employee an opportunity to respond.

This step matters because managers may not know the full context.

For example, an apparent productivity issue might result from the employee repeatedly receiving incomplete source information.

Focus on the work rather than attacking character.

Say:

“Four invoices were submitted with missing purchase-order information.”

Avoid:

“You are careless.”

Agree what happens next.

If improvement is required:

what will change;

when will it be reviewed;

and what support will management provide?

Feedback is most effective when it becomes part of normal management rather than something employees associate only with problems.

Common Employee Performance Management Mistakes to Avoid

One common mistake is assuming weak performance proves low motivation.

Managers should first examine capability, expectations, resources and work design.

Future Trends in Employee Performance Management

Performance management is moving towards more continuous and data-informed approaches.

Annual reviews are unlikely to disappear entirely, but organisations increasingly combine them with:

regular check-ins;

ongoing feedback;

employee listening;

skills development;

and real-time operational information.

AI will accelerate this change.

Employees can increasingly use AI to complete routine tasks, analyse information and create first drafts.

Performance measures will therefore need to evolve.

Counting outputs becomes less useful when technology can produce large volumes instantly.

Managers may place greater emphasis on:

judgement;

quality;

verification;

problem solving;

customer outcomes;

and responsible AI use.

Skills England’s new Employability Skills Framework reflects exactly this shift by combining AI capability with human responsibility for checking and improving outputs.

workplace development analytics will also become more sophisticated.

Platforms such as Microsoft Viva can combine productivity information, employee feedback and AI-adoption analysis.

Organisations should resist the temptation to equate more data with more accurate performance management.

The most useful systems will combine evidence with context and human judgement.

Employee workplace development will also become more important as jobs change faster and skills need more frequent updating.

Key Takeaways

Understanding how to improve employee performance begins with identifying the cause of the performance gap.

Do not assume every problem results from attitude or weak motivation.

Employees need clear expectations, appropriate skills, workplace development realistic workloads, useful resources and management support.

Use measurable goals, but choose measures that represent valuable work.

Strong performance management combines accountability with development.

Training can build capability where there is a genuine skills gap, while coaching and feedback can help employees apply knowledge more effectively.

Improving productivity should involve better processes and prioritisation rather than simply expecting employees to work faster.

Technology and AI can reduce repetitive work and provide useful insights, but activity data should not be mistaken automatically for performance.

Where an employee is genuinely struggling, a structured improvement plan can clarify standards, support and review points.

Training Arena currently offers learning relevant to supervision, team management, performance management, motivation and productivity. Structured learning can support workplace development, but managers and organisations still need to apply those principles fairly in actual working situations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I improve employee performance?

Start by defining exactly what needs to improve and investigating the cause.

Check whether the employee understands the standard, has the necessary skills, receives adequate resources and is working under realistic priorities.

Then agree specific actions, provide appropriate support and review progress.

That diagnostic approach is central to how to improve employee performance.

What are the best employee performance improvement strategies?

Useful strategies include clear objectives, regular feedback, appropriate training, coaching, stronger communication and better work processes.

Recognition and suitable technology can also help.

The right intervention depends on the reason for underperformance.

Training will not fix an impossible workload, while a new software tool will not solve unclear expectations.

What factors affect employee performance?

Performance can be affected by skills, motivation, workload, management, resources, communication, role clarity, technology and organisational change.

Team relationships and process design also matter.

Managers should investigate the work environment as well as the individual before deciding how to respond.

How can managers improve employee productivity?

Managers can improve productivity by clarifying priorities, removing unnecessary tasks and ensuring employees have the tools required to work effectively.

They can also reduce excessive meetings, simplify approvals and automate repetitive administrative work.

Productivity improvement should focus on valuable outcomes rather than increasing activity for its own sake.

How does employee training improve performance?

Training can improve performance when lack of knowledge or skill is causing the performance gap.

It can introduce new techniques, systems or role-specific capability.

However, training needs to be followed by practical application and feedback.

Course completion alone does not prove that workplace development performance has improved.

How can feedback improve employee performance?

Feedback helps employees understand what is working and what should change.

Effective feedback is timely, specific and focused on observable work rather than personality.

Managers should explain the expected standard, listen to the employee’s perspective and agree practical next steps.

Regular feedback also prevents major performance concerns from appearing unexpectedly during formal reviews.

What are the best employee performance metrics?

The best metrics depend on the role.

They may include quality, output, timeliness, customer outcomes, revenue, error rates, project delivery or team contribution.

Use several indicators where necessary and consider context.

Avoid metrics that encourage employees to maximise quantity while damaging quality or customer outcomes.

What is an employee performance improvement plan?

A performance improvement plan is a structured document setting out a performance problem, the standard expected, the improvement required, support available and the period over which progress will be reviewed.

A fair PIP should give the employee a genuine opportunity to improve.

Where formal capability procedures or health and disability issues are involved, employers should follow appropriate organisational and legal requirements.

Conclusion

Learning how to improve employee performance means looking beyond the employee’s output and understanding what produces it.

Clear expectations matter.

So do skills, systems, resources, workload and management behaviour.

If knowledge is missing, provide suitable training and workplace development.

If priorities are unclear, fix the communication.

If workload is unreasonable, do not disguise a capacity problem as an individual time-management failure.

Managers should also understand motivation without relying on simplistic assumptions. Recognition, autonomy and development can matter, but employees cannot remain motivated indefinitely inside badly designed work.

Use feedback regularly and make performance measures relevant to the real outcome.

When technology can improve productivity, use it deliberately. When AI can remove repetitive work, make sure employees retain responsibility for checking quality and applying judgement.

And where performance genuinely remains below a reasonable standard, handle the issue clearly and fairly.

Effective performance management is neither endless encouragement nor constant pressure.

It is the disciplined process of giving people a clear standard, the capability and support to reach it, and appropriate accountability for the results.