Improve Employee Performance Idea 91 – June 22, 2009: Explore Job Enrichment Options

When employees get bored with a job, they sometimes underperform.  This can leave you without much leverage to use as a motivator for performance improvement.  So your challenge is to make that job more exciting and challenging.  It’s called Job Enrichment!  But how do you Enrich a job?  Try these three ideas:

1. Change the way in which the assignment is delivered.  For example, an assignment that was normally delivered by e-mail might be delivered using an online meeting or in a PowerPoint presentation.

2. Allow the employee to demonstrate his or her expertise on a regular basis.  For example, a weekly one-on-one or group training component might be possible.

3. Combine a boring assignment with something the employee finds stimulating.  For example, an assignment that involves solitary research might be combined with an assignment that involves talking with company experts.

KEY REMINDER:  To improve employee performance, you have to conduct effective performance discussions, give effective performance feedback, reinforce employee performance, and use effective performance phrases to write effective performance appraisals. 
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Barbara Brown, PhD shows managers how to improve employee performance by linking performance to results. She publishes handbooks that contain phrases for discussing performance and for writing appraisals. Dr. Brown also provides training and consulting. Visit www.LinkToResults.net.