Have you ever felt rejected when a team member leaves you to go and work for another builder?

If you don’t make time to understand what motivates your staff, then they’ll end up feeling undervalued and unappreciated.

Which leaves them searching for a new challenge in another company that appreciates and rewards them.

And the longer you fail to address your employees’ feelings, the more you’ll find it difficult to retain good employees for any decent length of time.

Your Staff Are Your Biggest Asset

Let’s face it, staff are the biggest asset for any business. 

You invest a lot of money into their salaries, so getting a positive return on your investment should be a priority to any business owner.

In which case, listening to your employees and understanding what drives them, what they find most challenging and most rewarding, is critical.

At the same time, communicating your expectations with them is also vital so they understand what they need to do and how they can do it well. 

Experts refer to this process as a Performance Appraisal.

If this process is neglected or rushed, the result is usually out-of-touch business owners making poor decisions which leaves their employees feeling dismissed or ignored.

This issue was highlighted by Socialcast who found that, “69% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were better appreciated.”

The trouble is that most builders never make the time to assess the performance of an individual team member.

On the other hand, highly successful builders understand what motivates their team because they speak to them about their performance every 6 months.

So stop allowing your best people to continue feeling unappreciated and undervalued.

Listening Is Key

Instead listen to them and meet with them on a regular basis so you can understand what challenges they’re facing but also what they would like to achieve.

When you do this, you’ll retain your best team members, increase productivity and boost morale.

It's Important To Incorporate Both Perspectives

Here are some tips that may help you.

Start by creating an appraisal document that can be used as a discussion starter.

It might sound obvious but using this document will also help keep the conversation on topic.

The document should then be used several times throughout the year as a running record of your discussions and so you can assess the progress of your employee.

It should consolidate their performance information throughout the year and also capture their accomplishments, goals and progress.

Once you’ve created an appraisal document, then send it to your employee prior to your meeting with them and ask them to conduct a self-appraisal.

Asking your employees to do this means you’re giving them the opportunity to assess their performance from their own perspective.

So they can offer any comments or explanations about decisions and actions they might have made.

It also means that both you and your employee will be measuring performance using the same criteria.

Which means both people will be focused on job performance and will be able to share feedback effectively and identify any concerns or issues from either side.

Make The Process Meaningful

And finally, when it comes time to planning your review meetings, ensure they’re held more than once a year.

It’s important to acknowledge that performance appraisals can be one of the most stressful work conversations your employee has.

The goal of a performance review is to improve job performance from your team members.

Increase Productivity and Improve Morale 

So it’s important to have a meaningful process that your staff find helpful and are actively participating in.

Receiving regular and constructive feedback is important for your employees to perform well by identifying what they’re doing well and any areas that may need improvement.

And by holding your meetings more than once a year, any feedback you have is less likely to come as a shock when it’s raised during the meeting.

How To Attract And Retain The Top Performers In The Industry

So what if you could attract and retain the top performers in the industry by reviewing their performance and setting goals on a regular basis?

Would it help you to retain your best people, increase productivity and improve morale?

If you need some help get started, watch the APB Membership demonstration to see how we can help you.

Click on the link below to learn more.