The Importance of Workplace Environment
An employee’s workplace environment is a key determinant of their level of productivity. How well the workplace engages an employee impacts their level of motivation to perform. This then influences that employee’s:
- error rate
- level of innovation
- collaboration with other employees
- absenteeism
and, ultimately, how long they stay in the job.
(See the results of research by Towers Perrin, BlessingWhite and Gallup Consulting.)
The most important of these workplace environment factors that either lead to engagement or disengagement are shown in the following diagram. A close consideration of each of these factors is also very useful in ensuring that employees apply the skills they learn during training programs once they return to their workplace. Tending to the structural and interpersonal aspects of each of these factors enables employees to apply the required skills in a consistent and habitual way.
Figure 1 – Workplace factors affecting employee performance
Workplace Performance Factors
What does each of these factors mean? The following is a brief introduction.
Goal-setting
Employees are involved in setting meaningful goals and performance measures for their work. This can be done informally between the employee and their immediate supervisor or as part of an organization’s formal performance management process. The key here is that each employee is actively engaged in the goal-setting process and takes ownership of the final agreed goals and measures.
Performance feedback
Information on how the employee is performing is fed back regularly to employees. This consists of both positive feedback on what the employee is doing right as well as feedback on what requires improvement. The feedback is objective and delivered with the appropriate interpersonal and conflict resolution skills and can be a mix of both informal feedback and feedback delivered as part of a formal performance management cycle.
Role congruity
The role that the employee is required to perform is consistent with their expectations on joining the organization and any subsequent training. The organization’s role expectations are typically reflected in formal documents, such as Job Descriptions and Role Specifications. These expectations are consistent with tasks allocated by the employee’s immediate supervisor.
Defined processes
The organization constrains the variability of how work is actually performed through documenting processes and communicating such expectations to employees. The organization verifies on a regular or random basis that the work is actually performed in the way required.
Workplace incentives
The organization has determined what motivates its employees and has set up formal and informal structures for rewarding employees that behave in the way required. Rewards may consist of a mix of internal rewards, such as challenging assignments, and external rewards, such as higher compensation and peer recognition.
Supervisor support
Immediate supervisors act as advocates for employees, gathering and distributing the resources needed by employees in order for them to be able to do a good job and providing positive encouragement for a job well done. Supervisors display the interpersonal skills required to engage employees and enhance their self-confidence.
Mentoring/coaching
Skilled and respected people are available to employees to help them perform better in their current role and to assist them develop further into a future role. Mentors and coaches may be internal to an organization or external. Either way, they possess the necessary facilitation skills to assist employees develop and apply new sills.
Opportunity to apply
Time and material resources are available to employees, enabling them to perform to the best of their ability. Individual workloads and organizational systems and processes do not hinder employees from applying established skills or from practicing newly learned skills.
Job aids
The work environment is set up so that templates, guides, models, checklists and other such workplace aids are readily available to help minimize error rates and customer dissatisfaction.
Paying close attention to the above workplace environment factors will heighten employee motivation to apply their skills and hence improve your workplace productivity. To find out more about increasing the effectiveness of your training programs using these factors, check out our eBook From Training to Enhanced Workplace Performance. << Click here to download today.
The above factors are also important for getting the most out of your organizational change programs. For help in translating change initiatives into real organizational performance gains, check out our eBook Managing Change in the Workplace. << Click here to find out more.
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