Average performance – there seems to be an epidemic of it. Average service, average work, average thinking. What happened to all the great employees?

The great employees are here, hiding under average performance in jobs that don’t make sense for them. Nothing can turn a great employee into an average one more than putting that employee into a job that does not use his particularly talents, strengths and passions. Employees who aren’t (intrinsically) good at the job, and like doing it, will never be more than average in the job. So management has a role in creating average or exceptional performers.

Consider these three ways to help get employees into the right job and to raise their performance – so they do more than just show up, looking to collect a paycheck:

1. Define the performance success attributes (abilities) needed in the job to be successful; use these attributes to source the right people. Knowing the profile of success attributes needed to be successful in each job clearly defines the profile of a “good fit” employee. This allows for improved sourcing of candidates resulting in a more significant and meaningful talent pipeline by job.
2. Redevelop the interview process to be behavioral- or talent-based. Phrase your questions around the success behaviors needed in the job, coupled with your real life environment. For example if you are looking to assess a candidate’s abilities in building rapport with a customer, you may ask the following question that affects both the behaviors needed in your actual workplace: “In our workplace, it is not unusual to have customers waiting for service and on phone at the same moment. How do you handle this situation where both phone and live clients feel valued and the behaviors you need to prove exist Use real life environments in your questions to assess candidate fit. These will be the most telling ways to determine if the candidate will show up and be both good at what the job needs done and interested enough to do it well.
3. Set “non-average” performance expectations for each employee. Sometimes the reason employees do average is we don’t tell them that we expect something more than average. Be clear about the performance standard in the organization – and its focus on greatness and exceptional performance. Setting clear high expectations makes sense for employees who are well hired into roles that need what they do best. Miss steps 1 and 2 and you’ll not be able to do step 3. You can’t ask people who excel in one thing to step up and stand out in something that is not part of the abilities, passions or strengths.

Great employees don’t just show up – they are aligned to the right role, constantly trained, clear about their expectations and focus on “exceptional” over average.

Transforming human capital into financial capital requires understanding what behaviors and abilities drive performance in each role, how to determine if a candidate has the right combination of abilities, and what level of daily performance is expected.

For more information, go to www.WorkFiredUp.com and click products for the step by step performance guide, Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition.