Employers have become so concerned about seeming “unfair” or worse becoming the victims of lawsuits by unhappy ex-employees that they’ve stopped requiring minimum standards of employees. This can only lead to poor individual and eventually poor company performance. Your best employee performers will resent the fact that you use company money to pay people who aren’t up to standard and will reduce their own level of performance or leave.

Take back the power in your workplace and set standards of performance. How to fairly assess each of your employees? I use a simple three part measurement tool with the acronym AWE or Able – Willing – Engaged.

Is the Employee Able?

This is the minimum standard of employment or continued employment. Does the employee have the basic job skills? Does he or she also have the people skills to be able to work effectively? Does the employee have family or personal issues that make it impossible for the employee to work the expected hours? Does the employee have any emotional or physical health issues that make it impossible to do the job effectively? Is he or she lacking any problem attitudes, such as racism or sexism that make them unable to be open to customer or co-worker interactions.

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you should move the employee to another job where the issues aren’t going to affect their competency or transition them out of the company.

Is the Employee Willing?

The next level up that is also a make or break issues – is the employee willing to do the work available? Does the employee seem happy to be at work? Does he or she genuinely care about the welfare of customers, co-worker, and the company in general? Does the employee get to work well-rested and prepared so that he or she is able to be fully present and concentrate? Does the employee gracefully take on assigned tasks? Does the employee arrive at meetings on time and prepared? Is the employee open to dialogue and answering questions related to his or her work?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, there may be some resentments that have built up meaning that the employee can do the job, but isn’t willing to give 100%. This employee needs to have the opportunity to vent frustrations, get clear instructions on what is expected, and then have the opportunity to recommit to the work of the company. If the employee remains unwilling and hinders the work of others with a poor attitude, the employee should be transitioned out of the company.

Is the Employee Engaged?

This is the highest level of employee involvement and commitment. These are employees who are engaged in the work of the company take initiative. They are problem-solvers and actively work out work problems, including inter-personal problems. They actively seek feedback about their performance. These employees are natural leaders and will lead in a project whether or not they have a management title – other just seem to follow them because of their willingness to take risks or because of their demonstrated expertise. They also look outside the company for sources of good ideas and are always setting goals to take their own work to the next level. They like to learn and will look for opportunities to take on new tasks to learn new skills. These employees give 100% because they are motivated to do so internally.

It is only if a company gets in the way of superior performance that these employees will stop working at the highest level. If they become frustrated that management does not support their efforts to raise the performance bar in the company, they will disengage and eventually leave.

Final Comment

Employees who are not able to do the job shouldn’t be offered continued employment. If you can create open communications with employees who seem unwilling, you can often turn around their performance. Your best point of leverage is taking employees who are willing and helping them become employees who are engaged. The best way to do that is to have plenty of engaged employees around. Their work behavior can be infectious. And get out of the way of the engaged employees. They want room to run and will only leave if micromanaged or not allowed room to experiment with new ideas. Follow these few simple ideas and you will be in AWE of the contributions made by your employees to the prosperity of your business.

Now we turn the corner to our final phase: Re-Discovery.

Last year marked the 200th anniversary of the expedition of Lewis & Clark, and much has been written about their remarkable journey up the Missouri River and on to the Pacific. This band of explorers was aptly named The Corps of Discovery. In reality, The Corps made two trips, the second being their return. It is likely that the unheralded return journey was more revealing and insightful than the outbound leg, offering them a chance to re-discover with clearer vision what they had already seen.

It is in this frame of mind that your organization will embark on the Re-Discovery Phase of building an effective management system.

Management Policies and Procedures

The Re-Discovery Phase completes the loop of the entire project, and then overlaps with The Discovery Phase of the next year. Therein lies the “never-ending cycle” of the project. The Re-Discovery Phase allows your organization to migrate from a “fix it and done!” mentality to one of continuous improvement. In Re-Discovery/Discovery Phases you will always be reviewing and assessing your organization for ways to improve performance, compliance, and effectiveness.

As in all Phases it is wise to identify a Project Leader to manage document controls, lead the audits and report to management.

Review the Audit Results and Process Measures

When we pass down a street for the first time, our minds are focused on reaching the destination. Upon returning, we are able to notice things that were previously missed. Returning allows us to go through the same path of the original Discovery Phase in this different light.

This will involve reviewing audit results, process measures and customer satisfaction to determine possible adjustments to the mission, objectives and action plans as well as effectiveness criteria. You will want to asses the appropriateness of these elements now that you have completed your “outbound journey” through the Planning, Development and Implementation Phases. What will you see differently? How will you prepare for the cycle to begin again next year?

Culmination of Policies and Procedures Project

In Phase I, we learned how your organization specifies the project mission, objectives and effectiveness criteria. Phase II entailed setting requirements for project tools, budgets and schedules to manage your project. Phase III taught us about identifying and testing processes within the system. And in Phase IV we learned about learning. So now the Re-Discovery Phase will culminate the project that started 6-12 months ago (time certainly does go by quickly, doesn’t it?). And with these five phases completed, you will have undertaken perhaps quite a long process – but also one that will lead you to building (and maintaining) an effective management system.