Can your employees answer this question? Do they have any objective reference point for determining if this was a good week?

If not, then how should they feel about how they’re doing? Do you leave it up to their imagination? Do you leave it up to the random compliment delivered by you?

If that’s the case then you’re going to have a problem with that employee.

Everybody needs to know if this was a good week.

We all need some objective measure of how we’re doing. It’s only with that input that we can figure out how to improve. It’s the only way we can feel a sense of accomplishment. It’s the only way we can feel good about our role, our position, our job.

Lets say you’re the receptionist. Your week is filled with answering the phone, dealing with visitors, sorting and processing mail, taking payments, keeping the lobby clean, etc. Weeks come, weeks go. How do you know if you did a good job this week?

It’s a tough question to answer. You’ll know if you did a poor job. You’ll know if things went off the rails and clients complained about the greeting, the cleanliness of the lobby or their mishandled phone calls. But, how will you know if things went well?

That’s what you, the employer, have to figure out. You’ve got to define success.

What you need to do is come up some things to measure and ask your employee to help maintain the performance measuring data. Ideally, you’ll get the employee to help you come up with the measurements.

You’ll be helping the receptionist identify the things that are important and you’ll be helping your employee work toward improvement in those areas.

What should you measure?

How about measuring the number of compliments from clients regarding the receptionist. Each time something nice is said, you report it to the receptionist who adds it to a chart. Maybe you measure the number or letters properly addressed and mailed the same day. How about measuring the number of rings it takes to answer each call and come up with the weekly average? How about the measuring number of clients that are greeted by name? Maybe you could measure the number of visitors that walk in to a staffed front desk and don’t have to wait for the receptionist to return from the back or the bathroom.

Take a guess at setting a target for each measurement. Refine the targets as you see how each week turns out. Now you’re giving your employee a tool for feeling good.

You’ve got to be creative. Think about the job. Think about the things you’d like to improve. That’s the way to create the measurements.

What’s going to happen?

Suddenly your receptionist gets it. The game is clear. A good week is now defined. You can bet that your receptionist would rather have a good week than a bad week and it’s clear how to have a good one.

You win, the receptionist wins, and your clients win when you come up with solid measurements.

Now your receptionist has some control over the job and can be proud of this weeks accomplishments. Now the receptionist can answer the question.