Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Get a Promotion 5: What to Improve in Your Performance

PEEQ ImprovementsThis continues our series describing actions that can get you a promotion at work

We’ve described how to get a promotion you must 1) discover exactly what they want you to do—and more, 2) identify the metrics you or they will use to measure you performance, and 3) translate the value of your improvements to dollars or percentages. Today, we examine what to improve. You begin to qualify for promotions when you improve the productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, or quality of your work or those you manage. You may focus on one area or strive to improve in all four areas. You must, however, show progress to qualify for promotions.

Improve Productivity

Productivity measures the quantity of work you do. You improve productivity by increasing the number of what you do. For example:

  • Sales representatives or clerks sell more product than they sold
  • Assembly workers make more product
  • Customer service clerks handle more calls per hour than before
  • Data entry or accounting clerks process more transactions per hour

Verify that doing more will not create problems: too much product, sell more than you can deliver, or bottleneck the next step in the process.

Improve Efficiency

Efficiency measures the resources you use to complete the task. Most business owners seek to increase efficiency.  For example:

  • Use less time, money, raw materials, equipment, facilities, and other costs. 
  • Do it faster & cheaper as measured by time or cost per unit or shortened sales cycle

Improve Effectiveness

Effectiveness measures how well your work accomplishes it's purpose. Increasing productivity or efficiency mean little if you do not accomplish your purpose. For example:

  • Making more sales calls in less time means nothing if you did not sell anything
  • Processing accounts payables in less time means nothing if the bills don’t get paid

Improve Quality

Measures the degree of excellence of your work. For example:

  • Manufacturing measures acceptable versus rejected parts per standards
  • Accounting and clerical staff measure accuracy of work produced
  • Attorneys and judges measure how many cases are appealed or overturned

Friday we will explore how you can improve your performance to get a promotion

No comments:

Post a Comment