When the pandemic struck, businesses across different sectors had to take a closer look at their expectations when it came to employee performance. 

For many employees, adjusting to their ”new” home office environment — sometimes surrounded by kids taking Zoom classes and the occasional spouse “drive-by” — created unprecedented stress.

Hello, burnout!

When your team is underperforming, it can lead to a lack of motivation, innovation, and a loss in revenue. 

But it’s important to note that a performance gap — despite a global pandemic — can be a symptom of a bigger problem that may be difficult to diagnose.

Whether it’s the absence of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), low employee motivation, communication barriers, or unclear expectations, getting to the bottom of what’s causing your performance gap can be critical to the success of your business. 

Let’s dive into what a performance gap is, how to diagnose it, and the strategies you can take to close it — and keep it closed. 

Increased performance and effectiveness 

First thing’s first: let’s define a performance gap. Essentially, it’s the difference between your team’s performance to date and their desired performance (or the performance you expect them to achieve).

The sooner you identify a performance gap and take actionable steps to address the root of the problem, the more effective your organization is likely to be. But without an accurate picture of the root cause(s) of your performance gap, coming up with a restorative strategy can be tough. 

One of the most effective (and objective) ways to assess the overall performance picture is by creating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your team — measurements of key performance areas in your company such as customer satisfaction, sales, and other relevant metrics. 

What you’ll need to close your team’s performance gap

Before you get started on strategies that will help close your team’s performance gap, there are some key data points you should have on hand, including:

• KPIs.
• An objective understanding of the team’s current performance.
• A concrete understanding of the desired performance goals.
• A clear view of what’s causing the decline in performance.
• The means to conduct a performance gap analysis.
• The ability to track your team’s progress over time.
• A growth mindset to embrace change. 

Step 1: Identify and measure your team’s current performance

Measure how well these metrics are being met

First, you’ll need to gain an accurate and objective picture of your team’s current performance. Inaccurate or incomplete metrics can lead to inaccurate solutions — which just slaps a bandage on the real problem and wastes time, money, and other resources

Determine underlying causes of the gap

When it comes to assessing the causes of your performance gap, it helps to set aside any assumptions about what does or doesn’t work for your team. 

Here are some of the most common reasons for a performance gap:

• Gaps in skill and talent on your team.
• Performance expectations are too high.
• Inconsistent leadership and guidance or policies that lack clarity.
• Lack of engagement and motivation.

Step 2: Conduct a skills/knowledge gap analysis

Determine your team's existing skillset

If you want full staff buy-in when closing your performance gap, then it’s essential to know what each team member can and can’t do, and if those skillsets align with what it’ll take to close the gap. 

Identify gaps between desired and actual skillsets

In light of the pandemic, it’s important to note that many of your current team members may have taken on the responsibilities and duties that don’t align with their knowledge and skills.

Conducting a skill-gap analysis will help your company figure out what skills your team has compared to what skills they’ll need to close that performance gap.

Step 3: Create a targeted training program to address the gaps

Conduct a skills inventory of your team

Before creating a targeted training program, you’ll need a clear idea of the skills each individual brings to the table — or “a very particular set of skills” (ahem, we’re looking at you, Liam).

You can gather this data through a combo of company skills assessments or team member self-assessments. 

Conducting a survey or meeting with the team or each member to gain a deeper, more accurate insight into their skill sets — and how they feel they can help close the gap — is invaluable.

Discover and embrace the individual needs of your team members

To create an effective, targeted training program for your team, you first need to know your team. And that means creating a training program that meets them where they are and delivers what they need. 

To do this, you’ll want to know:

• The diversity of your team.
• Their access to technology.
• Learning styles.
• Their location.
• Language skills and barriers.  

Step 4: Introduce clear expectations and create a culture of ownership

KPIs and job scorecards

Every member of your team needs to know what their role is, the tools and resources they need to perform well, and how they’re expected to perform/goals you expect them to achieve. 

You can do this by giving them access to the KPIs. This way, they’ll not only have a clear picture of what they need to do to perform well, but they’ll also take greater ownership in their role.

How will you give everyone easy access to those KPIs? Simplicity is key.

For example, you can place all of your important data and metrics in front of every team member by using the Job Scorecard — a single dashboard that showcases and tracks your team’s most important performance and quantifiable success metrics.

When each team member has a clear understanding of their duties and responsibilities, and the ability to track their performance, you’ll find that your performance gap will begin to narrow.

Step 5: Advocate for a culture of improvement

When your team has a clear understanding of what they should (or shouldn’t be) doing to achieve peak performance, they’re more likely to take ownership of their role. 

As a leader, you can show your team the importance of creating a culture of improvement and how much you value their efforts in several ways. 

One of the best ways to do that is to create an incentives program. 

For example, let’s say a team member meets their performance goals one month early, or that the entire team exceeds the targeted goal by 20%. Research shows that “team incentives can increase team performance by as much as 44 percent.”

Offering free perks as an incentive — think: fine dining experiences, vacation days, tickets to the next NBA game — can set off a positive chain reaction motivates everyone to improve and exceed the team’s goals. Incentives may even help close the gap sooner.

Common problems when closing your performance gap

Problem: Communication barriers — the team isn’t on the same page

Whether your immediate team is 2 or 50 members (or more), clear and continuous communication is important if you want to realign and close that performance gap. 

One part of an effective communication strategy is accessibility. Is there an accessible, central location — a knowledge management system — where everyone can find the information, resources, and contacts they need? 

Potential solution: Create a company playbook to streamline communication

It’s one thing to run a gap analysis, identify performance problems, and then establish viable solutions to get back on course. However, if everyone goes back to their own space without remaining in conversation, then some of the root issues that led to the gap could resurface.

Think about it this way — the right hand needs to know what the left hand is doing. Cue, the importance of creating a company playbook. 

When everyone is on the same page and playing by the same rules (with the information they need right at their fingertips) they can really work to close that performance gap.

Problem: Old habits, behaviors, (and processes) resurfacing

Embracing change is a key when it comes to closing your team’s performance gap. 

Old habits are familiar friends, and change can feel like an unwelcome stranger. Maybe your company has approached issues in a particular way for several years. Or, maybe your leadership style has remained the same and requires a complete tune up. Truth is, processes change. 

Managing your team effectively involves ongoing assessment and adaptation as new challenges arise, and not being afraid to deviate from familiar ways of working when necessary. 

Potential solution: 

Sometimes a different set of three Rs can help keep old performance-inhibiting habits at bay: Reflect, Revamp, Repeat.

Reflect

Turn inward, team leader. You may want to step back and take a bird’s eye view of how you’ve led your team through a particular issue — say, customer satisfaction — and if there are more effective methods you can use to get the results you’re after.

Revamp

Change is necessary, especially when you have a performance gap that needs closing — and root causes that need full-on attention. Embrace it, and take proactive steps to change, or even overhaul duties, responsibilities, and SOPs.

Repeat (as necessary)

You’ll need to continuously evaluate and reassess whether your approach to closing the performance gap is the most effective and cost-efficient. 

In short, once you’ve identified a performance gap — and what you can do to close it — you’ll need to keep an eye on it for a while. Trial and error may be the name of the game. Do what you think will work with the resources you can afford.

Ready to close your team’s performance gap? 

Bottom line: when it comes to closing your team’s performance gap, you need accurate metrics, clear goals, and open communication with your team. That way, you’ll be able to put your finger on the root cause of the gaps that are hurting your team’s morale and the company’s bottom line.

Once you have a handle on what’s causing your performance inhibitors, it’s important to set clear expectations and reasonable goals (while avoiding employee burnout). You’ll want to make sure every member on your team knows what they need to do to perform their best and close the gap.

Creating a company playbook where you can document and update every teammate’s role and responsibility — all in one place — can be a great place to start. Here, you can establish and make changes to your SOPs, and keep everyone aligned and accountable. It might just be the golden ticket to closing your performance gap and keeping your team moving forward.