3 Investments Marketing Leadership Should Consider Making to Improve Employee Performance

Employee performance is a key factor in the success of a company, and it is largely driven by overall employee engagement. But in a time when only about 15 percent of employees are engaged at work, it's obvious that most companies are missing the mark. 

If you are a marketing leader looking for ways to improve employee performance, here are three investment ideas you should consider making.

1. Build a Collaborative Environment

These days, if you throw out the term "team-building" to employees, the first images that may come to mind might mimic a sitcom show variety of ill-timed trust falls or the usual company picnic that does little to encourage communication and collaboration between people and departments. 

The truth is that team building done right can have several positive impacts on a business including increasing productivity, better collaboration among teams and departments, as well as improving overall employee morale.  The trick is to come up with innovative team-building ideas that will inspire collaboration rather than grumbles and eye-rolls.

2. Put Your Employees First

While many companies focus on a customer-first approach, some of the most successful companies have learned that putting employees first is a better tactic. Unhappy employees lead to a disengaged workforce and even worse, high turnover rates. 

With the current cost of replacing an employee being at least two times their salary - smart leaders know that investing in employees is an important way to buffer the bottom line. But this goes beyond offering great health benefits and reasonable vacation days. 

Companies who get it right take it a step further. From relaxed dress codes to personalized workspaces (which help foster an employee's sense of self and belonging), finding innovative ways to encourage employees to be their best selves will create a more engaged workforce overall. Happy employees often mean happier customers, too, so it's a win-win.

3. Invest in a Smart, Customizable CRM

Finally, companies who get it right give their employees the tools they need to do their job efficiently. If a company spends time to create a collaborative and open culture and puts their employees first, but fails to provide the right software to get work done, then they've failed. 

For many companies and marketing departments, this starts with a solid, dependable CRM tool. While there are many options available on the market today, most lack flexibility. The right CRM tool shouldn't be a static operating system that you have to adapt your workflow to in order to use it. Instead, your CRM tool should be able to flex and adapt to meet your internal needs, such as tracking sales performance and forecasting, while also streamlining communication and issue tracking with customers. Give your employees the right tools to do their jobs and productivity will thrive.

Put Your Ideas Into Action

While employee performance is a key factor in the success of any business, it's employee satisfaction and engagement that drives performance. To drive engagement, companies should focus on employee-centric tactics like implementing creative team-building activities that encourage trust and collaboration. Creating an environment in which employees feel accepted and celebrated will also create happy employees, which will then lead to happy customers. And providing employees with an innovative and flexible CRM tool will give them what they need to get the job done quickly and efficiently. With this three-prong approach, marketing leadership will see a marked improvement in employee performance sooner rather than later.