A professional colleague of mine told the following story:

An employee in the Payroll Processing division of a large Midwestern bank was on the verge of being fired for poor performance. His job was to ensure that the payroll information from various companies was correct before being submitted for processing, and his work was almost never accurate. As a last-ditch effort, my colleague was brought in to talk to the employee and find out why he was making so many mistakes. She asked if he understood what impact his mistakes had. He had no idea why accuracy mattered. She explained that when he made mistakes, people just like him did not get paid. From that day on, he never made another mistake.

Bottom line: tell your employees why doing their job right is important. They are much more likely to do the job right when they understand what impact it has on others.

Sharon Hamersley is Principal of Keys to Performance, Your Resource for Workplace Productivity. For more information, visit her web site http://k2performance.net or call her at 614-395-9440.