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Areas of improvement at Work: 18 Examples for Employees
Updated on:
August 1, 2025
Published on:
July 5, 2024
One aspect of establishing a career is also creating continuous areas of improvement at work. Providing a growth area of opportunity for employees empowers them with confidence and inspiration. You can use individual development plans for your employees to boost efficiency.
Including areas of improvement at work in performance reviews helps identify employee potential and provide input for both parties to boost professional development. Another method for identifying areas of improvement is using an employee skills matrix. Employee skills matrices are useful to spot upskilling opportunities for your employees.
When performance evaluations are collaborative, they promote engagement, teamwork, and lower turnover, giving employees a clear path for growth and advancement.
Adapting to fast-changing workplaces in 2025 means employees must improve not only in classic areas of performance but also develop emerging skills shaping the future of work. Here are the most relevant and trending areas to improve at work:
Effective communication is the key to success; diverse team members must be able to send and receive clear messages. For instance, in a project team, clear communication ensures everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. Brainstorming ways to enhance and optimize team communication is one of the areas of growth examples. Check out Forbes' 10 Tips For Effective Communication In The Workplace.
Written communication methods include anything you use daily to function within your organization, such as emails, presentations, and reports. Strong written communication skills are important to convey clear and relevant information to coworkers, clients, and stakeholders.
Presentations, one-on-one meetings, and phone calls are only a few examples of verbal communication in a workplace. Strong verbal communication skills require clarity, effective listening, and the ability to convey a message professionally.
Active listening in a work setting showcases the ability to understand and respond to received messages, such as empathizing with a customer’s needs during a call to come up with a possible solution.
Time management is essential for completing tasks on time, meeting organizational goals, and advancing professionally.
Employees with good time management skills can prioritize responsibilities, minimize delays, and effectively use resources.
This skill showcases that an employee knows the difference between urgent and important tasks and can sequence tasks according to their deadlines by productively using time and resources.
Procrastination is the habit of avoiding complex or unpleasant tasks. According to a study by Vveinhardt, Jolita, and Włodzimierz Sroka (2022), establishing defined employee goals and guidelines can help prevent this tendency. As we mentioned in the beginning, providing solid examples of the outcomes of such behavior would definitely make a change.
Facilitating standards that assist employees in managing their professional responsibilities and personal well-being is beneficial. Addressing and fixing imbalances improves well-being, job satisfaction, and performance, lowers stress and burnout, increases productivity, and promotes individual growth and fulfillment.
Ethics and integrity build trust. They also establish credibility, promote organizational values, and foster a positive workplace where employees feel safe and valued.
No one is perfect, that’s for sure, but what’s valuable is taking ownership. Ownership allows one to accept the consequences and learn from mistakes.
Respect and fairness are quintessential elements of a supporting company. Setting explicit values and applying assessment methods for respect and fairness creates a safe environment for employees to grow.
This can be tricky because organizations have different standards for professional manners. Still, there are signifiers of professional manners, like attending meetings on time and being polite and respectful when interacting with colleagues and clients.
Innovation and creativity empower organizations to stay updated. Being relevant and up to date with latest trens enables organizations to tackle challenges and stand out. Foster workplace creativity to increase employee retention and the overall success of your organization.
Creating an engaging and encouraging forward-thinking culture increases employee retention and overall success.
Staying curious drives creativity, and interested employees are likelier to spark an innovative solution. Assessing curiosity motivates employees to seek new knowledge and skills, promoting ongoing professional development.
Innovations come to life when a pioneer emerges. Encouraging employees to take the initiative and measuring it is fundamental in progression.
Not all actions yield positive outcomes, and occasionally, unforeseen issues may arise. Responding to and reacting to such occasions improves individual and organizational growth.
The rise of technology dominates many industries, and many organizations utilize digital tools for numerous purposes, such as staying up-to-date and maximizing productivity. Therefore, authorized people should assess competency in this ever-evolving area.
Strong software proficiency in the related industry enables employees to streamline processes and deliver efficient results. Identifying strengths and weaknesses is the starting point for improvements.
There are safe online practices like detecting phishing emails and setting strong passwords that protect employees and organizations from malicious attacks. Frequent check-ins on these practices would benefit both parties.
E-learning modules and training are a great way to fill skill gaps and promote professional development. Effective e-learning and training programs benefit employees by equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and employee opportunities for improvement needed to succeed and grow within their careers, and increase retention.
As AI-powered platforms become more prevalent in daily operations, employees should understand how to responsibly use tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, or Notion AI to increase efficiency. Building proficiency in AI not only boosts productivity but also prepares employees for future roles that increasingly rely on intelligent automation.
Global and remote teams are now becoming the norm and employees must develop the ability to work effectively across cultures. Companies should be able to build this remote collaboration and trust among its cross-cultural teams. This includes adapting to different communication styles, showing cultural sensitivity, and being open to diverse perspectives—skills that are essential in international or hybrid workplaces.
Strong asynchronous communication skills are vital in remote and hybrid environments. Employees must learn to communicate clearly via written updates, shared documents, and collaboration tools without relying on real-time responses. Mastery of a remote team management tool maintain alignment and trust, even across time zones.
It is challenging to stay on track with identifying and planning resolutions for areas of improvement at work. As an organization grows, sustaining a functional system becomes trickier and more complex.
Luckily, if you’re using Microsoft Teams and Outlook, Teamflect is here to help! All you need to do is go to the Apps section, search for Teamflect in the search bar, and get started.
Teamflect enables you to go through a performance cycle inside Microsoft Teams! You can create customized templates or use pre-existing templates in Teamflect.
Once you settle in, go to the admin center. The review module is on the left bar below the modules.
The review module allows you to conduct regular performance reviews to specify the areas of improvement at work in collaboration with your employees.
With Teamflect, you can send customized reviews to your entire organization, related department, or employee.
Each section is customizable and aligns with your organization. After the review is submitted, you can see your employees' overall performance.
One fantastic benefit of using Teamflect for your performance reviews is that you can review the results. The review results section shares data on your employees' performance and enables you to see development opportunities.
Another fantastic benefit of Teamflect is creating development plans for your employees in performance reviews. In the development plan tab, you can set new goals for improvement.
Setting development goals based on areas of improvement at work ensures that each goal is targeted and relevant. By identifying specific areas where employees need to improve, you can create tailored development plans addressing your employees' needs.
Until the next performance review cycle, employees can update and comment on their progress.
Try Teamflect for continuous exploration in areas of improvement at work for both your organization and employees!
It is best practice to highlight strengths and weaknesses. Share employee improvement examples at work. This provides a solid foundation and creates a space for your employees to self-reflect.
Maintaining a neutral tone of voice and body language ensures your employees that these sessions are in their best interest. We all know that performance reviews can be stressful for employees.
Remember that performance reviews need to be collaborative. Your guidance and feedback on focus areas of improvement will help your employees become aware of specific issues. To turn your performance review into a cooperative dialogue, take the time to listen to your employee’s perspective on the subject.
If there are multiple professional development areas of improvement at work to address, prioritize the ones that need immediate improvement and set professional development goals for your employees.
Remind your employees that these goals will support their overall organizational performance and progression.
Offer resources, focus on talent development plans for each of your employees, and encourage scheduled check-ins to track their progress and talk about necessary actions if there’s a need. These kinds of acts show your interest and good intentions for their improvement in the identified areas of improvement at work.
Common areas include communication skills, time management, accountability, adaptability, and digital literacy. Depending on the role, they may also involve technical upskilling, collaboration, or leadership development. For a structured approach, consider using a competency framework to assess and define these areas clearly.
Choose areas that are relevant to your role and show self-awareness. Be honest but constructive—focus on skills you’re actively working to develop, such as improving presentation skills, becoming more detail-oriented, or managing time more effectively. Pair each with a brief plan or action you’re taking to improve.
Frame your answer around growth. Mention a genuine area you're working to improve and explain what steps you’ve taken. For example: “I used to struggle with delegating tasks, but I’ve started using project tracking tools and seeking feedback to improve.” This shows reflection, accountability, and initiative.
Use performance data, feedback from peers or managers, and self-reflection. Regular check-ins and performance tracking can reveal patterns and growth opportunities. Observation in day-to-day tasks and comparing current performance to role expectations also helps.
Remote and hybrid workers often benefit from improving asynchronous communication, self-motivation, digital collaboration, and time management. Encouraging structured routines, regular check-ins, and tools for remote team management can support these improvements and help build accountability in flexible work environments.
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