Posted by Jamie Resker on Fri, Apr 20, 2012 @ 07:41 AM
There’s been a lot written about getting rid of the performance review. I came across a Harvard Business Review Article titled “Ditch Performance Reviews? How About Learn to do Them Well. Only about one-percent of organizations have gotten rid of performance reviews. So if 99% of organizations are sticking with the practice it makes sense to do a better job with reviews and make them mean something.
One problem is the frequency: once a year. It’s like being in school and getting a one-time report card with no teacher support and guidance in between. Plain and simple: once a year is too infrequent. As the HBR article pointed out, “if the performance review is done just once per year it’s likely that the reviewer will remember only the most recent information unless stellar records were maintained.
According to HBR article, “for an effective performance review, there should be a full record of the employee's activities. If not, research shows you will base your evaluations on the most recent or salient events, which are more readily retrievable from memory. The odds of such an evaluation being comprehensive and unbiased are quite low”. Common sense.
So you can either do an amazing job at keeping documentation all year, in which case you’ll likely need a system, either on paper or an on-line system that allows for journaling, to keep notes. This way you can save up all your comments for the once per year performance meeting. Wait, did I just say that? Save up all your notes for the once per year meeting? This makes no sense at all. Why do I want to hear about how I’m doing just once per year?
A better practice is having 3 or 4 mini conversations per year. Yes, much better. That way, as the employee, I receive more frequent information and I can better gauge where I’m at. This allows me to keep tweaking my performance in terms of what I need to do to be more effective. Equally important is hearing about what I’m doing well and should continue with. And how about goals? Setting goals once per year when change is a constant just doesn’t cut it. Instead, implement a practice to look at goals each quarter and adjust and update them as needed.
Components of a Mini Review:
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One Strength Name the overall strength, a few specific examples and mention the impact; people like to see how they fit into the big picture.
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One Area for Focus Name the area, describe and dicuss specific actions that would help the individual meet the focus area, and describe what will happen (the positive impact).
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Goals A review of any previously set goals (status update, what’s no longer relevant, any new goals). The employee can prepare his/her notes on goal status before you meet.
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Other Achievements Major achievements outside of stated goals. Have the employee come prepared to discuss this.
And you’re done.
You may have managers who complain about having to talk with employees about performance four times per year. You know what I say? Too bad. At a minimum that's doing their job. I would however keep the mini review form to one-page. If you do ratings then do this just one-time per year. The other times should be more informal check-in conversations.
Does your company do reviews more than once per year?
See the HBR article, Ditch Performance Reviews? How About Learn to do Them Well?
Posted by Jamie Resker on Tue, Mar 27, 2012 @ 10:04 AM
When Your Boss Just Isn't Cutting It
It’s hard enough finding the courage to confront a colleague or subordinate about their tendency to arrive late to meetings, steal credit from you or interrupt while you’re talking. But what if that annoying colleague happens to be your boss?
Perspective on the 360 degree review
The primary mechanism for offering feedback up the ladder – the 360 degree review – doesn’t help very much. Giving direct and timely feedback is the best way we know to help people understand their impact on others. However, most people will admit that the very idea makes them uncomfortable. That’s one reason why 360 feedback tools are so popular in organizations. The anonymity can help people feel safe about giving feedback. But relying on 360’s to get your message across is not that effective because of all the variables. For instance your boss might not choose you to participate, or she might get defensive about the feedback or worse yet tries to find out who wrote what comment.
When anyone behaves poorly or underperforms at work, much less a boss, our inclination is to say nothing and “just deal with it.” Indeed, most managers say they only intervene with subordinates when a performance issue has persisted for a long time, or when they are about to terminate the employee. Only about six-percent of people we’ve polled say they offer early-on feedback. If these meager statistics are true for how little feedback comes down the chain of command, how few times do you think feedback makes it up the management ladder?
Honoring the hierarchy and being diplomatic are safe. Yet enduring poor leadership and or a negative boss-influenced workplace has its costs. When our bosses repeatedly lose their tempers, miss deadlines, talk behind the backs of colleagues, or engage in other unproductive conduct, the boss-employee relationship becomes strained.
One boss, the top-level executive at a technology company, used to constantly answer her phone during the twenty minute weekly meeting with one of her subordinates. The subordinate counted on this time to get input on important organizational issues. The executive was totally distracted, and the twenty scheduled minutes dwindled down to about five minutes total. These exchanges left the subordinate feeling unvalued and discounted. Important and time sensitive action items were delayed due to the lack of air-time he had with his boss. Because he failed to speak up, nothing changed. Over time, his irritation with his boss increased, he fell behind with some important initiatives and his loyalty and respect for his boss fell to dangerous lows.
Best Practices
In our work and research we’ve formulated clear best practices for talking with bosses about our expectations. The approach is designed to help you feel like you can comfortably communicate information without prompting a negative or defensive reaction. Here are three things to keep front-of-mind:
Our last thought is to make this a one-time and at most a two-time conversation. We don’t always get what we want, even when we ask politely and in a positive way. If your boss does change her ways, make sure to acknowledge the change and thank her for it (so she keeps doing it!).
Conclusion
Asking versus suffering in silence is worth the effort, even if it doesn’t bring a complete end to the problem. In most cases we’ve found that feedback delivered in the right way is welcomed. You may learn good reasons why your boss can’t do what you want or you might learn that your boss isn’t interested in changing. If it emerges that your boss isn’t invested in changing, well, there’s nothing you can do about that. You tried. If this issue becomes unbearable then it might be time to find another place to be successful.
Have you ever given feedback to your boss? How did it work out?
Written by Jamie Resker, Founder and Practice Leader, Employee Performance Solutions, LLC and Michael Shipman, Vice President of Talent at the Rockland Trust Company.
Posted by Jamie Resker on Sun, Feb 05, 2012 @ 02:08 PM
There are two ways, as I see it, of conducting a good talent review. The 9-box (measuring Performance and Potential) and the 4-box, measuring just Performance. My personal preference is the Employee Performance Continuum (the 4-box), which you can dowload in a paper-based version with instructions. I prefer it because it's a visually-based talent assessment tool. And since the brain has more orbital capability, thinking in pictures requires less effort.
How do the 4-box and 9-box differ?
The 4-box: The Employee Performance Continuum leaves employee Potential out of the equation and instead just measures the "Performance" piece. So, the 4-box talent model breaks Performance down into two components: the WHAT and the HOW.
The 9-box: Most talent management professionals are familiar with the 9-box model (here's the paper-based version) which measures both Performance and Potential.
Here's a suggestion if you're using the 9-box and are responsible for succession planning and identifying high potential and at risk talent, especially in a larger organization where tracking, reporting and automation are critical: Take a look at this tutorial for an on-line 9-box and succession planning tool. You can actually try out this particular tool from Halogen Software for free. The reason I like the Halogen on-line tool is because after answering some simple questions about the employee it then generates a 9-box visual model. Nothing tells a story better than a picture!
Using the 4-Box: Measure the What and the How
The Performance Continuum allows you to measure both Job Competence which represents what gets done (job responsibilities, skills and goal attainment) alongside Behaviors which represent how the person conducts themselves in your work environment. Ideally we want to attract and retain team members who are both highly accomplished in terms of their ability to do the work plus exhibit the right behaviors.
Plot the Employee
With a dot or initial indicate where each employee on your team is on the model. Unsure? Ask another trusted advisor, a peer or someone at a more senior level, where they see the employee. People experience others in various ways. For example, an internal customer might have an entirely different view of the individual. Talk it through by having a conversation about how the employee's performance contributions are viewed.
Current and Planned Positions
To maximize a review of your talent indicate where employees are currently and where you need them to be. The key is to then figure out what it will take for the employee to reach the new level of performance. In our work we find it's usually one thing the person needs to start or stop doing to become more effective. Then you'll want to provide feedback and coaching to help the employee make progress.
The One Thing...
Ask yourself, "What one thing would help this person be more effective? People can only work on one or two things at a time. Choose the highest payoff issue that would make the greatest difference in the employee's performance and choose words that describe what you want them to do (as opposed to having a conversation around the deficiency). Don't forget to provide feedback when you see the individual making progress on the area for development. They will know they've been able to meet the expectations and their efforts have been noticed. While it's important to provide feedback on areas for development it's equally critical to provide timely reinforcing feedback.
Keep Measuring
Reassess the employee's performance after feedback and coaching has been provided. Re-plot them to measure the effectiveness of the intervention. Access the free talent review tool with instructions at http://www.employeeperformancesolutions.com/resources/talent-review-tool/
If you are looking for an outside organization to conduct a talent review in your organization contact us.
Posted by Jamie Resker on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 @ 08:56 AM
A simple experiment to determine if your talent management processes are doing what they should:
Randomly select an appropriate sample size of your people- managers. Have the selected managers and all of their employees do the following Matching Questions Excercise:
The Manager: For each employee, write down the answers to the following questions: The "one-thing" he or she does really well and should continue with AND the "one-thing" he or she should be focusing on to be even more effective in the role.
The Employee: Records the one-thing he or she considers to be a top strength and should continue to be emphasized AND the "one-thing" that should be done to be even more effective in his or her role.
The Comparison
When comparing the answers between the manager and employee do they match? If so, then change nothing with your PM process; keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working. If the answers don't align then adjustments need to be made in the current performance management processes, tools and practices.
This is Alarming
What’s really scary is the research we’ve done shows that nearly 100% of managers when asked these matching questions will acknowledge that the answers they write and the answers the employee write would be mismatched. Those that do answer yes seem a bit unsure.
An Obvious Conclusion
At a minimum your people-managers and their team members should have a shared understanding of what is going well and should continue (one or two items will do) AND that “one-thing" that should be developed to increase overall performance effectiveness. Can your PM processes do that? It should.
Posted by Jamie Resker on Wed, Oct 12, 2011 @ 04:02 PM
We’re excited to have Sean Conrad, a Certified Human Capital Strategist and Senior Product Analyst at Halogen Software, provide some insight on employee motivation.
mo·ti·va·tion
noun /ˌmōtəˈvāSHən/
motivations, plural
1. The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way
-escape can be a strong motivation for travel
2. The general desire or willingness of someone to do something
- keep staff up to date and maintain interest and motivation
Motivation. It’s complex and sometimes just plain unpredictable, but as a manager, understanding motivation is critical to helping your employees perform at a high level. This ability is truly an art, and one that requires ongoing effort and attention from even the strongest of managers.
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It’s important to keep in mind that what may motivate one employee simply may not do anything for another. In fact, studies have consistently shown that while pay for performance can be a motivator for some employees, it is simply not enough for others.
When it comes to employee recognition, here’s what employees really want:
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To receive fair pay and benefits
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To receive time and attention from supervisors
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To feel their contribution to the company is valued
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To be trusted to make decisions and have some control over their work
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To have clear goals set out by management
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To be treated with dignity and respect
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To receive recognition, even for everyday tasks
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To receive training / mentoring / leadership development
Many of these motivating factors don’t involve monetary reward at all. So with that said, how can you ensure you deliver on the above? Here are four performance management best practices that can help.
1. Give Regular Feedback on Performance
Even if your organization only conducts performance appraisals once a year, managers should be having ongoing, consistent conversations with employees about performance. These could be in the context of weekly update meetings, monthly check-ins and/or quarterly mini appraisals. Having ongoing conversations about performance enables you, the manager, to provide timely recognition of your employees’ achievements and to identify and address any issues or areas for improvement earlier on.
2. Provide Opportunities for Training and Development
Too often employee development discussions remain neglected until the next annual performance review. Development needs are identified based on performance ratings and "stretch" goals, then a few courses or learning activities are assigned.
Development is a continuous process, and providing employees with ongoing opportunities throughout the year can go a long way to driving employee motivation. Employee development can take many forms - from formal training opportunities to providing relevant books to read.
The key is to ensure you are regularly assessing throughout the year where employees are in terms of development activities. You may have an employee who completes all of her development activities in the first quarter, which means you’ll both need to consider further challenges and opportunities to continue her development.
Conversely, an employee may be struggling with development activities; work with this employee to reassess his training and development plan so he can continue to feel positive about his development goals.
3. Monitor Progress on Goals
Effective goal management is ongoing. It requires regular continuous dialogue between managers and employees that includes: feedback and coaching, prioritizing, and employee development and career planning.
The result is that employees have visibility into how they're contributing and the effect of their efforts so they can celebrate milestones and successes. This regular progress check also enables you to adjust and update goals as business or other priorities change.
4. Master the Art of Performance Conversations
A lot of what holds managers back in terms of effectively motivating their team is a lack of confidence or skill in facilitating productive performance conversations. This is especially true when the conversation is centered on addressing a performance issue.
To this point, Halogen Software is excited to partner with Jamie on a webinar that will help managers manage with these sometimes difficult and awkward performance conversations.
Sean Conrad is a Certified Human Capital Strategist and Senior Product Analyst at Halogen Software, one of the leading providers of talent management software. For more of his insights on talent management, read his posts on the Halogen Software blog.
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Posted by Jamie Resker on Fri, Aug 05, 2011 @ 09:29 AM
Most of what HR professionals (this included me) have taught our leaders about giving performance feedback and addressing performance issues is flat out wrong.
We learn and use the “constructive criticism” and SBI approaches (Situation, Behavior and Impact). The SBI approach is usually awkward and overkill for most situations. Turns out that criticism, constructive or not is still criticism. 9.75 out of 10 times the person on the receiving end will react defensively, moving you further away from your goal of actually getting the individual to listen and upgrade their performance.
I dug out a horrendous training presentation I developed back in 2001. I’m completely embarrassed yet still posting the slides for the world to see. The worst of it is on slide #8; be sure to check that one out. First off, I was giving outdated useless "how-to" advice on the topic. Second, my PowerPoint skills at the time were sorely lacking (I’ve since gotten to be a PowerPoint Jedi). WARNING: do not implement this or anything that resembles it in your organization and if this is your organization’s approach to teaching managers how to manage performance it’s not too late to adopt a more modern approach to this age-old challenge.
Check out a short article The Worst Way to Give Feedback to see if you or the leaders in your organization are approaching feedback in this way. My bet is that it’s what you learned and if you’re in HR it may be what you’re teaching others. Learn a modern approach to giving performance feedback by registering for the HR.com webcast, Mastering the Art of Giving Performance Feedback, on August 17, 2011 1-2pm ET.
Posted by Jamie Resker on Tue, Jul 05, 2011 @ 02:48 PM
I think we pretty much know that most people dislike performance reviews: HR hates enforcing the process and chasing down the chronic offenders who never seem to make reviews a priority (65% + or – of your managers). Managers hate writing and delivering them. The majority of employees can’t say that they experience the performance review as a helpful developmental process. You may be aware of a movement around getting rid of the performance review all together: the 1950’s have called and they want their Performance Review Process back asap!
Then there’s this whole ball of wax around managing the generations. For example, generation X, that’s me, has grown up on performance reviews, just as sure as we all watched the Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island. We expect at least one a year. I’d say we’ve at least been brain washed into tolerating them.
We constantly here that generation Y needs lots of handholding, praise and can never have enough feedback. How does the “still stuck in the 1950’s Performance Appraisal Process” work for the Gen Y workforce? Now I could refer to the research of someone like Tammy Erickson, a widely respected expert on the multigenerational workforce. Research and data are great, but you want to know what’s even better? Hearing it from the source: a real live Gen Y specimen!
Enter Kyle Lagunas, HR Market Analyst at Software Advice. Knowing I have a keen interest in employee performance Kyle introduced himself and shared the article he wrote on how Gen Y REALLY feels about Performance Reviews. Really smart and a must read for all HR and talent management professionals charged with developing talent and retooling an often outdated approach to performance management. Here’s his post:
The workforce is changing. Just as a company would adjust its business model to a changing market, organizations must rise to meet the needs of the new kids on the block: Generation Y. One of the biggest questions posed to HR professionals has been, “Can Gen Y handle performance reviews without the sugar coating?” The answer is yes.
Some analysts have dubbed us “trophy kids,” and believe we grew up being rewarded for our endeavors regardless of scale or success. Many believe we cannot handle life in a less-than-adoring work environment. Contrary to popular belief, though, we don’t need our hands held or our egos stroked daily. It’s important for leaders and managers to understand things from our perspective, so they can get the most out of our performance reviews.
Here’s how we see it:
1. We don’t get it. You say performance reviews are important, but they are executed so poorly. Dust off your thinking caps, modernize your reviews, and capitalize on your most valuable asset (your people).
2. Lose the sugar coating. You weren’t the only ones suffering through the recession. Our idealism, though strong, has been tempered. If our performance can improve, give us strong, actionable feedback with measurable goals.
3. Connect with us. Regular feedback doesn’t have to be complicated. If you don’t have an instant messaging client in your office, get one. They’re a great tool for maintaining informal lines of communication (which we love).
4. Positive reinforcement isn’t a bad thing. Whoever demonized trophies should think again. Rewarding good performance can be as simple as an “Atta boy!” or “You go girl!” sent via email--and they go a long way in giving Gen Yers a sense of accomplishment.
To read this article in its entirety, check it out the Software Advice’s blog: A Generation Y Perspective on Performance Reviews
Posted by Jamie Resker on Thu, Jun 16, 2011 @ 04:42 PM
The Boston Business Journal honored the 75 best places to work in Boston. The event named the top companies across three categories – large, medium and small businesses. The midsize business winner for the second year in a row was HubSpot which also happens to be the vendor we use for our web platform. Check out the video above, featuring some of the Hubspot staff (aka as HubSpotters) and you can easily see how much fun employees have working at this unique 200 person company. Hmmmm, how do we get employees to voluntarily sing and rap about their employer's products and services?
The Best Places to Work honorees and ranking are the result of an employee survey conducted by the Boston Business Journal and Quantum Workplace, which analyzed submissions from 320 Boston-area companies whose employees filled out an anonymous survey.
Of interest, one of the questions on the survey asked respondents to rank order 10 employee recognition options. Here were the top three choices:
- Spontaneous cash bonuses
- Opportunities for new learning and development
- Ability to work autonomously
These three beat out annual pay increases. Ping pong tables and beer in the fridge might be nice to haves but if you’re going to engage and recognize your high potentials and top performers you’ll want to have formal or informal initiatives around employee training and development. Too small to have formal initiatives or your HR function hasn’t put something in place? If you’re a leader this shouldn’t present a problem. Even just asking people on your team on a regular basis, “what are you interested in working on?” is a start. One organization asks this question twice yearly.
Try to weave people’s interests into their responsibilities. Be creative. One manager tells the story of an Accounts Payable staffer that had a keen interest in public speaking. The leader allowed this staff member to make monthly presentations to the finance department.
Posted by Jamie Resker on Mon, Jun 06, 2011 @ 04:54 PM
Written by Julie Lynch of Uncommon Consulting
YES! YES! YES! For Goodness Sake, YES! This article made me perfectly giddy. As a long time manager and HR exec I have eschewed the performance review. Eschewed I say!
The traditional performance review process more often than not results in:
Wasted HR Time: HR should be spending it’s time recruiting excellent talent and building competitive culture. Not chasing after process.
Misguided Management Activity: For managers who know what they’re doing and consistently provide specific, timely, relevant feedback on performance throughout the year in a manner that is motivating and engaging for their staff, the fill-in-the-blank performance review is an insult to both manager and employee. For the managers who give no feedback during the year and who resist and resent even the annual task, the resulting review is an insult to the employee and the company.
Increased Liability: The performance reviews completed by managers who just want to get the darn thing done and don’t have either the competence or the guts to provide constructive guidance are dangerous. Everyone gets an A. And then a month later they want to fire someone and HR pulls the “documentation” and sees the person got all A’s. (Pan to beleaguered HR professional sighing with head in hands.)
Employee Damage: “Aren’t we supposed to have reviews at least once a year? I haven’t had one since I got here.” “My manager tried to give me a meets expectations but I told her I never get a meets expectations.” “These performance review forms are completely irrelevant to my job. I want to know how I’m actually doing.” “I got exceeds expectations. Shouldn’t I get a raise?” These are but a few examples representing the dashed expectations of employees unfortunate enough to be on the ugly end of a well intentioned but ineffective performance process.
Instead of devoting time and effort to a static, marginally relevant, impersonal process, my vote is to train managers to manage and hold them accountable. Oh, but wait, that would mean our leaders would have to have regular conversations to let people know how they are doing.
And don’t even get me started on merit increases….
What do you think? What makes a good performance management process?
Posted by Jamie Resker on Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 10:03 AM
And do Something About it...
As the primary mechanism for delivering feedback, the annual performance review leaves much to be desired. I don’t know that reviews will ever be dumped, but I do know that managers, employees, leadership and HR don’t put a lot of stock in them.
It’s silly to wait for a once a year report card and then sometimes be surprised at the information or disappointed in the rating and pay raise. If we’re relying on this process to improve performance and communicate important performance action items, we’ll be waiting another hundred years. For all the fancy, over-engineered automated review tools glutting up the market, there’s still no replacement for getting the real information first hand and in small doses all throughout the year.
This is scary. For years we’ve been polling people on this question:
When do most managers usually intervene when there’s a performance issue:
- Early on with informal feedback
- When a known pattern has developed
- After it’s been going on so long they are just ready to fire the person (and seek help from HR to get the exit plan in place)
Data collected from a webcast we ran for the Human Capital Institute showed that just 6% of managers give early-on informal feedback while 50% wait for a known pattern to develop (months and years) and 43% wait until they are ready to fire the person. Ouch!
This should be a wake-up call for employees everywhere! Because it’s uncomfortable to initiate the conversations and most people (and that includes managers) are afraid of confrontation and defensive reactions we’re apt to be left in the dark about how we’re really doing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in the 50% or 43% category because then it's too late.
Unfortunately we can’t always count on having a manager who has good communication skills and who we trust. My best advice to employees everywhere is to continually ask two questions of our trusted advisor networks. First, identify your network. Who says it's only the boss who has valuable information? What about internal customers, colleagues, vendors and clients?
Ask:
1. Tell me what I'm doing well and that I should continue with (this way you can become aware of and leverage your strengths.
2. Tell me one thing I could do that would help me be more effective.
Notice how I asked about what I could do as opposed to what my weakness or deficiency is. Why on earth would I want to know that and why would someone want to tell me (honestly)? I also asked about the one thing. Performance reviews are about the 15 things; TMI!
When I'm asking for feedback I'm mentally ready to hear the information, I can ask who I want, when and how often too. I'd rather not wait around for the annual review to find out what I need to be recalibrating in terms of my performance. Frankly, I'm all set with that.
Let’s stop whining about the system, which we all know is flawed, and take individual responsibility for actively shopping for our own feedback. After all, I’m the one responsible for my own career and development.
What do you think? Should we wait for others to serve up feedback or should we take the lead?