Tag Archives: Performance Management

Annual Performance Reviews

Annual performance reviews are an interesting phenomenon. In general, each party involved is less than thrilled to participate in the process. Managers feel like it’s a waste of time. Employees are wondering if they are going to get rated poorly. And HR, we feel like we’re herding cats by pushing both parties together. I have a few tips for annual performance reviews to help everyone get the most from them.

Other posts in the Performance Review Series

It’s not a time for surprises. If managers are holding the bad news to let it all out at once, itÂ willÂ not have the intended effect of improving performance. It’s going to make the employee feel hurt and betrayed because it was kept from them for so long.

Take out the “annual” part.Â It might surprise you, but managers need to be talking to their people more than once a year about their performance. They should be getting feedback on a daily basis on how their work is going. If the “daily” part sounds like a lot of work, you’re overthinking it. Take thirty seconds to tell someone thanks for finishing the report. Give them a pat on the back for finding that software bug. Send them an email telling them about one specific thing they do well that you are thankful for.

Offer (gentle) critical feedback. Everyone screws up at some point. At that juncture it’s the manager’s role to offer critical feedback (if necessary) to correct the issue. It doesn’t have to be (and should not be) confrontational, dishonest, or mean-spirited. It should be timely, to the point, and related to the specific performance issue.

A true story

Educators have a performance review system that is about as jacked up as you could possibly imagine. In some schools, the teacher gets a note on the last day of school telling them they are fired and will not have a job in the coming school year. Can you imagine working for ten months straight, thinking you are doing a great job, and suddenly finding out that your boss disliked your performance all along but never notified youÂ until it was too late to fix the problem?Â I have a teacher friend who told me that their principal once said to them “Do better, or else” without offering a single piece of feedback on performance or a suggestion for improvement.

This disconnect certainly doesn’t apply only to schools (as you will see in later posts in this series), but it makes my blood boil to know that good teachers aren’t getting recognized for solid performance any more than mediocre teachers are being counseled for poor performance. Reviews are a tool to help bring people together and to facilitate communication.

At Sonar6, we love performance reviewsÂ (obviously)Â and we love any sort of discussion on the topic. So we’re proud to help bring you this series of posts from upstartHR. They’re very nearly as cool as our award winningÂ color paper series.

Want more? Check out the freeÂ employee performance managementÂ guide!

Performance Review Series

In the coming weeks I’m going to be running a series of posts on performance management. I have had a few ideas rattling around my brain recently, and as I’ve been gearing up for our midyear reviews at work, I felt like it was the right time to get it all together. We’ll discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to managing performance at work.

The series

I hope you can join the fun as we explore these concepts and processes.

I’m also excited to note that these posts will be sponsored by our good friends at Sonar6, lovers of performance reviews and the creators of an amazing performance appraisal tool. I encourage you to check them out as a “thank you” for supporting this blog!

Wasting time at work (but not how you think!)

Wasting time at work is an act as old as work itself. Today I’m going to talk about something different from the common procrastination behaviors we immediately think about (the Water Cooler Chatter, the Champion Web Surfer, etc.). Today we’ll talk about washing the car.

One of the fun things about where I work is that they have their own little unique vocabulary. One of them I’ve learned recently is “washing the car.”

I had one of those ugly, “please don’t make me get around to doing this today” tasks to complete. While I was procrastinating, I was getting a lot of the little things completed that have been have been sitting on the back burner for a while.

I sat down to talk with my manager for a few minutes, and she asked about the status of the project I was procrastinating. I grinned, and she smiled knowingly and asked if I was “washing the car.” At my puzzled look, she explained that the phrase means that you’re doing something that looks good on the surface but really doesn’t help in the long run.

The moral of the story

It’s important to remember as managers and leaders that just because someone is staying busy, they aren’t necessarily getting the right things done. It’s up to us to point them in the right direction, keep tabs on progress, and course correct if necessary.

Next time someone is working hard but not focusing on the priorities, ask them if they’re “washing the car.” It could be a great teachable moment and from that moment on, you’ll have an easy way to communicate that feedback without having to have one of those difficult, confrontational conversations.

Do you have any special lingo at work that you use? I’d love to hear an example!

The Need for Workplace Conflict Resolution

Today we have a guest post fromÂ Claudia Vandermilt on conflict resolution in the workplace. By the way, if you’re local to the Huntsville area, make sure you check out our April lunch meeting on the very same topic. You can find more information on the NASHRM homepage.

In a perfect workplace, everyone would work together in peace and harmony â€“ there would be no politics, disagreements or differing opinions. However, no such workplace exists; conflict is a normal part of daily life and doing business, as each employee has a different view on the world (which is also what makes a business successful). It\’s also a typical challenge for HR.

HR professionals, like yourself, must work hard to create a work environment that allows employees to grow and thrive, and to work together without tension. It\’s your job to ensure that interoffice conflicts don\’t escalate into interpersonal conflicts, so intervention is necessary. Your HR knowledge, management and mediation skills play a critical role in getting employees back to being productive.

From your perspective, conflict within the workplace should actually be considered neutral territory. Your job is to take into consideration the individual, their concerns and the policies of your organization. While addressing conflict is often not an enjoyable part of being in an HR role, it is an aspect that cannot be ignored.

Conflict Resolution vs. Conflict Avoidance

Determining precisely when to intervene in an employee conflict is tricky, but leaving a conflict totally unresolved can greatly harm productivity and teamwork. Addressing conflict isn\’t easy, but giving employees the opportunity to be heard can have positive results for the staff and organization. In a supportive environment, employees experience higher morale and file fewer formal grievances, as they feel validated and appreciated.

Because most conflicts can be resolved quickly and fairly, it\’s best to address them early. Waiting too long or avoiding the conflict altogether only adds to the tension and could even escalate the grievance. Â When faced with the challenge of conflict resolution, consider the pros and cons of intervention:

Pros

Dealing with conflict resolution results in:

Stronger relationships
Builds teamwork
Diffuses anger
Encourages problem solving
Re-focuses employees toward results
Conveys a positive environment
Encourages open communication

Cons

Avoiding conflict results in:

Defensiveness
Discourages productivity and teamwork
Damages relationships
Creates hidden agendas
Drains energy and morale
Produces stress and animosity
Harbors workplace chaos and negativity

In your role, you have the ability to create a positive, supportive work environment that opens communication and enables employees to achieve success. Swiftly dealing with workplace conflict creates a harmonious environment that motivates employees and encourages creativity, willingness and loyalty.

Claudia Vandermilt works in conjunction with Villanova University and University Alliance to promote professional training materials. She\’s currently enrolled in Mastering Organizational Effectiveness through Villanova because there\’s little else more challenging than remaining organized.

25% of supervisors are younger than their staff

For most of us, it’s not reality, but having a young supervisor is obviously a phenomenon that is fairly widespread. At first glance, I’m thinking, “Yeah! Go for it young people!” And then I realized I could be one of those who has a younger manager one day; it made me stop and think. It would be a challenge, but it’s something we may all run into at some point in our careers.

Here is the breakdown according to the SHRM website poll for the question What is your age in relation to your supervisor?:

I’m Older-26%
I’m Younger-56%
I’m About the Same-18%

I think the toughest one on there has to be being older than your manager. But on the flip side, it has to be stressful for a manager to step into a role with subordinates that could be twice his/her age. I’m certainly not saying we shouldn’t have a wide range of managers, because great managing talent/ability is found in all sorts of individuals, no matter how many years are under their belt. Simply making the observation that this could be a friction point between a good manager and an otherwise good employee if age is lumped in.

Interesting stuff! So, where do you fall on the list? Are you older than your supervisor, younger, or about the same?

Hackathons and fun at work

What’s a hackathon, you may be wondering? Check out the video below for more on that and the importance of having fun at work. I’m currently reading the Levity Effect, and it talks all about how to lighten up and have some fun in the workplace. When I read an article last week about a hackathon, I thought it was a neat concept and one that might be worth pursuing.

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Anyone else think that’s a neat idea? I’d love to hear some feedback on why it would/wouldn’t work!

Teaching your supervisors the basics of management

I ran across this site recently and had to laugh. It is a common theme that I’ll get a call because I’m the “computer guy” in the family. With Teach Parents Tech you have the option of sending video links directly to those who need assistance. That allows you to indirectly teach your parents/grandparents/in laws/whoever how to do computer tasks from simple (changing your computer’s clock) to advanced (changing your email address).

Why can’t we do that?

Then I started thinking about other applications. What if you could do the same for your supervisors? What if there was a neat way like this to teach them the basic principles of good management? Would you use the tool?

For instance, a new supervisor runs into a situation (giving feedback on poor performance, motivating employees in a slump, giving a presentation to senior management, etc.). They don’t have someone available to ask for help, so they pop onto the web and find the video that corresponds with that particular situation.

No, it’s not a perfect substitute for an in-person chat with someone who already knows how to do the task, but it’s better than going into the situation blind-folded. Just a little bit of preparation could go a long way in most instances.

A few situations I think would be neat to cover: