Performance Appraisals Don't Work

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Welcome to the October 29, 2008 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions

Major Sponsor of
2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania

Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe

NEW! Check out our new flash presentation at Success Performance Solutions

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts.

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1. Performance Appraisals Don't Work

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3. Innovation: The role of the Planners

4. Quotes from the Hire Authorities

1. Performance Appraisals Don't Work

Second only to firing an employee, managers cite performance appraisal as the task they dislike the most. This is understandable given that the process of performance appraisal, as traditionally practiced, is fundamentally flawed. It is incongruent with the values-based, vision-driven, mission-oriented, participative work environments favored by forward thinking organizations today. It smacks of an old fashioned, paternalistic, top down, autocratic mode of management which treats employees as possessions of the company.

In the conventional performance appraisal or review process, the manager annually writes his opinions of the performance of a reporting staff member on a document supplied by the HR department. In some organizations, the staff member is asked to fill out a self-review to share with the supervisor.

Most of the time, the appraisal reflects what the manager can remember; this is usually the most recent events. Almost always, the appraisal is based on opinions as real performance measurement takes time and follow-up to do well. The documents in use in many organizations also ask the supervisor to make judgments based on concepts and words such as excellent performance (according to whom?), exhibits enthusiasm (smiles a lot?) and achievement oriented (works overtime?).

Many managers are uncomfortable in the role of judge, so uncomfortable, in fact, that performance appraisals are often months overdue. The HR professional, who manages the appraisal system, finds his most important roles are to develop the form and maintain an employee official file, notify supervisors of due dates, and then nag, nag, nag when the review is long overdue.

Despite the fact that annual raises are often tied to the performance evaluation, managers avoid doing them as long as possible. This results in an unmotivated employee who feels his manager doesn't care about him enough to facilitate his annual raise.

Source: About.com

In today's competitive business environment, your employees represent one of your organization's most valuable assets. Which means your company's productivity-and ultimately, its profitability-depend on making sure every person in your organization is working up to his or her full potential. Success Performance Solutions offers several performance management solutions.

Learn more at Why Performance Management.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

Subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog and receive skilled worker shortage updates like this:

The U.S. aerospace industry faces declining workforce numbers that could result "in a disastrous loss of intellectual capital for the industry" if measures aren't taken to attract more skilled applicants, according to a report released in early 2008 by the Interagency Aerospace Revitalization Task Force. The study concludes that a lack of U.S. students with strong math and science skills coupled with a graying workforce and recruiting and retention challenges could leave the industry with a major skilled-worker shortage.

Learn more about workforce trends. Purchase the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 books (soft and hard cover versions) at PerfectLaborStorm.com.

New Perfect Labor Storm videos added. Watch now!

3. Innovation: The Role of the Planners

Planners think of ways in which creative ideas might be utilized. They are usually respected for their contributions because they develop alternative for an organization. They have the ability to write corporate roadmaps and to design management and operational systems.

Planners create frameworks that others wish they could create but usually don't. The Planner is deliberate. They do not jump to decisions before evaluating the risk and seeking other alternatives.

Planners are not action-oriented and do what they can to avoid taking risks. While more creative than the Modifier (October 22 issue), you rarely will hear about them. They tend to stick to the plan, even to their own detriment. The result is Planners can make the plans, but cannot force them through the channels.

Can you identity the Planners in your organization?

Creatrix Inventory is an extraordinary instrument that measures an individual's and a group's innovative capacity. We believe Creatrix may be the single most important tool in assessing an organization's ability to seize new opportunities and execute strategic plans flawlessly through innovation.

As today's business challenges become increasingly difficult to manage, organizations need innovative solutions to stay competitive. But it is not enough to want to be more innovative. Organizations need the right people on board; people who have the ability to be creative and the willingness to take risk, key elements of innovation.

Learn more about Creatrix or call/email today to schedule a consultation today.

Learn more about The Innovation Equation and Innovate like Edison.

4. Quotes from Hire Authorities

As change becomes ever less predictable, companies will pay an ever-escalating price for their lopsided love on incrementalism.

Gary Hamel

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe." We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.