April 29, 2009

Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Published by Success Performance Solutions. Major Sponsor,

2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  Stop Doing Annual Reviews

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Appraisal Errors

4.  The Appraisals Pocketbook

5.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

6.  Good People are Great for Business
7.  Video: Types of Assessments

1.  Stop doing annual reviews

Something has gotten into management.  Everywhere I turn - meetings, discussion groups and blogs -  managers are talking about performance reviews.  That's good news for the many organizations that are finally realizing how ineffective the annual employee review really is.  In nearly all cases, the annual review has little to do with performance but a lot to do with salary. The review meeting has become little more than a ritual.  It's the once a year sit-down where an entire year of success and failures are boiled down into a few minutes conversation. These so-called performance meetings are carved out of (or maybe more appropriately squeezed into) a busy schedule to chat a bit about the last 12 months.  The manager is often rushed and distracted and the employee defensive and anxious.

And let's be honest.  If it wasn't for HR's mandate that every employee must have this meeting in order to create a piece of paper and collect a signature, annual reviews would never get done.  The review has become no more than a veiled attempt to justify paltry pay increases and to produce the legally defensible documentation in case the employee ever needs to be disciplined, counseled, or terminated.   For most organizations, it has little if anything to do with performance - past or future. And during these difficult times, I've heard about several companies cancelling reviews this year because salaries are frozen.  What else would a manager discuss at the annual review if it isn't money?

The bad news is that many organizations still see the once-a-year review as their attempt at performance management. The most common questions I hear being asked is "what can we do to improve our annual review?" or "how can we get all our managers to do their annual reviews?"

My response might surprise you.  Stop doing annual reviews!

Yes, you read that correctly. Attempting to fix the annual review is somewhat the equivalent of tying down the chairs on the Titanic. It's an exercise in futility, a diversion at best.  But it does little if anything to change the outcome.

The alternative solution requires a change in attitude.  Performance management isn't something that is done. It's not an event like an annual holiday party or family picnic.  While these events might be enjoyed, neither make the culture family-friendly or fun for the other 363 days each year. 

Performance management is something that happens transparently yet uneventfully. It doesn't happen once a year, it happens every day, every week, every month.  Performance management is embedded in a company's culture and values, not in a function of HR. Managing performance effectively focuses on outcomes.   It's not a task on a manager's checklist because it's never done and can never be turned off.  It's a process that must take place continuously, effortlessly, seamlessly and spontaneously.

Where do you start? A cure for overcoming performance review drudgery begins with aligning every employee's individual performance to organizational goals.  Weekly, monthly and even spontaneous conversations can now become focused on behaviors and attitudes that are productive or non-productive. 

Rarely should a manager or employee be at a loss for words and conversations because the talk revolves around what you've done last week or month and how can you do it better going forward.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

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

 

In the next 45 seconds:

190 babies will be born.

 

India - 25

China - 20

USA - 5

UK - 1

 

Source: New World of Work Video  

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. What Goes Wrong and Why:
Common Appraisal Errors

Apart from the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the nature of a given performance appraisal system and the relative dislike or distrust that may be felt by the appraisees and/or appraisers as we have discovered, there are errors of implementation that can be made no matter what techniques you use. In fact, the way that a performance appraisal system is administered and the training given to the managers using it, probably has more to do with the effectiveness of the appraisal than any other factor. Some performance appraisal systems prevent or even encourage these errors more than others.

The most common appraisal errors are:

1. Inadequately defined standards of performance

2. Over-emphasis on recent performance

3. Reliance on gut feelings

4. Miscomprehension of performance standards by the employee

5. Insufficient or unclear performance documents

6. Inadequate time allocation for the discussion

7. Too much talking by the manager/supervisor

8. Lack of follow-up planning/action

4. The Appraisals Pocketbook

The Appraisals Pocketbook adopts a strongly practical approach in explaining how to set up and run an appraisal system. Using a helpful 5-stage model, the book shows how to identify the job objective and key result areas, how to set clear achievable goals, and how to structure and conduct the performance discussion. The 2nd edition of this popular title has been brought up-to-date by the author and there are new illustrations throughout.

Reviewing the Appraisals Pocketbook, Management Today concluded: 'This little book provides a lot of help. It challenges managers to ask themselves whether they understand what an appraisal is for, and what questions they should be asking'.

Buy The Appraisals Pocketbook today (only $12.50) or take a sneek peak at the 89 other Management Pocketbook topics.

5. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself you won't get noticed, and that increasingly means you won't get paid much either."

 

Michael Goldhaber, Wired

6. Good People are Great for Business

If you've ever questioned if the effort to implement effective performance management is worth it, this picture says it all. 

7. New Video: Types of Assessments

We've added 3 new educational video presentation to our website. This week's Total View issue features a 6-minute video about the different types of assessments: Attitude, Personality, Cognitive Abilities, and Skills.

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.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2009 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.