-           Art Boulay and William Maloney, Sr.

 

Do you enjoy giving performance reviews? Do you actively use the performance review

process to build a strategy for the employees’ continual development? Do employees always

know where they stand relative to your expectations? Do they trust you? Will your employees

say…they are Number One on your priority list?

OR

Do you become so stressed over doing them you either don’t do them or you simply check off the satisfactory rating? Do you rarely complete all your annual performance reviews on time? Do you

have the employees prepare their own review? Do you find it’s hard to remember what the employee accomplished over the last rating period?

 

WILL YOUR EMPLOYEES SAY:

…you give constant performance feedback?

…you have a positive attitude about performance reviews?

…you really care how they do and take time to listen to their concerns?

 

The job of being a manager is demanding and hard work, consuming time and energy. It’s

quite common to hear  managers talk about frustrations with people responsibilities, project

pressures, ungrateful employees and not enough hours in a day. Many wonder why they wanted

to manage in the first place and some wish they hadn’t. However, most managers and supervisors

strive to do a good job, they’re just so often behind the eight ball and performance reviews can

always be put off and completed tomorrow or the next day. An important first step is to develop an

appreciation and understanding for the benefits of the Performance Review Process.

 

Reviews can be invaluable to assess individual productivity, capabilities, attitude and results.

Remember —if you can’t measure the results needed to meet department and company objectives,

how will you manage to achieve them? Providing constant feedback is essential to developing the

true potential of your each individual of your staff. The challenge is to provide immediate feedback

to improve performance NOW!

 

Commenting when you first noticed a problem is most effective to influencing future results. Then

if the issue is resolved—great! If not, your responsibility is to identify the problem and involve the employee in discovering the best way to correct the situation. This is the primary responsibility

of managing others. If you don’t want it—get out of the way of someone who does. It’s too

important to be screwed-up!

 

One of the greatest compliments any employee could give their manager is “I knew exactly where

I stood and exactly what was expected of me to do a great job!” If your staff is not saying this then

they most likely are not being managed effectively and their results will reflect it.

 

Productivity is at its highest when employees trust their manager or supervisor. Remember trust is

earned not given. Employees trust management who act respectfully, communicate openly about

issues and problems, act responsibly, treat everyone fairly, pursue realistic goals and don’t place employees in situations where they are likely to fail. One of the best ways to create trust is to

promise your staff “I’ll never put anything in writing that I haven’t told you first—even something

positive.”

 

A manager must know the capabilities of each employee and how to effectively challenge them to

develop and achieve more. A great manager Involves, Recognizes and Appreciates everyone that

contributes and improves personally and professionally. This is known as the IRA management

approach, a process contributing to your employees’ motivational investment account. If you want

to see immediate improvement — deposit heavily in their IRA accounts.

 

Performance reviews serve as the ultimate testimonial to increasing employee satisfaction and job performance. Nobody appreciates department dead weights. If you are actively managing everyone—unproductive staff members will become very uncomfortable and will change their behavior or leave;

in any case the employees will get the message and you get their respect. The primary benefit of

the performance review process is to keep the right employees satisfied and those not interested

"out of the way and on their way". Timely performance feedback indicates how you really feel

about those you manage and how much you value their contribution.

 

If your staff is aware that they are number one in your eyes, then your customers will be number

one in their eyes! Everyone deserves ongoing performance feedback. Make it your priority.