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1. FEATURE STORY:
PREPARE EMPLOYEES TO ACCEPT PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK
With so many companies forced to cut staff, today's employees are being asked to take on more and more. To ensure the additional responsibilities are being performed up to par, it's essential to monitor employees' performance and provide them with feedback. Regardless of whether this feedback takes the form of a formal performance review or an informal conversation, chances are good that as soon as the performance talk starts, employees' anxieties will rise.
A common reason for these anxieties is that, absent unconditional praise, some employees see the feedback as a one-sided attack — almost as if their supervisor is a judge condemning them to a life sentence of "you can do better." However, if you make employees active participants in a performance dialogue, the more confident they'll be and the more they will get out of it.
One of the best ways for employees to truly engage in a performance dialogue is to prepare for the conversation. Say, for example, you want to discuss an employee's progress on a particular project. Start by communicating just that, as opposed to merely saying, "I have something I want to discuss with you. Let's meet in my office at 1 o'clock." Then encourage the employee to bring with them any concerns and/or questions they may have about the project. They can jot these down or make a mental note. Knowing beforehand what the conversation is about and bringing with them a talking point or two empowers the employee to feel like an active participant before the discussion even begins.
If you are worried that employees will prepare for a performance conversation by viewing their performance through rose-colored glasses, relax. "Employees are generally harder on themselves than you are," commented Rebecca Mazin, co-founder and Managing Partner of Recruit Right, a Human Resources consulting firm (Larchmont, NY). "Every once in awhile you find an employee that rates themselves in the clouds when you'd have them much closer to earth, but...it's not the norm." For more advice on How To Conduct Motivating And Legally Sound Performance Appraisals, join Mazin for a live web conference on January 8, 2009.
Help Employees To Stay Positive
It takes work to make sure negative overtones don't creep into an already anxious mind and alter the positive mindset needed for a productive dialogue. When giving constructive criticism, watch out for these negative employee reactions.
Spillover. The employee assumes that an error here or there means they're a failure all around, causing their self-esteem to plummet. Your job: Stress to the employee that everyone makes mistakes; it's part of the growth process. What's most important is that they learn from their mistakes.
Blame-passing or excuse-making. Instead of accepting responsibility for their own mistake and chalking it up to a learning experience, the employee constantly points fingers at others. Your job: Take the focus off of others and put it back onto the employee and what they need to do to improve their performance.
"What ifs." Instead of focusing on the reality of the situation, the employee becomes consumed by thoughts of what could possibly happen. Your job: Focus on actual facts, goals, standards, results, and achievements.
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Your managers and supervisors need to clearly understand the performance appraisal process (and its importance) so that they can:
provide better and more consistent feedback for improvement, employee retention, safeguard your company and its managers from legal liability by having the right documentation to back up your termination decisions.
Register today for AHI's interactive, 90-minute web conference:
How To Conduct Motivating And Legally-Sound Performance Appraisals
Thursday, January 8, 2009
1:00-2:30 Eastern Time
Includes Skill-Building Activities & Q&A Session With Our Expert
REGISTER TODAY!
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2. CATHIE'S CORNER:
RESOLVE TO STAY ON TOP OF YOUR RECORDS
Happy New Year! Welcome back and hope you had a good whatever it is you celebrate.
I have a new year's resolution for you. Now that you've come back and are, as one of my co-workers puts it, "all fired up and ready to go," it might be a good time to check on your record-keeping and record-auditing. Let me tell you about a couple of situations I found myself dealing with just before the end of the year....Continue the story.
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3. WHEN A QUIT TURNS INTO A CONSTRUCTIVE DISCHARGE
An employee who constantly complains quits. Good riddance, right? Not if the employee feels his working conditions were so intolerable that quitting was his only option....Continue the story.
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4. FREE REPORT: REWARDING EMPLOYEES IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES: RETENTION IDEAS THAT WON'T BUST YOUR BUDGET
Check out the new Free Report, "Rewarding Employees In Tough Economic Times: Retention Ideas That Won't Bust Your Budget," which offers lots of innovative ideas for low- or even no-cost perks, services, and practices designed to help keep employees engaged and committed both during and after the current economic crisis. The report also features guidance for managers on motivating employees through personal recognition efforts, and offers advice on how to determine which low-cost initiatives are best for your own organization.
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5. HR SOAPBOX: FORGET THE TOY CHEST, TOYS BELONG ON OUR DESK!
For Christmas, my dog (with some help from mommy) bought daddy a Sports Spud, which is a six-inch Mr. Potato Head decked out, in this case, a Washington Redskins jersey. It comes with several components you can mix and match, such as a foam finger, football, different faces, etc. When I (er, the dog) purchased it, I instantly thought, "What a great addition to daddy's desk at work." The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that I'm the one who is most likely to bring toys to work....Continue the story.
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