Tactile Squeegee for Plexiglas Windows Cleaning Plexiglas windows is not easy, you have to be careful to apply the right amount of pressure. Too litt...
Articles Tutorial Articles on advertising, sales
management, business, stock market, hobbies, health, lifestyle, family relationships, online
business, money, stock trading and m...
In previous articles on the topic of performance management and appraisal, we covered the ten stupid things managers do to screw up performance appraisal, and a similar article on ways human resource departments screw up the process. Now it's time to turn our attention to employees!
Managers, feel free to share this with employees, and employees, feel free to share this with managers and/or colleagues. Please ensure proper credit is given and that the work911.com website address is included.
Generally, when performance appraisal goes awry, the primary cause has little to do with employees. For the most part, employees take their cues from management and human resources. However, when individual employees perceive the process in negative ways, they can create or damage even the best of appraisal processes.
Stupid Thing #1: Focusing On The Appraisal Forms
Performance appraisal isn't about the forms (although, often managers and HR treat it as such). The ultimate purpose of performance appraisal is to allow employees and managers to improve continuously and to remove barriers to job success. In other words, to make everyone better. Forms don't make people better, and are simply a way or recording basic information for later reference. If the focus is getting the forms "done", without thought and effort, the whole process becomes at best a waste of time, and at worst, insulting.
Stupid Thing #2: Not Preparing Beforehand
Preparing for performance appraisal helps the employee focus on the key issue - performance improvement, and to examine his or her performance in a more objective way (see defensiveness below). Unfortunately, many employees walk into the appraisal meeting not having thought about the review period, and so are unprepared to present their points of view. Being unprepared means being a reactive participant, or being a passive participant. Neither are going to help manager or employee. Employees can prepare by reviewing their work beforehand, identifying any barriers they faced in doing their jobs, and refamiliarizing themselves with their job descriptions, job responsibilities, and any job performance expectations set with the manager.
Stupid Thing #3: Defensiveness
We tend to take our jobs seriously and personally, making it more difficult to hear others' comments about our work, particularly when they are critical. Even constructive criticism is often hard to hear. If employees enter into the discussion with an attitude of "defending", then it's almost impossible to create the dialogue necessary for performance improvement. That doesn't mean employees can't present their own opinions and perceptions, but it does mean that they should be presented in a calm, factual manner, rather than a defensive, emotional way. Of course, if managers are inept in the appraisal process, it makes it very difficult to avoid this defensiveness.
Stupid Thing #4: Not Communicating During The Year
Employees need to know how they are doing all year round, not just at appraisal time. Generally it is primarily management's responsibility to ensure that there are no surprises at appraisal time. Often managers discuss both positives and negatives of employee performance throughout the year, but this is unfortunately, not a universal practice. It's in the employees interests to open up discussion about performance during the year, even if the manager does not initiate it. The sooner employees know where they are at, and what they need to change (or keep doing), the sooner problems can be fixed. In fact many problems can be prevented if they are caught early enough. Even if managers aren't creating that communication, employees can and should. It's a shared responsibility.
Stupid Thing #5: Not Clarifying Enough
Life would be much easier if managers were perfect, but they aren't. Some communicate and explain well. Some don't. Some are aggravating and some not. At times employees won't be clear about their managers' reasoning or comments, or what a manager is suggesting. That could be because the manager isn't clear him/herself, or simply isn't good at explaining. However, unless employees clarify when they aren't sure about the reasoning or explanations, they won't know what they need to do to improve their future job performance. It's important to leave the appraisal meeting having a good understanding of what's been said. If that's not possible clarification can occur after the meeting, or down the road, if that's more appropriate.
Stupid Thing #6: Allowing One-Sidedness
Performance appraisals work best when both participants are active, and expressing their positions and ideas. Some employees are uncomfortable doing that, and while managers should be creating a climate where employees are comfortable, some managers aren't good at it. Performance appraisal time is an excellent time for employees to make suggestions about things that could be changed to improve performance, about how to remove barriers to job success, and ways to increase productivity. Remember also that managers can't read minds. The better managers will work with employees to help them do their jobs more effectively, but they can't know how they can help unless employees provide them with good, factual information, or, even better, concrete ideas.
Stupid Thing #7: Focusing On Appraisal As A Way Of Getting More Money
Unfortunately, many organizations tie employee pay to appraisal results, which puts employee and manager on opposite sides. Employees in such systems tend to focus too much on the money component, although that focus is certainly understandable. It's also understandable when employees in such systems become hesitant to reveal shortcomings or mistakes. But it's still dumb. If employees main purpose is to squeeze as much of an increase out of the company, and the managers try to keep increases as small as possible, it becomes totally impossible to focus on what ultimately matters over the long term, which is continuous performance improvement and success for everyone.
Pay IS important, but it is not the only issue related to the appraisal focus. If employees enter into the process willing to defend their own positions in factual and fair ways, and to work with managers, the process can become much more pleasant. If not, it can become a war.
Conclusion:
The major responsibilities for setting performance appraisal tone and climate rest with managers and the human resources department. However, even when managers and human resources do their jobs well, employees who come at the process with a negative or defensive approach are not likely to gain from the process or to prosper over the long term. The constant key is for employees to participate actively and assertively, but to keep a problem-solving mindset, and keep focused on how things can be improved in the future. No matter who initiates it, performance appraisal is about positive open communication between employee and manager.
(c) 2005, Robert Bacal, Bacal & Associates. You are welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end) all links are made live, and this copyright notice and indication of authorship are included.
Robert Bacal is a noted performance management author, consultant and trainer, and is the author of a number of books published by McGraw-Hill including Performance Management - A Briefcase Book, Manager's Guide to Performance Reviews and Perfect Phrases For Performance Reviews. For more free information and help with performance management, reviews, and appraisals, visit the Performance Management & Appraisal Help Center at http://performance-appraisals.org.
In addition to over 800 articles on performance related subjects, you will find tools to help with diagnosing performance, using progressive discipline, and setting objectives at http://performance-appraisals.org/learnto.
High Intensity Discharge Grow Light (Generic) High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lamps are electric lamps that generate light in a small arc tube under high internal pressure. HID's are know for their lifetimes...
How to Become a Successful Freelance Translator After completing their translation training programmes at higher professional education or university level, many students can't wait to set up as a freelance t...
Quick Tips to Resolving Depression with Hypnosis Cds Quick and easy tips to help you come our of depression. Just take these tips and choose the one that appeals the most to you. Then come back and do the next one...
Why Use a Weight Lifting Supplement? What is the big deal about nutritional supplements for athletes? Is a sports nutrition supplement going to make that much of a difference? If you have ever as...
What is Rhodiola Rosea? Rhodiola rosea is available commercially as a supplement and rhodiola rosea is extracted from the rhodiola rosea plant. Also called the 'golden root', rhodiola ...
The Time to Act Engaging in genuine discipline requires that you develop the ability to take action. You don't need to be hasty if it isn't required, but you don't want to lose...
How to Eliminate Your Golf Slice Quickly and Easily Try to keep your leading shoulder "down" on the ball through impact. This is called staying strong through impact. Many times the leading shoulder (left shoulde...
Shift Your Focus for Sales Success Shift your focus from "what's in for me?" to "What's in it for my prospect?" and watch your sales results soar!
Stress VS Creativity I've recently noticed something interesting - namely a mathematical relationship between stress, and creativity.
Scented Candles Make a House a Home! Our sense of smell has a memory so you can use smell in a very positive way to evoke wonderful feelings of happiness, calmness, that holiday, festive feeling et...
Tips for Playing Better Poker Poker has been gaining such popularity lately that many people are looking for the secrets of the pros to help them play a better game.
Hire Winners: Ask the Right Questions What's the cost of a bad hire? It's been estimated that replacing a key professional or manager can be three to five times the annual salary. Do you want to in...
Size Does Matter! In this article we will be looking at why you should keep your web page size small. As any good webmaster knows you should keep the web page size small, but why...
How To Buy And Hold One of the most believed bits of conventional wisdom from Wall Street is to Buy and Hold. Any stock or mutual fund should be put away for eternity and never sol...
Marketing: Can I Trust You? We live in an unprecedented era of communication. Because of this, your prospects are literally bombarded from all directions with marketing messages. They've h...
Manganese 101 In terms of physical health, the mineral manganese is important to almost all of the body's major systems. It works in the digestive system which is responsible...
Paying Off Your Credit Cards: A Get Out of Debt Plan Getting out of debt requires more than just simple willpower. Most people will need to go a step further: coming up with a plan to make sure that they will be a...
Print this page