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Employee Evaluations – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Do people in high places think they are above us? Why is it that they can evaluate us and us not them!!!
I don’t mean 360 degree reviews I mean outright performance reviews!!
Why don’t we switch roles and give our boss that evaluation. I bet the likelihood is that they would happen a lot more often!
Not so much the way things happen today. Most business is simply awful at what is the most key “business meeting” that can take place in any business.
Yes you read correctly. A performance review is a business meeting but just go into most organizations and they still rarely take place.
Performance evaluation processes Suck!
We are all about “big data” and metrics for everything!!!
Yet the very people that we rely on to make all that happen don’t even get the respect of a conversation about how they feel or what they need! And when they do it’s often ONCE a year.
How often does your business review its financials? You get the picture.
HR is often at the center of the controversy. There is too much paperwork and forms!
That may be true when we want to complicate things like adding competences and behaviors and values etc etc.
Call me simplistic but there are only three questions we need to talk about in our business review.
- How are you doing against your goals?
- What do you need to help you achieve those goals?
- What goals do we need to agree on to move things to the next level?
AND lets do it at least ONCE a MONTH.
ONCE a Year it TOO Late to be of any value!
Picture courtesy of digitalbloggers.com
Building a Company one “C” Player at a time
How do you build a team of “A” players?
We all want “A” players right? WRONG!! This country let alone companies are built on honest to goodness everyday hard working “C” players.
They are the salt of the earth and they are the rock of a nation or any organization.
AND you can develop” C” players into you future stars. But remember “C” players have huge value.
Don’t get me wrong there will always be “C” players because sometimes that is all they want to be and that is ok.
The art of leadership is about knowing who you develop and who simply is great at what they do all day long and knowing that that is all they want to do.
Building “people strength” comes from knowing that knowledge is needed at all “intellectual or motivational “levels of an organization.
We all don’t need to be “A”. “The art of loving what you do and doing just that” is immensely valuable. I have known “C” Players to be some of the best in the companies I have worked for and yes they have been strategists and planners.
Remembering that your business is of no value without the right people in the right jobs at the right time AND DOING THE RIGHT THINGS AT THE RIGHT BUSINESS LEVELS must not go unnoticed and is a key people strategy.
So when everyone is looking for the scarce “A” player” the companies that will move forward in the longer run will be the ones who know that the talent is already within. They just needed to figure out how to turn that piece of coal into a diamond, furthermore recognize that coal itself is an essential fuel.
By the way what is a “C” player? They are the ones often rated as “average”.
The thing is, many of those average people changed the world and we simply did not notice!
Managing Employee Representation
Reducing unnecessary deceptively attractive opposition to change
Some time ago I did a great deal of work on this subject with a colleague.
It is true though that the context never changes. So with that said here are some thoughts:
- Remember that some conflict is inevitable. Employee representatives are in the business to secure objectives, which are sometimes different from management.
- Consider that the priorities of many employees who are NOT managers are PRIMARILY to their families. The priorities of those who are managers are frequently their CAREERS.
- Don’t assume that every employee representative is an anarchist or internal terrorist.
- Remember that sometimes employees’ representatives simply “fire the bullets on behalf of someone else!”
So:
- Be prepared to explain and consult fully not just the decisions but the rationale behind them.
- Ensure that YOU also TALK to the employees not just the employee representatives. NEVER forget they are your employees!
- Where the employee representative resists you talking to your employees RESIST they have no rights to this.
- INVEST time in your employees and explain how the business is going. They also have a stake in the success if for no other reason their paycheck.
- Remember that the business also affects the employee and their family whether in good times or bad.
- Communicate regularly with your employees. Even sending letters to the employees’ homes makes lots of sense. Remember families influence your employees sometimes more than you the employer.
- Ensure that you give the opportunity for employee representatives to talk to you on a regular basis not just when you want something from them.
- Make sure when you talk to them you give them the opportunity to discuss what is going on. It is a TWO WAY dialogue.
- Make sure you know the difference between:
- COMMUNICATING – informing
- CONSULTING – Asking
- NEGOTIATING – Bargaining
i. And let them know which part of the process you and they are taking part!!
10. Let everyone know when the informing, asking and bargaining phases stop and then STOP
Original collaboration on this and thanks to Andy Sargent
The Analytical role of Human Resources!
I was reading a welcome note from Peter Cheese the CEO of the Charted institute of Personnel and Development in the September issues of Personnel Management.
It has once again got me thinking about what is going on within my profession and institute!!
The fact that the CIPD is now kicking off collaboration with the Charted Institute of Management Accountants means what??
That it has taken to the year 2013 for all those professionals out there and our own Institute to realize that HR professionals need to understanding BIG DATA!! The new buzz word!!
We have always had to understand metrics and what the ROI of HR is and what added value means.
The fact that we still make such a big issue of data knowledge is an ongoing concern and little wonder why only the very few HR folks get recognized at the highest levels of the business.
In my blog “HR folks just don’t get it and its getting old!”
https://hrmexplorer.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/hr-folks-just-don’t-get-it-and-it’s-getting-old/
I made the point that it about time we really focused on the fact that HR needs to understands business first!!
After all why would we hire anyone that does not make our business more profitable, successful and grow?
If HR cannot do any of these then there is no role for HR. We do a disservice to the business and importantly the people who we hire and develop.
I was asked once why do I understand so much about finance.
My answer was and will always be. It is because I know finance that I can save jobs and develop and grow the people within the business and in turn the business.
Peter Lanc Fellow : CIPD
Stay on the Path – Keep your Joy.
There are so many people we come across every day, whether at work or when doing our mall shopping that simply look at life through “glowering glasses.”
It happened to my wife and me last weekend. The Manager at the Jewelers shop from the moment we arrived looked as though she had the singular task to make customers unhappy. And you know what? She succeeded and what’s more she makes all her co-workers unhappy. They told us!
As Joel Osteen says “don’t let other people take your joy away.”
Too many people want to do that and when you think of what that does to you just pause and remind yourself, when that happens you feel you are lesser for it and will often be upset with yourself for the rest of the day.
We were given the gift of a brain and the ability to make choices.
Each day we have the choice to be happy or to be sad, to have faith in what happens or be scared. To be positive with others no matter what happens.
The choices we make define who we are and how others see us.
We as humans attract other similar minded people.
Which group do we want to be “branded” with?
We have the choice to be known alongside positive minded people and be known for what we can do rather than we cannot do.
http://www.magerempowerment.com/v2/blog/?p=1226 – Picture Courtesy of:
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