Developing Your #1 Asset…Your Employees

Developing your employees is a task that takes proper thought and understanding. As a company, you want your employees to grow in their positions and in the organization. There are many options to do this, but here a few that can truly make a difference.

First things first, establish goals with each of your employees. Lay out a road map of where they want to be and what they need to do to get there. This way they have motivation to do well and they know you understand what position they want to be at someday.

Providing incentives to do well is also a big motivating factor for employees. Incentives can be anything from bonuses to recognition of their work well done. Rewards show employees that if they go above and beyond, they will be noticed. This creates a drive for employees to perform well.

By offering continued education you are also developing your employees. Provide your employees opportunities to take classes that pertain to their positions or professional development classes.

Another extremely effective development tool is providing a mentor program. With this program, you would pair an employee with someone who is in their target position. This way they can learn and gain advice from their mentor. This is also a great way to have communication amongst all tiers in the company.

Developing your employees takes time and dedication, but by taking the initiative, you are improving your #1 asset.

The Difference Between a Performance Appraisal and an EFFECTIVE Performance Appraisal

There is nothing worse than a performance appraisal that does not contribute to the success of the employee and the company. Making sure your appraisal is effective is not as hard as you may think.

The most important thing to remember is that appraisals should open the door for communication between management and their employees. This is a time to get everyone on the same page and make sure expectations are being met. You also want to make sure that you have a mutual understanding of what is satisfactory performance and what is not.

Another important step is to encourage management to create journal entries on their employees. Journal entries should be used to document any notable performances done by employees. These entries could be positive or negative, such as doing a great job on a proposal, or showing up late to work. By having these entries on record, the manager will be able to provide specific examples when they are rating their employees. This will provide employees reasoning behind each rating.

Having your employees complete self-reviews is another step that will help managers give an accurate appraisal. By having your employees’ rate themselves, they gain a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. The manager will then be able to look at the self-review and see if their expectations are along the same lines.

When it comes to a manager giving a negative rating, they need to be as specific as possible with their comments. Not only should they provide examples of why they rated the person poorly, but also on ways they can improve. Remember, appraisals are done so employees can better themselves and develop in their position. Next time you are completing a performance appraisal, remember that this is an important part of your work. Many appraisal ratings are used to recommend salary adjustments, bonuses, terminations and much more. So make sure you are accurate and follow these simple guidelines to make sure your performance review is effective.

Building Your Mission, Values and Goals for the Future Into Your Performance Management System

Performance management is not only about reviewing your employees, it is also an important tool that should be used to communicate your mission, values and goals to your employees and make sure they are being accomplished.

Building these 3 objectives into your review process is a simple task that only requires you to know exactly what your company’s mission, values and goals are. By deciding what core competencies best relate to the company’s strategic plan, you can directly assess your employees on how they are acting out these objectives for the company.

Your employees need to know what they will be accountable for in upholding the company’s mission, values and goals. If they cannot make a connection between these and the performance review process, they are not going to feel the importance of them. By incorporating these objectives into your review appraisals, you are likely to get your employees motivated and thinking about how they can individually help uphold your company’s mission, values and goals.

Burgers and Performance Management

Jerry Murrell of Five Guys Burgers and Fries talks about his philosophy when it comes to selling burgers in a recent Inc. article; http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100401/jerry-murrell-five-guys-burgers-and-fries.html

As I read the article, it struck me that our founder, Dave Arringdale, and Jerry are very much alike in their extreme passion for quality and customer service. We might not sell burgers....far from it....but it appears that our company and Five Guys are more alike than different.

Sure ReviewSNAP is a software application for performance management for organizations. And Five Guys sells juicy and tasty burgers and golden brown fries. But when Jerry Murrell talks about their best salesman being their customer, I think of Dave's words. He is a maniac about customer service and understands what Jerry Murrell understands. "Treat your customer right and they'll be your biggest advocate" he says.And when Jerry talks about buying only potatoes for their fries from north of the 42nd parallel, I chuckle because it sounds eerily familiar to our president's mantra about being the unchallenged leader in quality and going the extra mile to deliver outstanding quality. He's not talking about buying fries north of the 42nd parallel, but he does talk about doing the big things right and the little things exceptionally. When Jerry focuses on buying only potatoes grown north of the 42nd parallel, that is doing the little things exceptionally. I'm sure Jerry and Dave would get along very well.

I hope you enjoy the article. If you've ever eaten at a Five Guys, you'll get a better idea as to why they pack 'em in and have so many repeat customers.

Happy New Year!

All of us at ReviewSNAP want to wish you a very happy new year! We want to express our deep appreciation to all of our clients for their business and to all who are in the process of considering ReviewSNAP as their performance management solution.

We had another record year and expect another in 2011. Client satisfaction is our number one goal and will continue to be our number one goal each and every year. More enhancements to the system including the addition of a fully integrated elearning module will be added in 2011. We understand that we must continually listen to our clients and prospective clients and adding new features and components to the system as a result of their input and feedback is a critical element in our philosophy of outstanding customer service.

Thanks again and we hope all of you have a prosperous and rewarding 2011!

Your friends at ReviewSNAP