Course Correct Early with 360 Degree Reviews

It’s exciting when you get to bring new people on at your company. They’re fresh faces with lots of energy. However, their hire date could put them out of rotation with the performance review cycle. The first round might be too soon for the information to be meaningful, but the second round could be a year and a half later. Don’t let that much time go by before you’ve had a chance to talk about performance.

Using 360 degree feedback tools can help you have performance conversations with employees when they’re off-cycle with performance reviews. You’ll get them feedback earlier, as well as make any course corrections before formal review season. Here’s how to integrate 360 degree tools into your off-season performance review program:

·       Select a standard 360 review cycle: You might not use 360s for every employee, but if you set a standard cycle time, new employees will get feedback sooner rather than later. For example, all new employees can complete a 360 degree review after six months.

·       Take away the pressure: Using 360s for developmental purposes can relieve the pressure of this being a performance-related event. Set expectations early that this is a progress check and an opportunity for improvement, not a tool to be used for punishment.

·       Help the employee select the raters: By six months, most employees are comfortable with peers and co-workers. When they go over their rater selection with you, make sure they’ve selected an “A” team.

·       Review feedback and get employee input: Many employees have ideas around how they’d like to improve, so ask for that input before prescribing next steps. If there’s a behavior that needs course correction, discuss it in a constructive manner. Find ways to address the behavior, but also make sure that there are not outside factors influencing the behavior. If you have influence on those factors, assure the employee that you’re doing what you can to address those.

For many people, a 360 degree review offers the chance to get a better idea of their performance than meetings or daily interactions might provide. Employees often want to improve before it’s too late, but they just might not know what’s wrong. Make sure you help employees prepare for formal reviews by giving them an interim step. And don’t forget to celebrate great performance, too. You could find a rising star ready for new responsibilities sooner than if you had waited until the formal review.

Get Relief Before Cabin Fever Strains Performance

We’re heading into that time of the year — when kids get excited about spring break and employees are itching to take a few days off. If your employees don’t get a chance to recharge a little before summer, they’re likely to experience some cabin fever.

Cabin fever symptoms can affect performance:

·       Constantly thinking about warm, sunny places might result in extensive daydreaming

·       The desire to get away can lead to long lunches or early happy hours

·       No R&R might make employees snippy, frustrated, or stressed

·       Too many back-to-back workdays can lead to burnout

You don’t have to call the doctor just yet, but here are four things you can do to make sure cabin fever doesn’t hinder your team’s performance:

1.     Take your team’s temperature: Is everyone stressed out? Are people working 24/7 or hardly working at all? Is a rebellion on the rise? Make sure you’ve evaluated what your employees are feeling and what their behaviors say about stress levels.

2.     Give them a break: All companies have different policies for flexibility, but if you can find some, give it to your employees. That could mean taking them out to a team lunch, or even giving them a Friday off to reward good performance. If your policies still require employees to be at work, perhaps do an afternoon activity that lets people blow off some steam (laser tag is pretty fun).

3.     Build in some healthy habits: Encourage employees to use your company’s wellness benefits so that they’re not feeling unfit in addition to feeling stressed. If you don’t have a formal program in place, try things like instituting walking meetings for your one-on-ones, or have a snack day once a week. Instead of cookies, have everyone bring in their favorite ingredient for trail mix and create a trail-mix bar.

4.     Take a breather yourself: Managers who are stressed can pass their stress on to their employees. If you’re feeling frustrated because everyone’s coming back to work with a tan and you haven’t seen the sun since October, don’t take it out on employees. Instead, take a breather. You might need to get up and have lunch away from your desk, go for a walk, or even meditate in between meetings. Literally take a breath before you react out of frustration and you won’t derail productivity because of stress.

Cabin fever may not affect everyone, but it can make performance a serious issue when people aren’t focused or energized. Follow these four tips and your team will slide through spring a little healthier and a little happier.

Upgrade Higher Ed Performance Management by Answering These Three Questions

HR managers in higher education institutions need to find an easy way to streamline the performance management process. But they have the same question we’ve heard from many businesses:

How do we manage performance across a varied workforce when we have practically no budget?

The easiest response might be to just put a paper process in place. Everyone uses Microsoft Word, so it should be pretty easy to get these reviews done. But then managing data collection, confirming reviews have taken place, or even checking that the right forms got to the right people can create administrative chaos.

Who has time for that?

No one, but it’s a very real scenario that these organizations deal with every time there’s a review cycle. When HR managers in higher education institutions and universities finally throw their hands up, it’s time to find another way to get quality performance management, even on a tight budget.

Here are three questions to ask when you’re ready for a better way to manage your performance: 

1.     Can we utilize technology? Today, almost everyone is connected to a computer 40 hours a week. If that’s the case, an online or cloud solution might be exactly what you need. Make it easy for faculty and staff to log in and complete a form online instead of using paper handouts. Things don’t get lost in the shuffle, and you can then track completions. 

2.     Can we transition quickly? It’s not too difficult to imagine that universities are filled with processes that have been in place for years … and no one will change them, even if they’re flawed. Since new programs could cause upset, making sure the transition can happen quickly and cleanly will be important. That means getting all the stakeholders on board, finding a technology with easy implementation processes and having a rollout plan. 

3.     Can we make some room in the budget? Sometimes just looking at the loss of productivity can be enough to secure some spend. Not all technology solutions will use up every dollar in your HR budget. Especially when you need to secure spend approvals beforehand, making the case for the savings (even if there is a cost) will help you get some budget freed up for the solution purchase.

Streamlining your performance management can be easy, but getting your institution or university ready for the change will go a long way toward program success. Answer these questions and get ready to upgrade your own performance management approach.