Capterra, a leading online destination for business software buyers, recently released a survey in which more than 1000 respondents shared what type of software their businesses are looking to buy. Performance Appraisal Software was desired by 13% of those who participated in the survey.
ReviewSNAP offers a highly flexible, Web-based performance appraisal system and was built to fit the needs of companies of all sizes and industries.
Showing posts with label Employee Appraisals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employee Appraisals. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Struggle Between Efficiency and Effectiveness
Business books, magazines and newsletters are full of recommendations about becoming more efficient. They talk at length about the importance of the bottom line and incremental gains from reengineering and total quality efforts. And they talk about how technology can provide a real boost in efficiency.
But with all this talk about efficiency, are we losing something in terms of being effective? To distinguish between effectiveness and efficiency, a brief definition should help. Effectiveness is doing the right thing. Efficiency is doing things right. These simple definitions point to a clear distinction that has major implications for businesses of all sizes. The implications arise from the difficulty in balancing both efficiency and effectiveness.
With the pressure to constantly be as efficient as possible, an organization can get caught up in focusing too much on reducing process time and/or the number of employees and not enough on what makes sense for the organization. For example, suppose a distribution company decides that it is taking too long to process orders because there is an additional review step in place to ensure that the order is accurate. But often times, orders get backed up slightly for shipping because the people doing the additional accuracy check on outgoing orders fall behind. So the decision is made to eliminate this additional step and at the same time save some money by eliminating two positions. This is done in the name of efficiency because orders will go out faster which has some real merit. But the result of eliminating this additional step is a significant increase in incorrect orders being shipped. The impact of this is additional time dealing with more customer complaints, additional picking and restocking time, additional costs of returned shipments and, above all, customer ill will.
This example illustrates how doing the right thing is often overshadowed by doing things right. What employees often view as being efficient can many times impact the company negatively. This is why it is important for management to create an environment where employees are encouraged to look for ways to become more efficient, but do so without degrading the level of customer service and quality.
Bringing a balance between efficiency and effectiveness is one of the critical jobs of any owner or manager. In the above example, the company might have been realizing a competitive advantage because it was shipping orders with a higher degree of accuracy than its competitors. When it decided to save some money by streamlining a process and eliminating some positions, it lost that competitive advantage. And in terms of saving money, any savings realized from the streamlining were in all likelihood given back several times over.
It is important for businesses to constantly look for ways to do things right....to become more efficient. But it is equally important that decisions along those lines be made by asking questions about the impact on quality, customer service and employee morale. Bad decisions relative to efficiency can very often have a negative effect on all three of these variables.
With regard to technology and efficiency, does the addition of new technology to any process have a positive impact on these variables? Business processes and what's good for the customer should drive the implementation of technology. Technology should not dictate how a process gets defined. Start with the customer and work backwards. Define the process based on the best way to serve the customer and the best way to accomplish tasks. Once the business process is defined, match the technology to the process. When technology is allowed to drive the business, things tend to get forced to fit and the customer, productivity and employee morale with often suffer.
We can safely say that balancing efficiency and effectiveness is not easy. But it is important for organizations to stay focused on the long-term impact of all decisions. Yes, short-term performance is important, but if it takes precedence over long-term viability it could lead to a decline in performance over time.
But with all this talk about efficiency, are we losing something in terms of being effective? To distinguish between effectiveness and efficiency, a brief definition should help. Effectiveness is doing the right thing. Efficiency is doing things right. These simple definitions point to a clear distinction that has major implications for businesses of all sizes. The implications arise from the difficulty in balancing both efficiency and effectiveness.
With the pressure to constantly be as efficient as possible, an organization can get caught up in focusing too much on reducing process time and/or the number of employees and not enough on what makes sense for the organization. For example, suppose a distribution company decides that it is taking too long to process orders because there is an additional review step in place to ensure that the order is accurate. But often times, orders get backed up slightly for shipping because the people doing the additional accuracy check on outgoing orders fall behind. So the decision is made to eliminate this additional step and at the same time save some money by eliminating two positions. This is done in the name of efficiency because orders will go out faster which has some real merit. But the result of eliminating this additional step is a significant increase in incorrect orders being shipped. The impact of this is additional time dealing with more customer complaints, additional picking and restocking time, additional costs of returned shipments and, above all, customer ill will.
This example illustrates how doing the right thing is often overshadowed by doing things right. What employees often view as being efficient can many times impact the company negatively. This is why it is important for management to create an environment where employees are encouraged to look for ways to become more efficient, but do so without degrading the level of customer service and quality.
Bringing a balance between efficiency and effectiveness is one of the critical jobs of any owner or manager. In the above example, the company might have been realizing a competitive advantage because it was shipping orders with a higher degree of accuracy than its competitors. When it decided to save some money by streamlining a process and eliminating some positions, it lost that competitive advantage. And in terms of saving money, any savings realized from the streamlining were in all likelihood given back several times over.
It is important for businesses to constantly look for ways to do things right....to become more efficient. But it is equally important that decisions along those lines be made by asking questions about the impact on quality, customer service and employee morale. Bad decisions relative to efficiency can very often have a negative effect on all three of these variables.
With regard to technology and efficiency, does the addition of new technology to any process have a positive impact on these variables? Business processes and what's good for the customer should drive the implementation of technology. Technology should not dictate how a process gets defined. Start with the customer and work backwards. Define the process based on the best way to serve the customer and the best way to accomplish tasks. Once the business process is defined, match the technology to the process. When technology is allowed to drive the business, things tend to get forced to fit and the customer, productivity and employee morale with often suffer.
We can safely say that balancing efficiency and effectiveness is not easy. But it is important for organizations to stay focused on the long-term impact of all decisions. Yes, short-term performance is important, but if it takes precedence over long-term viability it could lead to a decline in performance over time.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Deal With Laziness
With productivity being such an important factor in profitability, it is critical that managers and supervisors deal with employees that simply don't work hard enough. Too much time spent on personal phone calls, extended breaks and lunches, slowness in work and visiting too much among co-workers are all things that should be addressed swiftly. An employee must understand the expectation of hard work. When a manager or supervisor ignores "lazy" behavior he/she is essentially endorsing it. Make it clear to all employees what level of work is expected from them and then hold them accountable for achieving that level.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Advantages of HR Technology
A large portion of companies are still using the traditional pen and paper for performance reviews. Companies need to assess the benefits of an online performance management system opposed to the traditional reviews. Below are the benefits that the ReviewSNAP Performance Management System offers.
Real time updates to goals, feedback and reviews:
- If an employees’ goals are changed or feedback is given for an employee it is updated in real time and can be viewed right away. Also, this allows you to keep track of an employees’ progress towards their goals by keeping track of their goals and adding feedback at any time during the review period.
Better and Truer Reviews Can Be Given:
- Rather than taking the chance of basing an employees review for an entire period on recent events only, you can keep better track of their progress, mistakes, etc.
Automating Your Reviews For More Review Cycles. By automating your reviews, it makes it easier to have more review cycles. Rather, than having to wait for an annual review, because of the annual, manual reviews, which can be a hassle, you have the option to create as many review periods as you wish.
Access to review system from anywhere with Internet access:
- If something came to mind at home or you on a business trip you don’t have to wait to get back to the office to access your system or write a review. If something critical comes to mind about an employee and you want to get it in the review before you forget it, there is no better way than an web based performance management system.
Goes GREEN
A big initiative in today's world is to be more "green." Not only is it an initiative outside of the business world, but inside as well. Whether you are trying to use more biofuels, less plastic and paper, this can all be done inside the business world.
One way to help your green initiative is to use ReviewSNAP's Web based performance review system rather than the traditional paper performance reviews. ReviewSNAP requires no paper, only a computer with internet access.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Coaching Employees Is Your Job
Every manager has to deal with performance, attitude, behavior or other employee problems. There are too many managers and supervisors that seem to want to ignore or minimize the problems, however. For the sake of other employees, managers should deal with problems as they arise. Ignoring the problem can lead to disgruntled co-workers and it sends a message to employees that they can underperform or act inappropriately.
One of the key roles of a manager is to help employees learn how to become better employees. When a problem arises with an employee that requires a manager to have a discussion with the employee, the manager must become a coach and a counselor. Keep in mind that the role of a manager is to assist the employee in understanding the issue at hand, listen to the employee's feedback and provide input to the employee that will help the employee deal with the issue.
Also, it is critical that the manager follow the appropriate disciplinary process. If an employee is not made well aware of performance, attitude, behavior or other problems, it will become more difficult to terminate the employee should that become necessary.
To effectively coach and counsel an employee, keep these things in mind:
-Make the feedback constructive and do it in a caring manner.
-Talk about what you perceive, what you feel and what you need. Be extremely clear.
-Restate the employee's remarks by paraphrasing to be sure you fully understand what has been said as they provide input to the process.
-Talk about what the employee does. Stay away from personality traits. Address behavior and don't become a psychologist.
-Zero in on observed or known behavior. Be very careful about how you approach an employee about heresay. In fact, try to avoid dealing with heresay unless you have a strong reason to suspect it is true.
-Be specific and discuss only one issue at a time.
-Provide some positive feedback in addition to the negative feedback. In fact, try to start the conversation in a positive manner.
-Allow the employee to give feedback freely. But be careful to not get caught in a repetitive conversation that goes nowhere.
-And finally and, perhaps most importantly, listen, listen, listen!
Good managers are good coaches. They can effectively communicate to an employee that a problem exists and they know how to listen effectively. How a manager handles problems as they arise can have a significant impact on employee morale.
Are Your Goals Really Goals?
Appropriate goals are the driving force behind successful organizations. Successful organizations have taken the time to diligently develop realistic, attainable goals that provide legitimate focus for the organization. The goals are not just words on paper.
Goals should be a part of a formalized, written strategic plan. The strategic plan is your road map...the strategic planning process determines what you market, where you market it, how you market it, and, more simply, how you are going to allocate precious money and people
resources.
Goals should have the following characteristics:
-They are attainable.
-They require hard work to achieve.
-They are easily understood.
-They reflect critical aspects of the organization.
-They support the overall mission or purpose of the organization.
-They are consistent with the organization's capabilities and resources.
Goals are the jumping off point, so to speak, for developing specific objectives, strategies and tactics. The combination of goals, objectives, strategies and tactics form the strategic plan.
Your people should be well aware of and focused on the organization's goals. Without this focus, your people are never sure where the company is headed and, therefore, cannot fully embrace the importance of the various decisions being made.
Ask yourself and your employees these questions when you sense that impending decisions might be drifting away from the direction provided by your goals; What are our goals? Does this decision help us achieve one or more of those goals?
Make sure that your goals are not really strategies in disguise. This example illustrates the difference between goals, objectives and strategies for a company looking to grow through diversification:
-Goal: Achieve profitable diversification of the company.
-Objective: Have in place one new division by 12/31/99.
-Strategy: Diversify through acquisition as opposed to product development.
This example clearly shows one of the key areas of focus for the company; diversification. And it shows how they intend to achieve this goal; by acquiring another company. This goal and its supporting objective(s) and strategy(s) clearly communicates to interested parties that at least part of the company's growth will come through diversification by acquisition.
Look at your comany's goals. Are they clear, concise and meaningful? Do they provide real focus? If you achieve each of your goals, will your company be successful or more successful than it is today? Do your people know what the goals are and are the goals ingrained into the culture? Have you limited the number of goals to somewhere between 3 and 7 since too many goals will confuse and muddy the focus and too few might not provide enough focus.
If your company doesn't have a sound strategic plan in place, you are living dangerously. Without one your organization is like a rudderless ship. Today's business climate is much too competitive to not have a well constructed strategic plan.
Successful, high performing companies, large and small, have a long-range plan and they live it and breath it. Their focus is on that plan and on their goals.
Goals should be a part of a formalized, written strategic plan. The strategic plan is your road map...the strategic planning process determines what you market, where you market it, how you market it, and, more simply, how you are going to allocate precious money and people
resources.
Goals should have the following characteristics:
-They are attainable.
-They require hard work to achieve.
-They are easily understood.
-They reflect critical aspects of the organization.
-They support the overall mission or purpose of the organization.
-They are consistent with the organization's capabilities and resources.
Goals are the jumping off point, so to speak, for developing specific objectives, strategies and tactics. The combination of goals, objectives, strategies and tactics form the strategic plan.
Your people should be well aware of and focused on the organization's goals. Without this focus, your people are never sure where the company is headed and, therefore, cannot fully embrace the importance of the various decisions being made.
Ask yourself and your employees these questions when you sense that impending decisions might be drifting away from the direction provided by your goals; What are our goals? Does this decision help us achieve one or more of those goals?
Make sure that your goals are not really strategies in disguise. This example illustrates the difference between goals, objectives and strategies for a company looking to grow through diversification:
-Goal: Achieve profitable diversification of the company.
-Objective: Have in place one new division by 12/31/99.
-Strategy: Diversify through acquisition as opposed to product development.
This example clearly shows one of the key areas of focus for the company; diversification. And it shows how they intend to achieve this goal; by acquiring another company. This goal and its supporting objective(s) and strategy(s) clearly communicates to interested parties that at least part of the company's growth will come through diversification by acquisition.
Look at your comany's goals. Are they clear, concise and meaningful? Do they provide real focus? If you achieve each of your goals, will your company be successful or more successful than it is today? Do your people know what the goals are and are the goals ingrained into the culture? Have you limited the number of goals to somewhere between 3 and 7 since too many goals will confuse and muddy the focus and too few might not provide enough focus.
If your company doesn't have a sound strategic plan in place, you are living dangerously. Without one your organization is like a rudderless ship. Today's business climate is much too competitive to not have a well constructed strategic plan.
Successful, high performing companies, large and small, have a long-range plan and they live it and breath it. Their focus is on that plan and on their goals.
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