From the Floor at HR Tech …

 The hustle and bustle of the HR Technology Conference and Expo are in full swing in Las Vegas! And despite the famous slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” I want to tell you about a subject that a surprising number of HR professionals here have raised with me.

That subject is … more frequent and streamlined performance reviews.

These conversations have been music to my ears! As you know if you read this blog with any regularity, we’ve been writing about the benefits of holding more frequent and informal reviews for quite some time. (If you’re interested, you can read “The Case for More Frequent Performance Reviews,” “The Art of Effective Performance Reviews,” and “Heed These 5 Performance Management Realities—Before It’s Too Late!” for more about the topic.)

The type of review we’ve been advocating increasingly is conversational in nature, less geared toward “criticism” or “critique,” and intended to either supplement or replace the traditional annual review (we prefer supplement). We’ve been recommending that managers hold meetings with their reports at least quarterly, if not even more frequently. And we’ve been stressing that managers should focus on asking just a few very simple and direct questions during these meetings—questions such as:

·      What have you accomplished since the last time we spoke, and what do you intend to accomplish in the next two or three months?
·         What are the main challenges you face in doing your job?
·         How can I help you overcome these challenges and clear roadblocks you’re facing?

With so many HR pros actually seeking me out at this conference to discuss revamping their performance review process, I’m more certain than ever that our cloud-based technology can be a catalyst for real change. It not only helps companies streamline their review process but it also gives their managers the tools they need to guide and track these discussions more effectively.

Given the urgency I’m sensing in these conversations, there’s no way that what’s happening in Vegas is going to stay here! In fact, I’m sure these conversations are going to continue long after we all get home.

Phoning In Your Performance Reviews? Here’s How To Add Real Meaning

You’ve heard of actors “phoning in” a performance—just going through the motions without making much of an effort. The result is usually pretty dismal: a performance that lacks meaning or merit.

Well, performance reviews are no different. In the business world, when managers and employees simply go through the motions of a review, it usually produces pretty dismal results.

If your organization’s reviews have become a fairly meaningless exercise, you might want to take a gander at an article that Forbes published last year titled, “How To Make Performance Reviews Relevant.” Written by certified career coach, business consultant and former Fortune 500 executive, Lisa Quast, the article shares seven tips to make performance reviews more meaningful to you and your employees.

One of Quast’s tips practically leaps off the screen as an essential piece of sound advice: Don’t close the review until you’re both on the same page.

Quast notes that she treats performance reviews as though they’re sales calls, working to gain agreement during each step of the discussion. She writes: “My goal during a performance review is to make sure I have a complete understanding about the employees’ performance, their achievements and failures/pitfalls, their next year’s goals and objectives, and their development plan. By focusing on gaining agreement during each aspect of the review, it helps me ensure that they hear my point of view, that I hear their point of view, and that we reach a mutual understanding on our shared view of their working world and future.”

Two concepts are crucial to Quast’s approach: 1) Her reviews are two-way discussions in which both parties speak and listen carefully. 2) Her reviews require both parties to come to the table prepared—i.e., ready to speak intelligently about performance successes, failures, stumbling blocks, goals and objectives for the future, etc.

By using the approach Quast advocates, your managers and employees are far less likely to “phone in” their reviews. In fact, her approach practically requires your employees to conduct meaningful self reviews, which can add immense value to your review process.

Another great piece of advice for ramping up the meaning and value of your reviews comes from Sharlyn Lauby, president of ITM Group and author of HR Bartender, in the article, “Bad Vibes? Bring Out the Best in Your Negative Co-Workers.”

Asked to share tips on how managers can work with staffers who have a tendency to be negative, Lauby’s response also applies perfectly to negative performance appraisals. Her advice: don’t make it personal. Focus instead on their specific negative behaviors—not their negative personalities. “One of the quickest ways to get someone angry with you is to tell them they have a negative attitude,” Lauby says. “Identify the behaviors that are causing challenges and then coach the employee.”

Clearly, these are just a few strategies to ensure that your managers and employees don’t phone in their performance reviews. And if the goal of your reviews is to drive targeted, results-oriented performance (which it should be), then don’t hang up on them before you give them a try.

~

Suggested Reading:  For more on implementing meaningful performance reviews, please enjoy this TalentCulture article: At The Crossroads: Where Instinct & Analytics Meet

Meeting Employees’ Needs: Culture Management, Engagement, and Preventable Turnover

One of the primary objectives of performance reviews is to ensure that needs are being met—departmental needs, functional needs, organizational needs, and employees’ needs. And there’s the rub. Too often, employees’ needs are overlooked during performance reviews.

Managers focus on other aspects of performance when conducting reviews: whether goals were achieved or not, an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, skill gaps that must be filled, and the like. However, as a recent Harvard Business Review blog post illustrates, it’s a mistake to overlook whether employees’ needs are being met.

In “The Power of Meeting Your Employees’ Needs,” authors Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath reveal the bottom-line benefits of meeting employees’ basic needs, which fall into four categories: 1) renewal (physical); 2) value (emotional); 3) focus (mental); and 4) purpose (spiritual).

Schwartz and Porath write that when any one of these basic needs is being met employees “report a 30% higher capacity to focus, a nearly 50% higher level of engagement, and a 63% greater likelihood to stay at the company.”

(no surprise that #TalentManagement, #EmployeeEngagement, & #Retention are perennial trending topics in HR social media space)

And this positive impact is cumulative, rising with each additional need that gets satisfied. “When all four needs are met, the effect on engagement rises from 50% for one need to 125%.”

The authors conclude: “Rather than trying to forever get more out of their people, companies are far better served by systematically investing in meeting as many of their employees’ core needs as possible, so they’re freed and fueled to bring the best of themselves to work.”

But how do you know what your employees’ needs are? There’s really only one way to be sure. You have to ask them—and the performance review is the perfect time to do so. But this requires managers to engage in a true two-way dialogue with each of their direct reports, not just a one-way discourse on how they’re rating employees. It means being attentive and discussing employees’ needs with respect. It also means managers must be willing to do two key things: first, to give real thought and consideration to what employees are saying; and second, to follow up on these discussions, taking action in a timely manner to get employees’ needs met when appropriate.

Discussing employees’ needs—and what you can do to meet them—not only helps you reap the benefits cited by the authors of the HBR post but it also shows employees that you value them and care about helping them achieve their goals. If you want to create and sustain a high-performance work environment, this kind of open commitment to employees is crucial.

User Experience—the “New Battleground” for HR Solution Providers

When we launched Reviewsnap one of our main objectives was to deliver one of the easiest-to-use performance management solutions in the entire industry. A June 24 article on TLNT.com reminded

us just how important—and how difficult—this objective can be.

In “Tech Insights: The Trick in Making Easy-to-Use User Interfaces,” author David Creelman asks HR professionals the question: If a 5-year-old can master an iPad, why can’t a 45-year-old Director of Operations figure out the performance management software? The answer, he writes, is that “designers of iPad software have been a lot more concerned with the user experience than have the designers of HR tools.”

Sadly, Creelman’s criticism of the state of HR tools isn’t unjustified. Some HR solutions are downright user-unfriendly. The good news is providers know there’s a problem—and they’re doing something about it.

Last October, HR industry analyst, Josh Bersin, wrote an article for Forbes titled, “The 9 Hottest Trends In HR Technology ... And Many Are Disruptive.” In it, he states that vendors “are focused on building ‘systems of engagement’ rather than ‘systems of record.’ This is not only focused on making software easier to learn: it’s focused on making it possible for employees to use these systems themselves, effectively freeing up hundreds of HR staffers who do administrative work.”

This article shows that providers are indeed working to raise the bar on the user experience. It also shows that companies are shifting to cloud-based HR solutions, in large part, to gain an improved user experience; according to Bersin, 40 percent of companies that want to replace or revamp their HR infrastructure want cloud-based systems. We’ve even seen evidence in the marketplace that non-cloud solutions are being redesigned to mimic the simplicity and intuitiveness of SaaS alternatives.

As Bersin notes, user experience is the “new battleground.” It’s where designers of HR tools are now waging their competitive wars. At Reviewsnap, we know firsthand how challenging it can be to create a user interface that actually is easy-to-use. Every organization has a unique set of needs and goals, along with a different definition of “easy to use.” This is precisely why we built our solution with the simplest possible interface—and why we made it so flexible and easy to tailor. If you read our case studies and testimonials, you’ll see that nearly every one of our clients describe our solution with terms such as “user-friendly,” “easy to understand” and “easy to navigate.” We’re proud of these endorsements. But we know we have to earn them again and again, day in and day out.

User experience isn’t a one-and-done deal—and this is where we believe many solutions providers stumble.

Easy-to-use interfaces are only part of the total user experience. Implementation, customization, ongoing support and a host of other elements make up the user experience. Prior to and during implementation, for example, providers must conduct ample due diligence, making certain their solutions will function exactly the way clients need them to. And after the solution is up and running, the due diligence should continue. Weeks or even months down the road, the client’s definition of “ease of use” may have shifted slightly or morphed into something else entirely based on changing needs or market conditions. In other words, ease-of-use can become a moving target.

Creating a simple user interface and a great user experience is tricky stuff. But it’s absolutely essential for business tools, especially those designed to serve today’s busy, often overburdened HR departments. In our experience, we’ve found that communication and collaboration with clients—both before and after a purchase has been made—are the secrets to delivering on the ease-of-use promise.

Heed These 5 Performance Management Realities—Before It’s Too Late!

Previously, we wrote about the pressing need to solve the performance management puzzle that baffles so many of our organizations.

As we noted in that post, Deloitte’s 2013 Human Capital Trends report addresses the issue in a section called, “The Performance Management Puzzle,” which offers a number of insights into exactly what’s vexing most employers (changing performance pressures, stagnating measurement and evaluation processes, evolving but unproven technologies, and the quality of the training and tools given to managers, to name just a few).

To “solve” performance management, we not only need to address each piece of the puzzle but we also must come to terms with a new set of realities. Progressive employers have already begun to accept these truths but many more employers need to follow suit if they want to keep top talent from slipping away.

Here are five of the most critical new realities that, once embraced, will help us all solve the performance management puzzle:

1.     The traditional performance management model has always been broken for many employers. This is compellingly illustrated in the Deloitte report: “Many companies continue to rely on traditional performance management processes .... Year after year, managers follow a well-worn routine: Fill out goal forms, track progress, fill out more forms, conduct a formal annual assessment, and then fill out more forms.” Indeed, this is the approach some employers have taken from the start but it was never what the traditional model of performance management intended. Annual reviews were meant to be more substantive than the rote formula of “fill out forms, track, assess, then repeat.” This formula is no way to motivate and engage people. As the Deloitte report’s authors point out, “Creating tight alignment between the work of the individual and the organization’s objectives promotes greater context, commitment, and pride in accomplishment.” This tight alignment and the intended outcomes have always been part of the traditional performance management model. But they demand a high level of interaction, communication and collaboration between managers and their direct reports—higher than many are providing—no matter what “model” you use.

2.     Annual reviews aren’t enough. No matter what performance management model you use, our businesses and our people move too quickly these days for annual reviews to serve them well. Performance goals and targets (for both individuals and teams) are now linked to shorter-term projects and other strategic deadlines as opposed to the fiscal year. Therefore, our people need more immediate, frequent and ongoing feedback. As a result, a growing number of employers are supplementing their annual reviews with more frequent, informal meetings. Managers and direct reports get together more often to discuss goals, track progress and strategize on performance adjustments when necessary. Many still hold annual reviews but these meetings are used primarily to address development and career pathing issues—and to discuss compensation (annual pay raises, bonuses, etc.). Bottom line, meeting only once a year to discuss performance is a dying practice.

3.     Technology is compulsory. No matter what a company’s review process is, technology-based solutions are a necessary component of a successful performance management process—especially when you factor in the tight timeframes many managers are dealing with and the widespread push to base reviews on metrics and hard data. Dedicated performance management software and systems help to keep the review process, managers and employees on track and working as efficiently as possible.

4.    Companies need to work from the bottom up to keep employees engaged. Companies should have employees either help with or initiate the review processes and be an active participant in establishing some of their performance goals and targets. This goes a long way toward keeping people engaged in their work. If your organization uses a top-down approach—placing accountability only on your managers—employees have precious little incentive to take ownership of their goals or become involved in their own development.

5.     We can’t look at the box for a “completed picture” of the performance management puzzle. There are no blueprints or reference materials because performance management isn’t a cookie-cutter issue. Yes, we’re all shooting for the same result—to fairly evaluate, compensate and motivate employee performance. But the puzzle pieces that fit together and work effectively will be somewhat unique to our organizations. Some will be served well by social tools, some won’t (at least not yet). Some will find great value in “crowdsourced” reviews, others will encounter problems. And so on, and so on, with each component. If you’d like some guidance on your particular challenges and options, Reviewsnap is just one of several highly respected performance management companies that will be happy to discuss solutions that might suit your company’s needs.

At it’s core, performance management is about helping your people deliver their best day in and day out. It’s about employee development. Organizations that treat annual reviews as a mere formality are simply going to lose out—and lose talent—to those that focus on improving engagement through the review process.

We’d love to know what your experiences have been and the lessons your organization has learned in addressing its performance management challenges.

Share your stories here on our blog or email us at info@reviewsnap.com and we’ll compile them for a future post or report.

Is Your 360° Feedback a Few Degrees Short?

For many companies, the answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes!”

The reason—their employees aren’t conducting self-reviews.

If this is the case at your company, your “comprehensive” feedback is not only incomplete but

it’s also causing you to miss out on a golden opportunity—the opportunity to drive truly targeted performance improvements, to raise employee engagement levels and to manage your talent more effectively.

Properly instituted and utilized, self-reviews impart all of these benefits to employers by helping them facilitate open communication between managers and direct reports; by encouraging personal growth in individuals at every level of the organization; and by making performance management a responsibility that managers and employees share.

Additionally, self-reviews help employers:

·      better understand how employees “see” their performance and the contributions they’re making;

·      address critical gaps between employee perception and reality;

·      and determine whether performance goals are being communicated and understood clearly.

Employees themselves also benefit from self-reviews in a number of ways. For example, employees gain a greater sense of control over how they’re being judged and evaluated when they conduct self-reviews. This translates into greater satisfaction and commitment. Self-reviews also give employees the opportunity to:

·      engage in a constructive dialogue with their managers in a setting that’s devoted entirely to them (as opposed to team and departmental meetings where performance may be discussed);

·      highlight their significant achievements and how they’ve addressed past performance issues;

·      ask for support, education or training to address skill gaps and weaknesses;

·      and think/talk about their performance in a larger context (i.e., how they’re helping to achieve the goals of their teams, departments, functional areas and the organization at large).

Bottom line, all of this adds up to more engaged employees. And, as a growing body of research has shown, organizations that have high employee engagement are more profitable, more productive and enjoy greater customer loyalty.

So here are a few suggestions that can help your company make better use of self-reviews and reap the considerable rewards:

Have employees begin their annual reviews with self-reviews. This is a clear demonstration of your respect for employees and your interest in hearing what they think about their performance. Instead of feeling like a one-way critique, your performance reviews will take on the characteristics of a two-way exchange of ideas and information. And you’ll be able to address gaps in perceptions and expectations more proactively.

Encourage employees to focus on the aspects of their performance that are most important to them. Again, this gives you the opportunity to make sure there is agreement between what employees consider important and what management considers important. As a result, fewer disputes are likely to arise and differences of opinion can be discussed more easily.

Use self-reviews as a reason to hold more frequent (and less formal) performance appraisals. We’re always encouraging clients not to get stuck in the annual review cycle. Companies that hold reviews and performance-related discussions more often can make small, steady adjustments to performance and resolve problems before they become epidemic. Employees are far more open to small “course corrections” in their performance, and they won’t feel blindsided by negative feedback as they might if you wait an entire year to critique their work.

Have employees get personally involved in creating their own performance goals. Don’t just hand your employees their performance goals. Make them your partners in goal-setting and creating performance targets. Employees who have a direct hand in these activities embrace their goals and take ownership of their performance to a greater degree. It’s another way to build up their engagement—and to build a workforce that will give you a true competitive edge.

For other ideas on transforming your performance review process, download our white paper, “From Dread to Moving Ahead: Taking the Pain Out of Performance Management,” available here.

Don’t Be One of Those Managers!

A common mistake is to deliver a performance review and then kick back and wait until the next review period before providing substantive feedback. It’s important that you avoid being one of those managers.

A more effective approach is to follow up after the review and then on an ongoing basis.  One of the

important elements of performance management is ongoing communication and feedback to and from employees.

Follow up is important because it allows for reinforcement of important points made during the review and it allows the employee to provide input in terms of either how he or she is working to modify work behavior to improve performance or meet goals or how he or she may be struggling to improve performance. As a manager, you want to hear from the employee and you want to be able to coach as needed including reinforcement of key points made through the review process.

If the employee has shown improvement or continues to do well, you’ll want to recognize and convey that to the employee. This reinforcement of positives often breeds more positive work behavior.  If the employee is continuing to struggle or is exhibiting negative behavior after the review, the follow up session should be used to address the need to be positive and focus on working to improve performance. 

We know that effective communication with employees before during and after formal performance reviews enhances overall performance. The key is to develop an ongoing communication platform with your employees so that you and they become comfortable sharing positive outcomes, concerns, and ideas with one another. When feedback, formal or informal, is done infrequently a communication void can develop and open two-way feedback tends to lag as a result.

After the next review you perform, follow up with the employee within several weeks to discuss how things are going. Without rehashing the review, reinforce the two or three most important points from the review if you aren’t seeing positive changes in work behavior and let the employee talk openly about any frustrations or any steps taken since the review to address deficiencies or progress toward goal achievement. Coach as appropriate and then make a point of talking to the employee periodically to do a check on progress.

Performance Reviews for Heightened Employee Engagement: Yes? No? Maybe?

Unless you’ve been living under an HR rock the past several years or are in extreme denial, you’re aware of the link between employee engagement and job performance. (Of course, leading research organizations like Gallup and respected employee engagement survey companies like Modern Survey could have it all wrong.

We don’t think they do, though.)

What’s less certain is the role that performance reviews play in engaging employees. Can employee assessments help drive engagement? Should employers manage and attempt to improve employee engagement as a part of the review process?

The answer to both questions is the same: It depends.

But let’s start with what’s undeniable: A key part of workforce management is laying out goals and helping employees understand whether they’re reaching expectations. That’s a given, regardless of what you believe about the whole performance reviews-driving-engagement riddle.

Then look at setting and assessing employee goals through the lens of employee engagement. Guess what. Employees who are highly engaged are much more likely to feel they receive clear performance goals, that they get routine and valid feedback about their progress toward those goals, and that their managers are actively involved in the process.

In fact, of the six steps that Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace offers for improving employee engagement, three are related to setting and tracking goals for employee performance. “Managers who focus on their employees’ strengths,” the report says, “can practically eliminate active disengagement and double the average of U.S. workers who are engaged.”

Going a step further, researchers at the University of Toronto and University of Guelph concluded that performance management absolutely should evaluate and focus on employee engagement in addition to job performance.

“Making employee engagement part of the performance management process not only makes it an ongoing and constant issue rather than a once-a-year survey, it also signals to employees that it is important and the organization is committed to improving the engagement of its employees,” according to paper co-author Alan Saks.

So, should you try to improve employee engagement as a part of the review process? The odds seem to say you should. But even if you think it makes sense, you’ll need a performance review system that makes it possible to include key drivers of engagement in the performance review process.

A Web-based, automated solution like Reviewsnap makes the employee performance review more strategic. As a result, everyone involved sees the same goals, and you’ll see better results and increased engagement.

Midyear Checkup: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead

We can hear you already: Annual performance reviews are such a pain in the neck, why would I want to double the agony by doing them at midyear, too?

Bear with us. The benefits outweigh your fears.

The midyear mark is a good time to check on employees’ progress toward their performance goals. It’s a good

time to make sure development plans are on track — and make adjustments if they’re not. Finally, midyear is the right time to assess and revise goals for the rest of the year.

In a nutshell: Midyear is the perfect time for employees and managers to combine their discussions and plans around goal-setting and appraisals.

In addition, consider these other important reasons for midyear performance reviews, from respected HR veteran Victor Lipman:

1. They force managers to give meaningful feedback. Meaningful feedback between managers and their reports is assumed to be an ongoing practice. But it’s easily lost in the ebb and flow of daily work. A formal midyear performance assessment increases the odds of timely attention to key issues.

2. They require managers and their subordinates to confront difficult issues they both might otherwise ignore. Lipman call this the “unpleasant cousin” of point No. 1. A prescribed midyear appraisal mechanism makes it less likely that conflicts will be avoided until it’s too late to effectively deal with them.

3. They make year-end evaluations easier. Comprehensive and well-organized midyear performance reviews create a blueprint for what lies ahead. Hopefully, key strengths and weaknesses will be aired and discussed, and end-of-year surprises will at least be minimized.

4. They can improve employee engagement. People want to know how they’re doing. If done candidly, fairly, and constructively, midyear evaluations offer meaningful feedback and help employees make course corrections by the year’s end.

Now that you’re at least considering adding midyear performance reviews to your lineup, what steps should you take? First, realize that HR leaders, team managers, and employees all benefit from a system that creates an automated, user-friendly performance review process. Reviewsnap is one of those systems.

Reviewsnap prevents the midyear review process from being a headache because it streamlines and automates the entire process. The same features that do that, which include automated self-reviews, ease employees’ anxiety about their upcoming reviews. The process actively involves employees and boosts employee engagement.

For HR managers, midyear reviews handled with a Web-based, automated solution like Reviewsnap afford customized performance reviews that truly align with organizational goals. They provide an opportunity at midyear to assess and possibly reset company and department goals, and track progress toward those objectives.

Midyear performance reviews — you owe it to your organization to consider them.

Focusing Performance Efforts on Midlevel Managers

Middle management has been stuck between a rock and a hard place for the last several years. The tough financial times after 2008 might have stripped many of the jobs in the middle for the sake of a leaner organization. As things perk up, there’s more pressure to attract and retain young millennial workers. A middle manager might one day say, “I’m tired of being stuck in the middle.”

Before that happens, make sure you’re targeting midlevel managers in your performance process. They’re the people who have to bridge the gap between strategic thinking and everyday logistics. They bring experience that millennials haven’t yet acquired. And they’ve learned how to do a lot more with less as organizations pushed lean to a new extreme.

First, set clear performance expectations. When a middle manager has strategic and tactical responsibilities, performance management for his level is likely to be vague. Utilize tools like cascading goals to identify which responsibilities have strategic components and what tactical activities will help accomplish those goals.

Next, communicate frequently. One Huffington Post article noted that digital communication tools are removing some of the good communication habits that make successful managers. These middle managers need to maintain those skills, but executives should be exhibiting the same direct communication behavior. Disseminate information in an effective manner so middle managers are informed. They can then make the right decisions for their teams because they have all the information. Sharing frequent updates will make sure their performance is aligned with executive expectations.  

Finally, be ready to make a shift when necessary. Goals for middle managers can sometimes remain stagnant, especially if they’re not clearly linked to overall strategic initiatives. Instead, when new priorities arise, revisit goals for middle management. Which ones need to be updated, which ones need to be dropped, and which ones need to be added?

Performance management is important for all levels of the organization, but middle management is still where strategic vision comes to life. Make sure you’re setting your organization up for success by creating a targeted performance management plan for this critical group.

Making Performance Management Part of the Daily Routine

We’ve all done it — once a year, we set goals we don’t revisit until the next year rolls around. It’s

why performance management doesn’t seem to work. It also makes it really easy for people to skate along, doing well but perhaps not going above and beyond.

Measuring great performance requires understanding where the baseline is and enforcing that every day. Daily performance management not only encourages the right behaviors, it also helps address any concerns early on, before they become problems. Employees can stick to the right goals, and management can align performance with the business’s needs.

Here are tips on how to make performance management part of the daily interactions you have with employees:

·       Break goals into actionable items: Large goals that require a year to accomplish can be daunting. But if you break the goal into smaller items, you can include how someone could work daily toward accomplishing that goal. Then when you do regular check-ins, it’s much easier to talk about progress.

·       Find ways to recognize good performance: Whether your company has an official recognition program or not, take time to say, “Good job,” when an employee is performing well. Make the recognition as specific as possible, especially if it relates to one of their goals. For example, if an employee built an internal enablement guide that also included engaging messaging and creative design (just like an ad campaign), say, “Good job applying marketing practices to internal training to help us increase adoption.”

·       Adjust as you go: Goals set at the beginning of the year might have to change over time. Making performance management part of a daily routine means it’s much easier to see when a goal might need to be modified or corrected. Check to make sure that adjusting the goal still fits into the company’s strategy. By updating the goal, it’s more likely the employee will succeed than if the goal and the daily work are no longer aligned.

Performance management can be effective if it’s part of daily management practices. It might require managers to be more proactive about goals and define action items with employees if internal performance software or processes aren’t set up for that level of detail. But the results will be worth it if you make the extra effort.

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.