SURVEY REVEALS THAT MOST MANAGERS FAIL TO PROVIDE CRITICAL ONGOING FEEDBACK TO EMPLOYEES RELATING TO PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

ReviewSNAP™ , a leading Web-based performance management system supplier, announced today a new study that shows employees do not feel they receive adequate communication about their performance on an ongoing basis. The study was conducted by ReviewSNAP during the week of March 15, 2010 to learn more about views on employee performance evaluation processes.

From a pool of more than 100 respondents, only 45 percent of individuals surveyed feel their managers consistently communicate to them about their performance throughout the year and between review periods.

“As American companies lunge forward to put the recent economic downturn behind them, their most important assets, their employees, are perhaps more important than ever,” said Dave Arringdale, President of ReviewSNAP. “Organizations and their employees are under more pressure to meet company goals. Conducting productive employee performance evaluations and delivering ongoing communication about performance is a critical component in helping keep a pulse on the efforts made by employees to help achieve real and measurable business results.”

Web-based performance management systems, such as ReviewSNAP, reduce the hassle of paper reviews or quasi-electronic reviews by simplifying the process to the point that it is convenient and easy to communicate with employees regarding their performance and contribution to company goals on a regular and consistent basis. Having Web-based tools such as 360 degree feedback, unlimited reviews, and journal entries have proven to help increase employee productivity and morale because they are aimed at making it easy to better align employees’ responsibilities with clearly defined goals and track performance on an ongoing basis versus once or twice a year. This streamlined approach allows organizations to maximize the alignment of employee goals, make informed talent decisions and increase quality communication.

The survey shows there is still work to be done on getting managers to be accountable for on-time reviews in addition to providing continued feedback. 44 percent of the survey respondents noted their managers fail to complete their employee reviews on time. Putting a system in place that makes it easy and convenient to complete reviews and that delivers automatic reminders of pending and past due reviews helps enhance the level of accountability in this area.

Moving Toward a Pay-For-Performance Culture

Have you ever had a job where you see someone rise to the top meteorically and wonder what they are doing to get there? Have you had to watch someone kiss so much you-know-what that they got all the opportunities in the world from their manager? If you feel like a victim for having to witness this, don't. Sadly this happens all around us every day and you are among many who have to endure this kind of unfair distribution of attention, money and personal growth. Unfortunately there is no way to entirely eliminate this type of bias, but on a positive note it can certainly be minimized.

Creating a pay-for-performance culture isn't necessarily going to rid your organization of those employees whose lips are firmly planted on the boss's back end, but it will help "regulate" their raises and promotions. If very specific goals and standards of performance that are measurable are established for all employees and specific parameters for merit increases and promotions based on an employee's ratings on their performance reviews are established, then it becomes somewhat more difficult for the loose and highly subjective approach to wage increases and promotions to survive.

If you are going to implement a pay-for-performance culture, it becomes important to, at a minimum, implement requirements for journaling performance "events" and tracking goals on an ongoing basis. And conducting 360 degree feedback surveys to gather feedback from multiple raters within and potentially outside the organization will allow for a more objective look at an indiviudal's performance and behavior over some defined period of time.

Moving in this direction will help strengthen and justify decisions about merit increases or promotions. Putting more "teeth" into the ongoing employee evaluation and measurement process will help remove much of the subjectivity involved when a manager is easily swayed by an employee who knows how to play the game.

ReviewSNAP Has Launched Our Compensation Dashboard

We've got great news! As of this morning, ReviewSNAP™ has launched our new Compensation Dashboard. Like our 360 Degree Feedback module, the Compensation Dashboard will be bundled with the other applications into one solution all at one flat rate. If you are planning on subscribing to ReviewSNAP™, you will have access to our Performance Review, 360 Degree Feedback, and Compensation Dashboard under one affordable annual subscription rate.

The Compensation Dashboard will allow you to manage your company budget, department budgets, pay grades and the compensation approval process. The system will automatically make compensation increase recommendations to managers based on an employee's overall rating on their performance review. The recommendation can be edited and approved or declined by the compensation "approver". The dashboard will archive and allow you to view all employee's compensation history as well.

ReviewSNAP is not the first performance management system to offer a performance review, 360 degree feedback, and compensation module. However, ReviewSNAP is the first performance management system to offer all three modules in one solution at an affordable price.

ReviewSNAP Forges Partnership with NonProfit HR Solutions

ReviewSNAP™, a leading Web-based performance management systems provider, announced today they have formed a strategic partnership with Nonprofit HR Solutions, a Washington, DC based firm specializing in human resources consulting and staffing for the nonprofit sector. This alliance was formed to enhance the delivery and support of performance management solutions to nonprofit organizations across the nation. The exclusive arrangement provides both parties the opportunity to be able to offer robust, affordable employee performance tools to nonprofit organizations of all sizes.

“Our services are uniquely focused on the nonprofit sector and we are fully committed to providing our clients with the very best human resource solutions available,” said Lisa BrownMorton, President of Nonprofit HR. Solutions “We examined a number of potential performance management systems and found ReviewSNAP to best meet the needs of our nonprofit clients both in terms of system functionality and pricing.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Nonprofit HR Solutions which is such a natural fit for us,” said David Arringdale, President of Applied Training Systems, Inc., the parent company to ReviewSNAP. “They have a strong pulse on what nonprofit organizations need in terms of performance management solutions. We are looking forward to helping their clients enhance their employee performance review process through our acclaimed solutions as well as our focus on customer service and consulting.”

ReviewSNAP provides Web-based employee performance reviews and 360 degree feedback solutions to nonprofits and small to medium-sized (SMB) companies. In 2009, the company tripled its client base made up of a solid blend of both nonprofits and SMB organizations. One key factor credited to ReviewSNAP's growth is their approach to customer service whether it’s a SMB client or nonprofit client.

The two organizations have a similar approach to customer service. ReviewSNAP found Nonprofit HR Solution's team to be highly committed to excellence and customer service which mirrors their philosophy of conducting business.

“NonProfit HR Solutions built its business on integrity and service excellence and this partnership only serves to reinforce to our clients, potential clients and other nonprofit organizations that we both care very much about their success,” said Arringdale.

The partnership became effective February 1, 2010 and both companies will work closely together to assist nonprofit organizations in enhancing their performance management processes. ReviewSNAP has bundled performance appraisal and 360 degree feedback modules under one Web-based system and both are available to nonprofit organizations at an annual subscription rate they can afford.

Performance Review Research

Freestyle PR of Des Moines, IA is running a quick survey on performance reviews and would like as many participants as possible. Click here to participate in the survey.

REVIEWSNAP ANNOUNCES RECORD GROWTH IN 2009, TRIPLING ITS CLIENT BASE

ReviewSNAP, a leading supplier of Web-based performance management, announced today that 2009 was a groundbreaking year for the company with their key business initiatives and milestones that were successfully accomplished, including tripling its client base and increasing its revenue by 300 percent in just one year. The ReviewSNAP application is the industry's first online performance review system that allows small- to medium-size businesses and nonprofits access to automate and streamline their employee review system at a price point that is affordable to their budgets. Other notable achievements that defined 2009 as a successful year for ReviewSNAP include the following accomplishments

• Entered into five strategic partnerships
• Added a 360 degree feedback module bundled with its performance review module
• Increased its revenue by 300 percent
• Tripled its client base within one year

"By providing our online performance management system at a price point that allows nonprofits and small- to medium-size business owners to benefit from a paperless solution, ReviewSNAP has risen to become the recognized leader in on-demand employee reviews," said Chris Arringdale, Director of Marketing of ReviewSNAP. " Building on our successful 2009, we will be launching our compensation module as part of our bundled package and aggressively building more strategic partnerships all while continuing our top-of-line customer services."

ReviewSNAP Launches New Site Design!

As of this morning ReviewSNAP launched its new site design. The look of our application hasn't changed, but the look of our homepage and sub pages has taken on a completely different look. Check out the new look of ReviewSNAP!

The Purpose of 360 Degree Feedback

A common question that we hear is "should we use 360 degree feedback to do that or performance reviews?" Well, that depends on what you are doing. Are managers expected to conduct performance reviews on their employees? Is this an official review? Or do you want multiple raters? Is this just a benchmark and not the official review? Are you wanting to create a feedback mechanism for coaching purposes?

360 degree feedback allows you to use multiple raters such as supervisors, peers, direct reports, subordinates and external raters (clients or vendors) to leave feedback on an employee. The feedback is often used as a benchmark within the employee's development plan. In a team-focused atmosphere, 360 degree feedback surveys can be very effective. It lets the employee know how his/her team members view the effectiveness of their performance.

It is important that the feedback remain anonymous to the person who was rated. If employees are allowed to see the comments and ratings and who left them, feelings of resentment can arise along with tension among the employee and the raters.

If you plan to implement the 360 degree feedback process, make sure that you have a strong performance management system in place before doing so. 360 degree feedback and performance reviews are often used in conjunction with one another to form a powerful one-two punch for employee coaching and development.

ReviewSNAP Announces Expansion of Referral Partner Program

ReviewSNAP, the most user-friendly and affordable Web-based performance management system, announced today that it is expanding its Referral Partnership Program. The company has always offered an Affiliate program and last year began to form referral partnerships on a limited basis with PEO organizations, HRIS system providers, and business and human resource consulting firms.

Because of overwhelming success of the program, the decision was made in January to begin offering it to a wider base of organizations and individual consultants. The program offers Referral Partners the opportunity to offer the ReviewSNAP performance review and 360 degree feedback system to their client bases and other businesses and non-profit organizations and earn a substantial referral fee for doing so. Because ReviewSNAP requires its client user to pay an annual subscription fee, Referral Partners are able to generate an ongoing passive revenue stream.

The program is simple and straightforward. Dave Arringdale, President of ReviewSNAP's parent company, Applied Training Systems, Inc., said "Our philosophy is that we succeed only if we create win-win situations with all of our partners. Our referral partner program is easy to be a part of and it can generate a significant source of revenue for our referral partners. Our product and the accompanying customer service are second to none and it is the most affordable Web-based performance management solution available. That makes it a natural fit for organizations or individuals who want to offer a performance management system to their clients or any other potential users."

The company encourages you to contact our Account Management team at (800) 516-5849 to learn more about this exciting opportunity. Visit our site at www.reviewsnap.com to learn more about the premier performance management system.

The Importance of Ongoing Communication with Your Employees

If your job consisted of continuous monitoring of whether or not the managers of the company were consistently and effectively communicating with their employees, what conclusions do you think you would make? My guess is that you would find that the communication would be generally ineffective and not results-oriented. All too often managers don't make the time to communicate with their employees about their performance and what can be done to achieve their respective goals.

If managers wait for performance review time to provide important feedback, they are missing tremendous opportunities to elevate the level and value of communication. To benefit both the company and the employee managers and supervisors need to communicate with the employee throughout the entire year. Obviously there is the possibility of over-communication and micromanagement and both should be avoid. But well placed communication about performance will help employees capitalize on their potential. Managers need to make sure employees are progressing toward achieving their goals and and they should continue to coach the employee where performance is lagging. And certainly excellent performance should be recognized along the way.

Not communicating with the employee can lead to a couple of things. One, the employee could run into some surprises when you are having your review meeting with them and they very likely won't receive the message well. Or the employee could be stuck in a rut and they won't have made any progress toward their goals and areas of focus leaving them "spinning their wheels", so to speak.

Using a Web-based performance management system can significantly enhance ongoing communication and goal management. to do your performance These systems are designed to not only provide the "infrastructure" for performance reviews and feedback surveys, but to provide tools that drive communication on an ongoing basis.