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    Best Practices: Evaluating Performance: How to Appraise, Promote, and Fire
    Best Practices: Evaluating Performance: How to Appraise, Promote, and Fire
    Best Practices: Evaluating Performance: How to Appraise, Promote, and Fire
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Best Practices: Evaluating Performance: How to Appraise, Promote, and Fire

    By Barry Silverstein

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    About this ebook

    Successful management relies on identifying and promoting high-performing employees—and targeting underperformers for serious improvement. Evaluating Performance, a comprehensive and essential resource for any manager on the run, shows you how.

    Learn to:

    • Monitor day-to-day performance
    • Conduct productive formal reviews
    • Reward consistent, excellent performance through promotions
    • Terminate underperforming employees
    • Create a company-wide performance management system

    The Collins Best Practices guides offer new and seasoned managers the essential information they need to achieve more, both personally and professionally. Designed to provide tried-and-true advice from the world's most influential business minds, they feature practical strategies and tips to help you get ahead.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061738920
    Best Practices: Evaluating Performance: How to Appraise, Promote, and Fire
    Author

    Barry Silverstein

    I am an author, blogger, brand historian and retired marketing professional.I have a background in advertising and marketing. I founded a direct and Internet marketing agency and ran it for twenty years, and I have over forty years of business experience.I have authored the following non-fiction books: World War Brands; Boomer Brand Winners & Losers; Boomer Brands; Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service Business - co-author (GuideWords Publishing); The Breakaway Brand - co-author (McGraw-Hill); Business-to-Business Internet Marketing (Maximum Press); Internet Marketing for Technology Companies (Maximum Press); and three books for small business managers in the Collins Best Practices series (HarperCollins). I have also written the following eGuides, all published by 123 eGuides: Branding 123 (Second Edition), B2B Marketing, Low Cost/No Cost Marketing 123, Product Launch 123, Sales Leads 123, and On Your Own 123.I have written two novels: The Doomsday Virus and Water's Edge.I publish a blog for Boomers (www.happilyrewired.com) and a blog for dog lovers (www.cmdog.com).

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      Book preview

      Best Practices - Barry Silverstein

      Preface

      What has proven to be the best way to assess an employee’s performance? How can you turn around an underperformer? How do you know when an employee is ready to be promoted? What issues should be considered before firing an employee? Is there any way to make the performance review process less burdensome?

      In this book, we distill the wisdom of some of the best minds in the field of performance management to help you evaluate employees and manage their work more effectively. The language is simple and the design colorful to make the information easy to grasp.

      Quizzes help you assess your knowledge of performance-management issues. Case files show how companies have tackled tough performance issues. Sidebars give you a big-picture look at evaluating, promoting, and firing employees and highlight innovative, out-of-the-box solutions worth considering. Quotes from business leaders will motivate you as you hone your performance-management skills. Finally, in case you want to dig deeper into the topic of performance evaluation and related management issues, we recommend some of the most important business books available. The authors of these books both influence and reflect today’s thinking about evaluating employees and related issues. Understanding the ideas they cover will inspire you as a manager.

      Even if you don’t dip into these volumes, the knowledge you gain from studying the pages of this book will equip you to deal effectively and insightfully with performance management issues every day—to help you make a difference to your company and in the lives of the people who support you.

      THE EDITORS

      ONE-ON-ONE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

      The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.

      —Harold S. Geneen, CEO of ITT (1910–1997)

      With today’s shifting workforce, a manager’s responsibility for evaluating employees is all the more challenging and complex. In the coming years, as more and more baby boomers retire, experienced workers will be at a premium as they become increasingly hard to find.

      Self-Assessment Quiz

      HOW WELL DO YOU MANAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE?

      Read each of the following statements and indicate whether you agree or disagree. Then check your score at the end.

      I get to know each of my employee’s likes and dislikes.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I generally can tell when an employee is distracted or having trouble focusing on the job.

      • Agree • Disagree

      Employees generally trust me.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I evaluate an employee’s performance at least quarterly.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I often informally let my employees know how they are doing, in addition to giving scheduled evaluations.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I tell employees when they are doing something wrong, but I try to present my comments as constructive criticism.

      • Agree • Disagree

      Employees know that they can tell me something personal and it will remain confidential.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I believe in promoting from within when it is possible to do so.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I encourage employees to speak their minds, and I really listen to what they have to say.

      • Agree • Disagree

      I would not terminate an employee for poor performance without giving ample opportunity to correct the problem.

      • Agree • Disagree

      Scoring

      Give yourself 1 point for every question you answered Agree and 0 points for every question you answered Disagree.

      Analysis

      Most companies will hire younger employees with fewer years on the job—individuals who need well-defined goals, on-the-job training, and continual supervision.

      What should managers look for when they evaluate the performance of these employees? How should they evaluate an individual employee’s initiative, work quality, and potential for advancement? How should managers document employee evaluations? How often should they review employee performance? How do managers promote an employee—or fire one?

      There are no shortcuts to employee evaluation, but there are processes, strategies, and techniques that help managers evaluate employees more effectively. This book addresses the fundamentals of employee evaluation: hiring, day-to-day performance management, reviews, and what to do about performance problems.

      WHY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT MATTERS

      Traditionally, evaluating performance has meant employee appraisal, or the performance review. Today, however, many organizations are moving beyond simply reviewing employee performance toward a more comprehensive performance-management process.

      Performance management is a process-oriented approach to evaluating and supporting employees. Ideally, performance management takes place from the moment the employee is hired to fill a position at a company to the moment the individual leaves the organization. If a company and its management adopt this broad view, managers are in a much better position to help develop each employee’s potential, and employees feel better about their positions and the company they work for.

      Performance management helps managers develop the staff they have and keep them motivated; raise the standards of quality and promote productivity; and keep employees in tune with corporate goals.

      At the heart of performance management is the process of employee evaluation. Ideally, managers periodically evaluate employees informally throughout the year; formal evaluations typically are done on a quarterly or annual basis.

      In fact, the annual performance appraisal has stirred up controversy in management circles. Although the performance appraisal is intended to help employees improve their performance, succeed at their jobs, and then potentially be promoted, it often ends up being used merely as an annual review—a method of handing out rewards and punishments. This is why current opinion favors using the performance appraisal as just one element of the broader performance-management process, which encompasses the employee’s entire tenure at the company from hire onward.

      The BIG Picture

      EVALUATIONS VERSUS APPRAISALS

      Performance appraisal is often mistaken for performance evaluation. An appraisal is typically conducted once a year and is usually connected to compensation (that is, salary increases and bonuses). Managers and employees alike often find the appraisal process burdensome and dissatisfying.

      Constructive performance evaluations can yield significant benefits. In fact, they may be the employee’s only opportunity to spend individual time with a supervisor. The more often they occur, the better the communication will be between manager and employee, which improves morale. When supervisors make time for frequent evaluations, several key benefits can result:

      Outside the Box

      A PERFORMANCE AND VALUES MATRIX

      Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch described four types of employees in a letter to shareholders in the company’s 1991 annual report. He wrote that the two types that are easiest to spot are employees who delivered on commitments and shared the company’s values and employees who did not meet commitments or share values. The third type were employees who shared values but failed to meet commitments. Welch felt these individuals could be redirected. The fourth type, however, was the most problematic: those who delivered on commitments but did not share corporate values. Ultimately, Welch sent them packing.

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