Performance assessment is the third phase of an effective performance appraisal system. Basically, performance assessment involves evaluating just how good a job the individual has done and filling out the appraisal form. Tell Me More Too often, people think that performance appraisal is an event—a once-a-year drill required by the personnel department in which the [...]

Won’t people complain when I deliberately treat some people better than others? Won’t I be accused of favoritism? Yes, they will complain. Yes, you will be accused of favoritism. That’s okay. Consider where the complaints are coming from—the poorer performers. If you treat everyone exactly alike, regardless of performance, you will also get complaints. But [...]

Yes, it is discriminatory. If some people do better work than others do, then they should get more recognition. The better, more productive employees will get more freedom to act and more Post-its saying ‘‘Thanks’’ stuck to their computer monitors. They will be allowed more flexibility in their schedules and get first choice when interesting [...]

How do I actually use recognition? Is there more to it than just saying, "Thanks . . . nice job"? Yes, there is more to it, but not much more. The most important—and most ignored—requirement to make recognition an effective motivational tool is the notion of earned or contingent recognition. If we want to make [...]

No. In fact, praise has very little to do with true recognition of good performance. Have you ever noticed how people react to praise? Not very graciously, most of the time. Praise a house or a garden and its owner hastens to point out its defects; praise an employee for a project and he downplays [...]

I don’t have a budget for awards to recognize people. How can I recognize their good performance if I can’t demonstrate financially that we appreciate good work? Money is only one of your options in recognizing good performance. The most important concept about recognition comes directly from the word itself—‘‘to recognize.’’ When you recognize something, [...]

No. If you recognized good performance every time someone did something right, you’d have no time to do anything else, and they would get bored by it. The key is to make the recognition you provide commensurate with the quality of the job that was done. As the person’s skills increase, the quality of job [...]

No. Don’t do it. Employee-of-the-month programs are a notoriously bad idea. Tell Me More The problem with employee-of-the-month programs is not so much with the concept, but with the execution. The concept is a noble one: Every month the organization will review the employee population and single out that one individual who, in the month [...]

Yes. Recognizing good performance is the single most important motivation tool managers have at their disposal. It is cheap (usually free), is universally liked, and results in an increase in desired performance. Tell Me More Behind this question about motivation lurks a larger issue: How do we go about changing human behavior? Motivating a person [...]

Six techniques have a predictable effect on increasing an individual’s motivation: 1. Create opportunities for achievement and accomplishment. 2. Allow people freedom, discretion, and autonomy in doing the job. 3. Provide opportunities for learning and growth. 4. Increase the amount of challenge. 5. Make sure that the work itself is inherently capable of motivation. 6. [...]

Where does money fit into this scheme? Pay is the ringer in the motivation equation. It is the one factor that shows up as both a source of satisfaction and a source of dissatisfaction. People are dissatisfied with their pay when they feel it isn’t commensurate with their efforts, is distributed inequitably, doesn’t reflect the [...]

The first responsibility of a manager in the performance execution phase is to create the conditions that motivate. The second is to eliminate performance problems. We’ll devote all of Building Performance Excellence  to the methods and techniques that work when you’re confronted with unacceptable performance. Solving people problems, however, is the unusual and infrequent occurrence. [...]

No. The performance log, in whatever form you keep it, is your private and informal record of how people have done in their activities on the job. You may find it worthwhile to have your performance log available if an employee challenges a judgment you make or a description you record in the performance appraisal. [...]

How should I keep track of employees’ performance? Should I keep a journal? And should I record day-to-day performance or just note the exceptional positive and negative events? The method isn’t all that important. What is important is having complete records of exactly how the individual did when the time for performance assessment rolls around. [...]

The employee has one primary responsibility: Get the job done. There are, however, several others: Solicit performance feedback and coaching. Communicate openly with your appraiser on progress and problems in achieving objectives. Update objectives as conditions change. Complete the development plan. Keep track of achievements and accomplishments. Actively participate in the midterm review meeting. Tell [...]

Essentially, performance execution consists of two major responsibilities for the manager. The first is to create the conditions that motivate people to perform at an excellent level. The other is to eliminate performance problems when they arise. The manager also has some other responsibilities in the performance execution phase of the process. They are: Maintaining [...]

Once the performance-planning phase has been completed, it’s time to get the job done—to execute the plan. Performance execution is the second phase of an effective performance management process. For the individual, the critical responsibility in Phase II is getting the job done—achieving the objectives. For the appraiser, there are two major responsibilities: creating the [...]

Performance planning is completed when the manager and the individual have come to an understanding (ideally, an agreement) on the individual’s key job responsibilities, the goals that the person will achieve over the next year, the competencies that the organization expects of its members, and the development plans the individual will pursue. In most cases, [...]

What do I do if the individual disagrees with the goals I want set, or says that my standards are unreasonable, or that one of the key job responsibilities I’ve identified is not really part of the job? You’re the boss. You set the standards. Tell Me More When a difference of opinion arises in [...]

How hard should the goals be? Should I define in advance what it will take to get a superior rating or should I simply describe what will qualify as fully successful? Should I set my objectives at the level that I need the job to be performed, or should I set them based on what [...]

SMART is an acronym for the five components of an effective goal. An effective goal should be: Specific Measurable Attainable Result-focused Time-oriented Tell Me More The inherent advice contained in SMART—that an objective be specific, measurable, attainable, result-focused, and time-oriented—is certainly good advice. Keep in mind, however, that all SMART offers is a test. Once [...]

Here are some suggestions on creating workable goal statements: Start with an action verb. Identify a single key result for each objective. Identify costs—dollars, time, materials, equipment. State verifiable criteria that will demonstrate that the goal has been achieved. Ensure that the goal is controllable by the individual. Determine the relative goal priorities. Determine how [...]

There are several areas that will generate ideas for possible goals: The organization’s vision and values statement or mission statement Objectives from previous review period Critical job responsibilities Your boss’s objectives Division/department plans and strategies Discussions with colleagues/customers/internal clients Organizational problems and opportunities Tell Me More Mission Statement. Too often companies don’t make a clear [...]

Goal setting is one of the key elements of performance planning. In addition to identifying the key responsibilities of the individual’s job and the competencies or behaviors that the organization expects everyone to display, another critical element is setting appropriate goals for the upcoming year. When the manager and the subordinate talk about key job [...]

Descriptive measures seem subjective. Don’t we have to be objective when we evaluate someone’s performance? Of course we must be objective. But what do the words objective and subjective actually mean? The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language provides illuminating definitions: ob-jec-tive (ob-j k’t v) adjective 1: Of or having to do with a [...]

In addition to identifying what the key responsibilities of a position are, the manager and the individual need to discuss how the person’s performance will be measured and evaluated. There are four—and only four—general measures of output: 1. Quality 2. Quantity 3. Cost 4. Timeliness Notice that the last measure is ‘‘timeliness,’’ not ‘‘time.’’ That’s [...]

Some Big Rocks May Be Bigger than Others; Some Key Job Responsibilities are More Critical than Others. How do You Determine the Most Important Items? The easiest way to determine what the most important key responsibility in a subordinate’s job is to imagine that you’re having a conversation with that person. The individual asks, ‘‘Boss, [...]

Job descriptions should provide a lot of help in determining the key responsibilities of a job but they rarely do. Too often, however, job descriptions are written in very general ways to serve many different purposes: recruitment, compensation, legal requirements, etc. As a result, they sometimes provide little information that is useful for performance management [...]

Results include actual job outputs, countable products, measurable outcomes and accomplishments, and objectives achieved. Results deal with what the person achieved. Behaviors include competencies, skills, expertise and proficiencies, the individual’s adherence to organizational values, and the person’s personal style, manner, and approach. Behaviors deal with how the person went about doing the job. The following [...]

Start by making sure you’re fully prepared. Have all of the materials available that you will need: a copy of the employee’s job description, the goals that you have set for your department, your notes on ideas for goals that the employee might set, the company’s mission statement and similar documents, and—most important—a blank copy [...]

The best time is a week or two after you have completed the performance appraisal meeting when you reviewed the official performance appraisal and discussed the person’s performance during the preceding year. Tell Me More Ideally, every manager should close every performance appraisal discussion by saying something like, ‘‘Jane, I think we’ve had a really [...]