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Managers: Give Continuous Feedback! www.eresumes.com Talent is a strategic and competitive advantage in today's constantly changing marketplace. Everyone talks about speed and quality at every step of the hiring process in order to obtain the best talent. But no one really talks about the retention process in any great detail after the best talent is hired. One of the best tools to address this is the performance appraisal process. By taking a creative look at this process, a manager can engage in both short term and long term planning. The purpose of performance appraisals is to provide the feedback necessary in selecting, promoting, and retaining the best personnel within an organization. The key phrase is to provide feedback. Effective feedback is a two-way process that gives personnel a chance to make adjustments in their performance, and managers a chance to evaluate those adjustments. Unfortunately, many managers get caught up in day-to-day operations, and don't give adequate priority to providing employees feedback and the opportunity to make those adjustments. Typically the first time an employee knows that he or she needs improvement in some area is during a formal annual performance appraisal. Both employees and managers cringe when they hear the words performance appraisal. For the person being evaluated, the phrase evokes images of his or her manager as the bearer of bad news, where he or she will find out what they did wrong for the first time in a year. For the manager, the words are a reminder that there is a memo on his or her desk from the HR department that several appraisals are due in the next few weeks, and there is just no time to complete them. But the appraisal process can be a success for both employee and manager if it's begun from day one, not one year later. Ongoing performance appraisals increase accountability for performance because there is continuous feedback; they also improve communication. Sports are one of the clearest examples of how continuous feedback is important to the success of an entire team - or organization. For example, a football coach doesn't wait until the end of the season to let his (or her) team know how they have been doing. Without continuous feedback, the team has no way of knowing what adjustments to make. Imagine the time and energy and cost involved in re-recruiting an entire football team due to poor performance. To give continuous feedback constructively: Integrate the organization's vision, mission, values, and strategies as it relates to your department or functional area of responsibility into the performance appraisal process. Make sure that the employees that you manage understand what these things mean, and understand how you will evaluate them based on them. Mesh the performance appraisal process with the recruitment process. The first time a potential employee will meet face-to-face with his or her new manager is during the interview. One factor in measuring the success of staffing within an organization is to measure turnover rate. It costs as much, if not more, to replace human resources as it does to recruit them. The interview process should be closely tied to the performance appraisal process. Although there are no guarantees that a candidate will stay with a company for any length of time, a company should take the time to identify what they are looking for, and determine a candidate's degree of profitability (e.g., billable hours) and liability (e.g., overhead costs) to the organization in the short and long term. A critical factor often overlooked during interviews is conveying how the success of that individul's performance will be measured. Identifying expectations up front is key for both sides. And one way to identify what those expectations are is to take a look at the performance appraisal and ask yourself how will you measure that person's success when it comes time to evaluate that performance during a formal review? Set goals early, and allow for the flexibility to adjust them as needed. Your goal as a manager is to create the situation necessary for your employee to succeed. Both you and the employee should have the freedom to adjust these goals so that they are mutually beneficial, and in support of the organization. By setting goals early, it lets you as a manager learn to give feedback on those goals, and it encourages the employee to learn how to receive feedback. You will increase the likelihood that they will listen and understand. Since the formal review would be months away, the feedback will be taken constructively. The old attitude of "we'll hire you but on our terms" is passe. And of course, the appraisal process has been carried out with this attitude's influence. Attitudes like this reflect in the overall corporate culture, and will ultimately reveal it through your staffing and how your staff represents your firm to your customers and your clients. |
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