Smart practices

Managing Performance 1: What’s the Process?

The goals of any performance management process or system are productivity, continuing improvement, and accountability. If you are hiring effectively, most employees want to contribute and succeed in their work! Founders, executives, and managers play key roles in ensuring that individuals have the skills, tools, support, and knowledge to do so.

Performance management is an on-going work routine designed to help ensure that each person becomes and remains a highly productive, effective contributor. It is a cycle which includes action from orientation through termination.

There are nine discussions which have been shown to have a major impact on productivity. These are:

Orientation to the work unit
Initial work assignment discussion
Orientation follow-up
Agreeing on work assignment plans and measurements
Career coaching
Recognizing consistent progress
Recognizing above-average performance
Counseling and correcting substandard performance
Regular,on-going performance discussions

Note that some of these are relatively formal, scheduled discussions.  Others can be ‘catching the person doing something well’ and saying so, on the spot skill coaching or advice, or other less formal communications.

New employees want to know about the overall business and where and how they fit in. Providing the information they need to succeed, as in the first three above, helps convey your expectations clearly and provides a blueprint for success.

Discussing and agreeing on work assignments affects the individual’s sense of positive involvement. It gives both of you an opportunity to address issues and clarify expectations. When work plans in whole or in part are developed jointly, the risks of misunderstanding and poor performance are reduced. Realistic standards are more achievable. So is success for you both and for your company!

Career coaching involves providing information and feedback. It includes ‘how to succeed here’ talks, discussions of the individual’s goals, as well as future plans of the organization so that an […]

By |July 5th, 2015|Smart practices|Comments Off on Managing Performance 1: What’s the Process?
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Tips for Employee Personnel Files Management

Hard to come up with a sexy title for this topic – but it is vital to your organization. Employee records include both those items mandated by various laws, examples – I-9 forms and payroll records, and those important to managing the organization and the employee.

You can keep employee records in paper, scanned into a secure system, or managed entirely electronically. However you keep these records, you must ensure their security, limit access, and have back-ups. Once your growth takes you to 50 or more employees, it is often smart to buy a HRMS – software that keeps the records you need and allows you to do the analysis you need for management. These also support your EEO and AAP requirements if you are a government contractor or rely on federal funding.

State laws govern whether employees must have access to their records.  It is usually a smart practice to allow current employees access to their master records. This form of transparency reduces employee fears. You may also want to allow employees to respond or rebut items in their records. Most won’t , but again it is a morale issue.

What are employee records?

Master file: offer letters, resume or application, emergency contact info, pay and job change documents, performance reviews, letters of commendation, client notes, discipline records, and similar documents
Hiring file: reference checks, background checks, assessments, original job description, and other documents needed for EEO/legal compliance but which the employee does not have access to normally.
Payroll file: all records relating to pay including timesheets, vacation and other paid leaves, tax forms, state-ordered payments. These are usually kept in payroll.
Medical file: anything that has any personal medical information. This may include drug tests, medical leave documents, physicals, […]

By |March 2nd, 2015|Smart practices|0 Comments
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HR Learnings from Marshawn Lynch

The frenzy around the Super Bowl provides all sorts of ideas for any small business. That around Marshawn Lynch certainly speaks to basics of managing employees.

Lesson 1. High potential employees need support to grow.

Even when you have terrific people working for you, you need to understand and support their growth. Marshawn Lynch is a top level player who clearly does not like responding to reporters and feels his comments are not reported correctly. He has been fined for not speaking to them. Yet the NFL does minimal speaking training. And if you follow the NFL, you know a lot of other players forced into answering reporters questions who do not do so very well.

I have worked in many companies where we invested heavily in training customer-facing people in speaking skills – from the CEO on down through individual contributors. Most of us are not comfortable giving speeches or public presentations – or even talking to internal meetings. Some surveys show a fear of public speaking that is only slightly lower than that of serious injury! And even those who are willing to speak need a lot of practice and preparation to actually be good. This is true for many other aspects of work where you want your people to contribute too.

What are you doing to ensure your people have the right training and development opportunities to grow and develop your business?

What are you doing for your own professional growth and development?

 

Lesson 2. Check your compensation philosophy and structure.

Does your pay program actually support your values and goals? The NFL expects every player to be available to talk with reporters before and after games and at events. They do not reward such behavior, instead they […]

By |January 30th, 2015|Compensation, culture, Smart practices|0 Comments
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