January 19, 2008
The training administration team at Glasburg Associates perform miracles on a daily basis. Not only are they preparing for next week’s batch of training courses, they are assisting in courses running each day and they are covering the phones to sell training to new clients. Their job is never boring but it rarely changes from one day to the next. Oliver Hollins and Philippa Ibbitson are both on the team and, although Oliver considers himself to be better at the sales aspects of the job, Philippa has phenomenal accuracy and speed in producing course material. Neither seems to receive appropriate recognition of this.Unlike project teams, office teams do not necessarily have a beginning, middle and end to their main activity that you can easily gauge. Week-in and week-out they will plough through an unending landscape of sameness that they are well adapted to. For these teams recognition must be tied into efficiency, improvement and customer service measures.There is a 3-point guide to building a recognition and reward framework for office teams:Communicate and agree the reward and recognition scheme clearly and unambiguouslyDesign the rewards to be tied into behaviors that are business criticalHave a reliable measurement system that demonstrates progressAgreement is the key to formal team recognition. Clear guidelines about what is expected and sympathetic handling of questions about what happens at the boundaries will motivate teams to drive for results.The trainers at Glasburg Associates use “Delegate evaluation forms” to gauge how well they have been received by their audiences. Trainers receive a bonus if the forms demonstrate an average score of 8 or better out of a possible total of 10. So many questions were raised about “How many evaluation forms should be counted?”, “What if the average score is 7.9?”, “Can we exclude really low scores caused by trouble-makers?”, “Can we take the average of all of the courses held that month?” that a decision was made to change the focus of the recognition scheme. It became clear that experienced trainers found the target easy to meet but inexperienced trainers became disillusioned because they were starting from a lower baseline.The 8 out of 10 figure is still retained as the standard to be worked towards and experienced trainers are recognized for maintaining high scores that exceed this figure. However the others are now rewarded for making more than a 0.3 improvement month on month. The system is not perfect but they now have a method of motivating everyone in the company to improve their performance.Teams exist to offset the weaknesses of individuals and to benefit from the strengths of each member. A recognition scheme can bring a greater awareness of this by highlighting the different skills necessary to achieve success.Glasburg Associates now use the same approach with their Admin team as with their training team allowing Oliver Hollins to be rewarded for his superior sales skills and for Philippa Ibbitson to receive acclaim for her efficiency.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Of course, we all majored in recognition skills at high school. Being positive comes as second nature to everybody and we never focus too much on faults. Unfortunately there the fairy tale must end. Complaining, it seems, is a much more developed skill than praising and many people find it difficult to be only positive. It is as if they can’t help themselves adding a crushing blow. Like Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening) in “American Beauty” when she praises her daughter Jane (Thora Birch) for her cheerleading performance, she says, “I was watching you very closely, and you didn’t screw up once.”LanguageIt is often said that, in communication, we get the response we deserve. Bear this in mind when you next ask for an additional task to be undertaken. Listen to the words that you use. Do you apologize, saying:”I’m really sorry that I have to drop this on you”Do you antagonize, saying:”Whether you like it or not you’ll have to do this by 5pm.”Do you empathize, saying:”I know this is a pain, but it really needs to be done.”Do you sympathize, saying:”Poor you! This extra work probably means overtime.”…or do you enthuse, by saying:”Hey, you’re just the person who can help me! I need this urgent job to be done today, and I was thinking you’d be the best person to get it out accurately and on time.”No prizes for guessing which approach gets a more energetic response. Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm and if you can embed a few pieces of recognition in your request without sounding sarcastic you’ll stand a better chance of getting a motivated performance.When you are actually praising someone, try to tell them how you feel. “It made me proud that I work for the same company when I saw you handling that complex customer problem”, means so much more than, “Good job, keep it up.” “I wish I had your comic timing. Your ability to make people laugh and feel motivated to get on with the toughest and most unpleasant of jobs leaves me in awe.” says more than “I’m impressed, carry on, dude!”Also make an attempt to acknowledge that you really did understand that the behavior was appropriate; “I was especially impressed when you offered to call them to update them on progress at the end of the day. That’s a great standard to work to”Managers can develop a crippling disability when they use language variously known as “verbal diarrhea”, “let me tell you what you mean” and “that’s not the way I’d do it”. As people climb the management ladder there is a tendency for them to lose the listening skill and to gain an add-on to their verbosity skills. This is not surprising as they are probably expected to talk for most of the day; however when it comes to gathering information to promote informal recognition, keeping your ears open and your mouth shut is an essential skill.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Performance Management is coming under critical fire because the complexity of some of the processes is beginning to over-ride the fundamental principles. However, as Hogan Armstrong knows, elements of Performance Management work well for both employees and managers. Hogan is an IT Service Engineer for a large multinational organization. He spends the majority of his working life away from his home office but his Self-Monitoring System lets both him and his manager know how he is performing.Any personal objective important enough to be included in a performance plan should be measurable in one way or another. One of Hogan’s principal objectives is:”To follow up each service call after two working days to check system functionality and customer satisfaction. Where problems are revealed, I will take responsibility for immediately reporting the fault and initiating a remedy within 24 hours.”This can be tracked objectively and simply. Hogan keeps a register of service calls, customer follow-up calls and Emails on the network that he can refer to and update. His manager also has access to the file at any time. Although some organizations have sophisticated Customer Relations Databases that contain this information and even flag up calls to be made each day, a simple paper system or spreadsheet can work just as effectively.The main guideline here is that these objectives are agreed and so your team-members ought to be motivated to monitor their own progress throughout the year. If objectives are important, which they should be, there ought to be a Self-Monitoring System for each objective that makes up-to-date information easily available to whoever needs it in the organization.In companies where Performance Management is well established, individuals and teams take great pride in displaying their Self-Monitoring Systems. To them it is a form of publicity. “If we are good at what we do, then everyone should know and there is more chance of us being recognized as key contributors to the organizational goals.”In one clothing manufacturer’s buying department, they were suffering from greater than average sickness absence. The manager knew this but the buying team was not aware that it was a problem. Now, because the manager recognized that sickness absence and managing the workload around this was his responsibility, he undertook to display a measure of “lost days” for his department. The chart simply had an anonymous line graph showing the number of days per week lost to sickness. Two weeks after displaying the chart, keeping it updated and not doing much else, the lost days in his department reduced to zero and stayed pretty much that way.This manager was originally very skeptical about Performance Management. After this experience he said “Surely if you pay attention to anything, it gets better”. Absolutely right! And by displaying the “Lost Days” chart he was broadcasting to his team that sickness absence was a key issue for him as a manager. Without talking to him about it, they changed their behavior and helped him to meet his objectives.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
An appraisal is an official document given by an appraiser that estimates the replacement value and quality of an item. An appraiser makes a report after examination and detailed analysis of the property.Types of AppraisalsDrive by Appraisals: This is an abbreviated appraisal that requires less data and inspection by the appraiser. The data is generally collected verbally or from records.Professional Appraisals: Appraisals for personal property like estate tax, donation, sale of insurance, damage claims and equitable distribution.Sustainability Appraisals: They are essential for national legislation that includes environmental, social and economic concerns.Job Performance Appraisals: These appraisals are needed for performance rankings. They help in decision making regarding promotion, confirmation, transfer and salary fixing. These appraisals also give feedback regarding behavior of subordinates. This information helps in training, recognizing the skill of workers, their deficiencies and growth. These also play an important role in counseling subordinates. It also gives an insight into the behavior of employees.The purposes of performance appraisals are:? Creating and maintaining a satisfactory performance.? Contributing to employee growth and development through training and management programs.? Proper understanding of subordinates.? Guidance to employees regarding jobs? Facilitate fair compensation based on performance and interview techniques.? Providing information regarding retrenchment.Evaluating the work of individuals is a regular feature of companies. The appraisals made can be formally structured or an informal process. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects of job performance are evaluated during appraisals. Performance appraisal here means evaluating the amount of work and effort the individual has put in and is not evaluating the result. Performance appraisals give an insight into the employee?s weakness and strengths. Job evaluation is the amount of profit the organization is deriving by assigning the job and determines the range of pay while performance appraisal is evaluating how well the job is being done by the employee.The content to be appraised has to be decided by a company before the program is approved. This is done on the basis of a job analysis. Appraisals help the employer to understand and improve his employee.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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