Performance Reviews: Judgement Day

It’s that time of the year! December means performance reviews which typically brings anxiety along with it.

It’s a time when, regardless of performance, people feel afraid of how they might be blindsided by their boss or manager.

If your supervisor (or you as a supervisor or manager) only holds performance conversations with staff one or two times a year, they’re doing everyone a disservice.

I’ve worked with several organizations where we had performance reviews once a year. The scale for each review was from 1-5 (1 was low, 5 was high), and regardless of performance, everyone scored a 4 or a 5. Those who performed poorly had no clue, and those who exceeded expectations had no incentive to perform at or above the same level.

Staff in the organizations rarely (if ever) had conversations with their supervisors/managers about their career and job-related goals. Now, I’m not suggesting it is only the supervisor’s responsibility to ask these questions. Employees certainly share responsibility for not telling their supervisors what they want or need. However, supervisors should set the precedent.

When you don’t have a regularly scheduled one-on-one with your supervisor, it’s hard to believe they actually care about what you want long-term. It’s hard to believe they see you as more than a cog in their big machine of results and deliverables.

So, how do we change the culture of performance reviews?

Suggestions for supervisors

Conduct a stay interview with all of your staff. This includes asking the following questions:

What goals were you hoping to achieve when you took this job?
Are you achieving these goals?
If not, what can we do better to ensure you do?

good meeting You may also consider asking “your staff about their favorite projects they’ve worked on, the moments when they’ve felt most energized at work, the times when they’ve found themselves totally immersed in a state of flow, and the passions they have outside their jobs.” (Harvard Business Review) With this information, managers and supervisors can help their employees not only construct roles that are a good fit for the employee and produce results for the organization, but also make the employee feel engaged and valued.

This type of conversation also allows managers to co-construct goals and objectives that allow them to check-in with their staff periodically for progress updates. Suddenly, “performance reviews” get a lot easier because you have goals and objectives built around the employee rather than the position (which is typically vague and not helpful).

Regularly meet with your staff.

How often do you meet with all of your staff? Do you have regularly scheduled meetings? Or, do your meetings consist of more random check-ins, only when problems arise? How often are these meetings? Are these your meetings or theirs?

It may not be feasible for you or your staff to have a regularly scheduled weekly meeting. However, if you don’t meet with each of your direct reports at least once a month, something is wrong. Your direct reports need face time with you, and these need to be their meetings. Let them set the agenda, and give them time to talk to you about whatever may be on their mind. They become accountable and responsible for the content of the meeting. If your staff hasn’t engaged in this type of meeting with you before, give them a general outline or suggested meeting topics (job related accomplishments, obstacles, discussion, etc.) so they don’t feel like they have to come up with something completely on their own. Give them the option to use or not use your suggestions.

Ask for the last 5-15 minutes of the meeting for time that you can use to ask questions or bring up any items that you would like to discuss. Ask them about their goals, what they’ve done since their last meeting with you to move toward those goals, and if anything has changed.

Asking questions about their goals and their progress in their position shows that you care about each employee’s professional and personal development and success.

Remember:
Put your phone away. Get off your computer. Give them your undivided attention. Giving your full attention shows that you value them, what they have to say, and what they do for you.

Suggestions for employees

Ask your supervisor if you can schedule a regular meeting.

If you want to have a better relationship with your supervisor and/or you want them to know your professional (and maybe personal) goals and objectives, you have to tell them. Don’t expect your supervisor to read your mind and schedule a meeting with you. If you want your supervisor to know you want additional responsibility, to move into a leadership position, or attend a certain conference, etc., TELL THEM.

These meetings don’t have to be weekly, or even bi-weekly. See if you can start small, maybe once a month, or even once a quarter. Write down your goals and bring them to your meeting. Think about how those goals intertwine with the organizations goals. Show your list to and discuss it with your supervisor. You may be surprised with the feedback or suggestions they have for you, and they may even provide you with information you have not yet considered.

Ask your supervisor questions.

Can you read your supervisor’s mind? No. Neither can I.

The Muse has an article about the 8 Questions You Should Be Asking Your Boss. My favorite of these questions include:

“What can I do to make you more successful today (or this week, month, quarter, or year)?”
“What’s one thing I could do differently?”
“How would you like to receive feedback from me?”

When you know what your supervisor wants expects from you, and you confirm this on a regular basis, you can set yourself (and your supervisor) up for success.

Connecting the dots

Performance reviews don’t have to invoke anxiety, fear, and stress. They can be designed to act as check-in tools to see where an employee falls when it comes to accomplishing their own goals as well as the goals of the organization. They aren’t a time to blindside someone, and they shouldn’t be avoided. When a manager regularly checks-in with his or her staff, and everyone is on the same page when it comes to current performance and expectations, everybody wins.

Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for ways to increase your organization’s level of employee engagement and revamp the way your organization or team conducts performance reviews, please review my services here and contact me here.

August 26, 2018August 26, 2018

For Organizations: Employee Development Coaching/Consultation

Why should you or your organization invest in employee development coaching or consultation from Life Work Balance LLC?

Ask yourself these questions:
✅ Do you want to attract top talent?
✅ Do you want to retain your top talent?
✅ Do you want your employees to feel like you care for and value them?
✅ Do you want your employees to feel engaged at work?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should invest in coaching as a way to provide growth and development opportunities for your employees.

Effective development and coaching facilitates the professional growth of your employees by:
✅ helping them recognize their natural talents
✅ develop those natural talents into strengths
✅ and acknowledge and improve on their weaknesses

Employee development is a huge missed opportunity for organizations.

Opportunities to learn and grow is considered one of the top 3 factors in retaining young workers, and is important to all generations in the workplace (see this article by Gallup).

According to Gallup, “87% of millennials rate ‘professional or career growth and development opportunities’ as important to them in a job…[and] 69% of non-millennials say the same.”

When organizations lack professional-development opportunities for their employees, many high-potential/high-performing employees will move on to organizations that do foster their growth. This costs organizations money, time, and resources.

The effort it takes to recruit, orient, and train new employees are often better spent developing and encouraging current employees, especially when they are otherwise happy in their work.

MIT says coaching:

creates a genuinely motivating climate for performance, improves the match between an employee’s actual and expected performance, and increases the probability of an employee’s success by providing timely feedback, recognition, clarity and support.

How does Life Work Balance’s employee development coaching work?

Coaching is a unique one-on-one relationship designed to help members of your organization:
✅ overcome challenges
✅ realize their potential
✅ and maximize their success.

Coaching is appropriate for all members of your organization. This includes high-performing employees who are looking for additional professional development opportunities; promising or established employees who have lost motivation; employees who need help improving their time management or communication skills; and employees who are struggling with interpersonal relationships at work.

When your employees work with our coaches, they receive individual, confidential guidance. Our coaches act as a resource and sounding board for employees while also providing unbiased, honest feedback, and ask questions that spark, inspire, and provoke discussions, thought, and self-reflection.

Organizations paying for coaching for an employee may work with a consultant to set the initial coaching objectives or delineate the challenges as they see them, but they will only receive limited information about the coaching engagement. Further information will be shared by the employee at their discretion.

If you feel your organization is ready to invest in employee development coaching, contact us here.

August 12, 2018August 12, 2018

Cracking the Code to Employee Engagement – Guest Host for Health Links Webinar

May 18, 2018June 27, 2018

Employee Engagement: It’s All About the Relationship

Employee engagement is a popular phrase in today’s business world. It is quite common for employees to expect more than just a paycheck when it comes to their work, and employers are struggling to figure out what they can do to meet these expectations.

I have a simple answer for you: human relationships.

It’s really not that simple – if it was, everyone would do it. When it comes down to employee engagement initiatives, most programs fail because organizations forget to focus on human relationships, which I would argue are the building blocks of engagement.

There are many different definitions of employee engagement, and they all revolve around a common theme: emotional commitment and attachment to one’s workplace and fellow employees. Engaged employees feel a profound connection and commitment to their company; they work with passion, they are loyal, and they are willing to go the extra mile.

What separates those organizations with high levels of employee engagement and those with low levels of employee engagement? Culture.

Employees want to be hired and retained by organizations with exceptional workplace cultures. These cultures have many different aspects to them, but they often involve overall feelings of trust, contribution, inclusion, altruism, achievement, and happiness. These feelings are all derived from one thing: human relationships.

A 2016 survey by the Society of Human Resources Management revealed relationships in the workplace are top drivers of employee engagement. Respondents described how relationships in the workplace were vital to their overall engagement in the workplace. 77% believed their relationships with their co-workers influenced their engagement and almost the same number, 74%, believed their relationship with their immediate supervisor influenced their engagement.

This makes sense – if you enjoy the people you work with, the easier it is to enjoy going to work each day. If you don’t enjoy the people you work work with you likely experience the Monday Morning Blues on more days than Monday.

Do you have a best friend at work?

Gallup, a research-based, global performance-management consulting company, has conducted employee engagement research for over 30 years and the best friend question, “Do you have a best friend at work?” is one of the most controversial.

Gallup asks this question for one primary reason: performance. The research shows a “concrete link between having a best friend at work and the amount of effort employees expend in their job.” They give the example of women who strongly agree they have a best friend at work compared to those who don’t strongly agree: those who strongly agree are two times (63%) more likely to be engaged at work.

Holistically though, it’s becoming more acceptable to want and expect more than just a paycheck from work. As social beings, we want sense of accomplishment, value, and altruism from our work. If positive social/human relationships are missing from your workplace, chances are you feel less energized and motivated by the work you do – even if you are good at what you do. This leads to being less invested and possibly less productive.

51% of employees who strongly agree that their organization encourages close friendships at work (who rate this statement a 5 on the 5-point scale) are extremely satisfied with their place of employment, compared to just 19% of employees who disagree with that statement (by choosing a 1 or 2) – Getting Personal in the Workplace, Gallup

If 75% of employees agree relationships in the workplace influence their engagement, how do companies and management prioritize human relationships and make their workplace more relationship-centric?

Bonfyre describes how human relationships in the workplace are a result of how often people connect and communicate (interaction) and how much people have in common (relatedness). Organizations, leadership, and managers are relationship-centric when they set up their work environment for their employees to become best friends. This is done by increasing the ability to interact with other employees, which may lead to a discovery of what the employees have in common. As Bonfyre describes, best friends are a product of high levels of interaction and relatedness.

You typically can’t discover what you have in common with someone (relatedness) without interacting with them first. Companies looking to become more relationship-centric need to focus on giving their employees the opportunity to interact with each other.

How?

1. Step away from the computer.

Instead of sending an email, take the opportunity to go speak to the recipient in person. It’s been said that 93% of communication is nonverbal. If this is the case there is a high chance that a miscommunication may occur if you only communicate via text-based means.

2. Invest in technology that promotes social relationships such as video chat software and/or collaboration software.

If you must communicate in ways that are not in-person, invest in video chat or collaboration software that will enable your employees to interact on a more personal level. Of course emails and phone calls are a popular communication means, but you can make it more personal by providing a different social element.

3. Gratitude.

There is no such thing as too much gratitude. The benefits of gratitude are numerous both in the professional world as well as in your personal life. In my article 3 Ways Gratitude Promotes a Culture of Engagement in the Workplace, I describe how gratitude increases productivity, job satisfaction, and may increase feelings of psychological safety. It’s important to know your people: some may like public displays of gratitude, others may prefer a private thank you in the hallway.

4. Ask for employee input.

Have you heard of the Ikea-effect? This is the idea that if you help build something, you will love or value it more. If your employees feel heard and like their input matters, they will feel valued by the organization and their engagement can increase. Giving employees the opportunity to collaborate and co-create will promote positive relationship building, trust, and belonging.

5. Talk the talk and walk the walk.

When it comes to culture changes employees typically won’t buy-in or join-in until leadership and culture champions show they are dedicated to the change in culture. If you are genuine with your efforts to change the culture your employees will notice.

Connecting the Dots

Employee engagement initiatives fail because organizations forget to focus on the basic building block of engagement: human relationships. Organizations promoting relationship building between employees gives employees opportunities to discover what they have in common with other employees. This discovery can lead to close friendships; possibly even best friendships. If an organization is looking to become more relationship-centric its leadership and culture champions must invest in face-to-face interactions, whether this is in-person or virtually, they must become comfortable expressing genuine gratitude on regular and consistent bases. When employees feel like their input is valued and considered they feel a deeper connection to their work, fellow employees, and organization. All of this is irrelevant if leadership and management don’t create and stick to patterns of behavior that is consistent with building a culture of trust, contribution, inclusion, altruism, achievement, and happiness.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post! If you’re looking for ways to increase your organization’s level of employee engagement and improve positive workplace relationships, please review my services here and contact me here.

This was originally posted on LinkedIn on May 18th, 2018. See the full post here.