In 2012, Major Performance Management trends have more to do with customization than anything. And this season, we have nailed just that!

While Weightage-based reviews and Custom Rating scales are the highlights of our latest release, enhancements have also been added  to existing modules like the Newsfeed, Goals Management and Manager Reviews.

Weightage-Based Review System

Our new Weightage Based Review system now lets HR assign a weightage to a review. The weightage can be Question-specific (individual weightage for each question) or Respondent Role-Based ( different weightage to managers/self/peer reviews). What does it achieve? Simply put, a much more Fair Review system!

However, we can not [ and do not wish to ] enforce this on anybody, so you have the option to disable this new feature from the configurations panel.

Template Sharing

If it’s the employees and managers who are going to be the end users of your review templates, how can the HR alone be deciding what competencies to include in one. Imagine this! You create a template for a department but you’re not sure if it has too many or too little competencies, whether they target the technical aspect or not; And a thousand other questions that confuse the HR while preparing an appraisal form. So we have provided the HR with the facility to share a template with a manager, an employee or  an entire department to consider their opinion and tailor it according to their response.

Custom Rating Scales

The ratings of your reviews are now presentable in two formats. A numerical mode that lets you give your own range of scale . ( i.e 1-5 , 2-10 , 20-100 etc) and a descriptive mode that lets you add a text instead of number as a rating. You may fill in the five rating fields with literally any text….Well practically speaking, anything that makes your appraisal forms look good.

Manager Review Edit Facility

To err is human, to be able to fix it is WorkforceGrowth. Whether used for the purpose of correction, or for giving the employee another chance to improve, the Review Edit facility lets a manager re-open a submitted review to make changes to it and re submit. This is available only to an employee’s manager and only once.

Company Newsfeed

While we strongly believe our Company Newsfeed is like a mini-facebook for your company (one that does not require any proxies!), you can now control which levels of your organizational hierarchy have access to it. And if it just doesn’t fit your company policy, you can wipe it out completely from the the configurations panel.

Goals Management

When an executive assigns a goal to an employee, the direct supervisor is automatically added in the loop. All three parties in the loop remain updated with any discussions or status changes regarding the goal’s progress.

So this year, make sure you get the best out of WorkforceGrowth, and it will guarantee the best out of your workforce.

Happy Reviewing!

Now Admin can enable or disable both Goals and Feedback modules  to customize WorkforceGrowth as per their organizations needs. This feature will help administrator streamline the overall experience for their organizations.

I wanted to share some technical aspects of our users who range from small startups to large enterprises. Its very interesting to see how IE is quickly losing its ground and thats good news to our designers as IE is always a tough nut to crack when it comes to CSS.

Browsers

Operating Systems

Below is the breakdown of our quick and easy “Peer Nomination Process”. This feature allows  HR to ask all or selective employees to nominate their peers for their reviews. To reduce huge workload, nominations are automatically shown when a review is created. HR can also set limit on nominations so no single employee is overburdened by too many review requests.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbookand president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

STEP 1: PLANNING AND PREPARATION

• Familiarize yourself with the form and the ratings
• Think about the goals each employee has been working on. What contribution is the employee/should employee be making? Does the employee know clearly what is expected? What are the strengths/areas for improvement?
• Collect objective information, pull examples, observations
• Pull job description
• Fill out the form privately; put it aside; review the next day or so; be ready to justify ratings
• Be sure to add specific examples
• Plan your discussion in detail; compliments; areas for improvement
• Schedule the meeting; plan enough time for the discussion; assure privacy; select a time when you and the employee are not under pressure
• Review appraisal once more before meeting
• Make sure it’s job and goal-related; fair and objective; based on performance
• Remember – ABC (accurate, behavioral, and complete and consistent)
• Discuss self-evaluation…and the value of it. This is optional. (If there are important differences, be prepared to discuss them as well as why you think one version is more accurate than another.)
• The manager needs to think about how to involve employees in the process…how to get them to take part in the appraisals…in addition to a self-evaluation, how to get them to do most of the talking during the session, and help them identify and plan their professional development.
• A Washington (USA) based employers, National Cooperative Bank, a financial services company in DC, calls its appraisal process the Max Plan. Their process is employee-driven. Employees seek feedback from their managers and team members, then review their prior year’s Max Plan and assess achievements demonstrating measurable results. They then draft a new plan – all before meeting with their supervisors.
• At the National Health Service Hospital in the UK, employees reported finding the process beneficial as long as they were actively engaged in the process. They reported that the objectives they set for themselves were more interesting and challenging than those set by their supervisors.

STEP 2: START THE MEETING ON A POSITIVE NOTE

• Always conduct a warm up/set the tone; keep small talk to a minimum
• Put the employee at ease; acknowledge that the employee may feel uncomfortable; try to reassure; stress the routine of it; share your experience; say you have many positive things to say – if that’s true (lowers the anxiety level right away)
• Keep it informal but business-like
• Outline what you want to cover; in what order; explain the structure of the meeting – so employee will know what to expect (this also lowers anxiety); employee will have a chance to raise concerns
• Clearly explain the purpose (and importance) of the meeting in positive terms. Say that appraisals: are designed to help employee know how he/she is doing; ensure you are both on the same track in terms of realistic goals and priorities; provide a forum for problem resolution; provide feedback to help the employee succeed; are an investment in their professional development.
• Indicate what you want to accomplish in meeting
• Allow the employee sufficient time to read the appraisal. Ask for their impression. You can read the self-evaluation at this point. Discuss any major differences.
• Encourage the employee to discuss the appraisal with you.
• Set ground rules – open and honest; 2 way; avoid defensiveness on both parts and getting sidetracked into a detailed discussion of one performance problem; problem-solving.

STEP 3: THE BIG DISCUSSION

• Describe the job in terms of how it fits into the larger picture; purpose of the position and importance of “less desirable” aspects.
• Listen – give the employee a chance to talk
• Go over the ratings; be prepared to be challenged/ready with examples
• Explain ratings don’t equate to grades
• Start with the positive; Say things like “You’ve made important contributions this year.” “I’m impressed by your performance on _________.” “You’ve been more conscientious about ________.” “I was pleased to see ______________.”
• Work your way through each section of the form– use it as a tool for facilitating discussion
• Review significant accomplishments – give praise and credit (nothing is more stimulating/motivating; helps increase confidence and reinforce good performance.)
• Ask open-ended questions to get a general reaction. Many start with “How do you think things have been going” “Do these ratings seem fair?” “What would you do differently?”
• Remember to focus on the job performance
• Consider asking other questions to facilitate discussion: What did I do for you in the last 6 months that really helped your performance? Hindered your performance? What can I do in the next 6 months? What do you want most from your job? Under what conditions do you do your best work? How would you like to receive suggestions for improving your work? How can I help you reach your career goals? What inhibits your best work? What things have made your job more difficult? What do we need to do in the next year to help you be more productive? (These last 2 questions are from author Robert Bacal)
• Discuss areas where the performance falls short – with specific examples. “I was concerned _______________.” Focus criticisms on performance, not personality characteristics.
• Be specific. Stay calm.
• Don’t discuss areas for improvement in a way that will seriously disturb a good employee; net result is to be encouraging.
• Identify specific actions the employee can take to improve performance. Ask for their suggestions.
• Work for understanding rather than complete agreement; can agree to disagree.
• Remind employee about the feedback page

STEP 4: THE CLOSING

• Just as important to end the meeting in a professional and positive manner, as it was to start the meeting. You want the employee to leave the discussion with a positive impression of the process.
• Summarize what was discussed
• If the employee introduced issues that would make you consider changing their evaluation, apologize for your oversight and tell employee you would like a few days to consider how this information might effect your evaluation.
• Settle on a plan for the future; important to let the employee have input
• Write goals together; make measurable; challenging but achievable
• Offer your help
• Express confidence that the two of you can successfully work through the difficulties
• Think about training, skills development, opportunities or added responsibilities
• Ask the employee to add any last thoughts/ questions/ reaction to the performance appraisal meeting; (“What’s been learned?” “Surprises?” “Was it fair?” “Your general reaction?” “ If you have more reaction later, my door is open.”).
• Remind about the Feedback Form
• If the employee disagrees with any points brought out, let him/her know he/she has the following options: a) document the areas of disagreement on the feedback form; b) he/she can discuss the issue with the supervisor’s supervisor; c) he/she can discuss it with HR.
• Review mutual agreement for next step and follow up
• Share your ideas on where the dept is headed
• Discuss department goals
• Discuss company goals and review mission/vision (employees want to be in the loop)
• Relate the employees past and present performance with department
• Close on a friendly note – let them know they’re part of the team, that their performance matters to the company and the department
• Encourage them; express appreciation for the employees participation; in the words of Former GE CEO Jack Welch, “I was a gardener providing water and nourishment.”
• Both sign and date form. Explain that signing the form merely indicates that the form has been discussed with him/her and indicates the date of the appraisal discussion
• Explain where the form will go; stress the confidentiality
• Tell them you’ll continue to give feedback throughout the year; say, “feel comfortable contacting me at any time to discuss.”

STEP 5: DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW-UP

• Follow up on commitments you’ve made for support, training, etc.
• Refer to HR to determine if a copy of the documentation should be sent to HR and kept in the manager’s employee file
• Review your notes and evaluate yourself
• Begin observa

Now HR can view the exact status of each review which are submitted to managers . We are adding a new legend as “Submitted for Approval” in our review details page. Below is the screenshot of our new legend. We hope this will make your review management even more easier.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbookand president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

When it comes time to conduct a performance evaluation following are  the 10 rating errors to avoid.

1. CENTRALIZATION. Clustering everyone in the middle performance categories to avoid extremes of good or bad performance… it’s easy, but it’s wrong!

2. FAVORITISM. Overlooking the flaws of favored or “nice” employees, especially those whom everyone likes.

3. GROUPING. Excusing below-standard performance because it is widespread; “everyone does it”.

4. GUILT BY ASSOCIATION. Rating someone on the basis of the company they keep, rather than on the work they do. Watch out for the “halo” version of this error as well.

5. THE HALO EFFECT. Letting one work factor you like affect your overall assessment of performance.

6. HOLDING A GRUDGE. A dangerous luxury that may result in your ending up in court. Never try to make employees pay for past behavior!

7. THE HORNS EFFECT. Letting one work factor or behavior you dislike color your opinion of other factors.

8. BIAS. Allowing your bias to influence the rating. Bias can come from attitudes and opinions about race, national origin, sex, religion, age, veterans’ status, disability, hair color, weight, height, intelligence, etc.

9. REGENCY. Don’t only rate a recent performance as good or bad. Data should be representative of the entire review period.

10. THE SUNFLOWER EFFECT. Rating everyone high, regardless of performance, to make yourself look good or to be able to give more compensation.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbook and president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

Few people love to give performance appraisals, but they do have their benefits. From my book, Stress-Free Performance Appraisals, below are few insights into how performance review meetings are good for the employee, supervisor, and organization.

BENEFITS TO THE EMPLOYEE

• They find out how they’re doing
• Receives recognition for their accomplishments
• Allows for two-way communication on goals and performance
• Encourages taking responsibility for their performance and progress
• Helps set goals and direct efforts
• Provides opportunities for career development and improvement
• Assures fair individual evaluations

BENEFITS TO THE SUPERVISOR

• Builds management skills
• Develops and improves rapport with employees
• Identifies and rewards high performers
• Identifies performers needing improvement for coaching/training
• Improves individual employee productivity
• Identifies general training needs
• Demonstrates fairness to employees
• Improves group morale

BENEFITS TO THE ORGANIZATION
• Communicates corporate goals
• Provides management with decision-making information on human resources
• Provides objective basis for raises, promotions, training, and other personnel actions
• Builds stronger working relationships
• Improves overall organizational productivity
• Provides documentation for inquiries on general promotion policies or individual claims of discrimination

We are excited to introduce new tools to help HR effectively manage and customize their performance review process.

Manager Approval Process: This new process can be enabled/disabled through “Configurations” under Administrative Panel. In this process, the managers can now review and approve reviews submitted by their direct reports before publishing. Managers can also disapprove the submitted reviews with a message for resubmission. To manage this process, we have introduced a new tab “Team Reviews” in left menu under Reviews.

Peer Nomination Process: In this process, HR can send requests to all employees to select their peers as reviewers (through Peer Nomination tab under Administrative Panel). HR can also set a limit to the number of reviews a peer can do within a review session to avoid over-booking. HR can also view all the nominations for a particular review session. This limit can be set from “Configurations” under Administrative Panel.

Goals Module: The HR administrator can disable or enable the entire goals management module from configurations.

View Only Self and Manager Review: Now HR can enable this option, so that the employees can see only their self-reviews and reviews done by their managers; they will not be able to view their reviews done by peers or direct reports.

Review Form Comments Area: HR can now manage default text areas like pros, cons and general comments from each review form. This option can also be configured from “Configurations” under Administrative Panel.