Employee Evaluation Software Review

Employee Performance Review Information

• Best Practices for 360 Peer Reviews

  Performance reviews are no fun. Whether they’re annual reviews with a manager or 360 peer reviews, they’re unwelcome aspects of any job. Although 360 reviews seem like they would be the perfect complements to standard annual reviews, they have the potential to wreak havoc on morale, productivity and employee retention. A few 360 Review best practices couldn’t hurt. Joe Folkman, president and co-founder of Zenger Folkman, shared his ideas, in an email interview, for how to create a 360 review that works. It is important for organizations to make it clear that the assessment is only for developmental purposes not performance evaluation. The assessment should help people identify fatal flaws, if they have any – most often it’s a competency at the 10th percentile or below – that they need to fix. It also should be created to focus strongly on the positive dimensions and help people identify their greatest skills. The 360 review surveys shouldn’t take more 15-20 minutes to complete. The more respondents you have, the more valid and reliable your data will be. Stephen Balzac, president of 7 Steps Ahead, LLC recommended that employers avoid using standardized forms. You want to get specific examples, good and bad, of actions performed by the person being reviewed. Vague comments and statements like, “he doesn’t handle people well,” or "she just can’t ran a meeting,” are as like as not to reflect some personal bias of the reviewer. [With] specific examples, you can evaluate how accurate the statement is, and the person being reviewed can receive useful feedback. There are some, like Lori Dernavich, who would disagree with Balzac when it comes to having a manager evaluate the responses. A disinterested third-party, i.e. someone from outside the company, would be better able to make a completley objective evaluation of the data. But whether the data is reviewed internally or externally, executive coach Traci Shoblom believes that a coach should be on hand to help people process the feedback. Without proper coaching after the results, said Shoblom, participants of a 360 degree feedback review can misinterpret the data and fail to understand the context in which it was given. Love them or hate them, 360 reviews are complex assessments that, if not handled carefully, could cause a lot more problems than advocates believe they can solve. - 3 months ago

• Training Through the Eyes of the 7 Habits (Part 2)

  Two weeks ago we began to explore how the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can apply to the big, wide-world of training.  Today we continue the journey, starting with habit four. (Curious about what habits one–three look like through the eyes of training? Check it out!) HABIT #4—Think Win/Win American Idol, The Bachelor, The Super Bowl...every where we turn, we see competition.  Someone wins and someone looses (Win/Lose).  Even in the training classroom we see competition.  Learners can be motivated when they are put in competitive situations..  So if this habit is called "Win/Win", are "Win/Lose" situations a bad thing?  Not at all! Competition definitely has its place in this world.  It can challenge individuals and teams to reach new limits and create new solutions to problems, or in the case of sports and TV, "Win/Lose" can be very entertaining.    The key to apply with habit four, "Think Win/Win", is with relationships.  With personal and professional relationships that are very important to you.  Training relationships would definitely fall in this category.  Does it serve you well to be competitive with a spouse?  How about a peer?  In most cases, the answer is no, "Win/Lose" thinking will leave one person feeling defeated.  "Win/Win" thinking on the other hand leaves both parties feeling excited, energized and enthusiastic!  One of my favorite pieces of the "Win/Win" habit is creating Win/Win agreements.  These types of agreements should be created each time we step foot into the classroom.  To determine if you create "Win/Win" agreements in your classes, evaluate the following: Are the desired results clear? Do your learners know the guidelines to follow? Do your learners know all of the available resources at their disposal? Do your learners have accountability for their actions? Do your learners know the positive and negative consequences of their actions? It's amazing how many times I've heard from learners that they really didn't know the resources available to them, or what the true desired results and consequences were.  As trainers we can NEVER assume these items are known by all.  If we clearly communicate the bullets above with each class (and with all relationships which matter to us), each day, we will be WINNING all around!   HABIT #5—Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood "Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we can listen twice as much as we speak." This is the habit of listening with your eyes, heart and ears.  You would probably say listening is a very important skills for a trainer, right?  Knowing this fact, how many trainers really are great listeners?  How many trainers listen with the intent to reply or have muttered to themselves "Oh I've heard this questions before!" as a learner asks a question?   Trainers should always remember learners, especially in new hire situations can be highly emotional (even if they don't show it).  They want to succeed and if they're putting themselves out there to ask a question or share a concern, they need to feel heard before you jump in and solve their problem.  If a trainer doesn't really listen to or acknowledge the true emotion or intention behind a learner's question, the employee can feel disrespected or not important.  It can pay huge dividends to pause and use empathic listening in these situations.  Simply restate what the person said, identifying the emotion they're displaying and the reason.  Example:  If a learner frantically states they don't understand why the organization would have a policy like X, and they don't think they'll every be able to do it, a trainer could say something like: "It's sounds like you're concerned about the policy and being able to adhere to it."  This simple statement will show the learner that you care and are keyed into their statement.  Then this statement can be followed up with a statement such as "Don't worry, I can help.  Tell me about where the policy gets fuzzy?" This habit, if mastered can help to make a good trainer, GREAT! HABIT #6—Synergize 1 + 1= 3, 100, 10,000.  This habit articulates the power of the TEAM.  Team activities in training are so powerful because when you put individuals with different ideas, experience and education into a group, amazing conversations and outcomes can prevail!   One of the biggest lessons this habit can bring to the training world is this: Find creative and fun was to engage team activities and discussions...not just once a day, but throughout the day.  Just be sure to let everyone know what the desired results are, the guidelines, consequences, etc (win/win agreement looking familiar?) Let everyone know differing ideas are NOT a bad thing and ask everyone be open to a new perspective and give everyone a chance to share their point of view.  At the end of the day it isn't about "my way" or "your way"...it's about a HIGHER WAY.    HABIT #7—Sharpen the Saw When is the last time you took time out for YOU?  Habit 7 is all about taking time for continuous improvement for YOURSELF!  There are four dimensions of renewal: Social/Emotional Mental Physical Spiritual Do you plan time each week to sharpen your training saw?  When is the last time your read a great training book?  When's the last time you took a hike in the mountains and stood in awe of the nature around you?  When is the last time you had dinner with friends?  These are all questions that you should consider each week.  If the answer is "Wow!  It's been a while," stop, identify something you could do to give yourself this "gift" of renewal and DO IT!  Don't pass go, collect $100, etc...do it NOW.  It will pay HUGE dividends in all other areas of your life.   What happens when a logger doesn't take time to stop and sharpen his saw?  It's not pretty.  Same thing applies to training!  Don't wait until your training course evaluation surveys start to show a decline in training and development satisfaction to take the time to sharpen your training tools.    I would LOVE to hear your thoughts about how the 7 habits can apply to training...or how you're doing something differently in the classroom or for yourself after reading these thoughts.  Please share! Did you know it only takes 21-days to form a new habit?  What are you going to focus on in February? - 3 months ago

• Training Evaluations: Who is Responsible?

  In times when every penny counts, there is more demand on training managers to “prove” that training has paid off. Most organizations follow Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Evaluation: The immediate feedback: The smiley sheets at the end of the training program where participants respond to questions on trainer, training materials, facilities and other aspects of the training Improvement in knowledge: This measures to what degree training has improved the conceptual knowledge of the participants Applications at work: The measure the degree to which the training is being applied at work. Has behavior changed due to training? Improvement in business: This measures the impact of training in terms of numbers meaningful for business—cost benefit analysis—was the cost of training worth it? Did the quality improve? Did the time taken to do a job reduce? What is the Return on Investment (ROI)? ROI is sometimes considered as the 5th level of evaluation.Considering this, trainer managers and training departments alone cannot measure the effects of training. They need to involve the business units (departments) into the evaluation process. They need to present to the business units the necessity of maintaining data so training programs can be effectively evaluated at many levels. And this is one area where it could be very challenging, because the departmental managers may not perceive maintaining data as a priority. Or some departmental managers may not like sharing the data with others, including the training department. Or in some cases, there may just not be a system of any data maintenance. For many reasons, the departmental managers may not be enthusiastic to maintain data. However, for some metrics maintaining data is not very difficult. For example, the errors committed during a process, the time taken to complete the process, quality measures, absenteeism records, reporting late, and so on are easily measurable. Depending on the technology implemented in the companies, these data can be maintained through automated systems. Otherwise they have to be maintained “manually” updating databases in excel, access or any other system that the company may have. In any case, such data are not very difficult to maintain, if it is done then and there. Data on soft skills, however, like communication, leadership, interpersonal skills is very difficult to maintain, but once there are metrics defined for these, it would not be very difficult. So who should be responsible for maintaining data? Line Managers and Supervisors: As a practice, the line managers need to maintain data on the employees. What kind of data? That depends on the job that the line does. Can all data be maintained? Yes. It can. Data on quality, absenteeism, late coming, time taken to do complete work, etc, are the responsibility of the line managers. Line managers can also maintain data on behaviors of employees. The HR Managers: The HR managers need to get their databases updated as a routine. In companies that do not have integrated computer systems/ERP and similar systems, this can be challenging. However, the HR managers need to have a constant input of data from the departments and business units. Leaders: What kind of data would senior leaders need? They need to keep departmental data, in terms of performance- profit and loss, expenditure, customer satisfaction, etc. Most of the times data is collected and analyzed at the end of a quarter. However, it would be a good practice to even do this monthly, so data is recent, reviewed and mistakes avoided. Employees themselves: Employees need to maintain their own data. This is important for anyone who is interested in his/ her development and performance. Individual data would mean the attendance records, tardy records, training records, and so on. Training Managers: Yes, training managers need to maintain relevant data. They need to have data on the important metrics of each of the business units they are involved in training.When all these data are maintained, there should be no room for the complaint that evaluation cannot be done. It is the responsibility of the training managers to design appropriate forms and systems that can be used by the business units to maintain data. Many times, the business units/ departments may not know how or where to keep the data. Even if they do design a system, there may be variation from department to department. So it would be a good idea for the training department to standardize data collection procedures. Training managers need to communicate the need for maintaining data. The training managers should communicate the need for data to do any kind of training evaluation. They need to communicate the following (may be conduct training) on the following: Need to maintain data Kind of data that needs to be maintained Responsibility of maintaining the data Explanation of the forms that need to be filled for maintaining data and the need for uniformity across the departments The manner and time in which the training managers would communicate the evaluation results to the departmentsTraining is not the responsibility of the training department or training managers. It is the responsibility of all employees at all levels. Once this is ingrained into the thinking of the managers of business units/departments it would be less challenging to gather data from them. In the end, the training managers themselves must see that the line managers make training a priority for the departments. Getting the managers to be responsible for maintaining metrics is a means to do that. It would make training more meaningful to the departments and get them involved in the process of people development. - 3 months ago