Performance Appraisals Made Easy

A performance review doesn’t have to feel like a trip to the dentist. If you dread giving appraisals, try this approach:

Exchange updates. Before the appraisal meeting, both you and your employee should jot down separate assessments of the employee’s performance to date. Swap your comments a few days before the review meeting.
Identify agreed-upon positives. Start the formal appraisal by focusing on goals and achievements that you both agree the employee has met.
Identify agreed-upon negatives. For the next step, discuss those performance issues that you both agree need improvement.
Discuss disagreements. Pinpoint areas where you disagree. To support your opinions about the employee’s performance, present evidence such as observations, documentation or objective measurements. If the employee disagrees with you, at least you can substantiate your position with solid data.
Look ahead. Once you and the employee resolve your differences and agree in all performance areas, draft goals for the future. Leave time to address questions about the company’s direction and the employee’s career plans.

Source: Fred Pryor’s Managers Edge, - adapted from, Seven Secrets of Managers Who Avoid Employee Lawsuits, Ransom & Benjamin Publishers LLC.

Employee Retention Strategies for the Shop Floor
by John J. Sarno, President, Employers Association of New Jersey

A recent report by the Manufacturing Institute noted that New Jersey’s manufacturing sector contributed $38 billion dollars, or 18% of the gross state product, to the state’s economy. It has done this while employment in manufacturing has declined. Productivity is, of course, measured by the ability of a firm to produce more with less. It is clear that New Jersey’s manufacturers have become highly productive.

The state’s unemployment rate is the lowest in nearly 30 years. With most working age adults either in the work force or looking for work, many employers have expressed difficulty in recruiting qualified workers. Others, however, are planning strategically for continuous change. For example, manufacturing firms most often are organized according to the traditional view that marketing and manufacturing functions should be separate, coordinated at relatively high level. However, as competition increases, maintaining the separation of these functions becomes costly and inefficient. Instead, many manufacturers are creating work teams on the shop floor and training workers to think and act strategically. The goal is to harness the full knowledge capabilities and experience of each worker.

Having created a value-added, knowledge-based work force on the shop floor creates many challenges. Creating an environment of continuing learning and retaining these newly emerging “knowledge workers” are perhaps the biggest. For example, a recent report by the Bureau of National Affairs noted that there is a tendency for this new generation of knowledge workers to switch jobs frequently, diminishing employee loyalty to a firm on the way. While this end-of-loyalty mantra continues to be chanted by many management gurus, employers that value knowledge as an asset realize that retention strategies are just as important as any other business strategy. After all, a business would not tolerate someone walking off with an important piece of machinery. Why stand pat when knowledge walks out the door? In that regard, a firm may want to keep the following in mind:

Don't neglect the basics. Employees care about good pay and benefit packages.
Offer additional training opportunities so employees build new skills to make themselves more attractive for promotion.
Employees like to know that their opinions count. Give them an opportunity to feel they have some influence.
Recognize long-term employees. It gives newcomers a sense of stability within the company.
Understand that employees need flexibility. Develop programs that consider them as whole people, not just employees.

For more information visit www.eanj.org

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