What is Performance Management? A well-known company that opens its doors to the public every day recognizes its employees for good performance by prominently placing their photographs in the lobby display case. Each photograph is accompanied by a biography of the employee. The employee also receives an extra paid day off, a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant and a convenient reserved parking place for the month.

This reward system exemplifies one of the four crucial building blocks of performance management that is effective in combining recognition and reward, although it is too often overlooked. Other elements in the system of managing individual performance are just as essential. If any one block is omitted or neglected, it has the same effect as an architect leaving out a key step in the construction of a building: It will not be as sturdy.

The four key strategies important to managing performance are planning, monitoring and feedback, development and reward/recognition. Let’s examine how you can set each of these building blocks in place.

To continue reading, click here.

Labels: Productivity, Retention

  ¶ 10/15/2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Connecting employees Are your employees connected to the vision of your organization? Several decades ago Gallup identified areas that indicate the connectivity an associates feels toward their employer. They survey using 12 questions:

• Do you know what is expected of you at work?


• Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?


• At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?


• In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?


• Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?


• Is there someone at work who encourages your development?


• At work, do your opinions seem to count?


• Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?


• Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?


• Do you have a best friend at work?


• In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?


• In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Labels: Attitude, Productivity, Retention

  ¶ 10/14/2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  More employee engagement advantages identified As a follow-up to last week’s Towers-Perrin study results, we have uncovered some statistics from ISR. In reviewing comparative annual results, they found that high engagement companies had a 13.2 percent improvement in net income while low engagement companies had a 3.8 percent decline.

Labels: Productivity, Survey

  ¶ 9/30/2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Quantified difference between engaged and disengaged Managers have long known that engaged employees contribute at a higher rate than those less engaged. It is obvious, people feel, that when an employee has bought into the shared vision of organization success, meaning they are engaged, they will outperform other employees.

Research, such as this from Towers Perrin, is now quantifying the specific areas and degree of impact of engaged versus non-engaged employees. Here is what they have found:

• 84 percent of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality of their company’s products, compared with only 31 percent of the disengaged.


• 72 percent of the highly engaged believe they can positively affect customer service, versus 27 percent of the disengaged.


• 68 percent of the highly engaged believe they can positively impact costs in their job or unit, versus 19 percent of the disengaged.

Labels: Productivity, Survey, Teamwork

  ¶ 9/23/2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Gallup continually measures how engaged employees are with their organization’s vision. The survey consistently shows that less than half of employees are fully engaged, with 25% being average.

Here are some signs that will tip you off to unengaged employees.

1. They miss important deadlines, not once, but chronically.


2. They frequently report that they are too ill to come to work, and usually on Fridays or Mondays.


3. Key managers expect high turnover.


4. The same errors appear on the ledger sheet month after month.


5. No one accepts responsibility for common mistakes.


6. Team members are not communicating about basic job duties.


7. No one can find Jennifer Employee after 3 p.m.


8. Unfounded rumors about the organization frequently float throughout the office.


9. Important equipment needs repair or replacement, and no one reports it, fixes it or replaces it.


10. Workers’ pay remains the same even as their performance soars.

Labels: Attitude, Productivity

  ¶ 9/03/2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Practice Creative Procrastination An Excerpt from Eat That Frog! By Brian Tracy

Creative procrastination is one of the most effective of all personal performance techniques. It can change your life.

The fact is that you can't do everything that you have to do. You have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, procrastinate on small tasks. Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first!

Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on.

Since you must procrastinate anyway, decide today to procrastinate on low-value activities. Decide to procrastinate on, outsource, delegate, and eliminate those activities that don't make much of a contribution to your life in any case. Get rid of the tadpoles and focus on the frogs.

Learn To Say...No!
One of the most powerful of all words in time management is the word no! Say it politely. Say it clearly so that there are no misunderstandings. Say it regularly as a normal part of your time management vocabulary.

Say no to anything that is not a high-value use of your time and your life. Say no graciously but firmly to avoid agreeing to something against your will. Say it early and say it often. Remember that you have no spare time. As we say, "Your dance card is full."

For you to do something new, you must complete or stop doing something old. Getting in requires getting out. Picking up means putting down.

Creative procrastination is the act of thoughtfully and deliberately deciding upon the exact things you are not going to do right now, if ever.

Labels: Books, Productivity, Time_management

  ¶ 8/17/2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Establishing Healthcare leadership Leaders of a healthcare organization faced with low employee productivity wanted to hire more employees who excelled in their jobs.

The current study was conducted to examine the relationship between employee productivity and job match to ProfileXT™.

To read this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Leadership, Productivity

  ¶ 1/10/2008 0 Comments Links to this post