Posts with the label Management
Showing posts with label Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Management. Show all posts
Saturday, August 06, 2011
The 5 Mistakes You Are Making on Employee Performance Evaluations
Reasons Why Your Employee Performance Evaluation May Be Unsuccessful
Performance evaluations allow employers to communicate about needed improvements, acknowledge exceptional performance and set practical goals.Unfortunately there are many barriers that interfere with conducting an effective performance evaluation. Managers that are unfamiliar with performance evaluations are prone to making major mistakes during evaluations.
Effective employee performance evaluations result in enhanced productivity, larger profits for the company, more effectual management and workplace cohesion. However if too many factors hinder the effectiveness of a performance negative effects can include increased hostility, resentment, workplace schisms and decreased morale.
Unfairness and Lack of Impartiality
Inequitable treatment of employees can reduce the credibility of performance evaluations. Supervisors who focus only on the potential and accomplishments of favored employees may intentionally or unintentionally overlook weaknesses. Personal bias against and dislike of an employee may prevent the supervisor from recognizing that employee's accomplishment and instead overtly focus on short comings. Effective performance evaluations balance employees' strengths and achievements with weaknesses and areas that need growth.
Lack of Consistent Interaction
If the supervisors do not communicate with their employees on a regular basis or personally know their employees, the employees will be upset by the evaluation or will not take the performance evaluation seriously. Consequently the review is ineffectual. Supervisors should communicate and give feedback between evaluations. After the performance evaluations, supervisors should follow up with employees to clarify any misunderstandings and acknowledge improved performance or inquired about decreased productivity. Without following-up, employees may neglect or disregard the goals.
Disposition
Employees' personality characteristics such as low self-esteem or overconfidence can hamper an employer's effort modify their behavior. Employees with low self-esteem may consider themselves too inadequate to improve and become easily demoralized by the evaluation. Overconfident employees may refuse to admit that they are in fault or resist the idea that they need to change. Employees who are defensive or fearful of getting fired may deny the flaws identified by their supervisors.Not being aware of these personality characteristics and able to accommodate them can result in a futile evaluation meeting. Personality clashes between supervisors and employees can also decrease the effectiveness of the performance evaluation. Effective performance evaluations should appraise performance, not if the supervisor and employee are friends. Supervisors who are pessimistic or perfectionist can crush the morale of their employees cause their employees to give up. This defeats the purpose of the evaluation.
Lack of Details
A performance evaluation that identifies an employee's faults and poor performance without citing specifics will not result in improvement. Effective performance evaluations should be explicit about the behavior of the employees and the expectations you have of them. Without details, the employee is likely to leave the meeting confused, irritated and without any intention to improve. A performance evaluation should also include detailed plans for improvement.
Too Much Emphasis on Certain Events
Copious focus on recent performance ignores the overall behavior of the employee. Effective performance evaluations should provide assessments on all facets of employees' performance. If supervisors focus on events out employees' control, performance evaluations will not accurately assess the employees' performance. Goals and weakness may be misinterpreted, and employees will not receive useful constructive criticism. In other instances an employee may have behaved out of character. Too much attention placed on these instances will result in an inaccurate evaluation.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2011
How to Host a Virtual Meeting or Web Conference
Tips for Conducting an Effective and Successful Virtual or Web Conference
As information travels faster and demands for efficiency increase, virtual meetings and web conferences rise in popularity. Therefore learning how to conduct or host virtual meetings and web conferences is becoming a valuable skill. Virtual meetings and web conferences are cost-effective, less consuming and tremendously convenient. Although virtual meetings may be not able to substitute face-to-face contact, they can be a valuable addition to your business, especially if conducted appropriately.
Provide an Agenda and Other Necessary Information Beforehand
An agenda, an outline of topics, will help the participants remain focused and prevent any time from being wasted. If concepts are complex, provide background information and research on the topics for discussion. Since the participants will be equipped with knowledge, they will be able to offer valuable feedback and relevant insight during the meeting. Remind the participants to think of questions beforehand. Limit the amount of topics for discussion to encourage a productive and comprehensive virtual meeting or web conference.
Use the Proper Software and Technology
Technological malfunctions disrupt creative thoughts, interrupt important discussions, raise tempers and exasperate the virtual participants. Lower morale decreases the effectiveness of a meeting. Make sure to do your research so that you don't waste time or money. Obtain recommendations about the best software to use for web conferences and virtual meetings. Read reviews online, speak with business colleagues about software and technology and ask the participants if they have any preferences. Also make the effort to match the nature of the meeting and the personality of the participants with the suitable technology.
Test the equipment and software weeks in advance to get more comfortable with the technology and gain understanding on how it operates. You want the meeting to flow without major interruptions. Overview the manual so that you will be able to handle technical difficulties. Just in case of a malfunction, have a technician nearby who can resolve any unexpected issues.
Encourage a Friendly yet Professional Atmosphere
Maintain a balance between creating a comfortable environment for those who are uneasy with social networking and structured setting for those who are naturally adept with technology and communicating online. The social networking working generation may become too distracted and entertained, while those who are not at ease with virtual meetings may become anxious, lose interest and/or cease participation. Start with concise yet personable introductions that are unrelated to the project to break the ice. This will help the virtual participants find something in common with each other. End with a few minutes of friendly conversation so that the virtual participants can look forward to the next meeting. If possible, set up quarterly or yearly activities outside the virtual meeting and web conferences so that participants get to know about each other. This will increase productivity since the participants will be more comfortable with one another.
Virtual meetings can reduce the feel of accountability and cause the participants to get off track. Begin by updating the progress since the last meeting, read the agenda for the meeting and next steps for the project. Before the meeting, send an agenda about the topics of discussion for the virtual meeting. While at the meeting, try using PowerPoint so you can communicate your objectives and keep the meeting within those focal points.
Encourage all Participants to Present Ideas
Collaboration may decrease because it can be easy to overlook quieter participants and let more aggressive members take over. Prevent this by designating a facilitator whose role is to show interest in all comments and call on people who have not contributed. People should feel as if they are valued and in a close-knit team, even if they are miles away. Start by setting some ground rules for the participants such as waiting to speak after person has completed their thoughts, so that each member can be respected and meetings can proceed stress-free. Encourage participants to offer counter views. At the end of each major decision, get everyone's final opinion through a vote. Then decide on the next steps to take until the next meeting and designate a role for each of the participants.
Monday, July 04, 2011
How to Write a Restaurant Training Manual
Tips on Creating a Food Service Training Manual
Working in a restaurant and within the food service industry can be stressful. However using the right tools such as restaurant and food service training manuals, to guide employees, can help reduce stress in the long run.
The competition to retain an established customer base and attract new customers is growing. Manta.com has almost one million U.S. restaurants listed in its directory yet consumer spending is declining. The New York research firm NPD Group reports that Southern California lost a thousand more restaurants than it gained during a 12-month period in 2009 and 2010. Consequently, it has become more important for restaurants to deliver quality service and delectable meals. The most important component to reaching these goals is training the staff properly. A well-constructed training manual can be an effective supplement to hands-on training.
List the appropriate atmosphere for your restaurant. The desired environment influences every aspect your restaurant from how the host greets the customers, the style of clothing worn by the waiters to the types of meals served. A casual setting requires a different attitude and performance than an upscale restaurant. Convey the atmosphere for your restaurant throughout the manual to solidify the message. Plan to use the atmosphere as a theme of the training manual and keep it in mind as you write your manual.
Seek guidance from experienced employees about what should be included in the manual and use other restaurant manuals as a reference. Ask the employees who train or have worked with new employees what guidelines should be emphasized in the manual. They can give you expert insight such as what customers appreciate, and the best method to serve the meals. While you read other restaurant training manuals, record the information you agree with and write ideas you're derived from them.
Relate to the employees to have better clarity on the guidance trainees need. Work your current employees during busy rushes and stressful periods. This will help you to create a feasible training manual. If the employees are not able to efficiently follow the training guidelines, the manual will be futile. In addition think about how the restaurant operates and the system used for quality control. Create a section explaining employees' role and how they should contribute to quality control and restaurant operations.
Assess the most common mistakes and research the most recurrent customer complaints. Explain in the manual the behavior and performance needed to prevent the frequency of errors. Bring attention to overlooked issues and emphasize standards using bold, underlined or italic fonts. Read about the complaints that prevent customers from returning from restaurants. The LA Times reports that customer complaints stem from how they were addressed, being asked by servers if they wanted the change and checks being given too soon to the customer.
Be as detailed as possible but exclude unnecessary information. Leave room for the trainees to develop their own style. Bring the events and training to life by describing scenarios and the suitable manner to handle them. Include charts, diagrams, statistics and images when possible to appeal to all learning styles. The variety of explanations and guidelines also makes the manual more interesting and easier to understand.
Edit the training manual. Revise grammatical errors, accusatory tones, lack of clarity and repetition. Ask your trainers and supervisors to review the manual and suggest changes. Be receptive to constructive criticism. Read over the manual several times to prevent errors.
How to Write a Constructive Employee Performance Evaluation
Tips on Preparing Information for an Employee Performance Evaluation
Performance
evaluations don't have to be a negative experience for you or the
employees but instead a constructive meeting. A tactfully written
performance evaluation can produce positive results. Constructive
performance evaluations give fair and comprehensive reviews of employees
without adding stress, lowering morale or allowing personal bias to negatively interfere your assessments. Performance
evaluations offer employees the chance recognize skills that they need
to improve, communicate with their managers, reflect on their
performance and get credit for their achievements. Performance
evaluations also benefit the managers by allowing them to detect key
patterns among employees, develop new business goals by identifying
areas of needed improvement and strengthen their relationships with
their employees.
Remember that before you assess your employees, you should be a good model for your employees. The better example you are to your employees the more legitimacy you gain as a manager. You will be able to use yourself as a base for expectations and standards.
Remember that before you assess your employees, you should be a good model for your employees. The better example you are to your employees the more legitimacy you gain as a manager. You will be able to use yourself as a base for expectations and standards.
Review the Employees’ Past Experience and Environment
For
many of your employees it helps to scan their resumes to remind
yourself of their past experience, skills and achievements. You can use
this information to develop the appropriate expectations. If you have
time, research the company’s culture or geographical location of
employees that may be struggling in their current positions. An
employee’s background, previous work experience and social norms from
his past environment has an impact on how he views work, his perspective
of professionalism and his view of your company.
Perhaps he’s accustomed to befriending his coworkers and is unhappy working in an environment were only business is discussed. Or the culture at his previous positions encouraged employees to remain distant from authority figures and consequently he feels uncomfortable ( or even threatened) speaking directly to you about projects. Either way, it's beneficial to be aware of these issues.
List Your Thoughts on Each Employee
Perhaps he’s accustomed to befriending his coworkers and is unhappy working in an environment were only business is discussed. Or the culture at his previous positions encouraged employees to remain distant from authority figures and consequently he feels uncomfortable ( or even threatened) speaking directly to you about projects. Either way, it's beneficial to be aware of these issues.
List Your Thoughts on Each Employee
Over
a period of time, write down any observations, noticeable behavioral patterns,
improvements needed and accomplishments about each employee before
structuring your performance evaluation. Write down how your employees’
workplace behavior either improves or negatively affects the company.
Brainstorm your employees’ performance details, reactions to workplace
events and overall attitude about work.
If you don't spend enough time working or communicating with each employee, schedule time to be around them to increase the accuracy of your evaluation. Try to avoid putting too much emphasis on first impressions or recent events.
Complete a Chart or Checklist of Skills and Performance Criteria to Evaluate
If you don't spend enough time working or communicating with each employee, schedule time to be around them to increase the accuracy of your evaluation. Try to avoid putting too much emphasis on first impressions or recent events.
Complete a Chart or Checklist of Skills and Performance Criteria to Evaluate
Review
your employee's job duties and keep in mind the purpose of your company
so that the skills and performance criteria designed for evaluation
will be relevant. You need a strong idea of each employee’s
responsibilities in order to have an honest discussion about their
performance. Remember to evaluate skills that are relevant to the
specific position of the employee and your business's industry. You
don’t want to crush morale by making imbalanced assessments and setting
unrealistic goals. For example your customer service representative
would need more social skills than your software engineer, so it would
be harmful to demand that your engineers have the same disposition as
your cheerful representatives. Likewise an engineering firm will have
different expectations than a day care center. Afterwards, make a list
comparing the employee's performance with his job duties.
Also assess the needs of the company and the direction your company intends to grow. Compare this to each employee's role and contributions to this ideal. Write down new job duties that complement the employee's position. Job duties that are outdated need to eliminated or revamped because they waste the employees’ time and your money. If there are responsibilities that the employee seems to have overlooked or skills they haven’t grasped yet, take note of them to be discussed during the performance evaluation.If you are using numeral ratings, define what a one or five means.
Also assess the needs of the company and the direction your company intends to grow. Compare this to each employee's role and contributions to this ideal. Write down new job duties that complement the employee's position. Job duties that are outdated need to eliminated or revamped because they waste the employees’ time and your money. If there are responsibilities that the employee seems to have overlooked or skills they haven’t grasped yet, take note of them to be discussed during the performance evaluation.If you are using numeral ratings, define what a one or five means.
Avoid Evaluating Issues that You Haven't Already Mentioned to Your Employees
Your
performance evaluation should not have criticism that hasn't already
been briefly discussed. The goal is to not to surprise your employees
with negative criticism. If you haven't spoken to an employee about an
issue, then you didn't give the employee any chance to improve their
behavior. In order for an evaluation to be fair, your employees need to
know when they've made a mistake. To prevent bringing up new issues,
address the employee the appropriate moment instead of letting
resentment build.
Identify Issues, Characteristics and Behavioral Traits that Hampers the Employee's Productivity
Create
a list detailing the strengths and weakness your employees. If your
employees are employing good workplace habits, they need to know and be
acknowledged so that they continue being productive employees. Use
documents to obtain pertinent numbers such as the amount of profit
produced from the employee's concepts, workplace attributes, marketing
techniques and motivational skills.
Only use constructive criticism and refrain from using a negative or malicious tone. An accusatory attitude will put employees in defensive mode. Write down detailed examples on when the employee poorly performed to provide evidence for the evaluation. Reveal how his or her performance negatively affected the company. Also be willing to admit when situations were out of the employee's control. Write down solutions for the employee within the performance evaluation. Coach your employees on how to solve problems his or her problems. Use consistent errors to develop list of goals for your employees. Offer feasible solutions that will serve as a guide to enhance their performance.
Only use constructive criticism and refrain from using a negative or malicious tone. An accusatory attitude will put employees in defensive mode. Write down detailed examples on when the employee poorly performed to provide evidence for the evaluation. Reveal how his or her performance negatively affected the company. Also be willing to admit when situations were out of the employee's control. Write down solutions for the employee within the performance evaluation. Coach your employees on how to solve problems his or her problems. Use consistent errors to develop list of goals for your employees. Offer feasible solutions that will serve as a guide to enhance their performance.
Provide Positive Feedback and Acknowledge Achievement
Write
down the behavioral and verbal responses of the employee from prior
performance evaluations and feedback. Show gratitude if employee was
receptive, showed performance growth and was willing to making suggested
improvements. Demonstrate to the employee that you have noticed their
contributions to the company.
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