S-O-S

If you’re an experienced HR pro, you know how review season typically begins. You start nudging your managers to launch the review process. Your managers, in turn, start nudging their staff to complete self-evaluations. And for a few days, eye contact is dodgy and the air is filled with tense jokes. Then review sessions take place amid an atmosphere of shared embarrassment and everybody walks away from the process with a sigh of relief. Another year is in the bag. Perceptions of performance, good or bad, have been laid bare. Goals have been established, and a new cycle begins. Those who need to work harder have been counseled, and those who are doing well have been praised. Done and done.

But what happens when you don’t get Read More

Review season is just around the corner! And this time, in addition to the standard challenges that accompany the review process every year, you’ll be facing a new conundrum. Why? Because you’ve added a few employees to your roster who simply can’t be boxed into your existing review protocols. And if you subject these employees to a standard evaluation of performance (using your typical five point system based on ten metrics or ten point system based on five metrics), the results will be absolutely meaningless, if not downright damaging.

Maybe you hired these employees as unique independent contractors, or maybe you brought them on board because they have rare talents in a very specific area, and they can’t or shouldn’t be expected to meet any performance metrics that lie outside this area. Maybe your employees are taking on additional or temporary responsibilities outside their standard scope, like an accountant who happens to pitching in to help repair the gutters on the roof. Or maybe your company is flexible, innovative and Read More

You’re an experienced manager with ten direct reports. Two are talented stars, four are doing well enough, and three could use a nudge in the right direction but are generally on track. Unfortunately, the last one on your list is not doing quite so well. He’s young and ambitious, and he cares about the job, but he’s struggling. And he isn’t just struggling across one or two of your performance metrics, but all of them.

You’ve lost more sleep over this employee and spent more hours editing his review than you have with any of the others. You’ve gone over all the facts in your mind a thousand times. You want to make sure you’re being fair. And you want to do what’s best for the company, the employee, and the members of his team. So how can you turn a host of mistakes and disasters into a host of positives? And how can you press the reset button on this troubled employer-employee relationship?

A Bad Review: The Aftermath

1. Know exactly where you want to be by the time the review session ends. Set clear goals for yourself. If your goal is to have the employee recognize the gravity of the situation and understand his proximity to termination, act accordingly. But if your goal is to find any possible way to keep him on board and retain the valuable skills for which he was hired, let that guide your process.

2. Know what you’ll do the day, week, and Read More