Gussying Up Your Performance Appraisal Template

258 Pages·2013·3.07 MB·English

THE
PERFORMANCE
APPRAISAL
TOOL KIT
American Management Association (cid:129) www.amanet.org

THE
PERFORMANCE
APPRAISAL
TOOL KIT
Redesigning Your Performance Review Template
to Drive Individual and Organizational Change
P F W T
AUL ALCONE AND INSTON AN
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Falcone, Paul.
The performance appraisal tool kit : redesigning your performance review template to
drive individual and organizational change / Paul Falcone and Winston Tan.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8144-3263-1 (pbk.) — ISBN 0-8144-3263-8 (pbk.)
1. Employees—Rating of. I. Tan, Winston, 1957– II. Title.
HF5549.5.R3F367 2013
658.3'125—dc23
2013007690
© Paul Falcone and Winston Tan
All rights reserved.
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About AMA
American Management Association (www.amanet.org) is a world leader in talent
development, advancing the skills of individuals to drive business success. Our mission is to
support the goals of individuals and organizations through a complete range of products and
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Printing number
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Contents
LIST OF FIGURES xi
LIST OF TABLES xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1 Why It’s Time to Stop Complaining and to Start Building the Right
Performance Measurement System That Can Transform Your Company 7
The Achilles’ Heel of Workplace Management—Historical Challenges
with Assessing Performance and Placing a Monetary Value on People 12
Abolish Performance Appraisals? We Think Not! The Sad State and
Demise of Performance Appraisal Today 13
The Six Essential Steps to Getting the Most Out of Your Performance
Management Tool Kit 15
CHAPTER 2 Unleashing the Power of Performance Management: Driving Cultural
Change and Strategy Development 25
A New Look at Motivation in a Performance-Driven Economy 27
Revised Expectations for a Performance-Driven Culture 29
Resignation Drills and “Stay” Interviews 29
v
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vi CONTENTS
Quarterly Achievement Calendars 32
Open-Book Management Practices 33
Intermittent Rotational Assignments 34
External Training Workshops 35
“Book of the Quarter Club” Implementation 36
Rotational Staff Meeting Leadership 36
Profiling the Model Employee 37
The Use of Employee Focus Groups to Aid in Evaluating System
Performance and Setting New Parameters 39
Connecting Organizational Strategy to Your Performance Management
System 41
CHAPTER 3 Compensation and Performance Measurement Mechanics: Your Technical
Look Under the Hood 50
Compensation Market Strategy 51
Attraction 52
Retention 53
Managing a Moving Labor Market 54
Consumer Price Index vs. Employment Cost Index 55
Tracking Competency Progression and Retention 56
Motivation and Pay-for-Performance 59
Funding Salary Increase Budgets 60
Alternative Compensation Strategies to Reward Top Performers and
Boost Your Organization’s Competitive Edge 62
CHAPTER 4 Evaluating Results and Assessing Individual and Enterprise-wide
Performance: A Report Card That Allows You to Measure and Raise
the Performance and Productivity Bar 67
Reinventing “Overall Score” Terminology to Avoid Grade Inflation 68
Bell Curves vs. “Rising Strings” 70
How Many Levels of Descriptors Are Necessary? 73
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CONTENTS vii
Agreement on Rating Definition and Consistency in Interpretation 75
Calibration Sessions 79
Using Statistics to Help Improve Consistency Across the Company 85
CHAPTER 5 Building Your Performance Appraisal Contentand Form 89
Revising Descriptors to Raise Company Performance Expectations 89
Section 1: Strategic Initiatives 92
Section 2: Core Values 95
Section 3: Performance Factors 104
Style Guide: Gussying Up Your Performance Appraisal Template 117
CHAPTER 6 Goals: Setting a Course for Stretching and Development 125
Writing Meaningful Goals and Work Plans—Your Employees Know Best! 127
Concrete, SMART Goals and Measurable Outcomes—The Look and
Smell of Success 130
Linking This Year’s Performance to Next Year’s Goals—A Natural Outcome
of Organizational Growth and Progress 131
Addressing Global Learning Gaps and Developing a Corporate Learning
Environment and Skill-Building Culture 134
Rewarding and Celebrating Success: Recognition Isthe Reward 136
CHAPTER 7 Putting It All Together—A Performance Management Program That
Every CEO, Board of Directors, and Individual Employee Can Love 139
Creating Links Between Business Strategy and Organizational Performance:
Performance Is a Moving Target! 140
The “9-Box Roll-Up” 142
Succession Planning’s Strategic Advantages 145
Customizing and Relaunching Your Program Every Year to Ratchet Up
Expectations and Measure Results 147
Improving the Process and Raising the Bar: Retooling the Tools to Keep Up
the Pace 151
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viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER 8 Common Questions and Answers to Build and Customize Your
Organization’s Performance Appraisal Program and Template 153
1. Where do we start in communicating our plans to move to this new
performance management system and in getting our employees excited about
the process? 153
2. What are some of the documentation caveats that all supervisors in our
company need to be aware of when it comes to performance management
and performance appraisal? 157
3. What’s the difference between scoring individual competencies on the
review as opposed to the overall score at the end of the review? 159
4. What’s the difference between a performance review and corrective
action documentation in the eyes of the law? 160
5. What if we haven’t communicated problematic performance or conduct
concerns throughout the review period? Does that prevent us from addressing
those issues during the performance review—even if it’s the first time we’re
bringing this up? 161
6. We mistakenly issued an acceptable performance review score to someone
who was already on a final written warning. Can we still terminate, or do
we have to start the whole corrective process all over again beginning with
the first step (i.e., a documented verbal warning)? 163
7. What if employees refuse to complete the self-review? Is that a
disciplinary or terminable offense? And what if they list pie-in-the-sky
expectations or grade themselves much higher than I would during their
self-review? 165
8. Is it better to employ a common review date or an anniversary-based
feedback date when issuing reviews? 167
9. What’s the ideal frequency of feedback: quarterly, semi-annually, or
annually? 169
10. How much time do we have to wait after issuing a substandard
performance review to move forward with additional corrective action or
even termination? 170
11. In addition to individual employee feedback and organizational
assessments of human capital performance, how else could performance
reviews be used or come into play in the workplace? 171
12. What could I do as a CEO or as a member of my company’s executive
team to spike up performance and institute a cultural turnaround so that
performance measurement and management become part of our ongoing
communication? 173
American Management Association (cid:129) www.amanet.org
CONTENTS ix
Appendix A Employee Self-Evaluation Form 175
Appendix B Sample Model Performance Appraisal Template 177
Appendix C Sample Employee Annual Performance Report 183
Appendix D Six Sample Performance Review Templates That Reflect Your
Organization’s Changing Needs and Priorities 187
Model Template 1: Startup or Renewal Company 190
Model Template 2: Growth Company 196
Model Template 3: Mature Company 202
Model Template 4: Hourly and/or Union Workforce Emphasis 209
Model Template 5: Exempt/Professional Workforce 215
Model Template 6: Senior Executive Focus 225
INDEX 233
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 239
The sample templates and material in the appendixes can be accessed
online and downloaded to your computer from www.amacombooks
.org/go/PerformanceAppraisal.
American Management Association (cid:129) www.amanet.org