Putting Your Customers' Needs First

on eliminating or minimizing their perceived weaknesses. As an adult, an employee has spent 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years developing his or her behavior patterns; it is unlikely that a couple of training classes are going to drastically alter how they work and interact with other people. Some people are social creatures who thrive on interaction with others whereas other people prefer to work in a more isolated environment. It is far better for the company (when possible) to place people in jobs where they are best suited to thrive and contribute to the success of the company. Annual Job Review How is this for an abbreviated annual job review dialog (employee to boss): I am doing a pretty good job so I know you are not going to fire me; I realize I can sometimes be difficult to work with, but I am too old to change; you cannot promise me a promotion as an incentive because I have no interest in becoming a V.P. and my current compensation is okay so you cannot bribe me with an offer of more money…so is there anything else you wanted to talk about? Are annual reviews becoming passé? Too often, compensation reviews get linked to annual performance reviews and it overly complicates the review process. Oftentimes, a calendar annual review becomes a “mechanical process” where the boss fills out a bunch of online forms and the employee does likewise, so they can later sit down and compare notes to see if they are in sync or not. The difficulty with this procedure is that it often does not mesh well with the events being monitored or measured. It might be much more desirable to review a project at its conclusion so that the issues are fresh on everyone’s minds, so the positive and negative outcomes can be documented and suggestions for improvement can be made in a timelier manner. Also, recognition and/or rewards (if applicable) have a much greater impact with the recipients as well as the other participants if they are made on a timely basis at the end of specific tasks or projects. Perhaps more consideration should be given to holding department reviews or project reviews where the team can examine as a group their accomplishments as well as their shortcomings and develop specific action plans for improvement. The boss and/or project leader can still address individual issues privately when necessary, but the team review approach has the added value of “buy-in” from the entire group. Individual assignments and timetables can still be established for future measurement; thus, you maintain a continuous performance review process…project by project or department by department or function by function. Virtually every project or department goal should have a measurable customer impact statement whenever possible! o