Monthly Archives: October 2005

The Average Raise for 2006

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Is 3.6% for salaried employees and 3.8% for executives according to Hewitt Associates. More interestingly, and perhaps more positive, is the expected increase in variable pay, also known as pay for performance. Because employers are keeping salaries relatively flat, they will have to rely more heavily on pay for performance to retain key employees.

From the press release:

Companies are attracted to variable pay awards because they are self-funding and only pay out if certain performance criteria are met each year, and employees appreciate the opportunity to be rewarded for meeting their goals,” explained Abosch. “We’ve seen more plans incorporate individual performance measures into their plans this year, which helps employees focus on elements they can control in their jobs. To receive the maximum payout from variable pay plans, employees should make sure they understand their manager’s expectations, get as specific as possible about measuring results, and ask for performance updates throughout the year.

The Shortcomings of Performance Reviews

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Don Blohowiak at BNET is talking about the shortcomings of performance reviews. In his mind, looking backwards to critique performance is a fundamentally foolish idea. From the post:

In the face of feedback, most people become defensive not receptive. The mental energy goes to self-protection not learning for improvement.

Since you can’t change the past, don’t spend a lot of time recounting it. Instead, focus on the future, which you can influence.

The thing is that the basic idea of performance reviews is to improve future results. As George Santayana said, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” It’s as true for the history of any one person as it is for the history of the world. Just moving on doesn’t cut it. A structured, focused look at past performance can lead to actionable changes for the future – and to performance gains for both the employee and the company.

 

 

Performance Management is More Than Just Reviews

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Susan Heathfield at About.com is talking about performance management today. According to Susan – “Peformance Management includes the entire relationship you have with the people you employ.”

I think she’s right. Older definitions of peformance management primarily included performance reviews, and indeed the heritage of SuccessFactors is grounded in them. But over time, we have, together with our customers, realized that in order to achieve true performance management we must extend the capabilites of our solution to other strategic aspects of the employee relationship. Compensation Planning, Development Planning and Goal Management are other aspects of WPM that Susan highlights.

A quote:

 Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Performance management is a whole work system that begins when a job is defined as needed and expectations are clearly communicated to the employee. It ends when an employee leaves your organization.

Read the whole article:
Performance Management: You Get What You Request and Reward


When Employees Reject Their Reviews

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I just got a fascinating question by email from one of our customers: what happens when an employee gets a “bad review” and rejects it?

From the email I received:

For example, if someone gets a "bad" review, and disputes it saying, "well, all my customers love me and I met all the objectives that were stated.  The boss just hates me because I was a whistle-blower, etc…

What should be done? Should the rebuttal be recorded as part of the review, or should it be handled outside of the formal review system? I’m not aware of any best practices around this question, so I thought I’d put it out to you all for comment and discussion.

What do you think?