Over the weekend, Newsday – a NY newspaper – published an article called "Hey, boss, improve those performance reviews" that quoted some of the stories that have been submitted to our Worst Review contest. The article is about some of the reasons reviews are often so poorly given and poorly received and talks about some ways we can make the whole experience a little better.

Some tips from the article: 

Nothing in the review should be a surprise. That means bosses have to give more frequent feedback and hop on problems as they happen. Hard to do with so many other obligations? Of course, but remember what Stephen Covey says in his legendary book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People": You’re far better off making time for issues that are important but not urgent – so they don’t go on to become urgent.

As for those whiny, self-aggrandizing, argumentative employees – the ones supervisors want to avoid – you might consider what Paul Baard, a professor of communications and media management in the graduate business school of Fordham University, has to say: Draining as it may seem, your regular feedback can actually wear down those challenging types – he calls it "systematic desensitization."

Learn language that elicits constructive responses. As Baard says, "People don’t like to be ’should’ upon." You could tell someone he really annoys his colleagues – or, you could say: "Bill, you’re tremendous in sales. And I want to help you be that strong in interpersonal relations."

Loosen up when appropriate. With today’s pressures, you may have misread a person’s contribution – and if she comes up with examples proving you wrong, "you should not be too proud to admit having made a judgment error," Baard says.

Also, remember that it’s not just about the employee’s compliance. Sometimes see where you might bend a little. Boyle says that if an employee is consistently late, she looks to adjust the person’s start time. "I tend to be flexible."

Sometimes all the high-level talk about performance management can leave you – how should I put this? – wanting more. Today I sat through a 45 minute webinar that left me thinking – "alright, I know you CAN do it, and it SHOULD work – but can you show me HOW TO do it, and that it DOES work?" I mean, where’s the beef? Show me the money! Is any of this actually real?

Well, in that vein I came across some data today showing that one of our customers with about 4,000 employees is saving half a million dollars per year on recruiting costs (because they are able to identify and promote more people from within), and has identified 40% more successors than before implementing the technology. I’m not bringing this up to toot our SuccessFactors horn (alright, maybe just a little) but instead, to show you some beef.

It’s easy to get caught up in the jargon and sales pitches when you’re talking about enterprise software. Don’t forget to ask about the beef.

Interesting report from AMI Research showing that On-demand HR applications are taking off among small and medium sized businesses. There’s a very strong case to be made for software as a service (SaaS) use among SMBs – low upfront costs, easy implementations, high configurability, super-quick time to real value and so forth. We released a couple of completely new products recently to serve these markets – Professional Edition and Manager’s Edition. I’ll spare you the commercial (you can click on the links if you’re interested).

From the report’s press release:

According to Sau Lam, Research Analyst at AMI-Partners, “Several factors are fueling this trend. Traditional on-premise HR applications are often too costly, time-consuming and resource-intensive for most SMBs to deploy and manage. Full-service HR outsourcing can also be too expensive. Plus, it requires that customers sacrifice visibility and control. Web-based solutions can potentially provide SMBs with a more viable option for servicing their HR needs,” Ms Lam continued. “At the same time, SMB HR needs are growing. They need to automate operations to meet increasing regulatory requirements, and compete more effectively to maintain a dwindling supply of skilled personnel in a shrinking labor force.”

Much has been made about the Internet as a force of democratization, and that’s true even in the world of enterprise software. As a former small business owner, I loved SaaS applications becuase they gave me functionality that similar sized competitors could only dream of. In that way, they lent a real competitive advantage. That advantage is especially true with HR software.

Workforce performance management is, in some ways, more impactful in smaller companies in which there is less margin for error. Good HR applications can reduce administrative burdens that can bog you down. They can also provide the benefits of goal alignment and performance management processes that make sure everyone is pulling together and that the company is getting the most out of its employees and vice versa.