I also agree with Donna’s comments.
I have recently lead a project to establish an performance review system that moved a paper based system to an online , web based system that we have found is fun & funky!!

It is used across all departments and at all levels from senior management to shop floor workers, so the system used is the same across the entire business. It covers both performance goals ( 5 different categories- people objectives, process objectives, quality objectives, financial objectives anbd customer objectives) & measures as well as competencies for each job family. The objectives are taken from the PD as well as the strategic/business plan. So for an Accountant role the financial objectives would be different from the distribution staff’s financial objectives and so on across all job families. The job families are then cascaded to each individual enployee’s role. There is a development plan feature as well. The system features self assesment, manager assessment and can also incorporate 360 assessments. A manager can look at their team acrosss various parts of the business and also across branches. Reviews can be conducted as per a company’s requirements.. we are doing 6 monthly reviews. Goals can be re set annually to meet the changing business objectives.

regards

Carl

Position Description to every employee
PD Clearly sets out Job Spec, Primary Objectives, Key Accountabilities, Key working relationships, KPI, KRA, KRM charted, Company Values, Training, Person Specification – includes skills, experience, competencies. Scope of position.
These can be kept simple and short, but its important all employees know what is expected of them from their employer before they begin their employment.

Once you have this a fair and reasonable performance review process can be written. Quarterly meetings are interactive & keeps the employee engaged and your discussions current. Performance issues should be discused immediately when they happen and only summarised at quarterly meetings if necessary, as hopefully you will be discussing the persons improvements by then. I dont believe Annual reviews work as the period is far too long for employees to remember positives as humans generally dwell on negatives given time. Training should always be discussed and reviewed quarterly to enable the employer to evidence support and tracking of progress and the employee achievement.

Senior employees predominantly should have their own business plans which drill down from the Companies Strategic Plan. This way their performance is purpose based on achieving the companies goals. PDs for these positions can be developed in accordance with the company requirements, goals.

A system that engages the employee to prepare for quarterly meetings, this can either be on a templated system or invite the employee to raise any points they wish to discuss. The templated system does provide guidance to most employees and they like this. Additional comments are offered to invite additional dialogue.

It may sound involved but once set up is a very easy quick process. The reviews should always be conducted by the direct manager. This is particulary important for middle managers who struggle in these areas, as it assists in their personal development and should be part of their own KPIs.

A company is far better to invest time in reviewing performance regularly for two reasons. 1. Regular reviews assists managers to keep up to date with the employees performance and progress which is encouraging to both parties. 2. It makes the employee feel important and not forgotten about which generally demonstrates long periods of employment and loyalty.

What you invest in your people you gain in your profits, image and brand. You reduce your profit margin greatly by 1. employing the wrong people and 2. no managing their performance or making them feel part of the company. You will always spend alot more time and money managing people out than you ever will managing people fairly and productively.

1. I am amazed that 65% of people still use print as their primary job seeking platform. Seriously?

2. Despite this overwhelming evidence on social recruiting, why do some many companies (especially here in NZ) not have optimized company profiles on Linkedin etc?

To me it sounds like you have a performance issue with your managers so you really need to tackle it from the top down.

I’m making an assumption that you have a performance management structure for all employees and therefore have specific goals and targets in place for the individual Managers.

A specific competency for Managers is teamleading and staff supervision.

By doing a performance review with them on what the company expectations are of them as Managers, you should be able to identify to them what the expectations are of them and the subsequent management of their teams.

Taking them through the process first will also re-focus them on the best way to discuss the current challenges and successes in their own teams and enable them to identify what the expectations of existing team members is at this time.

In performance reviews is important to focus on what is working well for the business and the team as well as area’s for improvement. It may turn out in the Manager’s reviews that certain managers may need a little training in leadership and if this is the case then it is essential to line up some training programs. If cost is prohibitive then look at running an in-house session with the whole management team.

It might be worth putting in mentoring programmes where you team up Managers with excellent performance reviews with those that don’t. Then the less experienced managers have someone to discuss issues with and are not putting unrealistic demands on your time.

When people are not meeting expectations it is usually a case of lack of skills in a certain areas. This can be easily rectified and is usually a lot cheaper than the cost of recruiting.

By documenting the process through performance reviews, identifying where you need to give additional support and ensuring every opportunity to gain any essential skills that are needed to help employees meet expectations, then the option of letting people go may have to be looked at. If this happens then you know you have taken every reasonable step to prevent it from happening but at the end of the day, it’s not fair on the team for one person to not be performing!

The regularity of performance reviews can vary from company to company. Some people prefer regular contact weekly whereas others prefer a maximum of six monthly. Let your employees set the time frame if they are hitting expectations but where you have a problem it will need to be a frequent meeting. The aim is to bring the person up to speed not “manage them out”. If they are not up to the job, no matter how nice they are, they will manage themselves out and there will be nothing you can do about it if you offer all the support and training you can.

I note from the previous comment that time management is an issue for you but if you don’t re-inforce the concept that managers need to step up as well as their teams, you will continue to have upto 400 people trying to get your time.

It will ultimately save time. Surely not all 60 managers can have problems. Start with the ones you know about and I think you’ll find word starts to get around. I think the ratio will drop dramatically within a few days as people start re-focusing.

Good luck.

Benefits for the Managers:
1. They are not the ” bad guy”.
2. They don’t have to do all the ” HR work” work so can concentrate on the day to day ” product/service ” delivery.
3. Each play to their strengths.
4. Businesses can stop trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
5. Over time , with this process, the managers start to “get it” and you will see them start doing some of this for themselves, once they get the hang of it!!