Pay and recognition are two of the most important factors that impact employee morale, performance and growth. From a company standpoint, if your business isn’t keeping up with market trends, you can run the risk of losing talented employees and turning away top prospects. From an employee standpoint, if you don’t feel that you’re properly valued by your company (whether through monetary compensation or otherwise) you have ample reason to start looking for other opportunities. And nothing sends the message one way or the other like the dialogue in the year-end performance/salary review. However, unless you’re actually a robot, it’s easy to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Especially when it comes to a tender matter like performance reviews. And there are many resources out there that list forbidden performance review topics like personalities, rumors, or speculations. At the same time there are many trendy phrases that get tossed about like “vision”, “potential”, “creativity”, and so forth that are often difficult to quantify. These phrases mean nothing unless you attach specific examples and data to them. To ensure a performance review is truly effective, remember to evaluate on data rather than assumption. We hope the attached article will help you get your 2017 career off to the best possible start. And of course we’re always here to help and coach. Our sincerest wishes to you and yours for a Happy Holiday Season and the very best in 2017!
It’s the most dreaded time of the year for many managers and employees: the once-a-year performance review. Although there’s been a lot of talk about the death of yearly performance reviews in favor of more real-time feedback, many experts say formal performance reviews still hold importance.