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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on August 7, 2000. Job analysis can motivate staffBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to The Post and Courier Business Major Job analysis is critical to developing an effective performance system that motivates employees to be star performers. When employees do not understand or don't have well-defined objectives it is difficult for them to perform at their highest level. Long ago, the management expert W. Edward Deming, a proponent of total quality management, advocated eliminating performance appraisals. Among his arguments was that in many organizations performance reviews turn into bureaucratic routines that emphasize the interests of supervisors only. The problem with Deming's solution, however, was that it placed employees in the same classification regardless of their contributions. Employees tend to be quick studies. While some are quite conscientious and driven to always work hard, others may quickly shift to a pace that appears to fit the system. When companies make it clear to employees that their extra effort does not count, many pull back. Because a performance review system that clearly meets performance guidelines is so important to retention and promotions, as well as employee satisfaction, it is definitely to the small-business owner's advantage to invest time in designing a good system. An ongoing program of updating the job analysis of key organizational positions puts owners and managers in the position of motivating employees while completely complying with performance law. Because the duties and the knowledge, abilities, skills and other characteristics needed to carry out the various organizational tasks form the basis of the hiring and retention decisions, this is the place to start. The manager's task is to establish the links between the abilities and skills that brought employees to the firm in the first place to an assessment of their productivity in order to guide goal-directed performance. Building an effective performance appraisal review is not by any means a simple process. It first requires removing the fog of special friendships and bias. There are the managers and owners who know "instinctively" who the good performers are. But often "good" performers are those who simply resemble the ideological viewpoints of management or play up to the owner or refrain from telling hard truths. Other bias can enter the review process in the forms of negative stereotyping, a halo effect, leniency, or by using other projective techniques. In an effective evaluation system, the appraiser will avoid measuring traits. This means staying away from nebulous concepts like teamwork, compassion, cooperativeness, and collegiality. Good evaluation systems will also avoid forced distribution (i.e., only the top 10 percent get the highest bonus) or a graphic rating scale that does not require raters to use performance criteria, leaving each manager free to determine the weight of each performance element. To be sure your system is working the way it should start with these steps: 1. Be sure that your employees know at the beginning of the period under review what the goals and expectations are and how their performance will be measured. 2. Select review tools that objectively measure performance on the basis of job behaviors that have been carefully identified in the job analysis as crucial to carrying out the job. 3. Become aware of your own personal biases. This will allow you to evaluate the performance of employees and not their personalities. 4. Study your evaluation process. Can you observe the actual performance of each employee for the entire review period? If not, to avoid the misleading effects of only a few direct observations, you may wish to compile a list of critical incidents to be checked over the review period. A weakness of this approach is that it can measure extremes in behavior. When performance review period rolls around you may wish to use this list as a review. This technique can do away with the recency effect (being influenced by the last thing the employee did) and other errors. 5. Treat the performance review process professionally. Remember to relate all your comments to the objectives that were set at the beginning of the review period. Keep your comments impersonal. "Jack, the quarterly report you turned in makes no sense," may be taken as a personal attack. "Jack, let's see how you can structure your next report so we get the information we need," is directed at the work product. 6. Be cognizant of the effects of positive comments instead of just communicating negative information. 7. Consider the following: a) For an employee whose performance is unsatisfactory but correctable, introduce an action plan to help improve performance. b) For an employee who performs satisfactorily but promotion or a salary increase is not possible at this time, prepare a plan to keep the employee motivated. c) For the satisfactory promotoable employee, develop an action plan for career development. This may include educational and professional development. d) For someone who is not doing satisfactory work, spell out exactly what needs to be done to correct the problem. If the problem is long-term, document the unsatisfactory work. Always remember that employees need feedback on what they have done that positively contributes to the success of the organization. Developing positive strategies in the areas where improvements are needed is helpful. A well-thought out and planned appraisal will leave the employee feeling that his/her performance has been appraised fairly. The goodwill of all employees is important. The appraisal process should foster positive relations and be perceived to be fair. Provide employees the opportunity to appeal their reviews if they do not agree. Keep the communication open and honest. Employees are worth listening to. And there is no better ambassador for your company than an employee who feels treated fairly. This will be the least expensive advertising campaign you will ever conduct. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact dot.moore@comcast.net. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |