At the beginning of our evaluation cycle we sit down with our worker and discuss goals, expected behaviors, and key job responsibilities.

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1 GIVING FEEDBACK: PERFORMANCE REVIEWS AND MORE Debbie Boone, BS, CCS, CVPM ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT The performance reviews: as much as we would like to create the ideal math equation to evaluate our team members, no matter what we do it still comes down to opinion. Types of performance reviews: 1. Informal given on a regular basis as work is performed. Can be up to a supervisor, down to a supervisee, or cross-organizational to a fellow team leader. 2. Formal annual or semiannual performance assessments. Designed to summarize all informal evaluations given throughout the time period. At the beginning of our evaluation cycle we sit down with our worker and discuss goals, expected behaviors, and key job responsibilities. Setting specific, difficult goals consistently leads to higher performance Goals are energizing. High goals generate greater effort than low goals Tight deadlines lead to a more rapid work pace than long deadlines Making a public commitment to a goal enhances performance Whether the goal is set mutually or by the manager doesn t make much difference in achievement Professors: Edwin A. Locke & Gary P. Latham Goals are best for MEASURED areas such as : what can we do better, what can we do cheaper, or what can we do faster. 1. What do we want to achieve or what do we want that we don t have 2. What do we want to preserve? or what do we already have? 3. What do we want to avoid? or what don t you have that you don t want? 4. What do we do now that we want to eliminate? or what do we have that we don t want? Set goals as low, medium, and high importance do not try to give them percentages. Every job in the hospital requires hundreds of minor tasks to accomplish, but when we look at those jobs from the 50,000 feet view we find there are usually three to four BIG ROCK responsibilities the REASON for the job to exist. For example, for a technician some big rocks would be patient care, client education, and DVM support. For a manager, some might be create and maintain high quality staff, practice marketing, and financial management. The best way to discover these Key Results Areas (KRAs) are to ask your team members. Let your technicians define their three to four areas; customer service representatives should do the same. This helps us KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) the performance evaluations. How we measure the KRAs: we must ask questions like, What does the highest quality performance look like for this task? Competencies are about BEHAVIORS that enable people to perform their tasks. There are three kinds of competencies:

2 CORE Universal to the business no matter what your job Job-Family This is a list of the most important behaviors you expect people working under your supervision to demonstrate Job-Specific Identify three to five behaviors, skills, or characteristics you feel are of key importance to get the job performed in the manner you feel acceptable. Ask yourself: What would a true role model do? What would be an example of skill mastery? What would make you say? Coaching We all hear how important it is to coach our team to success. And it certainly is the key to great performance. But when and how do we offer this feedback? Also, remember coaching is not TRAINING training teaches how to do the job at competence; coaching takes it to a higher level. I can throw a football a coach would teach me how to throw it so someone could actually catch it on the other end! Calendar Driven Start of Year Three month update Midyear Event Driven Completion of major project Having job issues Expressing frustration Unusual moods or behavior lasting several days Coaches are usually former players with a world of experience so are most managers. Managers are there to give advice based on what we learned sometimes the hard way. We also give information and guidance about where to learn and grow in the job. This could be books to read, websites to visit, or people to follow. One of the most difficult things to teach managers is to delegate so remember you are there to support your people, but not take over! You can t MAKE someone a good employee or MAKE them want to improve that is their responsibility. You can be there to help, but sometimes we must let them fail to learn. By giving people positive feedback, you reinforce their personal confidence level and, in consequence, improve their work ability levels. It is important to keep the coaching session on point by redirecting personal comments made by the staff back to the work related problem. You might say, I am so sorry you are having this problem at home, but I am not qualified to help you. Perhaps you should seek a professional opinion. But for now, let s focus on this problem with your work and what you think you might do to resolve it. Remain unemotional Objective Its about the JOB not the person When you prepare for the performance review discussion, review the job description. Ask yourself, why does this job exist? What should the employee assigned this job be doing? What are the two most important duties? What does it take to be successful in this position? What determines that the job is done well? Common Assessments

3 Improvement of performance Attendance Attitude Communication skills Company orientation Task focus Stress management Team work Integrity Asks for help Job knowledge Productivity Quality of work Dependability What Should Be on the Evaluation Form? Ambition Behavior and Results Goals Comments Rating Scale Scale Definitions Space for Employee Comments Development Plan If you don t have a good evaluation form, you can use this list to set one up. Make sure you are appraising both behavior and the tasks. There should be an area for discussion of the goals that were set at the beginning of the year and how well they were met. Free form comments should be planned for not just a numerical score. What is the rating scale and what is the definition of each rating. Employees should be allowed room for comments and you may want to have a page for development planning this will not factor into the rating, but is a good place to open discussion for the future. When Rating the Individual Compare with excellence Who ranks with them Who is in the middle Who falls behind HOW FAR BEHIND? Managers will often lead the performance discussion starting with You Always. This occurs because, as managers, we have already made up our mind about why the employee is acting this way. John is just lazy or Mary has a bad attitude. Instead, let s do what is called REFRAMING. John, I don t know if you are aware of this, but I have heard that your coworkers feel you are not pulling your weight when it comes to scrubbing runs. What do you think of that? This allows John to discuss any particular problem he may be having for example, I am embarrassed to admit it, but I don t know how to properly use the mechanical floor scrubber. So when it is time to scrub the runs I usually look for other tasks to do. That changes the manager perspective immediately to this is a training issue, not a performance issue. The phenomenon mentioned is called the Fundamental Attribution Error and simply means that, as managers, we tend to attribute performance problems to attitude rather than situations in the workplace. According to Jean- Francois Manzoni in the Harvard Business Review,... research shows when analyzing others behaviors, most people tend to overestimate the effect of a person s stable characteristics the individual s disposition and capabilities and underestimate the impact of the specific conditions under which that person is operating (2011). We also tend to frame most of our situations in a win or lose design. A good evaluation should be a win-win.the best way to get past this problem in giving skewed feedback is to be aware! It is something we don t even know we are doing.

4 Rating Scale 5 Excellent or greatly exceeds expectations 4 Exceeds expectations/superior/ Above standards 3 Meets expectations/fully successful or satisfactory 2 Substandard/Needs improvement 1 Unsatisfactory In every group of employees there are usually 5% that are the greatest performers and 5% that are on the lowest rung of the ladder. Therefore, % of employees should expect to be a 2 and the majority will fall between 3 and 4. Meeting with 3 5 s to discuss performance Assemble materials review, documentation, etc. Location choose a quite spot where there will be no interuptions; can even be off-site Time pick a time when you will be able to focus Send copy to employee two days before gives them time to formulate questions Allot minutes Three things done best and two things that need improvement Meeting with 1 2 s to discuss lack of performance Location your office POWER sit across the desk No copy before hand no time allowed for rebuttal of ratings Time possible day end in case you have to dismiss No positives people will only hear the positive and dismiss the negatives Direct and to the point keep it unemotional and do not allow the conversation to drift toward excuses or personal problems If you are judging your receptionist a 2 on customer service, then you should provide two strong examples of this lack of client care. You may have ten, but you don t have to give them all. Get to the point in this conversation as soon as possible. Mary, I need to tell you that your performance is not acceptable. I want to spend our time together discussing the problems I see and hearing your ideas on how you can correct this state of affairs. Notice that we don t offer to solve the problem this is Mary s issue to solve. If you feel compelled to have your team appraise their performance, do it months before the actual evaluation and call it a self-assessment this is best as an informal list of accomplishments and achievements. This will help make sure you haven t overlooked anything good that the employee has done during the review period. Good questions to have the employee answer: In what three areas have you been most effective? What motivates you most about your job? What did you find most difficult? The Goal The goal is to obtain the employees comprehension not their concurrence. Obviously, this conversation is painful for the poor performer, but necessary for the advancement of the team. Nothing demotivates a staff more than being forced to work with someone who is a lagard or a negative drain on the team dynamic. It is one of the biggest management mistakes in practice and causes the loss of many great people. Paul Falcone Vice President of human resources at Time Warner Cable has a model which states: State your precise concern, give specific examples that generated your perception, then close with a request for the employee s reaction to that perception or with a specific request for change. Feedback Needs of Different Generations Baby Boomers are competitive and desire to win they are OK with gaining a trophy, whether a real one, a raise, or a promotion, one or two times a year.

5 Generation X loves freedom and positive feedback; allows them to gain freedom to operate in the way they prefer the generation of latch-key kids likes their independence. Generation Y are constant learners because they live online think on-demand knowledge. They start a task then see a need for more information, seek it out, then move on many times a day. So to Y, feedback means learning, not assessement. Y s want to be taught. They want FEED FORWARD. They are not needy as other generations think. Without constant feedback they feel you have low expectations and they will tend to meet them. Typical Percent Salary Increase Based on Performance Ratings 1 2 rating Raise of 0 1.5% rating Raise of 2 3.5% 4 5 Rating Raise of 4 5 % Make the most of your funds when pertaining to raises. Do not give across the board increases just because someone happens to have existed in your office for x number of years. Pay for performance, not longevity! Managers Role in Business Guardian of the long-term success of the practice Balancing the needs of the team and the hospital Determine the value of the job based on market benchmarks VHMA and AAHA provide these. People appreciate knowing where they stand. It is really unfair to never sit down and openly discuss an employee s performance and give them opportunity to improve. In my experience, there are some people especially kids who are in their very first job who just don t know HOW to have a job. Informal and formal advice on how to best do the job will advance those who truly want to shine. And for those who don t we have a documented path for discharge. Recommended Reading How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals by Dick Grote The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal by Dick Grote References Manzoni J. A better way to deliver bad news. In HBR Guide to Giving Effective Feedback. Watertown, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press, 2011.