In yesterday’s Advisor, Samuel Culbert encouraged HR managers to "put the performance review out of its misery." He says HR is the only part of the company that benefits. (Go here for yesterday’s comments.) Today, we’ve got his suggestions for performance previews and an introduction to an extraordinary program for the compensation side of appraisal.
Culbert, author of recently published Get Rid of the Performance Review!, is a consultant and professor at UCLA.
To achieve the best results for the organization, Culbert recommends that all managers and supervisors:
- Help subordinates see that the boss understands their perspective. Too many managers, helped along by rigid performance review processes, frame situations on the basis of their own perspectives and interests.
- Show subordinates that change is important for the organization. Too many employees are in the dark about how their jobs connect with corporate goals.
- Be willing to make exceptions to the rules. Culbert says managers must do so because people are so different. Making exceptions reinforces the idea that the manager really can see situations through employees’ eyes.
- Show subordinates how their making a behavior change can make a difference for their own future.
- Consider subordinates’ entire lives, knowing that doing well in their lives is more important to them than doing well at work. Many employees are also caregivers or have other big responsibilities outside the workplace.
- In giving feedback, be specific and avoid generalizations.
- Don’t compare employees with one another. Each team member is an individual with a different role.
- Precede your statements and opinions with phrases like, “I feel that,” or “It seems to me that.” This avoids win-lose, right-wrong attitudes.
- Add feedback about subordinates that doesn’t have anything to do with their work or the organization, but shows what you know about them as people. Don’t write down this feedback or include it in their personnel files, and share it only with them, one on-one.
What are performance previews? Culbert accuses the typical performance review of idealizing a set of qualities that the perfect employee will have and putting them on a checklist. Instead, he urges managers and subordinates to develop empathy with one another so that each knows why the other does things a particular way.
Are class action lawyers peering at your pay practices? It’s likely, but you can keep them at bay by finding and eliminating any wage and hour violations yourself. Our editors recommend BLR’s easy-to-use FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide. Try it for 30 days … on us.
In their first preview together, a manager and subordinate get to know each other by taking turns asking such questions as, "What do you like to get in the way of supervision that helps you operate effectively?" and "What do you like to get from a subordinate that allows you to provide the level of oversight you need?" Both are encouraged to give examples to illustrate their answers, and neither should comment on the other’s answers.
The periodic preview asks:
- What are we doing that’s valuable so that we should continue it?
- What are we not doing that we should start doing?
- What are we doing that’s not useful and should be stopped?
The manager repeatedly asks the subordinate:
- What am I doing that’s helpful and supportive?
- What am I doing that’s impeding your effectiveness?
- What do you need that I am not providing?
Only when there’s mutual trust can the team achieve what’s best for the organization, says Culbert.
Performance Reviews and Pay
The performance review is simply the place where the boss comes up with a story to justify the predetermined pay, says Culbert. If the raise is less than expected, the boss says either "We can work to get it higher in the future, and here’s what you have to do" or "I think you walk on water but I got pushback from HR, so next year we’ll try again."
The "Law of Compensation," Culbert relates, is immutable; a performance review will always support the recommended pay action.
Performance and its relation to pay—it’s always a tough one. And, of course, that’s not the only compensation issue you have to worry about. For example, how confident are you that your wage and hour practices aren’t under review by the feds or, maybe worse, a class action attorney? Are your "independent contractors" independent? Are your "exempt employees" actually exempt? To ask the question another way, “How many FLSA violations exist at your workplace?”
Bottom Line: Audit Before THEY Do
"They," in this case, might be the feds, lawyers, or even bankers deciding you don’t get that loan because improperly classified workers represent a huge potential liability.
Experts say that it’s always better to do your own audit, and fix what needs fixing, before authorities do their audit. Most employers agree, but they get bogged down in how to start, and in the end, they do nothing. There are, however, aids to making FLSA self-auditing relatively easy.
What our editors strongly recommend is BLR’s FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide. It is both effective and easy to use and even won an award for those features. Here’s what customers like about it:
—Plain English. Drawing on 30 years of experience in creating plain-English compliance guides, our editors have translated the FLSA’s endless legalese into understandable terms.
—Step-by-step. The book begins with a clear narrative of what the FLSA is all about. That’s followed by a series of checklists that utilize a simple question-and-answer pattern about employee duties to find the appropriate classification.
All you need to avoid exempt/nonexempt classification and overtime errors, now in BLR’s award-winning FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide. Find out more.
—Complete. Many self-audit programs focus on determining exempt/nonexempt status. BLR’s also adds checklists on your policies and procedures and includes questioning such practices as whether your break time and travel time are properly accounted for. Nothing falls through the cracks because the cracks are covered.
—Convenient. Our personal favorite feature: A list of common job titles marked “E” or “NE” for exempt/nonexempt status. It’s a huge work saver.
—Up to Date. If you are using an old self-auditing program, you could be in for trouble. Substantial revisions in the FLSA went into effect in 2004. Anything written before that date is hopelessly—and expensively—obsolete. BLR’s FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide includes all the changes.
You can examine BLR’s FLSA Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide for up to 30 days at no cost or obligation. Go here and we’ll be glad to arrange it.