In today’s highly competitive, global
economy, skilled talent is often one of the distinguishing traits that separates
leading companies from the rest of the pack. Organizations that excel at
managing their talent enjoy important operational and performance advantages. The
right talent can help drive innovation, spur business growth and improve
customer retention and value.
In recent years finance departments have
become a valuable resource for human capital planning and management, helping
to optimize workforce performance and partnering with human resources to
achieve business goals. In this post, we’ll highlight several key questions a
modern CFO should be asking to help ensure the business is maximizing its
return on HR investments. The questions center around four core disciplines:
Strategic
collaboration and planning
Performance
measurement
Talent optimization
Use of data and
intelligence
First, we’ll look at the changing role of the
CFO and the ramifications for HR leaders who collaborate with or support
finance leaders.
The CFO
as an HR advocate
One of the major areas of opportunity in many
organizations today is the potential value that can be gained by leveraging the
relationship between the CFO and HR function. Through their intimate
involvement with corporate strategy and cost management, CFOs have developed a
deep knowledge of business priorities and an understanding of each department’s
needs and individual impact.
Areas where HR excels — such as recruitment, onboarding,
and retention —are instrumental to the health and vitality of any business. But
there’s also a growing opportunity for CFOs to add substantial value from the
financial side of the business.
On the surface, talent management may not
seem like an obvious component of the CFO’s role and responsibilities. In
recent years, however, CFOs have increasingly become involved in driving
business strategy and are becoming better equipped to take a more active role in
working closely with HR to execute plans and achieve business goals.
This change has important implications for the
HR function, which must work in partnership and negotiate with finance
departments. While these two roles are often at odds with one another as they
pursue their functional agendas, when the collaboration works, the alliance
becomes a powerful engine of transformation and growth.
The CFO can provide key insights and perspectives that an HR team needs to acquire talent and drive productivity. But it requires asking the right questions from the start, and knowing the precise metrics that are relevant to an organization. Key questions to consider include:
1. How can finance and HR collaborate better?
HR understands
the company’s current and potential human capital strengths as well as anyone.
Closer collaboration with the finance department can help HR better leverage
this insight on behalf of the company’s larger goals, and also, if needed,
support changes in strategy or initiatives to help tackle the newest market
challenges.
One important step a CFO can take is to integrate
processes and work to improve information sharing across the two departments.
CFOs need to share key metrics with HR so the best hiring choices can be determined
based on the most vital needs of the company. The CFO typically has deep
knowledge and insights into key business priorities that can prove instrumental
in helping to shape the company’s people strategy and raise the right
questions. Do our actions align with business strategy? Are we building a
sustainable talent roadmap? Can we maximize retention and reduce the cost of
turnover? Are we engaging all key stakeholders?
Whenever possible, seek to share performance
data, long- and short-term financial goals, and vital metrics related to important
business priorities. Likewise, HR can provide input about employee performance
and other metrics. This information exchange can help lead the way toward
identifying precise needs and employee skills needed to help the business more
effectively compete in the market.
Bottom
line: the more HR is engaged and integrated into the company’s strategic and
financial planning initiatives, the better it is able to contribute to talent
acquisition, productivity and workforce sustainability improvements.
Key
actions to better collaboration:
Seek out common ground on business issues
Create a leadership culture that encourages collaboration
Invest the time needed to make the relationship work
Focus on initiatives that impact the entire organization (beyond specific functional areas)
Ensure that HR is involved in upstream planning and decision making
2. How do we define and measure HR success?
To meet quantitative goals and keep the company competitive, HR needs to have its own clearly defined metrics that measure its success. This is where the CFO can add value.
CFOs typically have deep knowledge in analytics
and metrics, which are essential to measuring performance. CFOs can assist HR
leaders in defining metrics related to employee retention, engagement, training
costs and more, and illustrate how those correlate to business performance.
HR performance metrics are often shaped by
what is easiest to measure rather than by what is most important. Finance
should work closely with HR teams to identify and monitor the key performance
indicators that will support the organization’s core business objectives and strategy.
Adopt a more comprehensive, longer-term system of performance indicators that include
leading employee, as well as lagging finance-oriented, metrics. This might
include more tactical measurements, such as employee productivity and
engagement, and retention.
Make measurement a continuous, predictive
process. Establishing a performance baseline
is the first step in the process. In addition to sharing relevant financial data,
the CFO should calculate the cost-benefit performance that weighs heavily into
to overall value creation of the business. With
a consistent dialogue with HR leaders and a clearer understanding of
performance goals and targets, the CFO becomes an important strategist, able
to influence and more effectively support the HR function.
CFOs also play an important role in determining how performance is to be rewarded based on the analysis of those metrics. This is important for both engaging workers and helping to ensure the process connects to core business strategy.
3. Are we extracting maximum return on our HR talent?
If HR isn’t tapping
into the full potential of talent in your company, you’re leaving money on the
table. By not capitalizing of your employees’ potential, detachment and reduced
motivation quickly follow. This can lead to lower productivity and high
turnover.
The CFO can advocate for employee development
within the executive team to ensure that HR gets the needed resources for
employee development programs and advancement paths. Because there is often no
immediate return on investment, the CFO can often lend support to the
initiative to get executive buy-in.
Rather than reporting
on previous performance, CFOs need to consider new potential growth areas.
Accomplishing that requires a solid understanding of your company’s growth patterns
and the resources to research and adopt new ones if needed. Begin to see
operating budgets as enablers of growth rather than control levers; start inquiring
into which resources could advance the company’s competitive situation, rather
than focusing on reducing or minimizing those resources.
Organizations that do an extraordinary job managing their talent are better able to distinguish themselves in the broader marketplace. By more closely exploring the relationships between costs and human capital, the unlikely alliance between HR and finance becomes a powerful engine for growth strategies, talent advancement and productivity.
4. How can we better leverage the value of big of data?
The use of big data
and analytics offers a powerful collaboration tool. By applying a more
analytical, data-driven approach to human capital management, management teams
are able to gain greater insight into the drivers of a business’ performance.
Analytics also allow
companies to model diverse scenarios, using a mix of internal and external
data, to predict possible results from a range of investment options. This
helps companies identify the optimum workforce management approach for the
defined business strategy.
Analytics are a
useful tool to not only measure retention, but to predict it as well. Through
forward-looking analysis of how changes to the business will effect new talent
requirements, and evaluating the market availability of those skills, companies
are better able to plan ahead. They can determine the feasibility of crucial investment
decisions, and any possible workforce roadblocks that need to be removed.
Workforce analytics is
coming of age. Greater maturity of HR data, and the ability to apply this
information to areas such as strategic workforce planning, and operational and
workforce performance modeling, provides a powerful platform for understanding
how people investments will affect certain key performance indicators. CFOs are
ideally positioned to add value here by identifying new ways to apply analytics
to workforce improvement and engagement efforts.
Key takeaways
Today,
the role of CFO encompasses more than financial reporting and financing. It has
expanded to include strategic, operational, and people management
responsibilities. This change has ramifications for HR leaders and
professionals who collaborate with or support finance leaders.
The good news is CFOs now have a much
stronger sense of the importance of human resources and the contributions it
makes toward business growth. They are becoming better equipped to accept the
responsibility of successfully identifying skills sets across departments. By
asking the right questions, the CFO can provide the key insights needed to
identify and acquire talent across different departments while helping to make
their workforces more responsive to their current and future needs.
With many companies now embarking on digital and financial transformation initiatives, CFOs are at the center of exciting new technology-driven programs that are unifying operational and financial processes. By taking a proactive role in organizational transformation, CFOs are ideally positioned to help integrate and enhance human capital assets to drive higher productivity and support business growth.
While it is sometimes seen as a compliance chore, onboarding
is an incredibly important part of an employee’s journey with your company. It
is their introduction to life at your organization and it is important to lay
the proper groundwork for a long lasting and productive relationship.
A mishandled orientation can result in employees starting
work already looking for the exit. But a thoughtful, thorough onboarding
process can get them truly excited about working with you, causing them to be
engaged with their work and more likely to stay put for years to come. You’ve
already invested a lot of time and energy into bringing the new hire into your
business, it’s worth the extra energy to set a strong foundation for the rest
of their time at your company.
There are several foundational pillars to cover in a
successful onboarding: the employee’s knowledge base and their integration into
their new team, the company culture, and the mission/vision. You should provide
them with the tools they need to succeed in their new position, and let them
know where to go for help. At the same time, it’s important to connect them
with the people they will be working with for the foreseeable future, and get
them to buy into the mission and culture behind your work.
So you have to cover all of the bases getting a new hire
integrated into the company’s systems, setting up their benefits and employment
paperwork, giving them the knowledge they need to thrive at your company, AND
make sure you get the human side of orientation right? In case that seems overwhelming,
we have come up with two checklists to help you streamline and make the most of
the onboarding process. Let’s take a look at those lists and then tackle how
you can ace the “soft” side of orientation too.
New Hire Document Checklist
Form I-9
Form W-4
Confidentiality agreement
Emergency contact information
Benefit forms
Employee handbook
Offer letter and job description
Direct deposit form
Organizational chart
Phone list and office map
Safety instructions
Personnel action form
State-required new hire pamphlets
Other state or local documentation requirements
Any other material a new hire would find useful on the first day
Orientation/Onboarding Procedure Checklist
Review and discuss new hire paperwork
Schedule or conduct safety training
Provide tour and introductions with manager
Provide information on company logistics including work station location, break rooms, and restrooms
Provide instructions for phone and computer access
Sign agreements for security access and keys
Explain timekeeping requirements
Explain organization structure (provide organization chart and job description)
Discuss company mission, vision, values, and goals
Describe company products and services
Describe benefits of working at the company (employee benefits, job opportunities, etc.)
Get the Human Part of Onboarding Right
With so many technical details to cover during onboarding,
it can be easy to forget the interpersonal aspect of orientation. The first day,
and even the first few weeks, can be a stressful time for a new hire. They’ve
made a serious commitment, and they want to be sure that they made the right
choice. Since the onboarding process may well set the tone for the rest of
their time with the company, it’s important to do as much as you can to set
their minds at rest by showing what an awesome, supportive workplace they’re
joining.
The great news is that there is a reason why they chose to
work at your company, so you don’t have to do anything particularly different
to make their first weeks go smoothly. Instead, you can just build on the
energy that you developed during the hiring process. You have already convinced
the new hire that your business is special, now show them what that means for
their day to day life at your company and how they will fit into your mission
and your culture.
The best way to ensure that a new hire has a rewarding,
productive onboarding is to get buy-in from the rest of their team. Get all of
the team members involved in equipping the new hire with the information they
need to flourish in their new job and making them feel as welcome as possible.
There is no better way to show a new employee that they matter than to get the
people they will be working with for the next several years deeply involved in
their onbarding. It will make them feel welcomed and appreciated, connect them
to the people they will need to help them hit the ground running in their new
position, and jump-start their integration into your company culture.
Perhaps the most important people to get involved in the new
hire’s orientation are their direct managers and team leaders. These are the
people who will be guiding the new employee once orientation is over, so it’s
important to start with a strong foundation of trust. Don’t treat an
introductory lunch with the manager as a mere formality; encourage your management
team to take orientation seriously and really try to get to know the new hire.
As much as possible, make managers responsible for onboarding and orientation
to get them engaged in the process of integrating the new employee into their
team.
Finally, make sure that both HR and managers check in on new
hires regularly during orientation and the first weeks of work. You want to
identify any issues, fears, or misgivings as quickly as possible to ensure a
smooth onboarding process. Plus, it’s important to set the precedent of
communication and transparency, and to show employees that you care about what
they think, from day one.
Key Takeaways
Onboarding is your opportunity to show a new hire what makes
your company special and make sure that you start the relationship on the right
foot. Use our easy checklists to make covering your compliance bases easier so
that you can focus on the human side of onboarding. Just make sure to:
Provide a consistent experience from the first interview through the first months of employment
Equip new hires with the information they need to flourish in their new position
Show new employees how they fit into the company culture and how they will contribute to the mission/vision
Get managers and team members involved in orientation to build effective, productive teams
Like many parts of assembling your workforce and developing
your culture, onboarding and orientation can be a very personal experience. You
should tailor the onboarding process to your needs and priorities. But
hopefully these checklists and key takeaways will help you get started on
perfecting the experience for your new hires.
This post is a guest post written by Lauchways Diversity and Inclusion partner, Chanté Thurmond.
So, you want to learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion, generally referred to as DEI. That’s good news, because building a diverse and talented workforce is the best way to set your company up for success.
Recent
studies show that greater gender and racial diversity each are directly
correlated with increased profitability and value creation. Companies with the
most women and minorities in leadership positions are between 20-30% more
likely to achieve above average financial performance.
As a DEI consultant, I have a lot experience guiding
companies through the difficult and often treacherous process of tackling the
issues of diversity and inclusion. Every individual and company’s journey will
be different, and each faces their own challenges. But in this article, I will
share some of the biggest lessons that I have learned about implementing DEI
through helping my clients through their journeys. Most business leaders,
managers, and HR professionals can increase diversity and inclusion to build a
diverse and talented workforce by following these six basic steps:
Raising their awareness of DEI issues
Aligning their mission/vision and culture with
DEI
Making diversity part of their brand
Keeping all of their employees happy and engaged
Offering compelling and inclusive benefits
Building a diverse network
Who Should Learn About DEI?
If you are reading this article, odds are that you bear at
least some responsibility for the hiring or make-up of your company’s teams.
Let’s take a look at who can benefit the most, and have the most impact, by
learning about diversity and inclusion.
Diversity and inclusion efforts are most effective when they
are are built from the ground up, as a fundamental part of a company. For that
reason, the people who can have the greatest impact on DEI are the
founders/leaders of startups and SMEs – business leaders who still bear the
responsibility for developing their team and defining their culture. If you are
an entrepreneur or small business person, you have the power to implement the
principles of diversity and inclusion in every part of your business.
The second most important group of people to read this
article and learn about DEI in general are managers and HR professionals at
startups or high-growth organizations. These people’s jobs are to attract
talent and maintain effective teams. They are the front lines of any diversity
and inclusion effort at a larger company – and many smaller ones as well.
Finally, it’s important to educate anyone who has heard
about DEI and is interested in learning more. If everyone were well-versed in
DEI issues, companies wouldn’t have nearly as hard a time building diverse
teams and making sure that they are genuinely inclusive. So, please share these
ideas with anyone you think might take them to heart or learn from them, not
just key stakeholders.
Raise Your Awareness
The first step to tackling any new issue is to deeply understand
it. DEI can be an extremely complex and highly-charged topic, so it is especially
important that you have as nuanced an understanding of it as you can in order
to address it effectively. Misguided DEI efforts can alienate your employees
and hurt diversity, rather than helping it.
There are plenty of resources to turn to in order to
understand the topic. I encourage you to take it upon yourself to do some
research and learn about what DEI is and how business leaders can best foster
it. To get you started, here are some key terms that you should understand:
Diversity
Equity & Equality
Inclusion
Accessibility
Socioeconomics
Social Justice
Disparities
Privilege
Bias
Oppression
Marginalization
Also, think about what groups you are having trouble
attracting and retaining and do research into common challenges they face,
missteps that companies make to exclude them, and needs that they might have.
Just don’t forget to treat your employees as individuals no matter what their
race, gender, or orientation.
Align Your Mission/Vision
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the concepts of DEI,
it’s time to put them to work in your organization. The best way to make your
company truly diverse and inclusive is to put the principles of DEI at the very
core of your company mission/vision and culture. Those three things drive the
direction, priorities, and very nature of your company, so orienting them at
least partially around diversity and inclusion can have a significant impact on
how well your company works for all employees.
Your culture and mission/vision are also important parts of
your hiring process: you want to hire candidates who fit into your mission and
who buy into the values behind your culture. So, basing them on DEI will help
you attract diverse talent and candidates who believe in diversity and
inclusion.
Make Diversity Part of Your Brand
What you tell the world about your company defines its
reality. So, make DEI a part of your brand! Make it clear to the world that you
are a steward of diversity and inclusion to attract diverse employees, clients,
and business partners.
Every social media post, blog article, and job posting
should reflect your key values and commitment to diversity. Bottom line: walk
the talk because consistency and integrity matter, and people are paying
attention to your words as well as your actions.
Keep All of Your Employees Happy and Engaged
This is where inclusion really comes into play. All
employees should be on a level playing field with equal opportunities for
advancement and equal involvement in the life of your company.
It doesn’t matter how diverse your hiring practices are if
you have trouble engaging and retaining employees of all backgrounds. If any
employees feel left out or alienated during their day to day experiences at
your company, are passed up for promotions or new responsibilities, or are not
sufficiently recognized for their accomplishments, then chances are they will
leave.
Keeping your employees happy and engaged also pays off in
more ways than just keeping them around. Happy employees are more productive,
more effective collaborators, and better representatives of your brand. Your
employees’ true feelings about your company will become clear in the ways that
they interact with their teammates and with your clients. Give them every
reason to be enthusiastic advocates for your company.
Offer Compelling and Inclusive Benefits
Generous benefits help retention and engagement across the
board, so are a good investment whether as part of a DEI initiative or not. But
when trying to increase diversity and inclusion at your company, targeted
benefits can be an extremely useful tool.
You should tailor your benefits to the unique needs of your
workforce. It is useful to listen to employees about what they need, don’t just
assume or assert what they need. For example, women still handle most of
the child-rearing responsibilities on average. As a result, they are more
likely to leave their jobs, whether or by choice or not, and be passed up for
promotions. Companies who are serious about retaining and cultivating female
talent would therefore be well-advised to offer benefits like work-from-home
options and parental leave so that women don’t have to choose between their
families and their work. Those benefits will also increase the inclusion and retention
of single parents of all genders. There are plenty of ways to tailor your
benefits package to maintain a diverse workforce.
Ask yourself who is being left out by your benefits package,
and if there are any areas in which you feel as though you could be doing more.
Addressing obvious gaps is a great start, and then take the time to get
employee feedback and adjust to their needs.
Build a Diverse Network
Lived experience informs our perspectives and actions. If
you, as a business leader, foster a diverse network, you will be much more
effective at building a diverse and inclusive company. Not doing so both makes
your DEI efforts seem hypocritical and calculated, and means that you will
approach the topic of diversity with blinders on.
Just like how a diverse workforce increases the creativity
and productivity of the whole team, a diverse network will help you create
original and effective business solutions and DEI strategies. Plus, they will
be able to spread the word about your business and its diversity efforts to
their trusted networks – which are also less likely to overlap with your own or
each other’s networks.
Key Takeaways
This article hasn’t covered every facet of diversity,
equity, and inclusion. But hopefully you now have a road map to guide you on
the journey of educating yourself about the issues and implementing DEI in your
organization. Don’t be afraid to get creative and go beyond the principles
outlined in this article, just remember to always put your employees and their
needs at the center of any strategy that you implement. And, to get started,
remember to:
Learn as much as you can about the issues
relating to DEI so that you can be the most effective advocate and policymaker
possible
Live DEI in your company mission/vision,
culture, and brand – and your own networks
Keep your employees of all backgrounds happy and
engaged, especially by offering the benefits that meet their unique needs
Hopefully this article has gotten you thinking about how you can make your company more diverse and inclusive. We’d love to hear about your experiences, questions, and diversity strategies in the comments section below.
About the Author Chanté is a fierce advocate of equity & inclusion; gender parity and social justice initiatives. She is on a mission to learn the backstories of underrepresented leaders and share their voice with the world. Her expertise is in Organizational Development, Social Innovation, Health & Well-being and Community Engagement. In a previous life, Chanté’s work centered around cultivating strategic alliances between public and private sector leaders to reduce public health inequities and improve population health outcomes. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Mount Mercy University and a M.A. from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN.
Whether you are looking to solve a retention problem or just
want to pump up your already effective team, do not pass up the opportunity to
show your employees what they mean to you on National Employee Appreciation
Day, March 1st. There are many ways to make your team members feel genuinely
appreciated, both on the day itself and through the rest of the year.
In this article we will explore why employee appreciation is
important and how you can make the most of Employee Appreciation Day this year,
as well as ideas you can implement for next year:
Why You Should Celebrate Employee Appreciation
Day
Think Outside of the Box
Follow Your Culture
Think Long Term
Pitfalls to Avoid
Why You Should Celebrate
Employee Appreciation Day
Your employees are what makes your company run; they are
ultimately responsible for every success, every goal accomplished and every
product or service. That’s something that is worth some appreciation. Beyond
deserving it, your employees also need recognition in order to perform at their
best so that you can achieve future successes. No one likes to feel like they
are a cog in a machine, being used for their labor and not appreciated for the
contributions that they are making. Even simple gestures can make a huge
difference in employee satisfaction, performance, and retention.
The fact of the matter is that about half of all employees would
leave their jobs for a company that gives employees more recognition for
their accomplishments, while eight out of ten employees say that being
recognized motivates them at their jobs.
At a time in which companies are struggling to provide
meaningful work and retain top talent, showing appreciation can be a cheap and
rewarding path to a more effective, sustainable team. That is why you should
use this National Employee Appreciation Day as an opportunity to take concrete
steps to building a happier more effective workforce. But how should you go
about showing your employees that you appreciate them?
Get Creative and Personal
Especially since March 1st is rapidly
approaching, do not be afraid to get a bit creative with your celebrations. You
do not have to do anything too major or complicated to celebrate National
Employee Appreciation Day, so long as it seems genuine and personal. Office
pizza is always nice, but it doesn’t really show that you care. At the risk of
sounding seriously cheesy (no pun intended), you want to fill your employees’
hearts and not just their stomachs. But don’t be too serious – the more fun you
have planning the celebrations, the more enjoyable and rewarding they will be
for your employees.
Your employees will feel significantly more appreciated and
valued the more personal and unexpected your methods are. If they are surprised
by the celebrations, your message will seem much more genuine. And the more
directly the appreciation comes from the company leadership or employees’
managers, the more heartfelt and effective it will be. You shouldn’t just
implement an idea that you find online in this or any other article – take time
to make it your own and your employees will appreciate the extra effort.
Also get personal when it comes to your employees; if your
team is small enough, tailor your messages, programming, and giveaways to
individual team members’ interests. If you are a larger company, get managers
involved so that they can come up with special ways to celebrate their teams.
Time might be short for this year, but even just getting managers to write a
personalized note to each of their team members, and letting managers choose
their team’s treat and activity for March 1st, is a quick and easy
way to make your employees feel truly appreciated.
Above all, remember that there is no right answer so feel
free to celebrate your employees in the way that works best for your company.
Just make sure that you come across as genuine, and that your celebrations are
in line with your company’s values.
Follow Your Culture
Speaking of company values, the best way to make sure that
your appreciation comes across as genuine is to express it in a way that aligns
with your company culture, mission, and vision. Sending a message that
conflicts with your company culture would be jarring and dishearten rather than
engage your employees.
The reason why you should follow your company culture is
that you will reinforce what already makes employees dedicated to their jobs.
If your employees buy into your company culture, then that means that they
share your values and care about their work largely because of the company’s
mission and vision. Celebrating those values when showing your appreciation for
your employees will create a grounded, consistent message that makes your
employees more confident in their choice to work at your company.
Similarly, it is important to avoid showing your
appreciation by just making your employees work less, or in any other way that
downplays the importance of what the company is doing. You want the focus to be
on the good work that your employees do, and your appreciation for that work,
not on making your employees happy by just giving them a break. It is important
for all companies not to downplay work on National Employee Appreciation Day. Consider
using the day to provide insight into what the company is doing, why it is
doing it, and how the team members contribute to those goals.
If, on the other hand, you have a robust company culture and
engaged workforce, your team members will already be proud of what they are
doing and will want their managers and company leadership to be proud of it
too. They will not want to work less, but be recognized for their work. Use the
Employee Appreciation Day to acknowledge and praise employee contributions
towards the company mission/vision, steps they have taken to safeguard the
company culture, and other meaningful contributions that they have made.
Think Long Term
No matter how much you celebrate your employees on March 1st,
long term engagement and satisfaction can only come from long term
appreciation. That is why you should take the opportunity to announce new
policies or programs that will engage and reward your employees year round.
If you already have a change in policies in the works that
might benefit employees, consider rolling the change out as part of the your
Employee Appreciation Day celebrations. This will help frame the policies as
being meant to benefit and reward employees. Even if you are not ready to
implement changes, consider announcing them accompanied with a rough roll-out
schedule.
Even if you do not have any changes in mind yet, consider
simple policies that you can announce on Employee Appreciation Day. Weekly
“props” at team meetings, other informal peer recognition policies, and monthly
appreciation events do not take much to set up and can be announced this year.
You can also start planning for other long term changes to introduce next
Employee Appreciation Day. Some examples of larger projects to start planning
include:
Employee Gamification: allow team members to
earn points for various perks in exchange for accomplishments
Competitions: reward top performing individuals
or teams for accomplishing specific goals
New Benefits: gym memberships, zoo or museum
passes, and other quality-of-life perks
Work Structure: introduce flexible work hours,
telecommuting options, or Summer Fridays
Avoid These Common
Pitfalls
While the best way to show your employees how much you
appreciate them depends on your company and there are no “right” answers, there
are some common mistakes that you should absolutely avoid. Two in particular
are sure to make your employees angry instead of making them feel valued:
First, don’t just send a card or email and fail to show your
appreciation in any more concrete or active way. While it is important to say
thank you, a form message from HR or the CEO never makes employees feel warm
and fuzzy about their jobs. That is not to say that you shouldn’t have the CEO
send a message about the company’s recent accomplishments and future plans, and
thanking employees for their contributions to both. Just make sure that the
content is meaningful and that it is accompanied by some form of action that
further makes your employees feel valued, listened to, and appreciated.
Second, do not roll out programs that are just obvious, and
insufficient, work incentives. Contests and gamification can be great ways to
engage your employees and reward them for hard work. Just make sure that they
are clearly intended to make employees’ jobs more fun and rewarding not to
encourage them to work harder and sacrifice more than they already are. People
can generally tell what your real motivation is so make sure that any incentive
programs come from a desire to make the company a more rewarding place to work.
Key Takeaways
National Employee Appreciation Day is your chance to have
fun, show your employees how much they mean to you, and launch programs to make
your employees feel valued year round. Get as creative and personal as you can,
emphasize your company culture, and genuinely thank your employees for their
contributions to the company mission and vision and you will reap the rewards
of employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Just remember to:
Be creative and personal
Align your celebrations with the company culture
Celebrate employee accomplishments and
contributions to the company mission/vision
Implement long-term programs to show
appreciation for your employees
And most of all, don’t forget to have fun. Share your favorite, wackiest employee appreciation ideas in the comments section below.
When your HR communication is lacking, it’s time to tackle the problem. Motivating employees is an important part of the success of your business. When you need to update how you communicate with employees, you have some options. Your overall message to your employees should be clear. You value your employees. They are important to your company. They are the driving force of your business and need to understand why your company’s purpose and strategic goals matter so much.
Share Your Core Business Beliefs
Your employees need to know the purpose of your business. This is a message that is established over time, yet is also at the center of all communication with your employees. Using messages that share your company’s purpose and business beliefs and connecting those beliefs to the everyday work your employees are doing makes a difference. Whether it is through a text message, email, or in person, you need to communicate with your employees about the ways they concretely add to the mission of your company.
Share Market Realities with Your Employees
Internal campaigns that rely on customer feedback and market knowledge provide you with the opportunity to share your business strategies with your employees through this essential lens. You will be able to use this information to create new strategies and build new business protocols based on the information received. When your employees are kept informed as to what customers are reporting.
Prioritize Your Messages
When you consider your messages that you send out to your employees, they should fall into three categories: Inspiration, Education, and Reinforcement. When you want to highlight an accomplishment of one of your employees, or you want to inspire your staff in some way, you need to share messages that create an emotional response. Building optimism within your staff is important, and this can be done through strategically sent, inspirational messages throughout the year.
Educating Your Staff
Messages that educate your staff are generally more important than those that simply inspire. These messages will explain any major decisions your company has made, and the plan for which these decisions will be carried out. In these educational messages, you can provide detailed information to your employees on how their responsibilities may change, or what you expect their contribution to be in these changes.
Messages Must Also Reinforce Earlier Messages
While you may have successfully explained the purpose of your company, your business strategy, and how this plays out in the daily workings of your business, the message needs repeating. In order to create change over time, reinforcing your messages with follow up information or inspiration is essential. Your employees are going to be able to understand your purpose more clearly when you continually reinforce what you have to say. Each message sent throughout the year should build upon previous messages, proving your employees with further reinforcement as to your business model.
About the Author
Joel Lee is the marketing specialist at Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, and advanced automation. Jumpstart your business by grabbing your free copy of this powerful Mobile Marketing Success Kit.
Businesses use performance evaluations to assess their team’s work performance. These evaluations also help employers pinpoint deficiencies in work performance and determine the company’s expectations for the future. Written performance evaluations are best because a written evaluation creates a tangible record, which can be reviewed and referenced in the future.
The performance evaluation process generally involves a series of steps:
Developing guidelines and standards against which an employee’s performance may be compared.
Gathering appraisal information, which when analyzed against the established standards reflects the employee’s performance.
Discussing the appraisal information with the employee.
Documenting the evaluation process in the employee’s personnel file.
Businesses use performance evaluations for the following reasons:
As positive communication tools to help employees improve job performance.
In salary administration for determining merit increases.
As regular workforce monitoring tools.
In the disciplinary process where an employee’s job performance is unacceptable and could lead to discipline or termination.
Whether you’re looking to build a formal evaluation process or improve your existing one, this post will provide the actionable steps you need. In this post you’ll learn:
What are the benefits of conducting regular performance reviews
What are the types of performance evaluations
How to conduct meaningful performance evaluations
How to implement a formal performance evaluation process at your business
How to ensure your performance review process is legally compliant
What are the Benefits of Conducting Regular Performance Reviews
An effective performance evaluation system can benefit your business in many ways including:
Assess Employee Potential. An effective performance management helps business leaders make informed decisions about employee promotions and transfers. A sound performance evaluation system can also help you proactively identify employees with special skills and abilities.
Identify Training Needs. Performance ratings help evaluate the effectiveness established training programs. Your business might design and target training programs to better address the performance problems caused by a lack of training.
Assist in Compensation Planning. Linking pay to performance is an effective compensation strategy, especially at growing businesses. Reliable, consistent performance evaluation processes enable your business to predict future payroll costs and reward your high-performing employees.
Identify and Correct Poor Work Performance. Performance evaluations generate discussions between employees and supervisors that identify poor work habits. During these conversations your and your employees can uncover mutually agreeable ways to correct issue areas.
Defend Against Lawsuits. The performance evaluation process allows companies to document poor job performance. Employers depend on this documentation to defend themselves successfully against employee claims of unfair termination or disciplinary action.
Motivate Employees. Performance evaluations can motivate employees in their efforts to meet your business’ performance standards. A positive evaluation assures the employee that your business recognizes their hard work and that they will be rewarded for exceptional performance.
What Are the Types of Performance Evaluations
When it comes to conducting performance evaluations, there are several different methodologies your business might opt to leverage. Some of the most popular ones are elaborated on below.
Rating Scales
The rating scale method provides a high degree of structure for evaluations. The scale rates employee traits or characteristics on a bipolar scale where there is a neutral point and the two ends of the scale are at opposite positions of the opinion, ranging from “poor” to “excellent.”
The characteristics evaluated on these scales include employee attributes such as the following:
Cooperation
Communication ability
Initiative
Punctuality
Work skills competence
An employer can select which traits to rate based on factors that are relevant to performance of the employment position. Proper selection of traits may protect against legal action based on a claim of discrimination.
Essay Method
In the essay method approach, the supervisor or manager prepares a written statement about the employee being evaluated. The essay describes specific strengths and weaknesses of the evaluated employee in job performance. It also includes suggestions for courses of action to correct any problem(s) identified in the evaluation. The statement may be written and edited by the supervisor or manager alone. It may also be composed in collaboration with the employee who is evaluated.
Results Method
Management by objectives (MBO) performance evaluation is results-oriented. It attempts to measure employee performance by examining the extent to which employees meet predetermined work objectives. The objectives are usually established jointly by the supervisors and employees. Once an objective is established, the employee is usually expected to identify the skills needed to achieve the objective. Employees do not rely on their manager to locate and specify their strengths and weaknesses. They are expected to monitor their own development and progress toward achieving the objective.
How to Conduct Meaningful Performance Evaluations
Many businesses have ineffective performance evaluation processes that result in little insights for the leadership team to reward high-performers, address performance issues, and make other informed business decisions. Here are some key things to keep in mind to ensure your evaluation process is effective:
Honesty
In order to be effective, performance reviews must be honest and candid. Although supervisors may be unduly harsh on employees during an evaluation, excessive leniency occurs much more often. It’s a good idea to note and praise good work done by an employee in the past. However, the evaluation must also identify any issue areas in employee performance. Defending a wrongful termination suit is extremely difficult if the reason for termination was a problem that existed for an extended period of time and was not noted on the employee’s performance evaluations. The employer’s case is further damaged when the employee received favorable performance evaluations, including favorable remarks on the categories of performance that are later involved in the reasons for termination.
Uniformity Among Supervisors
An employer should always monitor managers as they conduct performance evaluations, making sure the process is uniform throughout the organization. If your process lacks uniformity, supervisors in one department may give more favorable (or harsh) evaluations than those in another department. When these inconsistencies occur, it is difficult for an employer to defend against wrongful termination because the suit could attack the credibility of the business’ evaluation system.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Each evaluation must include a discussion of the employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Evaluations should include deserved compliments (rather than only criticism) to be fair, balanced, and objective.
Constructive Criticism
Giving constructive criticism in performance evaluations also has advantages. Some constructive criticism of good employees may help lay the groundwork for negative evaluations of those employees in the future if their overall performance deteriorates. This is particularly true when an employee brings a wrongful termination suit after an unfavorable performance evaluation. When defending against a wrongful termination suit, it may be helpful for the employer to demonstrate that the employee was previously criticized for some of those same faults (which triggered the termination) on prior evaluations, even though the problem perhaps was in its infancy at that time and did not warrant an overall negative evaluation.
How to Implement a Formal Performance Evaluation Process at Your Business
If you’d like to launch a formal employee performance evaluation process or refine your existing one, consider providing the following:
Clear written instructions to all managers involved in the evaluation process.
Relevant training for supervisors and human resource leaders involved in the evaluation process to ensure complete understanding of all employee job duties.
A job-related performance evaluation system.
Reasonable precautions to guard against improper bias by the evaluating supervisor or manager.
A procedure that includes multiple levels of review and approval of the evaluation.
Central monitoring by human resources to ensure uniform performance rating standards among all supervisors and managers conducting the evaluations.
A procedure that allows the employee to comment or respond to the evaluation.
A procedure providing the employee with an appeal process of a poor evaluation, within a reasonable time after the evaluation.
A procedure requiring the supervisor to identify specific performance goals as part of the evaluation process.
How to Ensure Your Performance Review Process is Legally Compliant
Federal civil rights and state fair employment practice laws are in place to prohibit employers from implementing performance evaluation systems that discriminate against employees based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, or disability. To avoid liability, your business must ensure that its supervisors and managers base their performance evaluation judgments solely on job-related factors.
In determining whether performance evaluation systems are discriminatory, courts generally apply the same standards used to determine whether employee selection procedures and tests are discriminatory. Under such standards, a performance evaluation system is nondiscriminatory if it is both valid and reliable. When the system does not satisfy both requirements, the discriminatory impact of the improper factors might cause the system to violate one or more federal or state laws.
Valid and reliable performance evaluation programs normally share the following characteristics:
The performance evaluation program is formal and in writing.
Ratings are reviewed to ensure that high and low ratings are documented with information demonstrating what the employee did or did not do to earn the rating. Reviews also look for statistical patterns of adverse ratings and evidence that a supervisor needs more training rating employees.
The evaluation relates to the particular job in question. This means that employees are not rated on items that are irrelevant to job performance. An evaluator who must use a preprinted form that is not specific to the job should have the option of checking “not applicable.”
The evaluator is familiar with the employee’s job duties and actual performance. Evaluators should be allowed to state or check “not observed” when necessary.
Employees must read their evaluations, sign the evaluation to acknowledge their reading of the evaluation, and have the opportunity to provide written commentary on the evaluation.
Evaluations are not final until employees have the opportunity to comment.
Higher-level management reviews all evaluations.
Supervisors receive training in evaluating employees.
Evaluators receive clear written instructions as to the implementation of the evaluation.
Evaluation forms are as clear and simple as possible.
Definitions and examples are included to clarify the scope and meaning of various rating categories.
Standards or expectations are identified clearly for each aspect of performance and are communicated to the employee.
Employees have input in setting performance expectations.
The relative importance of each aspect of performance is communicated.
The primary goal of the evaluation is to enable employees to improve. Evaluators help an employee recognize strengths and weaknesses and help employees develop plans for improvement.
