IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (14 page)

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Keep HR informed.

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Be professional.

Be Specific

Not only will the session(s) probably be very emotional, but the end result can be more positive when you can be very specific about what happened. This detail should include not only past performance but current events; be clear and detailed in your notes about what conversations took place and what each party said. If the employee failed to meet goals, identify what those goals were and where the employee came up short. Stick to the facts and be objective. Be sure the review also covers what steps the employee needs to take to address the problem.

It Should Not Be a Surprise

Follow the guidelines outlined in this chapter; constantly communicate with your staff and record both accomplishments and disappointments throughout the year. In some cases a written warning is called for. If you do all this, both you and the employee should be aware of the gap between goals and performance.

Keep HR Informed

Make sure to keep your HR department informed. HR can make sure that you’re following procedures and policies, and can bring in other resources (e.g., Legal) if the situation warrants. Plus, HR has lots of experience in these situations and will offer guidance and assistance in the best ways to approach the situation. If your company doesn’t have an HR department, find an appropriate third party to keep informed of (or sit in on) the situation—your own boss is a logical choice. If you keep someone else involved and aware of the situation, you will always have a third party to check back with later in the process (if required).

Be Professional

Take extra care to make sure that what you write comes off in a highly professional manner. Resist the urge to list failures. Instead, cite circumstances where the employee “fell short of expectations” or “needs development” to identify areas where the employee needs to focus his efforts. In some situations, an employee may not be aware of his own weakness; for example, his contributions and involvement at staff meetings are more like speeches instead of discussions. If this is the case, consider it a coaching opportunity for you and a development area for him.

The task of preparing for and conducting performance reviews really shouldn’t be emotional, but in some cases it will be stressful and time-consuming.

Example of When You Might Need to Give a Negative Review

Susie did a mediocre job, but more problematic was the fact that she was very difficult to deal with. As a result, most people avoided working with her. To make matters worse, she was used to getting very positive reviews.

When reviewing someone like this, you might want to ask them what they want out of the job. Do they want to move to the next level (e.g., from analyst to engineer), which would mean a raise along with the promotion? If they answer “yes,” then you can proceed to list all the things they need to do in their current position that they aren’t doing and then list the things that they need to do to get to the next level. For example, you could say: “You completed this first project, which is great, but the second one wasn’t completed on time. Why not?”

After the explanation is given, you can say that you understand, and in the future, they need to report sooner or more effectively about what is going right or wrong. Then, you can add, for example, after they’ve completed all these tasks (as in the case of Susie), she would need to mentor someone else or be the lead on a project. It may be that both you and she know this isn’t likely to happen. If that’s the case, and she’s unable or unwilling to say that, you have given her the motivation to either step up to the task or (honestly) find other work, because the next review will be much more explicit about this new task.

There is more discussion later in this chapter in the section
“
Disciplinary Problems and Terminations”
on
page 54
.

Have Employees Review Themselves

Many companies have adopted the formal policy of having employees, in addition to their managers, review themselves. The employee uses the same form as the manager and evaluates her performance over the specified period of time. Naturally, self-assessment reviews (just like resumes) can contain some elements of (how shall we put it?) “skill inflation.” Nonetheless, the exercise is a very valuable one for both the employee and the manager. The employee gets a chance to express her views and concerns and to talk about what she thought her strengths and weaknesses were. Identifying the gaps between the manager’s assessment and the employee’s self-assessment can help in figuring out development opportunities and identify where problems are.

360 Reviews

In a
360-degree review
an employee receives feedback not only from his direct supervisor, but from other individuals he has worked with as well, which include peers and subordinates (see
Table 2.2
). An employee may work on a project run by another department manager, for example; in that case, the other manager can have direct input into the employee’s review. Or an employee may work much more with two staff members and may only occasionally see their direct manager. (Some employees have management in other states or even other countries.) In these cases, 360 reviews allow the individuals who most directly work with the person to provide input on their performance. If your company is using them, or thinking of using them, be prepared for more feedback—both good and bad—at review time.

Table 2.2.
Pros and Cons of 360 Reviews

A newer trend is to use 360 assessments not as formal review components, but as feedback mechanisms throughout the year. In other words, you or the employee may ask the manager from another department for feedback on your staff member once the project ends, store that feedback away, and use it during the review, or solicit input from project team members at the end of the project and use that data later. But when review time comes around, you don’t need to poll five coworkers of the employee or customers that person has talked to; you already have that data. You do a performance review as you normally would using data you collected throughout the year.

A 360 review can be done in a few different ways:

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In some cases, a third party contacts the reviewers to collect their feedback and then strips out identifying information to keep the feedback anonymous. An online tool is often used for this.

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In a less formalized process, the employee can simply meet with her peers and subordinates.

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In some cases, particularly if a tool is used, a report of various charts and metrics is produced to help the employee identify highs and lows.

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After completing the 360 review, the employee is often asked to complete some sort of summary report to identify what strengths and weaknesses were identified in the 360 review, as well as an action plan to address those areas (e.g., correct weaknesses and further benefit from strengths).

If the 360 review is conducted anonymously, there is a greater chance of more candid feedback; obviously the more honest the better. However, if the review is not anonymous, it gives the employee the opportunity to further discuss the feedback with the reviewers, perhaps to clarify a point or even to say “the next time you see me do that, please point it out to me because I wasn’t aware I do that.” One of the great benefits of a 360 is that it gives the employee the chance to see herself as others see her. Very often, this leads to some surprises (both good and bad).

How to Conduct the Actual Review Discussion

When it’s time to meet with the employee to go over the performance review, remember that it’s a discussion—make this an interactive time, not a linear one. Do not simply read the review to him. Some managers give the employee time to read the review in advance of the review meeting so that the employee has time to digest it and can then discuss it intelligently and unemotionally. Remember though, as a manager, to discuss it with conviction. This is your assessment of his performance.

You should be willing to make changes for two reasons: factual error (e.g., a project was completed on time, when you said it wasn’t, or forgetting to include key items in their list of accomplishments) or language nuances (e.g., the employee may feel that some of the words you used are particularly harsh). If you need to have this discussion with an employee who normally works remotely, the first choice would be to see if you can arrange for a face-to-face discussion. If not, review the material in this chapter on
“Managing Remote Workers”
on
page 37
,
as well as the section
“Interviewing Candidates over the Web”
in
Chapter 3, Staffing Your IT Team
on
page 91,
for guidance on meeting and interacting with people you aren’t in the same room with.

Respect Privacy

If you work in an open environment, make sure you reserve a conference room or an office for some privacy. You will both want the comfort of knowing the conversation isn’t being overheard, regardless of whether everything is positive or not.

Tone of the Discussion

You need to be clear in your discussion with the employee. Depending on the employee’s performance, your tone may need to include hints of motivation, hard-heartedness, appreciation, disappointment, optimism, and support. At the end of the review, there shouldn’t be any doubt in the employee’s mind as to what you think of his performance, where he has excelled, where he needs to improve, and steps he needs to take to do so.

In certain cases, you might want to have specific follow-up meetings with an employee at regular intervals after the formal performance reviews. If necessary, you may want to consider additional interim informal reviews at certain, pre-specified times. (“Let’s meet again every three months to review progress and make sure you and I are on the same page about this issue.”)

Make sure that you aren’t distracted or interrupted. The review is very important to the employee, and they should feel it’s very important to you as well. You should be sure to set aside enough time for the discussion.

Development Plans and Goals

While the annual review is the culmination of a year’s worth of interaction and discussion with an employee, it’s also the perfect time to start looking forward to the next 12 months to set the employee’s goals and define a development plan.

The development plan includes those activities designed to increase the employee’s skills and contributions. These can be technical skills or other professional development competencies, such as presentation or leadership skills. The development plan can include a variety of activities:

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Formal training (classes, trade shows, books, etc.)

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Project assignments that include exposure to new areas and opportunities to develop and practice new skills

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Working with a colleague either as a mentor (to develop coaching skills) or as a protégé

The goals represent the accomplishments you expect from the employee in the coming year. These can include:

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Specific project completions and deliverables

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Improvements in operational efficiencies

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Addressing weaknesses identified in the performance review

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Skills development—both technical and nontechnical

The goals and the development plan should be developed collaboratively by both you and the employee. You can even ask the employee to take the first cut at them and then review them with you. Both of these should be documented and discussed during the year to review progress and to see if they need to be updated to reflect changes in priorities or circumstances. A popular acronym to help set goals is SMART:

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S—Specific:
Goals that are too generalized are less likely to be achieved than goals that are specific. Plus, being specific eliminates any ambiguity. For example, instead of “refresh older hardware” you could use “replace all servers that are more than five years old.”

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M—Measurable:
The more a goal can be quantified and measured, the easier it is to determine whether it is achieved. You may have a goal for improving user interface design, but if you don’t have a way of measuring the effectiveness of the design (such as a survey), there’s no way to know if the goal has been achieved.

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A—Attainable/Achievable:
When a goal is attainable, it is doable, it is within the realm of possibility because others have done it before, and the resources exist for achieving the goal.