Many companies have incorporated yearly employee evaluations into their standard business practices and that is a good thing. However, many companies don’t adequately train managers, employees and HR staff how to effectively participate in the evaluation process and that is a bad thing, or it is an opportunity, depending on how you want to look at it. I strongly believe it is an opportunity and I spend considerable time with my coaching clients helping them master their company’s yearly evaluation processes so that they can obtain the maximum benefits from the process… faster promotions and bigger raises. This begs the question “shouldn’t I just seek to maximize my performance and then let my performance speak for itself?” Well you can, but you probably won’t get promoted or get raises as fast as those who master the evaluation process. What, “that is not fair”? You are right, but life is not fair, right?
I read Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner as soon as it was released 4 years ago and my biggest take away from this great book was the following principal which I apply to almost everything I do today. The world is made up of “systems” by which companies, economies, etc. operate and the “systems” are not efficient in that incentives are typically not properly aligned. In order to succeed, I believe that you must seek to understand the system you are working with to fully protect your interests, work the incentives to your advantage, and maximize your participation. For example, real estate agents split (buyer/seller usually equally) 7% regardless of the price of the house. The real estate agent representing you as a seller has no incentive to help you negotiate aggressively to get you even $5,000 more for your house than a buyer has offered. This is because on a $200,000 house, the increase in price of $5000 only nets the agent $175 more than their 3.5% commission of $7,000 on $200,000. She has more incentive to get whatever offer is on the table because a sure $7,000 is way better than a risky $7,175; However, for you getting $205,000 for your house instead of $200,000 is BIG deal! Thus, when you sign a contract with a realtor, you need to re-define the incentive model to ensure the agent and you are working for the same outcome, to maximum the selling price.
I have applied a series of strategies that I have developed to overcome this principle of inefficient incentives in the employee evaluation process for hundreds of my direct reports and coaching clients over the years to help them achieve accelerated career growth, bigger raises and faster promotions. Contact me if you are interested in having greater control over your destiny and want to accelerate your career growth. My strategies are easy to incorporate and they really work as you can see from the endorsements in the picture here from a recent advertisement in Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Magazine for my upcoming book.
For more on this topic from some of my heroes, mentors, and/or thought leaders, check out these out:
- Anita Bruzzese @AnitaBruzzese Tougher Times May Mean Tougher Performance Evaluations
- Brazen Careerist @BrazenCareerist 10 Things You Don’t Want on Your Performance Review
- Sharlyn Lauby @sharlyn_lauby How to Create a More Innovative Workplace
Best wishes and always Act As If It Were Impossible to Fail! @ActAsIfSite transitioning to @JosephLavelle
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Joe -
Actually, I would love to get more control over my destiny as far as my career goes. I think I just don’t get the politics, or don’t want to — either way — I think the effort and expertise I bring to the table sometimes is quickly ‘thrown under the bus’ by other colleges — perhaps because I might shed light on their lack of expertise — in understanding Health Plan Systems — who knows. Either way, I am very excited about your new book — can’t wait to read it —- and would love to gain half the insight you have about this very subject.
Thanks,
Lesa sem
Hi Lesa and thanks for your message. You are correct the politics are “thick” at review time while everyone is jockeying for position. I got a message today that my book is within weeks of being ready and would love to chat with you once you have read it. Until then, keep doing great work and it will speak for itself. Best wishes -Joe
There has to be something for the staff to work for at the end of the year or they won’t want to do a good job. I yearly review especially if it is related to pay is one of the tools that can be used. A form of profit sharing is a better idea though.
This is a good post! Actually in our company we do evaluation twice a year. I just observed that even we do evaluation, the laziest people around are still working and earning money without doing their part for the company. It is true that employees must be trained for these stuffs.
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