Are Employee Evaluations Really Necessary

Are Employee Evaluations Really Necessary Employee evaluations, staff appraisals, performance reviews. Whatever you call them, the process of examining your growth and accomplishments over time should be an enlightening experience for you and your boss, yet when it comes to discovering the usefulness and effectiveness of employee evaluations, it depends whom you ask. In a recent  survey, 91 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed said formal evaluations are somewhat or very effective in helping employees improve their performance, but only 55 percent of workers interviewed agreed. In fact, nearly one in three workers said employee evaluations are somewhat or very ineffective, and 11 percent said they don’t receive evaluations at all. It’s easy to understand why employees dislike evaluations. Employee evaluations are usually annual events that jam a year’s worth of hard work into a 30 minute interview, skimming old accomplishments and focusing heavily on recent performance. Add to it that employee evaluations always seem to come during the holidays, it’s an inconvenient time of the year when work is piling up and family members long removed continue appearing on doorsteps. Some HR experts advise companies to  add an August meeting to their normal evaluation schedule, so employees can be evaluated semi-annually. But since so many employees already just don’t see the worth in evaluations, is this really enough? From the employee standpoint, are employee evaluations really necessary at all? If employee evaluations at your company are anything like those done by “the Bobs” in the comedy “Office Space” where slacker employees are promoted and hardworking employees are overlooked and even fired, it’s time to protest management to nix employee evaluations. But if employee evaluations at your company are well-thought-out, professional meetings, they really are necessary. Here’s why: They Allow You To Know Where You Stand In Your Company In today’s economy, ignorance in the workplace is not bliss. In order to be successful, employees need to know how their performance stacks up to co-workers’ and if it’s likely their careers will grow within a company or if they should contemplate  searching for a new job. Employee evaluations allow employees and bosses to examine a project or task from the other’s point of view, and they give both parties an opportunity to discuss the employee’s strengths and weaknesses in a nonthreatening way. Employee evaluations also give employees the opportunity to explain poor results or promote great performance. They Give You An Opportunity To Ask For A Raise Or Promotion Employee evaluations are traditionally the most common time employees ask for and are granted pay raises and promotions. While you can ask for a raise or promotion from your boss at any time, employee evaluations are the most ideal for a few reasons. For one, your boss is highly aware of your professional accomplishments and contributions to the company. Two, employee evaluations successfully weed out underperforming employees (as you’ll see below), potentially freeing up money, benefits, and positions. And three, because employees so often ask for raises or promotions during employee evaluations, your boss most likely expects your asking and already investigated what he’s able to offer. They Weed Out Underperforming Employees Underperforming employees or downright  bad hires cost companies huge sums of moneyâ€"between the cost of recruiting, training, salary, healthcare, and benefits, 41 percent of companies estimate they cost more than $25,000, and one in four say they cost more than $50,000. But you don’t need statistics to tell you that underperforming employees affect your day-to-day activities. Their poorly researched ideas take time away from your brainstorming during meetings, and their inability to complete work in a timely manner results in an increased workload for you. Employee evaluations identify and weed out these underperformers, so you can work more effectively in a better environment. Despite the uneasiness or excitement employee evaluations conjure, at the end of the day, they truly are necessary in the workplace. Employee evaluations allow employees to know where they stand in their companies, they give employees an opportunity to ask for a raise or promotion, and they successfully weed out underperforming employees, making the workplace a more enjoyable and more productive place to be. What are your thoughts? Do you think employee evaluations are really necessary? Sudy Bharadwaj is a co-founder and the CEO of Jackalope Jobs, a job seeker focused platform, making the job search social, fast and easy. Learn how Sudy and Jackalope Jobs obsess over job seekers by connecting with them on  Twitter.

Do we still have to lean in if Dave Goldberg is dead

Do we still have to lean in if Dave Goldberg is dead After three days of silence on the cause of death for Dave Goldberg, the New York Times has changed their story  in the span of seven hours,  some mysterious source said collapsed while exercising. Then a leak  to the Associated Press said head trauma. If we were in an Agatha Christie mystery, Id say heart attack. But we are in the real world, and I dont believe any of it. My uncle committed suicide. His son hid in the closet while my uncle shot himself in the head. His son saw everything. I didnt know this until 20 years later. Everyone in my family thought the uncle had a heart attack  shoveling snow. Every time my dad went out to shovel snow, my mom would say, Be careful! I dont want you to have a heart attack. The first thing my brother did when he saw my post about Dave Goldberg killing himself was send a reminder of our uncle. We still cant believe how long the family thought he died shoveling snow. Family secrets are powerful. And effective. So it seems pretty easy to me for Daves family to tell everyone a lie. A reporter from CNN called me this morning. He asked me what the motive would be for Sheryl to lie about the cause of death. Are you kidding me? The fact that CNN cant  dream up a motive really blows my mind. Sheryl has made her husband, Dave, the role model for the perfect husband. She has said many times that the most important factor in her success was the husband she chose. And as late a week  ago, she was saying that men need to do more, they are not doing enough, they need to take more responsibility. And, again, she held up her husband as an example. Its hard to be put in the spotlight as the worlds best dad and worlds best husband. Dave had one of the hardest roles in public life to maintain. He was CEO of a company where the investors  were dumping stock, and Sheryl made people believe Dave was perfect   a poster boy for the family guy. So then, I would like to know why was he on vacation in Mexico without Sheryl and without the kids? What was it a vacation from? Who was he with? Why was Sheryl in DC instead of going to get the body? Why was Sheryl in DC instead of home with her kids? Why does Dave take a vacation when Sheryl is scheduled to be gone? I wouldnt ask so many questions except that Sheryl keeps telling me to lean in, but she doesnt tell me how she does it. I ended up  spending my 401K on household help,  scaling back my career, and taking my kids on business trips that were  magical at first and a bore thereafter. Sheryl  tells me she can lean in because she has a husband who is perfect, but its hard to believe because in the time shes been married to him, hes gained a lot of weight. And we all know that gaining that much weight is a sign of serious problems. She tells me she and her husband try to make sure one of them is home with the kids, but its not what we have seen in the last five days. She doesnt tell us if she has nannies. She doesnt tell us how often she is away from her kids.  All she tells us is that leaning in depends on her husband. So can she lean in now? Can you lean in if you dont have the perfect husband? What if its too late to get the perfect husband? She doesnt address that, but maybe she will now. I have a feeling that the spokesperson for high-flying careers is going to get a lot more informative and helpful now that shes a single mom. All the money in the world cant buy a substitute for a parent showing up to kiss a skinned knee. But first she needs to stop misleading us. Its misleading to refuse to talk about how much household help she has. Its misleading to not talk about what she gives up with her kids, since all decisions in life are about choosing what to give up. Its misleading to tell us she has a perfect husband and not address the cause of his huge weight gain. Most of all, its misleading to ignore pleas for the cause of death for three days and then come up with something that is pretty difficult to confirm. And I can tell you, coming from a family of people who are misleading, that its a way of life once you start. That doesnt justify waiting three days to announce cause of death, and it doesnt justify the misinformation shes been spreading the last three years to push her own agenda. That said Im not sure it matters anymore how Dave died. Maybe he did die of a heart attack. Its a fine line between a heart attack and a suicide. Heart attack is purely a disease of lifestyle. It is  preventable. So Dave Goldberg died from a being totally  out of control  in his life from stress, or he died from depression that got out of control. Either way, Sheryl and Dave had nowhere near the perfect marriage that we heard about nonstop from Sheryl. What matters is that we might all get relief from Sheryl painting a picture of the perfect family, refusing to divulge pertinent  information about how that family actually works, and shaming everyone who do not  lean in the way she does. Arianna Huffington is on a book tour right now telling women to forget about having it all and instead get some sleep. I have a feeling that Sheryl will be on a book tour in similar fashion. But, like Arianna, Sheryl will have to wait until her kids go to college, because taking care of kids  is a lot of work.

Are You Making These 5 Personal Branding Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Are You Making These 5 Personal Branding Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There are plenty of must-dos for personal branding things like how Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook can help you land a job or grow your business when used correctly. But are you aware of the donts you might be doing? Over-communicating Not every platform is the right one for communicating your message. Sending inappropriate or unnecessary updates leaves your audience irritated. Choosing the appropriate platform includes following or “friending” the right audience in conjunction with your goals. Keep in mind your audience’s interests when you communicate with them. Using interactive communication for advertising The goal of social networking is not to advertise a product or service. In order to successfully use social media, be social! Reply to tweets, status updates, and discussions, and update your personal page frequently. Be personal and personable. Automated messages diminish the intended use of networking sites and should not be used. Inconsistency Personal and professional networking profiles should not be separate; therefore it is important to strike a consistent balance between the two. A personal brand is a full-time job, both online and in person â€" it should not be dropped once you land the job. Your brand should be consistent throughout all forms of communication, so checking them often and linking them together can help with this goal. It’s typically against the networking sites’ terms of service (such as Facebook) for one person to maintain more than one profile â€" so consolidation is key. Being selfish Employers don’t only want to hear about what you want, they want to know how you can further their interests with your skills and experiences. How are you unique? What do you bring to the table? Why should you be hired? Highlight your achievements and success stories, connecting them to a common goal. Negativity Speaking negatively about current or former employers is a flashing red warning sign. Not only does it look bad to potential employers and tarnishes your reputation, but it always has the ability to get back to the person. Anything that you post online is essentially public and should be treated as such. What other personal branding mistakes would you add to this list? Author: Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder president of Come Recommended, an exclusive online community connecting the best internship and entry-level job candidates with the best employers. She is also the author of #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), national entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.

4 Steps to Creating an Effective Talent Strategy

4 Steps to Creating an Effective Talent Strategy At our most recent series of Director Clubs, we teamed up with experts from Grant Thornton to lead discussions on the current talent landscape. We were able to draw on the findings of Grant Thornton’s ‘People Power’ research to highlight how talent and skills can be one of the biggest accelerators of business growth, but also one of the biggest barriers. This research highlighted that 1 in 2 high growth businesses was currently finding it hard to recruit people with the right skills and more than a third found retaining top talent a challenge. With this in mind, one of the areas we covered was looking at different steps to building an effective talent strategy and addressing these challenges. We talked through the four following steps, based on the framework from management guru David Ulrich’s ‘build versus buy versus borrow’ resourcing approach. 1. Build With more organizations finding it harder to recruit people with the right skills, many are looking to invest in learning and development to build their own talent pipeline from within. Building the skills of existing employees can prevent organizations from needing to ‘buy’ or ‘borrow’ talent. It can also provide the core support needed to ‘bridge’ employees into new roles. Choosing to invest in learning and development can also bring a wealth of other business benefits. It encourages creativity among employees, which will help to fuel innovative ideas and investment into people’s career progression can help to retain high-caliber employees. Investing in building the skills of your employees will also help to bolster your succession pipeline and if you aim to create an inclusive culture of learning, which enables a diverse range of employees to progress, you will help to create a great leadership dynamic in the future. Start by running a skills audit to understand what areas you need to build, both now and in the future. Training people takes time, so being able to plan ahead will help to ensure you have the skills and experience needed at the right time. If you identify an immediate need, buying or borrowing talent is likely to be the better solution. 2. Buy If your organization doesn’t have the capacity or resources to build skills from within, or if you have identified an immediate skills gap, buying new talent by recruiting externally could be the best option. It also has the added benefit of new employees bringing in fresh perspectives, as well as extra skills, which will help to increase innovation. If you do decide to recruit, make sure you are as prepared as possible to compete for the best candidates. Organizations are looking to make their recruitment processes as agile as possible to reduce the risk of an exceptional candidate accepting a competitor’s job in the meantime. They are considering every stage of the candidate experience, as even the smallest thing could be the deciding factor for potential candidates. We are also seeing an increasing number of organizations really looking to invest in building a strong employer brand to gain a competitive advantage. We support our clients in ensuring that they go to market with the most competitive proposition. Salary is no longer the deciding factor for most candidates and there are many other elements of an employer brand which can provide a competitive edge. Factors which make a real difference to people’s every day working life such as benefits packages, flexible working opportunities, the workplace environment, and an o rganization’s culture and values all play a big part in a candidate’s final decision. 3. Borrow In some cases, borrowing talent on a short-term basis can be the best solution, especially if the skills gap identified is only for a particular project or due to an employee on leave. Temporary employees provide an immediate injection of skills and experience without the commitment of buying in a full-time employee. With an increasing number of people choosing to work flexibly, there is a growing network of skilled employees who are available on a temporary basis. As with buying new talent, borrowing talent can also have the added benefit of bringing fresh perspectives. Temps and freelancers are likely to have worked across many different organizations, both in the same industry and outside of it. They can bring experience and knowledge of different systems and processes which could spark ideas you may not even have considered. Borrowing talent can also further support your internal talent building strategy, as existing employees will be able to learn from them while they are with you. 4.Bridge In today’s fast-changing world, some roles may have evolved or even becoming redundant. Part of an effective talent strategy is monitoring for this and looking to ‘bridge’ or support employees into a new position by identifying transferable skills and training opportunities. If suitable positions are not available within the organization, employers should still look to create a positive exit strategy in which the employee is supported to move on. Current and past employees are the biggest advocates of an organization’s employer brand. Their experience of working for you will affect what they say to other people and what they may share through online employer reviews.

10 Home Office Desk Organization Ideas You Need

10 Home Office Desk Organization Ideas You Need One of the best ways to keep yourself focused on work at home or in the office is to organize your desk for a de-cluttered lifestyle. Although it may seem like a huge project to tackle right now, if you listen to our ideas for a home office, you’ll find it to be easier than you think.So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get organizing!1. CategorizeevalYou can stay focused on work better when your desk space is clean and organized. You can easily do this by separating your desk into a variety of different categories.This way you know where everything is:â€" Tools Instead of having massive piles of stuff on your desk, set up storage in either baskets or containers. Not only will this keep your tools out of your eye line, but also help with house cleaning and organization. Feel free to label these containers as well, so you’ll never forget where your items are.3. Color-Code YourselfAn organized desk is a functioning desk. To help organize yourself, setupA well-organized filing syst em is a good indication of a functional office space. To organize your desk, follow these color-coding examples:â€" Green- Personalevalâ€" Red- Financesâ€" Blue- Medicalâ€" Black- Insuranceâ€" Yellow- Housing4. Invest in a Label MakerInvesting in a label maker can help labeling your containers, files, and drawers a whole lot easier. No matter what, you’ll always be able to find where you left your items. It is a key item to making your desk a more functional work space.5. Organize Your PaperworkYou papers are one of the easiest things to mess up your desk flow. Get control of the mess before it takes over your lifestyle. File all of your paperwork through a three-option system: toss/shred, file, or take action. Not to mention, you should be filing your more important papers in a color-coded system.6. Keep Your Books OrganizedTo facilitate your domestic cleaning, organize the books you own around your desk. The best ways to do this either by color, size, or genre. However, organizi ng them by color can offer a cool, clutter-less look.7. Use Your WallsWalls are often the most forgotten when it comes to home office desk organization. Utilize the space on the walls surrounding your desk by hanging up shelves, filing systems, calendars, cork boards, and more.8. Important DocumentsConsider sorting through all of your family’s important documents and separating them into individual folders or binders. This way, all of your papers and information can easily and quickly be found.evalHere are a few separate folders that you should have:â€" Home: In this folder, store all of your important house-related documents including your lease/deed, maintenance info, and documents about your home security system.â€" Medical: Store all of your family’s important medical records in this binder. This will become especially handy in the case of a medical emergency.â€" Auto: Put all of your documents on your auto insurance, loans, registration, and maintenance records in here.â€" Pet: If you have any house pets, place every document that involves in this folder, including their medical and vaccination records, as well as their registration and microchip info.evalâ€" Instruction Manuals: In this binder, put any and all instruction manuals for appliances and electronics around the home.â€" Miscellaneous: If you have documents that do not fit into any other category, place them in here.9. Optimize Your Printing SpaceChoose one area to house your printer and all your printing supplies. If you do not already have one, consider getting a wireless printer. This way it will not take up that much-needed desk space.10. Organize Your MailThough most of your work will be done digitally, you will likely still receive some paper mail. To organize this influx of papers, try creating a mail station. Use paper bins or folders to separate your papers into four different sections: incoming mail, bills, papers to file, and outgoing mail. File mail as it comes in and set aside a time every week to sort through each section of mail

The Last Thing You Need is a Vision - Kathy Caprino

The Last Thing You Need is a Vision I am so excited today to share a guest post from my dear friend and colleague Jesse Stoner, co-author with Ken Blanchard of Full Steam Ahead, the second edition of which is out this week.   If you enjoy the post, please check out the book. Jesse is donating all proceeds from sales this week to Give Kids the World. The Last Thing You Need Is a Vision By Jesse Lyn Stoner Recently a highly respected business colleague startled me by stating “vision is oversold and overrated.” Having spent over 25 years working with leaders to create a shared vision, I had come to assume that although people often don’t know how to create one, everyone believes vision is important. To be fair, my friend wasn’t saying that vision isn’t important; he was saying it’s less important than purpose and strategy.   But still, it sounded provocative. I reflected on other times I’ve heard people dismiss the importance of vision. “The Vision Thing” Of course there’s the famous comment that plagued former US president George Bush. During his 1987 campaign, when he was urged to stop focusing on the small pieces and figure out where he wanted to take the country, he replied with an irritated “Oh, the vision thing.”   Not only did that phrase haunt him throughout his presidency, it has since earned a place of its own in Wikipedia.   Mr. Bush is also distinguished as the last US president to serve only one term. “The Last Thing IBM Needs Is a Vision” Another well-know dismissive remark about vision came from Louis Gertsner, Jr. in 1993 when he took the helm of IBM â€" “the last thing IBM needs is a vision.”   For months after he made that statement, every time I spoke to a group on the topic of vision, someone would ask my opinion. I always replied that it depended what he meant by “vision.”   If he meant a pie-in-the-sky dream that wasn’t connected to daily life, he was absolutely right. At that time, IBM was in big trouble, with losses of $8 billion a year and morale at an all time low.   He needed to turn the ship around quickly and patch the holes below the waterline.   But would he need clear plans, strategy and direction?   You bet.   Without it, the ship would be dead in the water. Two years later, Gertsner announced IBM’s new vision and the strategy to achieve itâ€"a return to IBM as a customer-focused provider of computing solutions, employing network computing as an overarching strategy.   His famous turnaround was eventually detailed in his 2002 book, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, It Doesn’t Matter What Path You Take. So, are purpose and strategy enough? It’s difficult to engage the hearts and minds of the people through purpose and strategy alone. Purpose explains “why.” Strategy is a vehicle that takes you to your destination. It explains “how,” but it doesn’t tell “where.”   And as the Cheshire Cat in Wonderland remarked to Alice:   If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter what path you take. I think the real problem is: Vision is overused and under-defined. A real vision is not a catchy phrase or slogan that is disconnected with the reality of life in the organization.   Nor is it a vague statement like being “number one.” A real vision shows you where to go and makes you want to go there.   It provides a picture that you can actually see in your imagination. A real vision is clearly understood by everyone, engages their hearts and minds, is tied directly to their real work, and provides guidelines for making decisions.   And a real vision is enduringâ€"lasting beyond the leadership period of the person who originally articulated it, whether that is the vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Herb Kelleher’s vision for Southwest Airlines. The process of creating the vision is as important as what it says. Some people have a cynical attitude toward vision because the process has been misused.   Recently, a colleague provided me with a description of her experience in this situation: Ten years ago I quit my job as a manager in a large corporation during a siege known as Redeployment, replete with vision and values workshops, many of which I was asked to lead.   It was a farce.   The company was downsizing, people were losing their jobs, and those who stayed felt bad for their friends and colleagues and insecure about their own jobs.   The platitudes in the vision meant nothing.   As a manager, I felt like we were trying to sell them a bill of goods instead of helping people deal with the reality of what was happening. Being part of the charade got to be too much for me, so I left. If Louis Gertsner had arrived at IBM and tried to “sell” the people on a lofty vision, he would have lost credibility.   He needed to address the immediate crisis, which included restructuring. Gertsner was right. Vision might not be the first thing you need, but it is always the last. What has your experience been with vision? Have you experienced the power of vision on a team or in an organization? Has vision played a role in your personal life? If you’d like to unleash the power of vision in your work and life, check out Jesse’s book, Full Steam Ahead.

Job-Seeking Tips - Resume Writing Services to Help You Get a Job

Job-Seeking Tips - Resume Writing Services to Help You Get a JobThere are many ways to write a resume but many of the different forms and styles will create problems when it comes to managing the skills that you have. Hiring a resume writing service allows you to hire a resume writing service that will take a look at your resume and tell you what is working and what is not working.A resume should be designed for the particular job you want and the company you are looking to work for. It must also contain a description of your skills and achievements. You want this information to be included in your resume to ensure you get the job and will be a good fit for the company.There are a few ways to create a resume that will be effective and able to get you the job you are applying for. The most popular way is to create your own and then do the job of putting it together yourself. This can be costly and a huge job so a more cost effective way is to hire a professional resume writing service .The best resume writing service will have one or more writers that have years of experience in all the different areas of writing resumes. The resume writers will develop a resume that is written specifically for you. These resume writers will know your strengths and weaknesses so that they will know how to incorporate them into the resume that you are requesting. They will include these areas on the resume in various formats to ensure you get noticed.Resume writing services also give you the opportunity to get feedback on your resume before it is released to the general public. This will give you the opportunity to see what your job is and what kind of feedback you are getting from those who are reviewing your resume. This is very important when writing a resume because you want to know what other people think about your work experience and what you have accomplished to date.These services are always looking for skilled writers that can add fresh content to their resumes. The writ ers will take your resume and work on improving it by writing new information or even creating a new section on the resume. The end result is that the resume will have all the relevant information in it and will be exactly what you are looking for.They are able to create a resume that is designed to meet specific types of needs. For example, if you have medical experiences, your resume might be tailored for a nurse. A career counselor could find a career section in the resume to help find a new job for someone.Using a resume writing service is an easy way to get a resume that will make you stand out from the other applicants. You can get your resume seen by many employers and ensure that you get the job you want.