How to get the best out of staff
January 27, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
sitting comfortably
One of the things I miss out on as a freelancer is an annual performance appraisal from the boss. So it was interesting to do a feature on appraisals for last Sunday’s Business Post.
I spoke with Stephanie Duffy, business improvement manager with Russell Brennan Keane, Louise Campbell, managing director, Robert Walters Ireland and Joe Ungemah, managing consultant with SHL Ireland, to get an idea of the latest thinking around how to conduct such reviews, especially with the downturn and all.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the words ‘change’ and ‘productivity’ popped up more regularly in the interviews than the words ‘fat automatic salary bump’. Still, the main gist of the piece was that regular appraisals were beneficial for both employer and employee:
‘In difficult market conditions, appraisals are often put on the back burner, while employees concentrate on holding on to their job, and employers are too busy with business-critical matters,” said Campbell. ‘‘This is understandable, but a mistake. An appraisal is a great platform to set out clear benchmarks that people need to achieve to improve their productivity and move to the next level of their career.”
The full feature is through here on thepost.ie website.
