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In this issue:

1. Making a List; Checking it Twice: Performance Reviews are Comin' to Town
2. Family-Friendly Workplace Crucial in Developing Loyalty
3. Course Review: For Goodness Sake!
4. Seasonal Marketing Themes for the Winter Holidays



1. Making a List; Checking it Twice: Performance Reviews are Comin' to Town

A recent survey conducted by UK-based, PersonnelToday.com, showed that 20% of 280 survey respondents felt that performance reviews did no good. Nearly half of those surveyed reported that they had only had two reviews in as much as five years. Paul Marsh, head of HR and training at FSS and Crone Corkill said appraisals were vital for career development. "Not having one can lead to serious career development and retention issues."

A key element to a successful and mutually beneficial system of performance evaluations and reviews is consistency. Ideally, each manager would take the time to have scheduled and regular coaching and mentoring sessions with each of their employees. In today’s small and mid-sized business climate, however, finding this kind of time in a regular work schedule can prove to be very difficult.

As the calendar year is coming to an end, and a new year is about to begin, many companies are about to remind their management team of their dreaded annual task. So how can you make these reviews less onerous for you and more pleasant and rewarding for everyone involved? First of all, it’s all about attitude. Look at the review session as an opportunity to assess and review each of your employee’s performance, and also progress in areas of challenge. Of course there are going to be areas for improvement, and these sessions should be used to set goals for staff development, and also to give a pat on the back in areas where they’ve met or exceeded expectations. Overall, this should be seen as an opportunity to personally engage with and motivate each of your employees!

You’ll want to notify your employees ahead of time, and ask them to look back at the last 12 months and assess their own performance. Notifying your employees of the purpose of the evaluation session ahead of time will help to put them at ease. Take the time on your end to refer to previous reviews if possible, or meet with other team members to get additional feedback on challenges that employee has met and areas for improvement going forward. You never want your employees to leave the review feeling caught off guard. Make sure everyone has time to prepare and reflect on the time since your last review - having regular coaching sessions will make this easier for everyone. Making sure you and your employees are well prepared will lead to a more productive review.

Want to know what pitfalls to avoid in your performance reviews? Check out our video and DVD programs on performance appraisals, under our Human Resources catalog.



2. Family-Friendly Workplace Crucial in Developing Loyalty

By Jerry Osteryoung, Small Business Contributor for HeraldToday.com, Bradenton Herald Online.

With a nationwide labor shortage in our very near future, the need for labor is increasing. In addition, employers are facing a new set of issues as members of Generation Y flood today's workforce. Among members of this group, loyalty to an employer is a scarce commodity. Consequently, employers are becoming less concerned with hiring candidates that have demonstrated loyalty and longevity in their employment history.

My son presents a classic example of this labor trend. He earned an MBA and moved, about a year ago, to Atlanta to work for a large company. Within six months, he had changed jobs taking a position with another very large firm that had offered him more money. The firm that hired him was not concerned with his longevity on the job. What did concern them was the skill set that he brought with him.

While I would love to talk about my son more, that clearly is not the purpose of this column. Rather, the purpose is to bring to light a problem that so many employers are facing in today's job market. The lack of loyalty and longevity in today's workforce is a bigger problem than you might think. From a monetary perspective, it is important to hold on to your skilled workers as the cost to retrain and replace them is so high.

So, how does an employer increase loyalty in an environment that does not encourage this type of behavior? One thing that does seem to be making a difference is the development of family-friendly workplaces. A family-friendly workplace is one that recognizes the importance of the family in their employees' lives. As we get busier and busier, our ability to juggle family and work diminishes. A family-friendly workplace recognizes this and establishes programs that help ease their employees' struggles. Many firms are moving in this direction having understood that a family-friendly workplace is not only good business, but also good sense.

There are a number of ways that you can develop a family-friendly workplace. One of the most common of these is offering flex-time hours. Flex-time means that the specific hours worked are flexible as long as the total weekly requirement is met.

Another way to be family-friendly is to help employees solve their childcare concerns. To accomplish this, many large companies are installing on-site childcare centers. On countless occasions, this benefit alone has attracted workers that could have easily gone elsewhere for employment. Along similar lines, some firms are paying a portion of their workers' childcare costs.

You may also want to consider offering a wellness program for your employees. This is just another way that you can make your business more family friendly.
Not just geared toward women, family-friendly workplaces are intended for the entire family and run the gamut of employee needs. For instance, more and more companies are offering Employee Assistance Programs. These programs are a confidential resource for information, referrals and counseling. When I was going through a rough patch in my life, the Employee Assistance Program at Florida State University was a life saver. At some point in our lives, we all need assistance, and these programs are set up to meet that need.

The federal government offers family-friendly assistance as well. The Family Friendly Leave Act allows full-time federal employees to use 40 hours of sick leave every month to care for family members and to arrange or attend funerals.
There are many ways that you can make your workplace family-friendly, and I encourage you to do all you can. Family-friendly workplaces are not only beneficial to your workers and their families but ultimately, they benefit your business.

Jerry Osteryoung is an FSU finance professor and executive director of the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at Florida State University's College of Business. He writes a weekly column dispensing small business advice and has authored eight books including "So You Need to Write A Business Plan!".



3. Course Review: For Goodness Sake!

Course Group
Motivation & Personal Development

Course Code
014009

Media
Video

Course Overview
Take a relevant and funny look at goodness. This video program presents a fresh and inspiring message of personal responsibility, ethics and integrity. In dozens of hilarious sketches, employees will see Hollywood celebrities show why it is so important to be good to each other. With the help of Jason Alexander of Seinfeld and Bob Saget of Full House, this course shows how practicing goodness at work can increase organizational success, demonstrates why it's in everyone's best interest to be good, and identifies the obstacles to goodness and how to overcome them.

Target Audience
All Employees

Expected Duration
24 Minutes

Andrew's Rating 

4 Stars (Out of 5)

Andrew's Review
For Goodness Sake! is probably one of the best videos ever made on the subject of goodness. Through dozens of hilarious sketches, hollywood celebrities like: Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Scott Bakula (Enterprise), and Bob Saget (Funniest Home Videos), show why it is so important to be good to each other. According to the movie, “People cause us the most pain,” and how true is that statement? How many times has someone hurt your feelings by talking behind your back or been rude to you for no certain reason? As the movie goes on to say, “If people took a minute out of their busy days to reflect about their actions, most people would be embarrassed.” The most memorable quote that I was able to retain from watching For Goodness Sake! was “The more good you do, the better people will be to you.” Overall, improving one’s character has never been so much fun. This is a must-see -- great entertainment for all levels of your workforce. From the highest manager to the lowest person on the totem pole, For Goodness Sake! applies to one and all, young or old. In general, I give For Goodness Sake! 4 stars out of 5 stars because the information is great, however, the resource is from the early 1990s so, therefore, not as fresh as other resources in the lending library but a great lesson to all involved.

Andrew Goldfeder is a Business Development Representative at Business Training Library.



4. Seasonal Marketing Themes

Are your employees taking a snow day from their training and development goals?

Utilize our "fruitcake" and "New Years" seasonal marketing themes to dig them out of the winter freeze!

Check out our seasonal themes:

• Lending Library members, click here.
  
• e-Learning clients, click here.

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