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Trust your Remote Employees – Now you can virtually monitor them

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Employers can now trust remote employees more than ever before and employees have more reason to concentrate on work and avoid distractions such as spending time on personal emails or checking in on their online social network now and then. These distractions and the lack of trust is often of concern to employers when they contract the work to remote employees – whether telecommuting or working for them in another country in a different time zone.
And what enables the accountability on either side (employees or contractor/freelancers accountability of the billed time and the employer’s approval of the hours billed) is the services and products offered by oDesk.

oDesk

It works well for the contractors and other remote employees who never report to the main office or those who easily get distracted when working on their own. More so, it is to the satisfaction of the employers who do not have to think twice when billed for a certain time.
If you have not heard about how oDesk works then in a nutshell it is like having your boss peak in behind you around 6 times an hour to glance at your computer screen! Alright, alright almost everyone who hears this explanation is bound to roll his/her eyes, but what the electronic monitoring feature of oDesk does is that it takes computer screen shots randomly six times an hour.

Invasive, micromanagement, violating.. maybe; but in the long run if it gets the employers happy and there is no fuss in handing over the money you have billed them for your assigned work; or for the employers to get work done with minimum distractions then why not? Further more, it also builds on the trust and reliance towards the remote employees.

MonkeyMonitor

“By clocking working hours, taking screenshots, tracking keystrokes and mouse clicks, MonkeyMonitor is a simple tool that provides the missing link between Mr Boss-Man and the virtual team.” That’s what they say on their website. If you have tried this solution pls do share your thoughts in comments below.

 

Some of the easiest methods for better remote employee interaction are also free – think Skype and WebEx. In the long run changing the mind set to “interaction” than “monitoring” lands a better rapport on both side.

These are a few solutions out there and I am sure there are more around and if not then sure enough some related solutions would be in the market soon. They better be because outsourcing, remote contracting jobs and telecommuting are the workplace trends of this century.

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Poor Communication Skills can Cost you the Job

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Most jobs require the candidate to have good written and oral communication skills. The oral communication becomes more important at the workplace and in fact supersedes the written communication in many ways (unless of course you are applying for a writing position).
Right from appearing for an interview to interacting with your clients, good communication skills can make or break your chance of getting that job or getting that promotion. Let’s see the different areas in your career where communication skills are at work:

  • The first telephone interview
  • Face-to-face interview
  • Negotiating salary after the job offer
  • Interacting with your boss
  • Interacting with your colleagues
  • Presenting before clients or customers
  • Requesting promotion
  • Persuading to work part-time or on flexible work schedule

If you are interacting with clients, customers or employees and management of an organization on a daily basis, you poor communication skills can even cost you your job.
It becomes very prevalent in the tech world where we see employees from all over the world and many a time the inability to communicate well can lower you on the performance radar. Try to focus on and improve on the soft skills on a regular basis. You may take courses on public speaking (which very often your company may reimburse), be a part of the Toastmasters group which encourages good public speaking and presentation skills through regular interaction and effective evaluations by the group members.
And often just get out of the cubicle and interact with your colleagues not only within your cultural network but with others who present a different speaking style. A multi-linguist culture is the norm of the present workplace; make the best of it by learning from all and trying to improve on your communications skills which is an essential element to your career success.

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Effective People Management through Performance and Talent Management Ensures a Company’s Success — An Interview with SuccessFactors

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This article features an interview with Steve McMahon (Interim vice president of HR) and David Cain (director of marketing, SMB) of SuccessFactors, world leading provider of Performance & Talent Management solutions to small, mid-sized and large businesses.

This interview highlights how the new solutions on talent and performance management can contribute towards a company’s success. Any organization’s biggest and one of the most valuable assets are its employees; are you doing your best towards efficient employee performance and talent management to retain the best you have?

Q. Why do you think employee performance and talent management is essential for a company’s success?

David: If people, who are a company’s greatest asset – but actually are also their greatest expense – are motivated, aligned, and know what’s expected of them, the company will derive better business results. So, in the same way you care about your expenses and investments on other items, you should also care about optimizing your ROI on people. Another study found that fully optimizing performance through automation has a 2-3% impact on bottom line. Nothing can be more essential to a company, particularly in a rough economy.

Q. I completely agree with you when you say that people are the largest investment for an organization. You also note that your software solutions are fully automated. What are your current software products which empower management to have access to an effective performance management system? Also, on your website you claim that you offer the most secure system on the planet. Could you elaborate on that please?

David: We provide a completely Web-based talent management solution that, at a high level, is comprised of a number of modules and applications to help companies better align and motivate their workforce. This includes everything from performance reviews and goal management, to succession planning and career development.

Q. How are employees empowered to access and manage their records?

Steve: The beauty of the tool is that each individual has the ability to initiate the processes. Employees have access to their own information through a simple username and password to view their goals, report on their progress against goals and objectives, and even participate in 360 degree evaluations. Also there is an ongoing record of the communication with other people. This information is readily available after the fact, so that correspondences and performance reviews from years past are readily available for reference. This is particularly useful when a new manager comes into a group or inherits an employee from another group.

Q. Do you think it’s important for employees to be responsible for their own performance management rather than the pull or push coming solely from the HR department or management team?


 Steve: It definitely needs to be a two-way street of communication. While management should provide a forum for employees to participate in their career development and the tools to facilitate growth, at the end of the day an employee is responsible for his or her own career. With SuccessFactors, we aim to bridge this line of communication, teaching managers to engage in constructive conversation with their team, while allowing employees to feel empowered in determining the course of their career path.

Q. Many supervisors are not that well trained on effective approaches for performance appraisal or keeping a good record on employee development & management. Do you suggest any performance management features which provide a checklist for managers and is easy to manage over time? From a bird’s eye view, how would a complete system loop from start to end?


 David: There are lots of demands on managers to keep their people aligned, productive and engaged on an on-going basis. This can be a hard thing for managers to deal with while balancing other responsibilities, and often times companies don’t provide managers with the tools to do so. SuccesFactors’ performance management system automates the process to make it easier in two general categories: structure and simplicity.
In terms of simplicity, we provide tools that, outside of the “processes” at hand, make the review and management experience an easier practice to conduct. For example many managers have a “blank page syndrome,” meaning they have the thoughts but when it comes to the performance review time they have a hard time articulating. Our “Writing Assistant” feature helps managers to quickly find the words for any situation, providing a variety suggested comments and competencies which can then be customized. People don’t want it to be too “cookie cutter,” but this provides a great place to start.

Q. How is SuccessFactors improving, evolving or changing its present software to provide the optimal performance review systems to match the needs of both the Millennials and the Baby Boomers working together?


 David: This is definitely an area that we are tapped into. We understand that the Millennials have completely embraced social networking trends and don’t want to shut this down when they are at work, so we’re working to bring this to the workplace in a way that is beneficial to both employees and management. Our Employee Profile application is essentially the merging of a resume and a Facebook profile, combining an employee’s career experience with personal interests and hobbies. An employee owns his profile and can connect with colleagues through “tags,” finding others at work with similar interests and hobbies.

Q. Can performance management systems be compliant across different industries?

David: Yes, at the foundation the majority of the processes are the same. That’s the beauty of our product – we have customers in literally every industry because, at the end of the day, it is important regardless of your industry for an employee to feel engaged, rewarded and as though they are being challenged, recognized and developed in their workplace.. There are some nuances to each industry. For example, employees in the healthcare industry are evaluated on competencies that may not apply to the food industry. As we identify these differences we develop methods to help these respective companies do a better job. The tools are there, and we can continue to offer more and more content moving forward.

Q. What makes you the industry leader today?


 David: We have more customers, more users and an unparalleled quality of customer success stories compared to any others in our area. This commitment to constant innovation across our entire product suite is evident in our monthly product releases. Since going public earlier this year, we’ve experience fantastic financial performance and are considered to be the fastest growing publicly traded software company.

For more information on the company and the products/services it offers visit their website.

Some companies are sensitive regarding security when it comes to Web-based tools, so we have taken a comprehensive approach to security – at the physical, network and application layers –to address these concerns. We work with industry-leading, best-in-class technologies to provide a secure and highly accessible environment that many corporate “behind the firewall” implementations could not conceive or achieve. Due to the very nature of our business, SuccessFactors and many other SaaS providers, are leading the industry in offering applications that are affordable, configurable and secure.

For structure, this means that the tool is not just a software application, but rather that customers are actually getting a company-wide process that can be internally customized and defined to empower managers to effectively manage performance in line with corporate objectives and culture.

Steve: We also have a Legal Scan which serves as a “red stop light” when you enter a comment or phrase that is considered to be illegal or discriminatory. This real-time audit is another feature that makes the process easier for managers.

It also serves as a tool for employees to receive feedback and manage their career development. By making this personal and career experience information visible, HR and superiors have a better sense of job qualifications and can use this as a tool for promoting employees internally.

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Mind your Speech and Blogging at the workplace

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True indeed, Freedom of Speech comes to the US citizens as a right, but it may not be so at the workplace. There have been a few instances of employees being fired from a workplace as they expressed “views” on a blog. Interestingly there is even a website with the list of fired bloggers.

With YouTube and the social networking websites infiltrating the websites and luring employees to quickly “check-in” while at the workplace, it is easy to vent emotions on the internet. An advice which probably should be added to all the new employees orientation and of course communicated to existing employees must be on corporate blogging policies.
Sample Corporate Blogging policy
  1. Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.
  2. Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
  3. Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.
  4. Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors.
  5. Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
  6. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments.
(The above policies are taken from Blogging Policies Examples)
Of course freedom of speech is very much welcome everywhere and comes as a right to all US residents but there are a few points to note before you start firing unpleasant comments about your company or employees. For a good example see IBM’s blogging policy: http://www.snellspace.com/IBM_Blogging_Policy_and_Guidelines.pdf.
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Are you Dealing with Angry People at Work?

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Are you dealing with angry people at work? If yes, how are you managing them?
I was just reading this interesting article on Seth Godin’s blog, titled: Angry people are different. He has two good and well known tips here – avoid them or acknowledge their anger. It’s also how you answer to their angry queries and retorts.
Giving back positively and getting back with empathy are two ways to foster better relationships at work.

So if you are dealing with angry people at work, how are you managing them?

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I Can Work from Anywhere – Virtual Technology at the Service of the Global Workforce

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Working virtually and with teams from around the world is the norm of the 21st century workforce and with the world getting smaller and technology enabling the global workforce to collaborate from one end of a globe to another, the global workforce needs empowerment and the ability for a sustainable and effective interaction.
The new technology assists those looking for an efficient team work across the time zones and virtual interaction.
Here is a compilation of some not-so-new and some recent tools and services which enables complete mobility and connectivity to the global workforce – empowering them with better collaborations and making the best of the virtual workspace.
LogMeIn
LogMeIn services provide on-demand, remote-connectivity and support solutions to small businesses, IT service providers and consumers.Businesses and IT service providers use LogMeIn’s solutions to deliver remote end-user support and to access and manage computers and other Internet-enabled devices more effectively and efficiently. Consumers and mobile workers use our solutions to access computer resources remotely, thereby facilitating their mobility and increasing their productivity.

GoToMyPC
Similarly with GoToMyPC, you have the power to:

- Work on your office PC from home — in real time
- Travel anywhere and use your PC remotely
- Increase your work flexibility and productivity
- Access your files, programs, email and network
… with easy, secure access to your PC from any browser.

Virtual team meetings enables the workforce around the globe to interact 24-7. Some of the products which enable you to meet online and save money, time and travel are:

MeetMeNow
A product of WebEx enables you to connect with up to ten clients, colleagues, and team members any time, anywhere. Deliver engaging online sales presentations. Train coworkers and clients quickly and effectively. Share resources with dispersed teams. Even solve remote clients’ technical issues by taking control of their PCs from wherever you are.

GoTo Meeting
GoToMeeting is a Web conferencing tool that allows you to meet online rather than in a conference room. It’s the easiest and most cost-effective way to organize and attend online meetings.

Adobe’s ConnectPro
- Enables attendees to jump into always-available personal meeting rooms — no scheduling or registration required.
- Share screens, use a whiteboard, chat, and videoconference — enjoy real-time interactions without the travel.
- Control meetings and related assets with robust management and reporting tools.

MPK20
And now welcome to the world of 3D interaction. According to Sun’s website: On any given day, over 50% of Sun’s workforce is remote. MPK20 is a virtual 3D environment built using the Project Wonderland Toolkit. In this 3D world, employees can accomplish their real work, share documents, and meet with colleagues using natural voice communication. Just like on Sun’s physical Menlo Park campus, known as “MPK,” inhabitants of the virtual MPK20 office building can work together in planned meetings, or can talk informally in unplanned encounters. Unlike the physical campus, however, in MPK20, the community can be built and maintained without the constraints of physical location. Tixeo’s Meeting3D and WorkSpace3D
They are web conferencing and real-time collaborative work tools. They allow by using shared 3D workspaces, to communicate and work simultaneously on the same documents or applications. And now you have every reason why not traveling for business would be a cool thing. Check out Cisco On-Stage TelePresence Holographic Video Conferencing, see the video here: http://www.musion.co.uk/Cisco_TelePresence.html. The ‘Cisco On-Stage TelePresence Experience’ was an ambitious collaboration between Cisco and Musion Systems, which took place during the opening of Cisco’s Globalization Centre East in Bangalore, India. Musion seamlessly integrated their 3D holographic display technology with Cisco’s TelePresence’s system to create the world’s first real time virtual presentation.

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The Power of Appreciation – How to Praise your Employees

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Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud. Any of us will put out more and better ideas if our efforts are appreciated. ~ Alex F Osborn

Have you recently appreciated a co-worker or your employee at work?

Is appreciating your employees part of your leadership plan and process?

“75% and 80% of American workers said they got little or no recognition from their managers in the last year.”

With stats like this, chances are you’d say “no” to both the above questions. And here’s why you must make this a practice at work – not to increase your likability but more to motivate your employees, improve morale and and increase retention at work.

How many managers are actually using appreciation to energize their workforce? And, why they should be doing it on a regular basis – appreciation and recognition are critical to talent  retention.

Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, “Make me feel important.” Never forget this message when working with people.
– Mary Kay Ash

Compliment often and with Honesty

Just saying “Good job” might not be the best way to get the praise across. Display sincerity and be specific in praising your employees. Send an email to the employee and if you wish CC to the HR personnel or another senior manager in your division. On being specific, mention the specific task or the project you were impressed with for this particular employee, if the employee is a good team player, add that to the testimonial.
Don’t be a miser when showering words of praises towards your employees or coworkers, and neither should you present false praise; be honest and to the point.
Empathetic employers have happier employees; invest wisely in your people and your company shall retain best talents and render the best in performance.

Follow this best practice on showing appreciation - let him/her know verbally and in written. The verbal praise makes it an instant confidence booster  and the written endorsement will benefit his/her future.

A 10-year study of 200,000 managers and employees suggests that praising people for a job well done may lead to bigger profits, says Fortune’s Anne Fisher. She mentions a book, “The Carrot Principle“, a fascinating book by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, the subtitle of this books says- “How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance” – the basic idea is simple: People will work harder and more enthusiastically for an appreciative boss, and companies that praise topnotch performance are more profitable than those that don’t.

What goes around comes around; employees must also endorse and praise managers for their work, verbally and in written format as well.

Checkpoint- As an employee how many times have you shown verbal or written appreciation to your boss?

Encourage and Motivate your Employees

As a manager and a leader your responsibilities toward employee motivation go beyond praise and recognition – you must be strive to motivate and encourage your employees to better performance and excellence.

In an article in Entrepreneur.com, Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck has some definite opinions when it comes to being open-minded. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck discusses why some people excel and others don’t. When employees fall short, praise them for trying, and allow them to talk about their struggles so that knowledge gaps aren’t a source of shame. “Convey that a lot of learning is necessary to do the job well,” Dweck says. “The employer is a guide and a resource, not a judge.”

Tailor Rewards to Employee Expectations

There are many ways to recognize competencies at work and we all do want to be recognized for what we do. But the best rewards are those that you truly want. Tailoring rewards to employee expectations might be the best idea to make your employee happier.

One of the ways to find out about employee expectations is to survey to find more about his/her wants and desires.

Endorse or initiate a regular practice at your workplace of recognizing good talented constituents with recognition at company meetings through certificates of “Employee of the month / year”, or through gift certificates on a job well done in a project. All these are added incentives towards making your constituents feel praised and recognized in an organization. And of course a perk or a raise is always what will help retain the employee in the long-term. But even if your company cannot afford a raise at the present moment, always keep on track on simple free recognition to boost employee morale.

Kouzes and Posner in their classic book: The Leadership Challenge say:
“Believing in others is an extraordinary powerful force in propelling performance. Feeling affirmed and appreciated increases a person’s sense of self-worth, which in turn precipitates success in all areas of one’s life. Research and everyday experience confirm that people with high self-esteem, of all ages and levels of education and socioeconomic backgrounds, “feel unique, competent, secure, empowered, and connected to the people around them”. If we have someone in our life who believes in us, and who constantly reinforces that belief when interacting with us, we’re strongly influenced by that support.”

 

Quoting Chip Conley of Joie de Vivre Hospitality from the Inc. Magazine,
” When you are going through rough times, it’s easy to have depressing meetings and talk about things that aren’t working instead of reminding each other about things that are. So in 2002, he last time business was hurting as it is now, we started ending our weekly meetings a bit differently. During the last 10 minutes, anyone could raise his or her hand and recognize someone in the company for outstanding work. … Just something small like that has had big, positive effect on our business.”

 

Susan Adam in a Forbes.com article says:

Expressing appreciation can be an extremely effective way to motivate employees, yet few bosses do it.

Although appreciation and praise, especially when expressed specifically, inevitably make employees feel more loyal and more engaged, all too few bosses practice the art of gratitude, says Chester Elton, a motivation consultant. A recent study found that between 75% and 80% of American workers said they got little or no recognition from their managers in the last year. Together with a co-author, Adrian Gostick, Elton has written four books on using recognition and praise to boost results, most recently The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance.

In that book, Elton and Gostick include the results of a survey they commissioned of 200,000 American workers that demonstrates a link between bosses who recognize employees with praise, along with other signs of appreciation like holiday parties and handwritten notes, and a company’s financial performance. The survey shows return on equity three times higher for companies that engage in employee appreciation. Their workers are more creative and more dedicated to the business’s success, and they have a stronger bond to their company and its goals, according to the research.

 

We have talked about the difficult bosses, the struggle of good communication links between employees and managers and the traits of good and bad employers in the past. Perhaps difficult and bad bosses might not be so negative after all if they can include even a pint of regular appreciation offerings in their schedule!

Recommended reading:

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What to do when your Supervisor does not Report your Complaints to the HR

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You might be working with a difficult boss or co-workers and often reporting certain extreme complaints about your manager might not make it to the HR. Approaching the HR directly with your complaints may land you in the “trouble maker” books as you might anticipate and even part of your personnel record, but depending on the seriousness of the complaint you have to choose how you want to take on from here.
Here are some tips on what to do when your boss does not report your complaints about him/her or other problems at workplace to the HR even when you have requested him/her to do so?

According to attorney Jonathan Segal, a sought-after speaker on HR legal topics, “You must tell your supervisors and managers that they are required to report complaints, says Segal—even if the employee asks that it be kept confidential, and even if the supervisor thinks the claim lacks merit. The decision of whether to investigate is yours, not the manager’s.”

Certain academic institutes maintain a Grievance Procedure to review complaints regarding terms of employment and working/academic conditions.

If there have been previous such incidents where a particular manager has failed to report your comments to the HR or upper management, you must approach the HR directly and inform of your complaints. Of course taking the first step first, reporting to your immediate supervisor first, asking him or her to escalate the issue to the HR and if you see that there is no response or action from your boss – then the next step must to be to approach the HR directly with your written complaint.

However in case of complicated situations dealing either with your manager or an employee conflict where you want to play safe, protect your job, identity but also go ahead with a proper reporting procedure it is usually suggested to contact certain law firms dealing with employee workplace conflicts and grievances.

All said, I must mention an article in the BusinessWeek some time back titled: “Caution: Don’t Count on HR- You can’t assume that your confidence will be kept, and chances are only your boss’s boss has the real power to solve your problem”
Well the title says it all, Liz Ryan adds: “The fact is sharing your woes with an HR person can be a self-destructive move.”
If this is all true in most companies then the system surely sucks.

If there are any employee grievance attorneys or senior HR personnel reading this post, would you comment on the possible solutions for an employee in a fix – whether to approach the HR and how?
Or perhaps you have had any such experience in the past – how did you deal with it?

Maybe you’ll enjoy this one too: Bad Bosses – Profiles of today’s bad bosses - A video on BusinessWeek.

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Tips to Prepare for the Performance Review

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Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information.
~ Peter Drucker

That’s perhaps how I would define Performance Management!

Be it the year end review or the beginning of the year goal setting meeting, you feel as if it is just another meeting to get done with. Well, think again your performance management and reviews impact you in different ways. It could mean a higher raise, a promotion and even protecting you from a possible layoff further down the year.
Consider it an opportunity to enhance your career and an essential step towards your professional development.

DEFINE GOALS

  • On Setting Goals: What were the goals defined at the beginning of the year? Did they change over time? Ensure that the goals set for you are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time bound).

Read more about goal setting in the book, Managing for Dummies by Bob Nelson and Peter Economy.
An excerpt from this book
Specific: When goals are specific, they tell employees exactly what is expected, when, and how much.

Measurable: If your goals are not measurable, you never know whether your employees are making progress toward their successful completion.

Attainable: Goals must be realistic and attainable by average employees. Goals that are set too high or too low become meaningless, and employees naturally come to ignore them.

Relevant: Goals must be an important tool in the grand scheme of reaching your company’s vision and mission.

Time-bound: Goals must have starting points, ending points, and fixed durations. Goals without deadlines or schedules for completion tend to be overtaken by the day-to-day crises that invariably arise in an organization.

 

GETTING READY TO MEET THE BOSS

  • Get your Documents in place: If you have been proactive towards your career development you would have documented the tasks and projects you were assigned during the year. If not, well try to document them right now, you must have in writing what you want to present in the meeting.

DURING THE MEETING

  • During the Meeting: Be clear and comprehensive in understanding the expectations from the management towards your role in the company. Communicate effectively and rephrase and understand the tasks assigned to you during this meeting.
  • Your growth plan for the year: what are the set objectives, do you and your boss agree with them? This is the time to carefully evaluate what the expectations are from both sides and negotiate on your terms if possible.
  • Be proactive and ask for a mid year review to re-evaluate your goals and discuss new challenges that you might possibly undertake during the year. And don’t just plan on a tentative meeting mid year or in a couple of month – act now and set a date and time to meet next. These things if postpone for a later decison remain postponed forever.
  • At the end of the meeting: Ask for constructive feedback and request if your manager can provide you this feedback in writing – it is most essential to document your accomplishments and receive as many testimonials as you can.

POST MEETING

  • Post meeting: If you are interested in a new assignment or responsibility do not wait until the next round of review. Interact and communicate well to your boss – rise above the rest by taking the initiative of professional growth, every company and management admires such a move.

WHAT NEXT

  • During the months till your next performance review, visit online your performance management system and keep in regular touch with your boss on any updates to your tasks. Keep your visibility high and you will never fall under the radar.
  • Although you might consider it an overpreparation but actually there is no such word. It is a good idea to role-play the entire meeting either with someone or just with yourself in isolation before you actually meet your manager in person.

 

This is one of those articles to which I can say “I wish I knew then what I know now.”
Your performance management is your responsibility and the results affect you in every way, like it or not, you better take charge now.

 

What has been your experience in being proactive toward your performance review?

 

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How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals

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Performance reviews and appraisals are not the only time when you discuss your career goals with your boss, the goals can be set either at the very first meeting when you join in a new job or a new team/division or anywhere during project changes or set up in timely recurring meetings throughout the year.

Whether you had a great or a bad performance review for the last year, now is the time to ensure a more positive one for this year. Plan and prepare to meet with your boss on goal planning for the current year. Most of us just chuck it under the carpet or roll our eyes, wanting our best to delay as much as possible, either the goal setting meeting with your boss or discussing your performance review before it happens. But taking charge of your career is in your hands and you better be diligent and proactive about it. If you don’t take control now no one would and the outcome may not be to your liking.

Eric Jackson in an interesting article in Forbes says:

“…most employees don’t know what they’ll be doing in 5 years. In our experience, about less than 5% of people could tell you if you asked. However, everyone wants to have a discussion with you about their future. Most bosses never engage with their employees about where they want to go in their careers — even the top talent. This represents a huge opportunity for you and your organization if you do bring it up.”

Performance management is as much your responsibility as your manager’s, well in fact more of yours. Your company’s performance management system may be a real sucker or even one that changes every now and then (a personal experience – when a previous year’s performance appraisal was very conveniently ‘lost’ by the system. I ignored it then, with the “who-cares” attitude; but now realize the importance of what it truly means to be better informed of the performance management reports and what it means to visit them often to be on top of personal career development).

Not tomorrow nor later – today is the time to take initiate: if you have never had a goal setting meeting or performance review (whether new to the company or have been there for ‘don’t-know-how-long’) – now is the time. Managing your performance review and setting career goals with your boss strengthens your communication with upper management and brings forward your work and achievements within the company. You have to market yourself continuously to be visible as a valuable contributor to the organization, if you do not toot your horn no one else will – so take charge now.

Setting up a Meeting with your Manager

Initiate a meeting to discuss on goal setting plans for this year.
When? Ensure that you and your boss are not in a hurry to join another meeting or a Friday evening when all you have in mind is to be out of the office as soon as you can shake off that last task.
Email request: Send a meeting request email or just walk in and talk to him/her about it. (Though it should very well come from your manager but why wait if that has not happened since long – when you initiate you display abilities to lead and take charge of the situation).

Start your Email or conversation on these lines (after the ‘usual’ polite greetings and salutations):

“I want to meet with you to discuss the career goals for this year and to explore further growth opportunities within the company. During this meeting I propose that we take time to assess each other expectations on my current projects and also I shall have the opportunity to get clarifications on future prospects of my career development.”

Ask your boss for a convenient date and time for this meeting. Try to adhere to his timelines.

Such a conversation or communication enables the management to see “what’s it in for them” though rightfully they should be more concerned about how to develop the employee, but yet again if you are not in that set of environment – it is important to realize that keeping on top of your career growth is your responsibility and in a way recession-proofs your career as well.

 

What and How to discuss with your Boss in this Meeting

  • Discuss in depth the expectations from the present and planned projects and keep the task measurable.
  • Draft a process for continued communication or seek suggestions on how your manager plans on keeping track of the tasks and deadlines assigned to you. Don’t be shy to communicate if the expectations do not match and/or you have a proposal to work on some other tasks within the team.
  • Ask your manager on how the feedback system would work – on the task accountability and appraisals going forward.
  • The goal setting discussions should not be just one-a-year-discussion, take time to find out through your company policies if mid-year reviews are supported and ask your manager if he endorses multiple reviews (twice or quarterly) in a year.

Tip: Use good communication skills during this discussion and be a good listener.

Post-Meeting Action Items

  • Document what has been discussed in the meeting. Prepare a concise outline and send your manager for approval, from here on it should be the manager’s responsibility to follow-up with HR to get your goals well placed in the performance management system of the company. But do not hesitate to follow-up a few days or a week later to find out how the process finally shaped up and if there are some action items on your plate now.
  • Document again the final goals set and visit your performance management system if and when the need arises to update tasks on their status or add new ones.
  • Further during the year your tasks and responsibilities may change, make sure that you edit it on the review system as well in your personal documentation.

Take charge of your career, manage your career well and reap the benefits of growth every year!

 

Question: What has been your experience talking to your boss about your career goals? Please share in comments below.

 


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Filed Under: Career Self-Help, Communication@Work, Work Smarter Tagged With: , , , , ,
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