This week I read a few discussion boards that were discussing the differences between observations and perceptions and it got me thinking about how these two ideas apply in the classroom.  As a trainer, you are often asked to provide assessments(your perceptions) of staff’s ability to do perform....read more

Performance reviews are no fun. Whether they’re annual reviews with a manager or 360 peer reviews, they’re unwelcome aspects of any job. Although 360 reviews seem like they would be the perfect complements to standard annual reviews, they have the potential to wreak havoc on morale, productivity and...read more

In times when every penny counts, there is more demand on training managers to “prove” that training has paid off. Most organizations follow Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Evaluation: The immediate feedback: The smiley sheets at the end of the training program where participants respond to questions on...read more

Performance appraisals give an employee and his/her manager a chance to take time out from their day, once or twice a year, to go over the performance of the employee. It's important to take the time not only because the manager provides important feedback to the employee but because the employee...read more

What is it about annual job performance appraisals that makes employees and managers alike dread them more than a visit to the dentist? According to a post on the New York Times' Well blog, one reason annual performance appraisals are dreaded, especially by employees, is because they're too...read more

In an earlier post, we discussed the value of finding employee evaluation software to make performance reviews more comfortable for both parties. While a manager's unbiased thoughts are the center of employee reviews, there is another very strong opinion that can contribute to this conversation: the...read more

Do you need all the data you collect? Is every piece of it valuable and used? Or do you simply collect data and report on it just for the sake of doing it? Chances are, you don't need every piece of data you ever collected. A good example is website forms. Often I see forms that ask me for my fax...read more

Not many of us enjoy our annual job performance reviews. Unfortunately, the time of year is upon most of us when we sit down with supervisors and review our work from the past year. There are some things managers can do to make employment review forms more energizing for both your employees and...read more

When you first start a survey program, whether it's a job evaluation and employee review form, an internal customer service survey or a public opinion poll, you have a lot of decisions to make. You need to select a survey method, survey system, sample size... And you have yet to write a question....read more

Creating an evaluative tool to measure an employee's performance can be a daunting task for even the most experienced managers. Here are some survey design tips to help you create effective performance evaluation materials that will be meaningful for both supervisors and supervisees: 1) Use titles...read more