Going to the dentist is often the way performance appraisals are viewed. We may dread it, however once we have been there, we are appreciative of the experience – if we have kept on top of things. Performance appraisals are an effective tool for informing employees about the quality of their work and for identifying areas for improvement.

Effective performance appraisals, like a dental check up, can lead to improving good performance and allow the opportunity to build a strategy for future good performance.  A good performance appraisal can also lead to increased productivity and a settled and happy employee. At the same time a poor performance appraisal result can assist in the process to flush out bad performance and ultimately provide evidence, if required, for dismissal.

Below are some best practice strategies on how to conduct a performance appraisal:

Sandwich approach works better than a Hot Curry!

• Rather than being hot and disappointed upfront, do not see an appraisal as a time to ambush a poor result.  Think about the good results and the not so good results– what they need to improve and where they can improve

Be Prepared!

• Like any good manager – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So be prepared and have your employees’ information and performance data on hand.  Consider past performance appraisals and training records, sales and other objective data, including customer feedback, in the performance appraisal review.

Don’t focus on the Negatives.

• Giving examples of great behaviours is great practice. Give objective and constructive feedback. Encourage the employee to do most of the talking, so that they take responsibility for their own performance. Set clear, simple plans with them for the next immediate quarter and the 12 months ahead. Make a plan, so that if they did not meet last years plans, they have a strategy ahead. Show them how they do contribute to your company and the long term business. Include them in the long term company plans and ask for their thoughts.

 Make it Personal

• Make time to talk about them as a person.  What are their personal aspirations that they want to share, this will build a deeper understanding for managing and getting the best out of them. Show an interest in their whole life goals and how they can achieve them.

Focus on the Follow up!

• Like a dental practice, have set follow up dates in place and make them happen – the more often the better!

For more information contact Simone Allan, Director at Mondo Search on 1300 737 917 or email simone@mondosearch.com.au.

Copyright: The above is the intellectual property of Mondo Search Pty Ltd. None of the information provided may be copied or reproduced in part or in full without the prior written permission of a director of Mondo Search Pty Ltd

The length of tenure of newly appointed Australian CEO’s is too far too short.The median ASX100 CEO tenure is now only 3.9 years. CEO turnover in Australia is twice the world average.  In the last four years global CEO tenure declined from 10 years to 8 years but in Australia it is now less than 4 years. The average tenure of a CEO in Australia is 3.9 years. Not to mention that we have had 6 Prime Ministerial changes in a decade!

The level of CEO turnover is absurd and is costing Australian business dearly.

“New hires need to stay in the job long enough to move through ‘norming’ – getting to know the business – and ‘storming’, when they start to make an impact, to ‘performing’ when they
impact the bottom line. The first year is spent learning, the second year making change and the third year only sees the start of real performance traction.

“If newly selected CEO’s and senior management are not lasting beyond the first 3.9 years, it’s time to choose another recruiter,” said  Simone Allan..“We deem a successful CEO hire as being an absolute minimum of 5 years but we should be aiming for 8-10 year tenures like many nations around the world – Asia and Northern Europe.

Cultural fit is the key to longevity.The only way to measure a recruiters effectiveness is by retention. The right CEO needs not only the right skills and experience to succeed but as important is that they need to have a cultural and emotional fit in to the new organisation.Most high level hires that fail don’t fail for lack of ability. They fail because the new hire doesn’t fit in as an individual.

The answer lies in being unafraid to probe and match the values held by the candidate and client organisation during the recruitment process. An effective recruiter needs to invest time in determining what these factors are. They need to know the successful benches in the organisations and have some grids/ templates of the successful performers to align the new talent to. They need to deeply understand your business and  go beyond the interview process, as that is just the start. They need to get to know the candidate at a forensic level – know their childhood and family background, their aspirations, their wins and losses, their passions, their past careers and reference across all levels of peers, subordinates and colleagues. They need to observe the machinations of communication flow of email/ sms and phone calls and see how responsive and timely the candidate is throughout the recruitment process. It is important to create tests and situations where you can observe candidates, their reactions and their approach to managing various situations and experiences.  

Relevant psychometric analysis and forensic reference checking is all part of the process, 360 degree conversations around the networks that they know, lead to core insights into the personality and style of the individuals.  The interview is only the start, as the real skill is what follows in determining the cultural fit.

Companies can monitor recruitment outcomes and improve retention by taking 5 steps:

1. Make executive retention a strategic issue.
2. Measure and track retention in all leadership roles over 1 year, 2 years and 5 years. Quality metrics drive quality retention.
3. Start with quality recruitment. Insist on working with specialist recruiters that have a strong audited track record in retention. This will increase the calibre of pre-screened candidates and the culture fit with the organisation upfront.
4. Commission independent externally managed “stay interviews” at six monthly intervals for senior executives. These can be far more valuable and timely than traditional exit interviews, which provide limited results. Stay interviews help track the heartbeat of the company and allow the organisation to keep abreast of issues that could affect senior staff.
5. Make the costs of poor retention visible. Studies show at least $250,000 to replace a senior executive when you add lost productivity during disenfranchisement, the time to bring on a replacement and the time to get the new executive up to speed. Some suggest the cost of replacing a CEO could be up to 40 times base salary.

 

For further information, please contact Simone Allan on 0414 797 369 or simone@mondosearch.com.au

 

The length of tenure of newly appointed Australian CEO’s is far too short. The median ASX100 CEO tenure is only 3.9 years, making CEO turnover in Australia twice the world average. Australian politics is even worse! 6 Prime Ministerial changes in 10 years!

New hires need to stay in the job long enough to move through ‘forming’ –building the foundations, to ‘storming’ – when they start to make an impact, to ‘norming’ – making mutual plans then to ‘performing’ – when they impact the bottom line.

The first year is spent learning, the second year making change, the third year implementing changes and the fourth year only sees the start of real performance traction and results. This follows Bruce Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development –

Forming – people aim for acceptance, so they avoid conflict, raising serious issues or discussing feelings. They want to get comfortable so they focus on logistics – when and where they’ll meet, the scope of the mentoring task and how to approach it. They gather information and impressions of each other.

Storming –Tuckman believes that no group would achieve high performance unless they worked through it. Essentially, it is a less comfortable stage of examining the real purpose of the team, confronting different needs and ideas. There may be some conflict and unless participants have the skills to resolve it, the relationship will not progress.

Norming – the calm after the storm is the result of agreeing to a goal and a mutual plan. This means accepting other points of view, agreeing to ways of working together as a team, taking responsibility and committing to the goal and plan.

Performing  – once they’ve figured out how to function well together with focus on their purpose, teamwork gathers momentum. Visible progress is highly motivating and very satisfying.

Cultural fit is the key to longevity. Even the most outstanding candidates are of no help at all if they do not stay in their position.  The best way to measure a good search firm is through retention – how long new hires stay in the job. Recruiters should be paid by term of tenure not by percentage of salary.

The right leader needs not only the right skills and experience to succeed but they need to have a cultural and emotional fit in to the new organisation. Most leaders that fail don’t fail for lack of ability. They fail because the new hire does not fit in as an individual.

New Leaders need to align with the organisation’s values and objectives. Maybe Prime Ministers in Australia struggle so much with the diverse egotistical political extremist thinkers and  there is no common values and a charter for behaviour.

If cultural fit is right, new leaders can better employ their emotional intelligence for smooth organisational transformation.

For more information contact Simone Allan, Director at Mondo Search on 1300 737 917 or email simone@mondosearch.com.au.

Copyright: The above is the intellectual property of Mondo Search Pty Ltd. None of the information provided may be copied or reproduced in part or in full without the prior written permission of a director of Mondo Search Pty Ltd.