It is that time of year again…no, not Christmas – employee reviews. This topic is of great interest to us in that we help companies on-ramp new sales hires. One of the key aspects of onramping is regular meetings or reviews. That is management 101.
Yet, it is surprising how many managers have a tendency to avoid a structured review with their employees. I suspect some of it has to do with the fact that managers may not be involved in their sales reps activities.
I’m not talking about babysitting them every day, but I am talking about pre-call strategizing and post-call debriefing. If a sales manager is not completing those tasks, they probably do not have a deep knowledge of the salesperson’s abilities.
The PioneerPlanet.com offers a good article on this topic – Make employee reviews positive, frequent.
From the article:
Perhaps the first thing to know about employee reviews or appraisals is that they shouldn’t be once-a-year events. You should be giving your staff feedback – positive and negative – on an ongoing basis. Some companies have sit-down sessions with workers two, three or even four times a year.
By giving more frequent reviews, “you focus on identifying problems before they get too big and mapping out ways to correct the behavior,” said Julie Lenzer Kirk, of Damascus, Md., who owned a software and consulting company for 10 years.
You also defuse some of the tension not just for the staffer but also for you.
Feedback – employees crave it. Ambiguity, or worse, develops in the absence of feedback.
Uhlmansiek finds employees want feedback – good workers want to know where they stand and what they can do to be better. “There’s no substitute for recognizing a job well done,” she said.
If you haven’t done reviews in a long time, this time of year is an excellent time to start.