by Dick Grote | Oct 15, 2008 | Uncategorized
The cover story of the September/October 2008 issue of The Conference Board Review is my new article, “Passing Judgment.” In the article I explain that the reason performance appraisal programs fail is typically not because of shoddy forms, bad data and clumsy...
by Dick Grote | Sep 15, 2008 | Performance Management, Talent Management
Is there any management process that is as mocked, as resented, as disparaged as performance appraisal? Scott Adams might have to retire his Dilbert cartoon if he didn’t have performance appraisal to lampoon. And the way that performance appraisals are done in too...
by Dick Grote | Aug 15, 2008 | Performance Appraisal, Uncategorized
A few years ago I delivered the closing general session presentation at the Conference Board’s annual Human Resources Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The audience: 600 VP’s of HR from Fortune 500 and similar organizations. My topic: “Performance...
by Dick Grote | Jul 15, 2008 | Performance Management
What should HR professionals do when the organization’s road suddenly veers and all the old rules fly out the window? Here are four gutsy and demanding injunctions that will motivate commitment during times of rapid — and frequently distasteful — organizational...
by Dick Grote | Jun 15, 2008 | Performance Improvement, Talent Management
For seventy-five years, American organizations have used a fairly standardized procedure to handle familiar personnel problems such as absenteeism, poor performance, and other misconduct. This approach, usually called “progressive discipline,” provides for an...
by Dick Grote | May 15, 2008 | Forced Ranking, Talent Management
There can certainly be concerns about the forced ranking process I advocate. Turns out, most of those concerns are actually benefits. First objection—it’s arbitrary. Well certainly using a predetermined distribution (like top 20 percent, vital 70 percent, and...
by Dick Grote | Apr 15, 2008 | Performance Appraisal, Performance Improvement, Performance Management
In America’s best-run and most-admired organizations, employee performance appraisal is a vital and vigorous management tool. No other management process has as much influence on individuals’ careers and work lives. Used well, employee performance appraisal is the...
by Dick Grote | Mar 15, 2008 | Performance Appraisal, Uncategorized
There’s no question that discussing expectations and coaching and feedback should be a routine and ongoing process. And some managers—the great ones, the naturals—do these things routinely. But managers such as this are few and atypical. Left to their own devices, too...
by Dick Grote | Feb 15, 2008 | Performance Appraisal, Performance Management
Why do companies go to the bother of setting up a performance appraisal system? The most common reason is to give employees feedback on how they’re doing. If a company has a performance appraisal process, then the individual learns exactly how well her boss feels she...
by Dick Grote | Jan 15, 2008 | Uncategorized
Probably the biggest misunderstanding about performance appraisal arises because people don’t understand what a performance appraisal actually is. Let’s make it clear: A performance appraisal is a formal record of a supervisor’s opinion about the quality of an...
