By Aaron Dodd
Operations Director of the Mindset Group

Today I was dismayed reading a twitter feed from a recruiter boasting that she had managed to talk her way out of meeting with a client who wanted a face-to-face with her. When I queried her she went on to boast that with technology she no longer had to even visit clients.

I have been in sales for most of my career. I first learned to sell with Pitney Bowes PLC in the UK, a truly excellent and professional sales environment that gave me a grounding and a sales ability that has subsequently seen me be successful in varied industries; office equipment, food ingredients, industrial filtration systems and lastly professional recruitment and HR services. One of the principal tenets that I learned at Pitney Bowes was to get face-to-face with your client/prospect. Doing so allows you to better develop rapport, understand their needs and close orders (it’s harder to say no to someone when they are in front of you in your office!).

I have been in the recruitment industry now for 12 years, and maximising time face-to-face with the decision maker has been a key to my and my company, Mindset’s approach. It is integral to our process;

1.    We spend significant time with key stakeholders gaining their input into the position description, key selection criteria, personality demands etc. This allows us to genuinely understand the role. Many of our clients now seek our expertise in being able to bring alternative aspects to the requirements.

2.    We present our shortlists face-to-face so that we can discuss each candidate in-depth with our clients, answer their questions and discuss their strengths and limitations.

3.    We present our Prevue assessment, reference checks and decision reports on shortlisted candidates face-to-face. We make our selection recommendations face-to-face.

What does all this client contact mean?

We develop an extremely close relationship with our clients. In competitive terms, we are almost unassailably close. Our numerous contacts often lead to discussions about other aspects of their business that Mindset can assist with. For us recruitment projects have thus led to software sales (our Performance Advantage appraisal software), leadership development programs, cultural surveys etc, not the least of which is more recruitment and selection assignments.

These discussions also lead us to better understanding of our clients’ businesses and the issues they face. Through this understanding we also do better selection work as we know their culture and market issues. Our clients also visually see the work we do and therefore appreciate the work we do and know how we earn our fees.

Let’s also not forget that visiting clients on their premises is much more fun than sitting in the office shuffling paper!

My proudly deskbound tweeter is correct in that technology more than ever makes it easier to avoid real client contact, but my experience is that avoiding client contact on the basis of “efficiency” is a very short-term approach. I urge professional consultants to get out there amongst it. New consultants to the industry, especially those establishing their own client bases should particularly heed this.

Many years ago (pre consulting) a sales rep of mine came back from a customer visit and said “Wow…it’s amazing what you can uncover when you visit customers”. That naïve statement still, and will always, hold true.

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Leon Gettler of Smart Company discusses the Perfect Performance Review.

Traditionally, performance appraisals have been regarded as critical for managing careers and keeping employees in line with business objectives. Now with the Government's unfair dismissal changes dismantling WorkChoices, the performance appraisal can also be a critical tool in protecting your business from unfair dismissal claims.

Under the new industrial relations laws, businesses with fewer than 15 employees can sack a worker within 12 months of hiring them without redress, as long as they follow a small business fair dismissal code. For businesses employing more than 15, it is six months.

Additionally, the legislation removes the previous exemption from unfair dismissal relating to "genuine operational reasons" and replaces it with a narrower and more prescriptive defence of "genuine redundancy".

The code will require an employer to provide one warning, either verbal or written. Employers will also have to provide an employee with a reasonable opportunity to respond and improve their behaviour or conduct prior to termination of employment.

Lawyers say that whether or not an employer gave a verbal warning to an employee is likely to be a contentious issue where they are trying to defend themselves by referring back to the code.

And that is where the performance appraisal can be important. While performance appraisals are not usually the time to give warnings, they could provide companies with the documentation that could prevent a big payout.

Matthew Robinson, a partner at FCB Workplace Lawyers, says performance appraisals will become critical for demonstrating poor performance and showing genuine redundancy. "It's going to be important for all businesses making redundancies to have performance appraisals to distinguish between employees,'' Robinson says.

"Giving frank and fearless feedback will be important for all businesses to avoid unfair dismissals."

Preparing for the review
The trouble is most organisations are bad at performance appraisals. According to an Australian Human Resources Institute survey of more than 1600 HR professionals last year, four out of five respondents said that performance management processes in their organisations were either ineffective or somewhat ineffective. Nearly four in five respondents rated the skill level of managers giving the appraisals as average or poor.

So what steps should companies take to make performance appraisals deliver results, both for the business and the employee?

What should a performance review cover?
The managing director of employee award programs specialists, Trésor, Karen Rowell, says performance appraisals need to link the employee's day to day performance with the organisation's wider goals. Ideally, they should highlight areas that need developing, recognise and reward them for their recent performance, address issues such as promotions, transfers and succession planning and identify problem areas that might need improving.

The performance appraisal, however, should not be used as a star chamber. "The performance management system should be used as a positive tool to assess performance at a set point in time, with the view to addressing any developmental needs such as growth opportunities or improvements that are needed in a non-threatening and collaborative manner," Rowell says. "It should not be used, or, rather misused, as an opportunity to intimidate."

"It's all about setting the right tone, ensuring that the system is used in a positive manner and not as a rap over the knuckles. Employees should not feel frightened or worried about their performance appraisal. They should see it as an opportunity to have an open, supportive and constructive discussion about their strengths and weaknesses, with the view to developing strategies for improvement and development.

"Also, make sure that employees can see the value in participating in performance appraisals by focussing on the positive outcomes. That is, opportunities for promotions or transfers, extra training and development opportunities, higher salary or benefits such as time off or flexible working arrangements"

The structure of a good review
To get the most out of a performance appraisal, companies need to structure it properly.
Work needs to be done before and after. In the period leading up to the interview, the parties have to agree on key performance indicators and how they are measured and relevant information from many sources needs to be collected.

During the review, key performance indicators need to be identified first, appropriate ways of measuring performance need to be established and relevant performance data needs to be collected.

After the appraisal, the company needs to follow through on what has been discussed. Whether the parties have agreed on further measures, such as training, a transfer or mentoring, the managers need to ensure it is implemented. They also need to keep collecting information on how things are tracking.

The aim is to prevent surprises.
"If managers are leaving that and expecting their employees to just get on with it, at the end of the 12 months, it's going to come at a shock and will be difficult to manage. The ideal situation a management team should get into is that at the 12 month review, it's just going over what they already know."

She says a lot of companies now save time by using online performance management systems that already have the KPIs and competencies in place. Using these systems, employers can put down their thoughts before the appraisal on how things are going. "You spend 10 or 15 minutes sitting in front of the computer and then an hour or half an hour with the employee developing a plan for the next 12 months,'' she says.

Read the full article.

Mindset can help your organisation with performance management. Accurate performance appraisal is easy and accurate using Mindset’s web-based (or server based) Performance Advantage. Performance Apprasial software solution. It forms the foundation for a complete Performance Management System, enabling managers to review performance and plan for future performance in one easy-to use application. For more information contact us.

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