How to Measure Employee Relations and Personnel Practices

Employee relations practices are the leading causes of overt problems, such as low productivity, poor quality, missed delivery dates, and excessive costs. Personnel practices can be measured indirectly, for each manager, by the following standards:

– Rotation in terms of voluntary resignations.

– Waiting.

– Number of promotions carried out within the manager’s operation and from its operation to other segments or functions of the company.

– Number, frequency, and severity of lost-time accidents and clinic visits involving hourly employees.

– Number and added value of ideas to improve operations presented by hourly and salaried employees.

– Training time and loss of productivity to incorporate new employees.

– The existence or lack of formal orientation and indoctrination programs and periodic follow-up meetings.

– Frequency of staff meetings.

– Use of management by objectives.

– The existence or absence of organization charts, job descriptions and performance standards.

– The number, nature and extent of disappointments expressed by employees at all levels.

– Difficulty or ease of hiring exempt employees, that is, the relationship between job offers and acceptances.

– What has been done to develop and improve the performance of key people.

A manager must be fully responsible for the proper use and development of his human resources. These simple quantitative measures, along with exit interviews and HR executive counseling interviews, will show how well or poorly a manager is managing their HR.

Performance measurement encompasses the evaluation of individuals and the collective work group, as well as feedback of the results to those evaluated. Simply put, performance appraisal is an attempt to think clearly about what each person does, how well they do it, and what their future prospects are when viewed in the context of their total work situation, including direction and the opportunities your manager has given you. .

The fact is, whether the manager intends it or not, every word, every suggestion, every criticism, every look tells a man how his performance is being judged. Each one builds it or tears it down. Performance appraisal is the most sensitive part of a manager’s job. Either you use this management tool effectively to foster loyalty, teamwork, cooperation, and understanding, or you abuse it and fail to achieve maximum job satisfaction and maximum productivity. All employees have the right to be told what their position is, for better or for worse. How it is done is important.

What should a performance review accomplish? This question was asked of 20 personnel managers representing the opinion of 20 division presidents in a large decentralized company. The overwhelming majority cited a number of benefits that would flow from a well-managed performance appraisal system. The men had been brought together to consider the problems they faced in implementing such a system. During the day, four simultaneous workshop sessions were held covering training and development, performance appraisal and salary management, new employee orientation, and safety. The groups rotated.

The groups further agreed that evaluation is a line responsibility, but specific guidance from the corporate office is needed for a factor such as an outstanding rating in Division A to mean the same as an outstanding rating where the product, process, technology and markets differ and the corporation is beginning to experiment with cross-division promotional transfers.

All 20 personnel managers noted that feedback on results is perhaps the most important responsibility a manager has to subordinates and to himself. How you handle this task will determine whether it builds or destroys morale, increases or decreases productivity and profitability, and helps or hinders individual development.

Feedback on results has many labels: performance appraisal, staff appraisal, progress review, merit review, and many others. Whatever the label, there is much to be gained when a manager is aware of the appraisal review.

Formal appraisals serve several purposes.

– One of the most important is to identify the areas where improvement is needed.

– One second is to make it clear who is responsible for what.

– A third is to reevaluate and communicate priorities.

– A fourth is to write down the obstacles to be able to eliminate them later.

Performance appraisal should praise good work, serve as the basis for salary increases and promotions, stimulate individual self-development, teach subordinates, and reveal how well a manager is performing and what are some of their own development needs .