Coaching Employees

Performance evaluation and coaching can be the most difficult job for an owner, especially a small business owner who has limited HR experience. The fact that many owners bring friends and/or relatives into their organizations can be even more difficult since it can make any discussion about performance personal and emotional rather than a constructive exercise.

In typical performance discussions, the majority of what the employee hears is everything that they are not doing good. This can leave them frustrated and even angry. In their minds they are saying ‘the company doesn’t understand all that I contribute’ and are not really listening to the feedback. In any performance discussions it is important to also communicate what is working in their performance. However, it can’t simply be ‘You are doing a great job but…….’

A development tool that can be used to constructively coach performance is a gap analysis (which we will call the ‘Feedback Facilitator’). It can be used not only as a performance coaching tool but also help identify the best fit for an individual in the organization and career development path. These can be key to employee retention.

The Process

Step 1 – Build two tables and list all the elements (skills, behaviors and knowledge) associated with a particular employee position on each table. Unbundle the job in as much detail as possible and include both areas of strength and most importantly areas of concern.

Step 2 -Owner/Manager rates each element for its Importance (in the employee’s job) or impact on to the company success and the demonstrated Performance of the employee related to that element.

Step 3 – Owner/Manager requests that the employee complete a similar table on their own and submit the completed form to them for review. The employee table also includes rating the Enjoyment or how much they enjoy a particular job element.

Step 4 – Owner/Manager identifies gaps (Difference of 2 or more) between the employee and his/her own in either Importance or Performance and meets with employee to discuss

Step 5 – Owner/Manager asks the employee to justify their ratings where there is a gap and adjusts ratings accordingly (Owner/Manager may not know the full story).

Step 6 – Discuss what the owner/Manager can do to make the employee more productive (Address issues that are getting the way of productivity)

Step 7 – Develop action plan with timeframe on elements that require a performance improvement. Focus is to close gaps and utilize unique strengths

Step 8 – Establish date for next discussion

 Important notes:

• Ratings to be spread out as much as possible between 1-10 (8-10 is high ranking)
• Importance – ‘10’ being critical to business success vs. ‘1′ being minor and tactical.
• Performance – Skill to handle a particular job function – ‘10’ being experienced or even second nature vs. ‘1’ being a distinct weakness.
• Enjoyment – Desire to handle a particular job function. – ‘10’ being a passion vs. ‘1’ being something an employee does not enjoy.
• Unique Strength – When Importance, Performance and Enjoyment are all 8 or above.
• For all gaps it is important for the employee to justify why their Importance or Performance rating is different from the owner/manager.

What does the process accomplish?

• Identifies what an employee is good at as well as areas of concern.
• Reduces the likelihood of an employee feeling attacked or a victim.
• Identifies where an employee is spending a lot of time in an area that is not necessarily their responsibility (i.e. inventory control) or a priority in the business. It can also be an opportunity for the employee to take on a special short-term project such as in the example to improve inventory management. It is usually more productive to encourage employees to focus on important areas rather than tell them to abandon something they enjoy.
• Identifies not placing enough importance on an element (i.e. cold calls)
• Identifies a unique strength when all ratings in an element are 8 and above for both the owner/Manager and employee. Can discuss how to utilize this strength more effectively.
• Identifies a development opportunity (high Importance & Enjoyment and lower Performance)

Bob Alsip

Over his long career Bob has held senior business development roles in both large corporations and SME in multiple industries including: medical devices and services, software development, environmental products & services and industrial & commercial products. After retirement he helped many organizations as both a consultant for his firm SoftAdvantage and
as a volunteer mentor. Bob is a graduate engineer.