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Suggest You - Should Salaries and Incentives be linked with Performance?
We've all dreamed of spending our working days reclinining back in a deck chair eating cheese sandwiches on an overcast summers day. But then we remember the mortgage/kids/wifes $500 a day drug habit and our fantasies turn to dust. It doesn't have to be this way. We show in 5 easy steps how you can quit that lousy Graphic Design job and spend the rest of your life living in easy street.Step 1: Think yourself in a better place and low and behold it will happen This is your first step towards financial freedom. Imagine if you will yourself sat upon a huge pile of money, flinging it in the air with gay abandon and why not? Congratulations you've just made the first step towards making this a reality. Forget the graphic designer career you had mapped out. Let's join the idle rich instead.Step 2: Tell the boss what you think of him and burn those bridges! Now its time to get some payback. Remember the time your design studio manager had you stay late and manually key in that 1oo page farming brochure text by hand and then laughed at you in your face? Right, we'll show him who's boss. A good way to be forcibly removed from the office and earn some extra kudos from your fellow graphic design employees is to take a dump and leave it festering away in a drawer in the bosses desk.Just wait
Let's take another example. Consider an automobile company which makes cars. If they decide to take out a new model and if it is a one bad car,even if they made a million more in the same technique they would not become the best car makers. They will however becomes experts in making bad cars. So what should they do. First, they define what a "Good Car" is. Then they make it and see how the customer reviews its performance. Based on this evaluation from the customers the Car Maker improves upon the cars and slowly they become experts.
In Management there is a beautiful concept called "PDCA" cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act. Performance evaluations work on similar systems and the target of an P.E. system is continual improvement of the organization and the individual.
Most Performance Evaluation Systems are based on this principle of setting the expectations and then evaluating the progress.
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon.
Applying for a JobThere are four general methods of applying for a job including:(1) mailing your resume,(2) emailing your resume,(3) faxing your resume, and(4) hand delivering your resume.Mailing Your ResumeSome companies prefer that you mail your resume. For this type of approach, it is best to include a cover letter with your resume. The cover letter is a basic letter that describes the position that you are interested in and a few details of your qualifications and skills. It is basically your lead in to your resume. Before writing your cover letter, you should know whom the letter is to be addressed to. You never want to begin a cover letter with “Dear Sir or Madame” or “To whom it may Concern.” It shows that you have not prepared, and that you are not looking for a specific position with their company, but any job that you can get your hands on. Basically, it is disrespectful to your prospective employer.Emailing Your ResumeEmailing resumes is becoming a commonplace way for recruiters to get resumes. Attach your resume as a word document or a PDF file. These are the most common formats and what most companies will accept. The subject line should read like this: Smith, John (Accounting Position). This makes
The traditional view in organizations has always been to link Salaries and incentives to Performance. And I wanted to question this tradition. Every good company in this world has a performance evaluation (P.E.) system. Salaries are linked to this P.E. . Even incentives such as extra training, monetary bonuses, freebies are given to the best performers. Joel Spolsky confirmed my theory that P.E. should not be conducted.
In April,2000 Joel wrote a beautiful article - Incentive Pay Considered Harmful. I visit Joel's site, joelonsoftware.com, regularly and love reading his articles. These are the main points highlighted in this wonderful article -
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon. Almost every company has some kind of incentive program that is insulting and demeaning. Most Performance review programs are copied from a Dilbertesque management book where the first stage is an "anonymous" upward reviews, followed by optional "self-evaluation" forms. Finally there is a numerical score, in lots of non-scalar categories like "works well with others", from 1-5, where the only possible scores were actually 3 or 4.
The system never took into account the fact that people have different and unique talents, all of which are needed for a team to work well such as a person who motivates everyone else when the going got tough or someone who is incredibly insightful strategically Negative reviews, obviously, have a devastating effect on morale. In fact, giving somebody a review that is positive, but not as positive as that person expected, also has a negative effect on morale.
The effect of reviews on morale is lopsided: while negative reviews hurt morale a lot, positive reviews have no effect on morale or productivity. Most people will be disappointed by their reviews because most people think that they do pretty good work (even if they don't). It's just a little trick our minds play on us to keep life bearable. Incentives (or bribes) simply can't work in the workplace. It leads to teamicide: the inadvertent destruction of jelled teams. Giving somebody positive reinforcement (such as stupid company ceremonies where people get plaques) implies that they only did it for the lucite plaque; it implies that they are not independent enough to work unless they are going to get a cookie; and it's insulting and demeaning. For 5 years I believed very word of what Joel said. I even made sure that we do not have any stupid company ceremonies or have any performance evaluations in Poornam. I even sat down to write why Performance Evaluation and Incentives are bad. I was a lot like the learned descendants of the spiritual teacher who wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice. I never questioned Joel's views.
Today I firmly believe that Performance Evaluations is a must and it must be linked to salaries and incentives.
Consider an Athletics Coach not timing his sprinters. He just tells them to run everyday. It would be a matter of time before the sprinters would get tired and would stop running. So what does he do. He sets the goal. If you are a 100 meters sprinter then first and foremost you are told that if you have to be the best in the world you have to beat 9.78 seconds. i.e. first define the target or set the expectations. Now the coach starts to time the sprints and evaluates his technique, speed, capability and so on. And after each evaluation the coach works out on ways to improve the performance further. This is exactly why Performance Evaluation should be done.
Let's take another example. Consider an automobile company which makes cars. If they decide to take out a new model and if it is a one bad car,even if they made a million more in the same technique they would not become the best car makers. They will however becomes experts in making bad cars. So what should they do. First, they define what a "Good Car" is. Then they make it and see how the customer reviews its performance. Based on this evaluation from the customers the Car Maker improves upon the cars and slowly they become experts.
In Management there is a beautiful concept called "PDCA" cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act. Performance evaluations work on similar systems and the target of an P.E. system is continual improvement of the organization and the individual.
Most Performance Evaluation Systems are based on this principle of setting the expectations and then evaluating the progress.
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon.
Tired of sending the boring white envelope over and over again? Why not spice it up with colorful return address labels? Your recipient will surely be amused by your creativity, and you will definitely find mail work a lot more fun.Why use stick-on return address labels?You are not required to put a return address on every letter you send out, but it is still best to label your letters so that the post office can resend it to you (in case it gets rejected or undelivered for any reason).A legible, well-made return address label also lets your recipient understand your address and send you a reply.Thousands of themes to choose fromThere are literally hundreds upon hundreds of return address label deigns and sizes available to fit any personality, any mood, or any occasion. Among the best sellers are floral prints, fold foil, and special interest prints such as teddy bears or ships. You can either buy these from online stores, print shops, or even make them yourself. The possibilities are endless – all you need is a good printer, precut sticker sheets, and your imagination!If you are using the address label for formal letters or work-related mail, it is best to stick to classic minimalist designs. This does not just mean boring white, of course – you can have a
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon. Almost every company has some kind of incentive program that is insulting and demeaning. Most Performance review programs are copied from a Dilbertesque management book where the first stage is an "anonymous" upward reviews, followed by optional "self-evaluation" forms. Finally there is a numerical score, in lots of non-scalar categories like "works well with others", from 1-5, where the only possible scores were actually 3 or 4.
The system never took into account the fact that people have different and unique talents, all of which are needed for a team to work well such as a person who motivates everyone else when the going got tough or someone who is incredibly insightful strategically Negative reviews, obviously, have a devastating effect on morale. In fact, giving somebody a review that is positive, but not as positive as that person expected, also has a negative effect on morale.
The effect of reviews on morale is lopsided: while negative reviews hurt morale a lot, positive reviews have no effect on morale or productivity. Most people will be disappointed by their reviews because most people think that they do pretty good work (even if they don't). It's just a little trick our minds play on us to keep life bearable. Incentives (or bribes) simply can't work in the workplace. It leads to teamicide: the inadvertent destruction of jelled teams. Giving somebody positive reinforcement (such as stupid company ceremonies where people get plaques) implies that they only did it for the lucite plaque; it implies that they are not independent enough to work unless they are going to get a cookie; and it's insulting and demeaning. For 5 years I believed very word of what Joel said. I even made sure that we do not have any stupid company ceremonies or have any performance evaluations in Poornam. I even sat down to write why Performance Evaluation and Incentives are bad. I was a lot like the learned descendants of the spiritual teacher who wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice. I never questioned Joel's views.
Today I firmly believe that Performance Evaluations is a must and it must be linked to salaries and incentives.
Consider an Athletics Coach not timing his sprinters. He just tells them to run everyday. It would be a matter of time before the sprinters would get tired and would stop running. So what does he do. He sets the goal. If you are a 100 meters sprinter then first and foremost you are told that if you have to be the best in the world you have to beat 9.78 seconds. i.e. first define the target or set the expectations. Now the coach starts to time the sprints and evaluates his technique, speed, capability and so on. And after each evaluation the coach works out on ways to improve the performance further. This is exactly why Performance Evaluation should be done.
Let's take another example. Consider an automobile company which makes cars. If they decide to take out a new model and if it is a one bad car,even if they made a million more in the same technique they would not become the best car makers. They will however becomes experts in making bad cars. So what should they do. First, they define what a "Good Car" is. Then they make it and see how the customer reviews its performance. Based on this evaluation from the customers the Car Maker improves upon the cars and slowly they become experts.
In Management there is a beautiful concept called "PDCA" cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act. Performance evaluations work on similar systems and the target of an P.E. system is continual improvement of the organization and the individual.
Most Performance Evaluation Systems are based on this principle of setting the expectations and then evaluating the progress.
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon.
Sticking to fundamental business principles is the basis for successful career planning. To us this means that our customers are able to lock up job high-paying offers in as little as 14 days or less.Old-fashioned methods that require seemingly unending mailings and postings of resumes just don’t get it anymore. It can take weeks or months to achieve mediocre results.I recently had the good fortune to read an article about career success by Larry Thompson, a Hollywood producer. It struck me as a fabulous piece of career planning advice.Thompson reports that, in his experience, there are 10 success killers. As I read about them it occurred to me that they apply to job search success, as well. That’s because one of the key insights into alternative and non-traditional strategies is that employment success follows the same rules as business success.Here are the success killers you should avoid:1. Comparing yourself to someone else.2. Not facing your fears.3. Leaving a job undone.4. Feeling sorry for yourself.5. Failing to speak assertively.6. Dressing inappropriately.7. Saying you hate computers.8. Not taking advantage of advice from family, friends and mentors.9. Saying “I can’t.”10. Having more
The effect of reviews on morale is lopsided: while negative reviews hurt morale a lot, positive reviews have no effect on morale or productivity. Most people will be disappointed by their reviews because most people think that they do pretty good work (even if they don't). It's just a little trick our minds play on us to keep life bearable. Incentives (or bribes) simply can't work in the workplace. It leads to teamicide: the inadvertent destruction of jelled teams. Giving somebody positive reinforcement (such as stupid company ceremonies where people get plaques) implies that they only did it for the lucite plaque; it implies that they are not independent enough to work unless they are going to get a cookie; and it's insulting and demeaning. For 5 years I believed very word of what Joel said. I even made sure that we do not have any stupid company ceremonies or have any performance evaluations in Poornam. I even sat down to write why Performance Evaluation and Incentives are bad. I was a lot like the learned descendants of the spiritual teacher who wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice. I never questioned Joel's views.
Today I firmly believe that Performance Evaluations is a must and it must be linked to salaries and incentives.
Consider an Athletics Coach not timing his sprinters. He just tells them to run everyday. It would be a matter of time before the sprinters would get tired and would stop running. So what does he do. He sets the goal. If you are a 100 meters sprinter then first and foremost you are told that if you have to be the best in the world you have to beat 9.78 seconds. i.e. first define the target or set the expectations. Now the coach starts to time the sprints and evaluates his technique, speed, capability and so on. And after each evaluation the coach works out on ways to improve the performance further. This is exactly why Performance Evaluation should be done.
Let's take another example. Consider an automobile company which makes cars. If they decide to take out a new model and if it is a one bad car,even if they made a million more in the same technique they would not become the best car makers. They will however becomes experts in making bad cars. So what should they do. First, they define what a "Good Car" is. Then they make it and see how the customer reviews its performance. Based on this evaluation from the customers the Car Maker improves upon the cars and slowly they become experts.
In Management there is a beautiful concept called "PDCA" cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act. Performance evaluations work on similar systems and the target of an P.E. system is continual improvement of the organization and the individual.
Most Performance Evaluation Systems are based on this principle of setting the expectations and then evaluating the progress.
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon.
There are a lot of new technologies used in the printing press industry. Make it from simple to very complicated machines that for sure will lead to the transformation of printing services. And even more, latest technologies are still innovating for faster and accurate printing results.The original method of printing was block printing, pressing sheets of paper into individually carved wooden blocks usually called(xylography). It is believed that block printing originated in China and the earliest known printed text, the Diamond Sutra (a Buddhist scripture), was printed in China in 868 A.D. The technique was also known in Europe, where it was mostly used to print Bibles. Because of the difficulties inherent in carving massive quantities of minute text for every block, and given the levels of peasant illiteracy at the time, texts such as the "Pauper's Bibles" emphasized illustrations and used words sparsely. As a new block had to be carved for each page, printing different books was an incredibly time consuming activity.After the block printing another technique was been introduced, the moveable clay and metal type are processes much more than hand copying. The use of movable type in printing was invented in 1041 AD by Bi Sheng in China. Sheng used clay type, which broke easily, but
Today I firmly believe that Performance Evaluations is a must and it must be linked to salaries and incentives.
Consider an Athletics Coach not timing his sprinters. He just tells them to run everyday. It would be a matter of time before the sprinters would get tired and would stop running. So what does he do. He sets the goal. If you are a 100 meters sprinter then first and foremost you are told that if you have to be the best in the world you have to beat 9.78 seconds. i.e. first define the target or set the expectations. Now the coach starts to time the sprints and evaluates his technique, speed, capability and so on. And after each evaluation the coach works out on ways to improve the performance further. This is exactly why Performance Evaluation should be done.
Let's take another example. Consider an automobile company which makes cars. If they decide to take out a new model and if it is a one bad car,even if they made a million more in the same technique they would not become the best car makers. They will however becomes experts in making bad cars. So what should they do. First, they define what a "Good Car" is. Then they make it and see how the customer reviews its performance. Based on this evaluation from the customers the Car Maker improves upon the cars and slowly they become experts.
In Management there is a beautiful concept called "PDCA" cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act. Performance evaluations work on similar systems and the target of an P.E. system is continual improvement of the organization and the individual.
Most Performance Evaluation Systems are based on this principle of setting the expectations and then evaluating the progress.
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon.
If you’ve never planned a big marketing event or campaign before, some of the little logistics can be daunting. All the little details can seem overwhelming. The last thing you need to be worrying about is your promotional giveaways. That’s why reputable business gift companies have experts on hand to lead you through the process and help you design and place your order so that it’s delivered to you on time and in excellent condition. Here’s what you can expect when you order promotional items from business gift companies like Ideasbynet.comBrowse the Catalog Online If you’re unfamiliar with the range of products offered by the company, or haven’t decided yet on the promotional items that you’d like to order, you can browse the business gift company’s online catalog to get ideas and find items that you want. Each item will be accompanied by a short description and a pricing chart that indicates the prices you’ll pay per piece, along with any setup costs and extra costs. Don’t be confused – the price structure will give you a general idea of what you can spend on the items that you want, but an account representative will work out the details and explain the costs to you.Find the Items that You Want Once you find the items that you want to buy, you simply request a quote o
Let's take another example. Consider an automobile company which makes cars. If they decide to take out a new model and if it is a one bad car,even if they made a million more in the same technique they would not become the best car makers. They will however becomes experts in making bad cars. So what should they do. First, they define what a "Good Car" is. Then they make it and see how the customer reviews its performance. Based on this evaluation from the customers the Car Maker improves upon the cars and slowly they become experts.
In Management there is a beautiful concept called "PDCA" cycle Plan, Do, Check, Act. Performance evaluations work on similar systems and the target of an P.E. system is continual improvement of the organization and the individual.
Most Performance Evaluation Systems are based on this principle of setting the expectations and then evaluating the progress.
Treating your rocket scientist employees as if they were still in kindergarten is not an isolated phenomenon. Almost every company has some kind of incentive program that is insulting and demeaning. Even a Rocket Scientist needs to know his expectations when he goes to work. Infact a great rocket scientist once told me that all rocket scientists are earthlings like you and me. They wear their pants just like we do, one leg at a time. If telling a rocket scientist or any other professional his work expectations is wrong, then P.E. is also wrong. If gauging the work of the person based on the expectations is wrong, then certainly the incentive system is insulting.
Most Performance review programs are copied from a Dilbertesque management book where the first stage is an "anonymous" upward reviews, followed by optional "self-evaluation" forms. Finally there is a numerical score, in lots of non-scalar categories like "works well with others", from 1-5, where the only possible scores were actually 3 or 4.
I fully agree that rating between 1-5 or 1-100 is a silly thing. One of the best things I like about the software industry is the fact that everything is represented in binary. i.e. 0 or 1. In my view all evaluations should be similar. The only two possible scores are 0 (no) or 1(yes). e.g. How is his quality of code? - 0 if it is bad 1 if it is good.
For many this concept may seem harsh. In my entire career I have seen that we either win or loose. i.e. 1 or 0 is a reality of life. When I used to handle the sales in our company, many a times I had faced a situation where Poornam/Bobcares would be made to compete with 3 or 4 other providers. In the beginning I used to think "Oh, we just missed it. Our quote was second best, we did well". Then I realized being second best does not allow us to grow or have the best people. One has to be win or loose.
The system never took into account the fact that people have different and unique talents, all of which are needed for a team to work well such as a person who motivates everyone else when the going got tough or someone who is incredibly insightful strategically. Let's take the example of the Athletics Coach again. Suppose he was training a team for a 4x100 meters relay. Would it help if 3 were great sprinters and the forth was slow but did a great job by keeping the others happy by singing. I guess that team would never make it to the top. Maybe the coach could hire a singer to keep them happy.
It is true that gauging just one quality is bad. For example if "lines of code" is the only criterion for judging a person then the system is wrong not the concept. One has to review all the qualities that are needed for the job.
Negative reviews, obviously, have a devastating effect on morale. In fact, giving somebody a review that is positive, but not as positive as that person expected, also has a negative effect on morale.
The effect of reviews on morale is lopsided: while negative reviews hurt morale a lot, positive reviews have no effect on morale or productivity. Most people will be disappointed by their reviews because most people think that they do pretty good work (even if they don't). It's just a little trick our minds play on us to keep life bearable. Performance Evaluations would definitely make the under performers sad. They have two choices - they can either quit or improve. If they quit it is good for the organization. And if they improve it is great for the organization as well as the individual.
Incentives (or bribes) simply can't work in the workplace. It leads to teamicide: the inadvertent destruction of jelled teams. Giving somebody positive reinforcement (such as stupid company ceremonies where people get plaques) implies that they only did it for the lucite plaque; it implies that they are not independent enough to work unless they are going to get a cookie; and it's insulting and demeaning. I looked up in the dictionary and found out the meaning of the word - Bribe.
bribe
n : payment made to a person in a position of trust to corrupt
his judgment Bribe \Bribe\, v. i.
1. To commit robbery or theft. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
2. To give a bribe to a person; to pervert the judgment or
corrupt the action of a person in a positi
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