April 16, 2009Reader Question ~ No bonuses this year: Performance evaluation question

Meryl,

Annual evaluations are coming up. This is the first time the employees have been informed there will be not be a yearly raise accompanying this year’s reviews. Do you feel the reviews should be handled any differently?

Meryl responds

I turned this question over to my coauthor for the book How to Say It: Performance Reviews.

Janelle Brittain said,

I’m assuming there are no raises due to the economic situation (thus something that is out of the employee and, somewhat, the company’s power). First the staff should understand that this is the reason there will be no raises. Then, I’d encourage the managers to think beyond financial rewards and get more creative. For positive performance, here are 3 ideas:

1.Use recognition (both public and privately) to let the person know how much the company appreciates their efforts. There are a 1000 ways to give recognition form hand written notes, to appreciation pizzas to team celebrations.

2. Many people are motivated by training, so look for inexpensive training sources or scholarships.

3. To help people feel like they are part of the solution, have contests for people who find ways to save or make the company more money. Then the person receives a percentage of the money made or saved. That is “found” money for the company and a nice reward for the person.

When people know everyone is in the same boat, they don’t take it so personally. However they still have the need for appreciation and ways to earn more money if possible.