North York: (416) 492-8500 | Vaughan, Richmond Hill: (905) 883-3000 | Markham: (905) 477-7557

www.hunt.ca

EXPECT SERIES | ISSUE A10

Why Managers Dont Get What They Expect

For further information on this or other employer topics, send an email to andre@hunt.ca and we will provide whatever assistance we can. We also invite your inquiries about real life situations and challenges in employee management and strategic planning. Many of our clients consider us to be their off-site HR advisors. There is no charge for this service. We are also available to do components of a recruiting process at greatly reduced rates, to allow your company to save time and money. We hope you find this newsletter helpful.

First identify the tasks. What do we want the receptionist to do? Let us say that our companys standard is as follows: Be at the reception workstation within the hours set for the job. Answer the phone within two rings. Smile when the phone is answered. Answer using the company standard greeting. Post to voice mail only with the callers permission. Offer to refer calls to another employee if appropriate. Receive and distribute inbound mail. Receive and deliver inbound courier packages. Fill out bills of lading for outbound couriers and call the courier. Then identify the standards by which the job should be done to meet company expectations. Each task has its own list of standards or performance criteria. Behaviour can then be observed against these standards. Example: Be at the reception workstation, doing the job, within the hours set for the job. Standards: Reception hours are 8:30 to 5:00 Monday to Friday, with one hour lunch from 12:00 to 1:00 and two 15 minute breaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You must be at the desk doing the job within those times. You must ensure that your backup person is in place before you stop doing the job for any reason. This sounds very task specific but it has to be in order to eliminate the opportunity for performance that deviates from the desired standard. For example: In managing performance on this standard, it is apparent that the 8:30 start time does NOT mean driving onto your parking lot at 8:30 or filling a cup at the coffee machine at 8:30 or being in the washroom at 8:30. It means doing the job at 8:30. The manager then has a specific guideline from which to manage someones behaviour. Set a measurement that identifies successful completion on that standard (do not measure failure rates). The ideal metrics for this standard is 100% on time on station. Performance acknowledgement and if applicable, bonuses or perks can be attached to these results. Different tasks can be observed, measured and acknowledged or rewarded each week or each month until consistent high level performance is in place.

Setting Performance Standards

Busy managers have a tendency to assume that an employee should know how to do the job if they have had similar experience, or if they have been shown how to do it recently. The reality that they see is the job is not being done as they expected. Several of our newsletters have addressed different aspects of performance management. This one deals with setting the desired standards in the first place. Standards can and should be set for every task in every job. When a standard is not set or one is in place but the manager avoids non-compliance, employees will set and follow their own standard. These underground performance rules might be close to what the company wants, but they could be radically different. People often do things differently when the manager is not looking. This behaviour is influenced by peer pressure sometimes. For example: the group may discourage productivity that is higher than norm for the group, so the new employee has to modify their behaviour or be ostracized by the group. Behaviours may be influenced by how the job was done at their previous employer. It takes awhile for old habits to change to new ones. They may be influenced by lack of knowledge, fear of looking stupid, difficulties encountered in attempting the task, lack of training and / or lack of experience with someone observing and supporting. Identifying why a job is not being done at the desired level of productivity or quality is tough unless there are standards set in place to act as a benchmark. These standards need to be written and readily accessible by the employee. Lets use the example of a receptionist. Many managers believe that a receptionists job cannot be measured. In fact, any job can be measured. Every job should be measured or performance will be inconsistent and managing it will be too subjective to be effective.

A full service staffing company providing administrative and management professionals for permanent, contract and temporary positions

Office | Operations | Engineering | Accounting