We firmly believe that we don’t praise people enough. Yet even the smallest positive remark can be genuinely rewarding and act as a powerful motivator. Everyone likes to know if they are doing a good job, and it’s easy to pass on positive information to deserving workers; you just have to recognize the opportunity and take the time to do it.
Providing frequent, truthful and direct feedback helps people understand how their work is being evaluated and what is expected of them and feedback is a key component in motivating and retaining employees. For companies that employ contractors, this can be difficult since the client manager typically supervises the contractors work. Through our years of IT staffing and recruiting, we have developed a simple yet effective system to recognize and provide feedback on performance while it is still timely.
All of our employees’ weekly time sheets have a “Performance Assessment” section that all client managers complete. Simple, yet it is an extremely powerful tool and an effective vehicle for communicating positive performance quickly and efficiently and also highlighting any issues that may have arisen. This capability provides an excellent vehicle for sharing information among all parties. Collecting the information is only part of the process; the real key is evaluating and disseminating the information in a timely manner. Positive feedback is communicated as quickly as possible, and in the rare event that a corrective action needs to be taken, it can be easily identified and managed accordingly.
Client managers develop a level of comfort with specificity in regards to performance related matters knowing that they have a vehicle to use for communication that will be acted on rather than flowing into a black hole. Contractors appreciate the fact that their performance is being honestly evaluated by the people they work for on a daily basis. Our job as the staffing firm is to facilitate communication, for the most part, good news.
Below are a few client comments we have had the privilege to pass on to our contractors:
• “(contractor) continues doing a super job as we transition to final prototype build. He has helped drive the group in task and completion that has supported successful product demonstration. I personally appreciate his flexibility, positive attitude and adaptability when day to day priorities are modified based on near term needs.
• “(contractor) has really been quick to pick up new tasks and is a real self starter. He finds the resources that he needs to get the job done.”
• “(contractor) has excellent customer service skills. He has been the fastest person I have ever seen come up to speed in our very complex environment.”
In these instances we make sure the contractor receives the accolades and feels appreciated. In the few instances where client managers have identified areas of concern, which may have not been communicated otherwise, we address those areas specifically with our consultants to ensure improvement. This has played an important role in The InSource Group maintaining its extremely high level of client satisfaction.
A simple concept enabled by a repeatable process has given us the opportunity to give praise where praise is due. Now that is genuinely rewarding.
Brett Schaefer& Mark Stevenson
Sales Managers
No comments:
Post a Comment