Review Effort and Reward Performance
Performance reviews and merit raises are a part of your role as employer. Once you hire employees, it is your responsibility to train and motivate them. In addition, you should routinely review performance and offer merit increases as appropriate. As an entrepreneur, the business is your livelihood, as employees, your staff considers their jobs their livelihood. Reward excellent performance, so you can retain trained and qualified employees. It is generally less costly to keep a good employee, than to regularly hire, train and hire again if good employees leave because of low compensation.
Be sure that you have clear job descriptions in place. More often than not performance problems can be traced back to unclear expectations or expectations that were not understood by the employee. A written job description provides a clear description of the skills and abilities required to effectively complete the job you need done at your company. The description should be written for the poison and work to be performed, not to accommodate someone who may currently be filling the position. The more objective the standards, the more effective you can be in matching performance and skill to the job, rather than focusing on personality and people you may like to a greater or lesser degree.
A merit rating system, with grades or levels for positions within the company, can help you establish a reasonable pay scale for each job. Your industry’s trade association will often have a listing of average and median salaries for positions within your industry. Factors beyond fulfillment of Job duties are often considered as part of merit and performance reviews. Dependability, initiative and teamwork are common areas for employee evaluation.
To learn more salaries and merit raises contact SCORE.
SCORE the “Counselors to America’s Small Business Owners” was formed in 1964 as a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation growth and success of small businesses. Contact the Savannah chapter at 912-652-4335 or go to www.scoresav.org.