Have you ever given feedback to someone and questioned why you needed to re-state what you thought should have been obvious in the first place? The reality is our employees are all individuals working as part of our larger team. What may seem obvious to us is not always clear to others.

You just called Bill to come to your office to discuss a deadline that was missed…and here he comes. While he’s on the way, you get anxious…your palms sweat, you feel a little “queasy” and you know that no matter what you say, he either won’t get it or will get defensive. HELP! What’s a leader to do?

I have handled many employee relations issues in my time as an HR professional and over the years have said to myself on countless occasions, “gosh, if only the manager had managed the employee, we wouldn't be having these performance discussions right now.” I think, too often, great employees are promoted into manager positions because that seems like the next logical step in that individual’s career path.

Performance evaluations (also known as a performance review, a performance appraisal, or employee appraisal) are a part of career development and consist of regular reviews of employee performance within organizations. Clients often ask me, “what is the best time for appraisals to be given?” Typically, companies will either administer their performance appraisal process using the anniversary date (date of hire) or the focal approach; setting a review date to be used for all employees regardless of hire date. My experience has been many companies have recently moved to the focal approach; but which one is better? Here are the pros and cons to both approaches below, and you can be the judge!

I often get asked the question, “How much do salary surveys cost?” and I usually reply with a question of my own, “How much do you think it will cost if you don’t use salary surveys?”