Friday, March 22, 2013

Helping Employee Manage the Crisis of a Poor Performance Review

Bad ratings on performance reviews create tremendous angst for certain employees. Is this a risk issue? [Product for Review] Do you think these reactions play a contributing role in the risk of workplace violence, even homicide? I honestly don't know, but common sense says they are a risk issue to explore for an answer to this question. And it is opportunity to educate. We are less inclined to educate employees than supervisors on topics like this one. Part of the blame goes to a mentality that guides us to look at a situation like this and ask, "Who has the power here?" The answer is the supervisor. So we target the person with power for change. However, if we ask who has personal responsibility, we get a different answer. It is both the supervisor and employee. Both can be educated. Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Research tell us that 15% of victims of workplace homicides are supervisors. That's a pretty big indicator that prevention opportunities exist. So, no stone should be left unturned. With this idea in mind, I took an existing tip sheet on the subject of helping employees who face a poor performance review and created an educational media-tool out of it. Prevention is hard to measure. How do you say because you gave support or educated an employee or supervisor, that you preventing a tragedy?