New Article Provides Tips for New Managers in Developing Superior Performance Review Skills

Impact Achievement Group article series on new manager training emphasizes key strategies to grow into management

SEATTLE – June 29, 2010 – New managers must handle an important new area of responsibility—conducting performance reviews. Training is critical to help them provide fair and meaningful employee appraisals, according to Impact Achievement Group.

Conducting great reviews, whether informal or formal, is a challenge for most managers. Those new to management can excel by recognizing three critical elements contributing to a superior employee performance review: clear performance expectations; well-defined standards and clearly defined performance measures.

Developing Great Performance Review Skills: Tips and Guidance for New Managers, the sixth in a 12-part article series, teaches new supervisors important theories and tactics to conduct quality performance reviews. The articles are derived from Supervisory Basics™, 12 individual, yet linked, two-hour training modules, delivered in leader-led or eLearning formats that help managers understand the management behaviors and tactics required to ensure their and their company's success.

"Studies have shown that 98 percent of people see themselves in the top half of all performers," said Lee Klepinger, president. "To help employees see themselves more realistically, reviews must focus on their important contributions compared to clearly defined standards and measures for the job."

To make the review process more valid and welcome to their direct reports, new managers can:

• Establish clear and results-oriented performance goals and objectives.
• Limit key performance expectations to six or less – focusing the review process and making it easier to manage.
• Set out standards that describe performance that truly makes a contribution.
• Use a valid method of measuring employee performance that relates to the clearly established performance expectations.
• Rate the employee's performance against the set standards, avoiding issues that are not relevant to those standards.

"Developing Great Performance Review Skills: Tips and Guidance for New Managers" is available for download. Article seven will discuss ways new managers can handle difficult situations.

About Impact Achievement Group

Impact Achievement Group provides assessment, coaching, customer loyalty and leadership development training that focuses on employee selection, retention, employee engagement and customer engagement. By integrating and blending the world's best assessment and recruiting processes, workshops and eLearning training, coaching and measurement programs, Impact Achievement Group helps organizations improve human performance to achieve bottom line results.