| An employee is hired to help the company make a profit |
Introduction (How close do you fit the traits of the type of employee you know you are?)
Be Honest. What Type of Employee Are You? (OK. Try to be 75 percent honest.)
Traits of a Poor Performing Employee (How many of your co-workers agree that you are not this type of employee?)
Traits of a Solid Performing Employee (This is a rating of a three on a scale of one through five.)
Traits of an Exceeds Expectation Employee (This is a rating of a four. Few people actually work at this level.)
Traits of an Exceeds Expectations Employee and Is Ready to Be Promoted (This is a rating of a five.)
Your Comment Is Wanted (Your opinion is important to Dale.)
With so many employees thinking that they perform their jobs at a high level of competency, how is a manager going to identify the actual different levels of employees? A simple answer is to watch what they do and not what they say.
There is a similarity to the teacher/student relationship and the manager/employee relationship. The teacher will give the students a test to take and the number of correct answers will determine the grade the student earns. The student determines his grade by the number of correct answers he provides to the questions. The employee has a job description that contains the duties he is to perform. How well he is able to perform his duties is reflected in the rating the employee will receive from his manager at the year review.
Good managers will put forth the actual effort to actually evaluate their direct reports. Weak managers often take the easy way out and rats their direct reports as high as they can get away with so the employees are happy. This keeps the managers from confronting poor performing employees and the good employees that have aspects of their work performance that needs to be improved.
Being able to correctly rate an employee at review time is a wonderful trait for a manager to have. This trait enables him to point out the weaknesses of each employee and help them to change the weaknesses and become better employees. Pointing out employees work related weaknesses often need to be partnered with the manager have conflict resolution skills.
He needs to understand how to correctly identify different types of employees will help the manager determine how he can strive to improve the skills of each employee. A fact that will come to the surface is some employees have no desire to putting forth more energy and efforts to make him a better employee. What you now have is what you will have in the future.
An employee is hired to help the company make a profit and not just perform a job’s duties.
This article contains lists of behavior traits that will help a manager to identify the different levels of employees according to how they perform their job’s duties.
Look at the list of traits and determine which type of employee you are. You should find that you can have traits from more than one type of employee list. By looking at the list of traits, you can determine what you need to do to improve your performance as an employee. Your boss is watching what you do and how you do it. He has to be honest with himself when reviewing your work performance. A question a boss has to answer is “Why give a poor performing employee more money to do less?” It is in the company’s best interest if more money is given to a more productive employee.
● Believes he is more knowledgeable and competent than he actually is.
● Receiving a pay check is at the top of his motivation for having a job.
● Personal goals are more important than what is good for the company, department, team, etc.
● Is not concerned about getting his duties successfully completed.
● Is not concerned about meeting deadlines.
● Frequently not accurate in completing assigned work tasks.
● Frequently does not perform tasks at acceptable speed.
● Seems to correctly perform work tasks when he is being watched, but does not perform tasks at the same productivity level when not being visually watched.
● Frequently does not observe the time limits for breaks, lunch time, starting and stopping work day schedule, smoke breaks, etc.
● Does not keep supervisor informed when he becomes aware of unusual situations associated with completing his tasks.
● Spends excess time on personal phone calls.
● Spends excess time talking with coworkers about non work related topics.
● Not dependable.
● Supervisor has to spend a lot of time checking up on what he is doing and if he is correctly performing his tasks.
● Frequently does not perform tasks as instructed by supervisor.
● Is not overly concerned about performing a task correct the first time.
● Having to redo tasks does not bother him even though the additional work adds additional expense to the company for him to perform his job’s duties.
● Blames other people for “him” not being promoted or getting a good evaluation rating.
● Often thinks his boss is trying to make him look bad when pointing out how he is not satisfactory performing his job’s duties.
● Is not inclined to accept constructive criticism.
● Does not ask for directions when faced with doing something for which he does not know what to do.
● Often does not show respect for co-workers.
● Tries to manipulate situations to fit his desires and goals.
● Employee performing at below expectation will be terminated if he has a good manager.
(Employee performs most tasks at an acceptable level. A few tasks may be performed at the below expectations level and some tasks can be performed at the exceeds expectation level.)
● Supervisor believes the employee will correctly perform an assigned task as instructed with the supervisor providing only appropriate directions related to the uniqueness of the task.
● His job’s duties are handled as if the company’s success depends on him being effective in performing his job’s duties.
● Understands what he needs to know to perform the duties of his position.
● Strives to perform each task correct the first time.
● Understands the minimum expectation productivity level of the position.
● Does not take credit for work performed by another employee.
● Tells the truth.
● Strives to perform his duties with the best interest of the company as a priority.
● Accurately completes assigned work tasks.
● Completes work tasks on time.
● Perform tasks at acceptable speed.
● Ask questions when he is faced with a situation for which he does not know what to do.
● Observes time limits for breaks, lunch time, starting and stopping work day schedule, etc.
● Keeps supervisor informed when he becomes aware of non typical situations associated with completing his tasks.
● Consciously watches the time he spends on personal phone calls and talks with co-workers about non work related topics.
● Dependable.
● Has a work ethic that does not require his boss to closely supervise what he does each day.
● Perform tasks as instructed.
● Works with his co-workers in a respective and a collaborative manner.
● May have a couple of traits that need to be improved.
● May have several traits that are performed at an exceeds expectation level.
● Exercises sound judgement in line with his positions rated level.
● Adequately perform the duties and expectations listed in his job’s description.
● Has acceptable attendance record.
● Co-workers have confidence in his job knowledge and how he performs his position’s duties.
● Decision making, analytical, verbal, and written skills are adequate to meet the requirements for the position’s duties.
● Understands his position’s level of authority.
● Respects other position’s authority.
● Holds himself accountable for what he does as he performs his work tasks.
● Interested in increasing his skill base so he can be promoted
● Strives to better understand how his position supports the company’s objectives.
● Strives to know and follow all company policies and procedures.
(Employee is constantly performing tasks at the exceeds expectation competency level.)
● Continually exceeds the traits identified with the solid performing employee.
● May fill in for his boss when the boss is out of the office.
● Performs each task correct the first time.
● Knows and follows all company policies and procedures.
● Encourages other employees to follow all company policies and procedures.
● Will not take credit for work performed by another employee.
● Invested effort in increasing his skill base so he can be promoted to the next level.
● Strives to better understand the operation of the company and the company’s objectives.
● Is able to manage his job’s work flow.
● Does not require close supervision.
● Is confident, dependable, consistent, and accurate.
● Supervisor has confidence that the employee will perform his job’s duties at a very acceptable level.
● Makes sound decisions.
● Can be used as a mentor in many traits for solid performing employees.
● Will study a problem or situation and present to his boss potential solutions.
● Has good verbal and written skills.
● Stands up for what he believes is correct with supporting facts.
● Looks for ways that company’s procedures, policies, etc. can be improved.
● Focus on doing his job and his assignments.
● Pays attention to how actions and decisions can affect the companies bottom line.
● Has adequate people skills needed to deal with people problems and work-based problems.
● Self-starter.
● Strives to improve work performance issues to reduce the expense to the company.
(Employee performs tasks at the exceeds expectation competent level. When needed, fills in for
his boss for the duties that relate to his position. Eligible for promotion when a position is
available.)
● Meets or exceeds all traits associated with an Exceeds Expectation Employee.
● Can be used as a role model for other employees.
● Can be used to train other employees.
● Has the people skills to deal with people problems and work-based problems.
● Has an understanding of the management’s responsibility appropriate for his position’s level.
If you have a question or comment about the content of this article written by Dale Lee, notify Dale. When you send an e-mail, be sure to include the article in question's title, your name, and your comments/questions. Dale is interested in hearing from you.
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August 7, 2005