Performance Reviews

The effects of the recession have helped turn the spotlight on innovative employers that seem to have magic formulas for attracting and keeping their employees happy and productive despite the economic forces around them. SAS Institute and Google are two examples of companies that, consciously or not, have tapped into new ways of motivating employees. Call it “employee enrichment.”

An employee suddenly says, “You rate my production as average and tell me I should do better. My numbers are the same as Mary’s, but you gave her an excellent rating. Does it have anything to do with the fact that I’m black and Mary’s white?” You be the judge:

Comedian Chris Rock and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are examples of people who approach problems in a nonlinear manner using little bets. It’s an iterative, trial-and-error approach to gradually build up to breakthroughs. Anyone can use little bets to unlock creative ideas. Instead of trying to hit narrow targets on unknown horizons, make a series of little bets.

Hourly employees know that if they work overtime, their employer must pay them for the extra hours. That’s true, but it doesn’t mean they can work OT whenever they feel like it. Here’s how to end unauthorized overtime:

Here’s some help for HR professionals trying to do all they can to safeguard their organization’s exempt/nonexempt employee classifications—especially in an economic climate that requires companies to do more with less:

Even legitimate discipline against a lousy employee can spell FMLA trouble if somehow that discipline happens more quickly than it did for other employees with similar disciplinary problems. Advice: Take your time when disciplining workers who have taken FMLA leave. It’s better to be right than fast.

When it comes to deciding whether to grant reasonable accommodations, the first step is to determine whether the employee is really disabled. A diagnosis isn’t the last word. Does the condition actually limit the employee in some substantial way?

Under the law, an employee who takes FMLA leave is entitled to return to the same position he or she held when leave started or to an equivalent position. However, there are situations when employers can refuse to reinstate workers returning from FMLA leave—but only under limited circumstances.

After two years of painful payroll reductions, some employers are considering pay raises. In many organizations, pay hikes will come in the form of variable compensation plans. Experts say these two tactics can help HR pros create variable pay plans that strike a balance between risk, reward and fiscal stability.

You may have employees who perform well but could do better—and you might have some ideas about how they can do that. So at evaluation time, you rate them as good or even excellent employees and want to include some specific suggestions in the narrative part of the evaluation. But you also know that some employees are sen­sitive to criticism. What should you do?