A few things have been going through my mind recently: Football, Leadership and Performance Management. While these three topics sound disjointed, hang on for the ride – there is a touchdown at the end of this!

Great news - you’ve been promoted to a new role!

The job market is slowly but surely recovering from the 2007-2009 recession. As hiring increases across the United States, more and more people are leaving their jobs voluntarily. In fact, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, since the recession, the number of voluntary separations has increased by 49 percent. So, how can you as an employer stop or reduce this significantly increasing voluntary turnover? One answer is by analyzing the reasons that employees are leaving. This can be done through an exit interview, ensuring that there is a conversation and not just an automated questionnaire. The difficult part once you have found out why employees are leaving, is to address the issues and come up with long-term solutions.

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!

By Shawn Wilkins, Senior Recruiter & Brett Carlson, Recruiter