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... x No Thanks Loading.. How To Get Extraordinary Performance From Ordinary People 5/15/2015 by Don Phin This content has not been rated yet. According to Dr. Rollin Glaser, a specific formula can be followed to improve employee performance. It affects five basic areas: Goal setting Delegating Training and development Coaching and counseling Performance appraisal interviewing Having litigated performance issues for the past 15 years, I can tell you that Glaser is right on the money. Let me touch on what he has to say about each of these subjects. GOAL SETTING Having a shared sense of direction is paramount to building powerful employment relationships. According to a summary of 110 goal-setting experiments reviewed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, goal setting results in a median improvement in performance of 16%, with a range of 2% to 58% . In setting goals, it's important to: Focus on measurable results Tie individual goals into organizational goals Put the goals into writing Make sure they're periodically reviewed When setting goals for an employee, inform them of your organizational goals, and then ask them to prepare four to six goals that they think may be useful. DELEGATING One of the greatest paradoxes of our time is that the less you control, the more you can do. Basic delegation requires you to understand fully the employee's level of skills and character traits, appreciate the specific nature of the task you're delegating, go through the goal-setting process, provide checks and balances, and show trust and support through the process. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT In practice, I find very little difference between training and development ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. How Not To Hate Performance Evaluations 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Emily Huling This content has not been rated yet. HOW NOT TO HATE PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS by Emily Huling Emily Huling explains that a properly executed performance evaluation can help both individuals and organizations improve. &# 160 My stand-out memory of a formal performance appraisal — as the reviewee, not the reviewer — was as a young, inexperienced production underwriter at Aetna Life & Casualty. I'd been promoted from a Casualty desk underwriter to a field marketing and underwriting position. Up until this time, my reviews had gone well. Aetna offered a highly structured education program for underwriting trainees. Expectations were clear and feedback frequent, with monitoring and measuring employee progress according to schedule. We trainees knew where we stood at all times. This new job was different. It had more freedom to set priorities and plan work, schedule agency visits, and make independent decisions. After six months in my new job, I had my first review. It went like this: Boss: "So, Emily, how do you think you're doing?" Me: "Great!" Boss: "Well, you're not." I burst into tears. I don't remember much else about that meeting. But I do remember having a career-changing "aha!" moment. I learned two things. First, I learned how not to conduct a performance review. Second, I learned I'd better find out what I was supposed to be doing and do it well or risk losing my job. ...

...tract, Retain, And Motivate Top Performers
  COMPENSATION PROGRAMS THA... retaining, or motivating talented performers, it’s time to review your ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Employee Performance: You Get What You Focus On 5/15/2015 by Don Phin This content has not been rated yet. Whether children or adults, people will live up to others' expectations of them. What are your employee evaluations telling your employees? How are these appraisals affecting their performance? In this document, Don Phin examines how employees react to performance evaluations, personally and professionally. A famous experiment many years ago involved telling a group of blue-eyed students in front of their class that they were smarter than brown-eyed students. Not surprisingly, the blue-eyed children performed better during the next few months. Then one day the teacher told the class that she'd made a mistake, and in fact brown-eyed students were smarter than blue-eyed ones. Predictably, the scores of the brown-eyed children improved while those of the blue-eyed students deteriorated. The moral: Whether children or adults, people will live up to others' expectations of them. Traditional job performance appraisals can have a negative impact on employees' self esteem. If you rate workers on a traditional 1-5 scale, an employee with a low rating might be motivated to improve out of fear for losing their job. But the long-term effect can be disastrous: Once the fear subsides, the worker will probably end up performing at the low level of the appraisal — p robably because they don't have an affinity for the job they're supposed to be doing. If this employee then confuses a poor performance rating with their self-identity, rather than their job performance, the effect on their productivity will be even worse ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Compensation Approach For Agency Service And Support Personnel 3/26/2014 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Carol Hammes This content has not been rated yet. The determination of adequate compensation levels for the staff is one of the most difficult issues faced by agency owners and managers. Compensation is dependent on so many different aspects of the agency operation that it must be individualized for each organization. What some agencies are doing will not necessarily be right for you. You can get advice from other agents, consultants, articles, and The Middleton Letter, but the final approach must accommodate and complement your specific agency's business plan. In another Middleton article, we presented the key to increase productivity and profitability-pay employees based on performance and combine the compensation with non-monetary motivational tools. As the commercial market continues to soften (can this really be happening?) and personal lines commission rates decrease, there will be fewer dollars per account with which to pay employees and meet other operating expenses. It is essential that the amount that is being paid is indeed improving productivity and increasing the number of accounts that each person can effectively handle. In another article, we will tackle producer and owner compensation in this difficult marketplace. In this issue we are focusing on compensating the service, support, and management personnel but many concepts and methods can also be applied to salespeople and particularly to owners who are functioning primarily as managers. What it all boils down to is that everyone must be on a compensation system that fosters creativity. People must be encouraged to find the smartest way to get things ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Employee Performance Evaluations 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Troy Campbell This content has not been rated yet. The day of the annual performance review is the one you most look forward to during your work life. (Ha!) Systems for evaluating performance have been developed by personnel specialists over the years in an attempt to improve productivity. Many of these systems remain in place without much focus on what's happening today. The intentions of the review are honorable, but the productivity results are dismal. Often, the review only causes dissatisfaction and unhappiness. The apprehension many share about evaluations usually include thoughts like, How much of a raise am I (not) going to get, ' or, How bad am I going to get reamed? ' Instead, the focus should be on obtaining quality feedback to improve technical skills, team-member cooperation, or self-esteem. It's no secret why IBM is known for its incredible service. All staff members establish quarterly, measurable goals with supervisors, then receive quality feedback each quarter relating to those goals through their work performance. In Michael LeBoeuf's book, The Greatest Management Principle in the World, what gets measured and rewarded gets repeated. It is our responsibility to help management understand and agree what a good job looks like, attach measurable and observable behaviors to it, then earn the appropriate reward. Incorporate reasonable accountability into your job performance, criteria, and review standards. While you work, improve customer services, increase sales, and account-develop activity. Try not to let clients cancel easily. Provide prompt ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Paying For Performance 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Carol Hammes This content has not been rated yet. &# 160 PAYING FOR PERFORMANCE by Carol Hammes Half the agencies responding to our recent Agency Compensation Survey reported paying CSRs additional compensation to reward them for their sales performance. And almost all the firms with non-owner producers compensate them based in some way on their individual production. One-fourth of the agencies have also established employee bonus programs that are primarily based on agency performance. In many insurance agencies, these sales incentives and bonuses have replaced either in whole or in part the annual raises that used to be routinely granted to everyone. After struggling through almost a decade of soft market conditions, owners and managers have discovered that an annual increase in compensation can no longer be guaranteed; it must be earned by the growth and profitability of the agency as well as by the performance of each individual employee. Paying for performance is a lot more difficult than applying an inflationary increase to existing salaries. Appropriate standards must be set and the achievement of those goals must be measured objectively. If the employees perceive that the program is not structured correctly or that it is not being administered fairly, the result will actually be a decline in productivity. All the principals must be committed to the incentive plan and must be willing to follow the rules, regardless of how it turns out. If the employees who have been with the agency for the longest period of time get the smallest bonuses after the computations have been made, so be it. Chances are that ...

... interest. Agencies operating as C' corporations, however, need to be careful about the allocation. If you take large bonuses at year-end that coincidentally leave a minimal corporate profit and/or if these bonuses are given out in the same percentages as the ownership interests, the IRS (ever on the lookout for more tax dollars) may decide that the distribution of bonuses to owners is really a dividend that should be paid with after-tax dollars. The IRS allows a business to deduct a reasonable allowance for salaries or other compensation for personal services actually rendered. Factors that are mentioned by the IRS in its publications and by the courts in cases regarding the reasonableness' of compensation include: Comparison with compensation paid to executives in comparable positions The person's qualifications for the position The nature and scope of the duties performed and of the business itself Comparison of compensation paid with the company's gross and net income Company's compensation policies for all employees The IRS does not usually raise the reasonableness issue if salaries and bonuses are not particularly high. But as the amount paid increases, it becomes important to build a case that compensation for all employees is fair. It is also a good idea from a purely business point of view to pay everyone (including owners) a level of compensation that is commensurate with their market value for performing the required managing, servicing, and/or selling duties. At the beginning of the year, structure a written bonus plan that is based on individual and agency performance. The people who produce the most and contribute the most to the overall success of the agency will be rewarded appropriately ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. How To Evaluate And Pay Csrs 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Catherine Oak This content has not been rated yet. &# 160 HOW TO EVALUATE AND PAY CSRs By Bill Schoeffler and Catherine Oak The value of a great customer service representative (CSR) can't be underestimated-just ask any agency owner who just lost one. In the typical agency, the CSR is the foundation of good service, and thus of the agency's reputation. The questions for most agency owners is how to grade CSR performance and determine fair compensation. Finding a good CSR today is a difficult task, especially with the current low unemployment rates. This scarcity of potential employees has had a profound impact on agency performance and profitability. CSRs account for roughly half of an agency's employees. Keeping in mind that payroll is the largest expense in any agency, the productivity of CSRs directly affects the agency's profitability. Hiring and retaining good CSRs (part of which requires fair compensation) is a key to increasing profits and agency value. FUNDAMENTALS The role of the CSR boils down to collecting, processing, and distributing information. Collection may be the most important. The CSR needs to know what information to gather and how to ask for it. The CSR must also be a people person. Good social skills and the ability to act as a go-between for the different parties-clients, producers, underwriters, and agency owners-are essential. The typical CSR spends about half the time talking to clients or carrier personnel, gathering and distributing information, and solving problems. The rest of the time is ...

... potential new customers as they make initial contact. So it's important to examine all the facets of this question: How can I set up a bonus program that compensates my Commercial Lines CSRs fairly? ' CSRs have evolved from primarily clerical employees following producers' directions to today's highly skilled and educated insurance professionals shouldering a wide variety of account responsibilities. Despite correspondingly higher levels of base compensation, the problem of how to provide incentives and bonuses to Commercial Lines CSRs still persists. DO YOUR CSRs REQUIRE A BONUS? In considering the type of bonus program an agency will provide to its Commercial Lines CSRs, management must first address whether such a program is even needed. For at least half the agencies in this country, virtually any Commercial Lines bonus program for CSRs will have no measurable impact on agency performance. Any bonus program your agency implements should serve to improve agency performance in revenue growth, productivity, profitability, and/or ease of operations. If improved performance is not achieved, no bonus should be paid. The concept could not be more clear. No CSR deserves a timely bonus for showing up for work regularly, performing satisfactorily, and creating no negative waves in the agency. The agency, or in this case the Commercial Lines department, must move forward and improve over the last period for employees to warrant a bonus. The key questions are: (1 ) Will an incentive-based bonus program truly increase growth, profitability, and the ease of doing business in your Commercial Lines department? and (2 ) Will the CSR staff perform at the same level of quality and ...