When it is time to appraise the agent’s level of success throughout the year, the minimum that a supervisor can do is have a documented record of performance. Employees do not react well to criticism about their work, especially when it is only supported by a supervisor’s vague recollection of a random observation.
If you are a supervisor, you should keep excellent records of your people’s work quality (Call handling, attendance, job knowledge, etc). If you are a call center rep, you should insist on receiving feedback through out the year. No one likes unpleasant surprises…particularly those that affect their pocket book.
I think your last point is really key to good management, staff should know where they stand right along throughout the year. Annual reviews are just the way we do things for historical and fiscal reasons, not because a once-each-year review is a good management practice, in fact quite the contrary is true.
Posted by: Steve Hamrin | July 19, 2007 11:54 PM | Permalink to Comment