Small biz,management works out of office 90% of the time. No one to take care of performance reviews Need idea

Have your people write self evaluations. You can direct the evaluation with some open ended questions on particular projects or work the person is responsible for, customize the evaluation for the individual or team. With this approach you will also find out if you are truly in touch with them and if a face to face is required. Don't be surprised if your people are harder on themselves than you are.

Sounds like you do need an HR person, and your situation sounds inticing... let me know if you want a pen-pal that can assist. Although my speciality is not HR, I have plenty of advise I would love to share!

I think that as the last resort it would suffice, as long as you are giving feedback throughout the year as well. To just go on and never have any real contact or communication with your employer can leave an employee swinging in the wind, so to speak. Make sure you are recognizing results and achievements (even if it's just making it into work everyday!) and then you don't have to worry about making the year end raises a little more impersonal. Of course, best scenario is a sit down with every employee, but in the real world, we all know that this is not always possible.

Look, I know exactly what this is like. I work for a small company where the managers are all very busy people. The best way to handle this is to apply One Minute Manager principles- if at all possible. I use One Minute Manager principles- but one set of my bosses do and the other set does not. Guess which bosses I like better. Employees NEED to know that they are appreciated for the hard work they do. If you are going to give them a raise- that's great, but don't just tell them that they are going to get the raise. Tell them that you appreciate them and put it in writing that effective as of said date they will get their raise and if they have any questions or would like to sit down and talk about it let them know that they are welcome to come in any time.

We have used a questionaire, which allows the employees to rate their performance, and list the areas they feel the most need for improvement, then compared that to the actual output each employee presents in day to day activities. Most of them are surprisingly honest, and if they are floundering they will let you know. We have them rate their performance 1 to 10 which allows you to see how comfortable they are with their skills, and where they need more structured help. From there, it is usually simple to provide the education they need, with short classes in the specifics. As for pay raises, if they are putting out the work, and the business is growing, go for it. But they should be equal percentages, to keep everyone on a even playing field. What usually happens is the more highly educated people get a higher percentage, but the people who keep the office running so you can be out of the office making the business run, get frustrated (justifiably) by recieving less of a percentage increase than others. Let's face it, if the phone doesn't get answered, you don't have new or repeat clients, if the filing doesn't get done, you can't find what you are looking for, and if the bills don't get paid you are really up the creek. So these services matter too. We gave 3, then5 then 10 percents over years, and are still going strong, with only 2 folks leaving us over the course of 7 years. This might work for you, might not. Or you could take the easy way out and profit share. Good luck.

Hi my.turn, You never said what your current position is with the company is? As a business owner, I find increasingly distressful when I read or hear about the lack of structure in an organization, particularly at the top. I find it all crap when I hear that there is no one to conduct performance reviews because a company's life blood is their staff and employees. I think that managers who are "too busy" are right up there with, "it's not my job" on the list of people "who should be canned." Your superiors will eventually cause this company to fail, and there are many ways to determine a failed company. I realize that small businesses have difficulties at time regarding interpersonal relationships and over all personnel management issues; however, how can you ascertain what the employees compensation increase should be (if any) if there is not a direct line of communication from the front line supervisors or upper management that would have this insight? If in the near future if there was a need to conduct disciplinary action for a specific employee, and it was an issue that should have been brought up in their last review and it was not, then I could potentially see a employee/employer litigation issue. The one-on-one or sit downs need to happen on a consistent and structured schedule. If this not set and performed by a person with this authority, the company is opened to liability. My opinion is if you are not in a position of management and insight to conduct one-on-ones, then I would go for the least involved route as possible, and reschedule the reviews until management can get their acts in gear. Also,"self reviews" are the fastest way to demoralize staff, particularly if they are not going to see any wage increase. I would stay away from this method, it's arcane and useless. Good Luck, ~Trey