On Loan Work Assignments

(Courtesy: ellenlandreth.wordpress.com)

At some point in your career you may be asked by your manager to work outside of your assigned work group as a loaned out employee.  Although these assignments are usually short term to help out another group, you may feel a little put out by the request,  You may feel that your current work contributions are  deemed inadequate or you are as valued as an employee,  However there are several advantages to accepting (or perhaps volunteering) for this type of assignment:

• Get to know other teammates  - Once you report to your new team you may know some of the members but not all.  What better way to network than to work side by side with new people who could perhaps enhance you career down the road.  Or  you may be able to help them in their career.
• Learn a new part of the organization -  You may have a little knowledge of the new group but chances are you will need to know more.  A broad  understanding of your industry will only help you move laterally and upward as well as you progress  in your career.
• Other managers will get to know your work -  Probably the best part of working in a new group is the opportunity to showcase your skills for the new manager.  You will be under the microscope for a little while, so make the best of it and exceed expectations.  Once pay raises come out, the more managers that know of your good work the better chance you will have of getting a stellar raise.

(Courtesy: uthmag.com)

Performance Reviews

(Courtesy www.the grindstone.com)

With the end of the year comes the dreaded performance reviews that large companies put their employees through. Many companies require their employees to rate their performance over the past year in a variety of categories.  Many  of these categories are vague and so naturally it is difficult to rate yourself objectively.  From experience here are a few tips that help with the process:

• Keep a log of important accomplishments during the year -  Starting with January list all important job related activities by month in a log or journal (electronic or paper - it doesn't matter).  This helps you remember all you did during the year to verify you met or exceeded expectations.  Management is quick to forget much of the good you do so it is essential to help strong documentation to bolster your review.
• For any areas you think are weak or below par, address them with an action plan -  Chances are that if you think your are weak in a particular area, your manager may be thinking the same thing.  If you know why your performance was below standard, own up to it in the review meeting.  Then show a plan of how you are going to get better,  Bosses will be impressed.
• Ask for new assignments, responsibilities, or training -  Performance reviews are not all about how you can do better.  It's also about asking for opportunities and getting managements commitment to help you.  Management is responsible for helping develop employees to their potential.  Some managers need to be reminded of this.

Performance reviews can be positive if they are treated as a tool for communication and not a punishment.  Going into a performance review with areas addressed will go along way to moving forward.

(Courtesy Scott Adams)

Corrective Action

(Courtesy www.quality-wars.com)

You have been receiving many rejections on your factory floor or at a supplier.  Each time you disposition a fix either through an official "rejection tag" or a simple work around.  But that doesn't seem to be working and the same errors continue, It is time for the next step - formal corrective action.

Corrective action does not need to be punitive.  In fact it works well if there is no blame assigned to any one person or organization.  Solving the problem with an attitude of "our problem that we need to fix" will go along way to getting everyone on board to focus their efforts together.  That is the first step.

With the proper attitude in place you can deep dive into the root cause.  If you are lucky the problem will be relatively easy to diagnose and subsequently develop a plan to eliminate the problem.  Most of the time it's not this easy and you need a bigger effort.

If it's a big problem that involves several groups then management will be aware of it and will give full support.  That is the second key step in developing corrective action - full organizational awareness and commitment.

Once the key players have identified a set of steps to fix the problem it is imperative that the right personnel be given the tasks to complete.  If there is a great deal of inexperience, then the corrective action plan is not effective and could make matters worse.  Aggressive schedules must be developed and followed on time to provide timely closure to the issue at hand.

Once the corrective action plan is implemented, naturally check to see if it solved the issue. Surprisingly many operations don't do this step and become surprised (and panicked) when things don't work out.  With a solid plan developed and proper implementation executed, you can turn attention to the next issue.