Performance Path Team - Speed Ream

Speed Ream has over thirty years experience in business management, including software, digital hardware development, and residential construction. In the last ten years he has been focused on bringing leading edge planning, project management and team building practices into the software development workplace.

Since 1976 he has owned and operated his own construction and software engineering companies, along with serving as a software engineering consultant to firms such as Stac Electronics, Fiserve, Novell and Microsoft.

On the construction side of his businesses, he has served as an adviser to the California Contractors' State License Board, advising as to acceptable Standards and Practices in the building trades of roofing and framing.

Currently living in Melbourne, Florida, Mr. Ream specializes in business development and 'Speed Planning', an advanced planning technology that helps several kinds complicated projects become 'Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget.'

Executive Team Of Performance Path - Rodney E. Waddell, CEO

About Mr. Waddell

Mr. Waddell has nearly 18 years of experience in training, team building and organizational development.

Rod has worked as a business consultant since 1986 focusing on improving employee performance and loyalty. He has developed models and the methods for businesses to integrate leadership assessments, pay-for-performance, and incentive systems resulting in a culture achievement not entitlements.

Sought after in the banking and insurance industries, Rod provides intensive management workshops for improving employee performance and leadership development.

He was a principle partner with Dynamic Resource Development, Inc. whose international client base included fortune 100 corporations such as ATT, Chevron USA and Chevron CCR, Colgate, General Motors Canada and many others.

Since establishing his base of operation in the Cayman Island Mr. Waddell has worked with organizations such as Admiral Administration, British Caymanian Insurance, Cable and Wireless, Coutts Cayman and Coutts Jersey, Julius Baer Bank, and many CI Government departments.

Beyond training and team building, Mr Waddell has developed strategic interventions, company policy manuals, performance based job descriptions, appraisal systems including Performance Path ® a performance management software system. In addition Mr. Waddell has incorporated avatar and text-to-speech technologies to animate psychological assessments, customer service surveys and 360 degree feedback systems.

Mr. Waddell holds a BA in psychology and a Masters degree in Counseling. Post graduate work includes receiving designation as Advisor Specialist with IIP, Deming Quality Management, Human Element Leader/Trainer, Situational Leadership and DISC assessment and many other certifications.

Mr. Waddell donates may hours of his time each year to social organizations, such as, Junior Achievement and the Chamber’s Mentoring Program.

Performance Path Mission - Performance Appraisal Process | Appraisal Management Software

Performance Path ® was developed as a follow-through tool and process to insure a measurable way to not only report on, but to ensure the business objectives are communicated and achieved at every level of the organization.

The supervisor uses an Incentive Cache ™ to reinforce performance improvement and the supervisor may use an Incentive Cache ™ to strengthen the transfer of new or improved skills demonstrated on-the-job. Job Link™ training creates a tangible link between specific on-the-job skills, job-linked training, and on-the-job performance.

Our Mission:

We provide dynamic technologies that instantly transform business strategy into business reality. Our clients become agile change masters leaping ahead of slow to change competition. We tangibly link organization mission with employee passion and guarantee results.

Company Profile:

Mr. Rod Waddell has worked with such prestigious organizations as, AT&T USA, Barclays Private Bank, British Caymanian Insurance, CIBC, CUC, Cayman Islands Government, Cable and Wireless, Dresden Bank Latin America, Colgate, Chevron USA/CCR, Exxon, GM of Canada, and Tropical Shipping. to name a few.. Mr. Waddell has recently qualified as Advisor Specialist with Investors In and People UK.

After 20 years of leadership experience Mr. Waddell continues to enjoy building business success through innovative and teamwork.

Why Do appraisals If You Are Not Giving A Raise - Employee Appraisals

“Why do appraisals if the company isn’t giving a raise?” This was the question from a participant in a middle management training class. Before I could answer several other managers agreed with him. A better question is, Why call yourself “Manager” if you don’t manage? I’m not being sarcastic here. This gentalman has lots of company. In my twenty years of consulting/training experience I find most managers are really coordinators or event planners. Many do not see ir staff development as a high priority, not even a responsibility at allat all. 

Why should they see it differently? Their job is to get the iron out the door, deal with customer expectations, squeeze out efficiencies, ensure compliance with regulations and safety codes, etc. These are measured and have a huge impact on the business not to mention their pay check. Even if they wanted to where are they going to get the time. Isn’t development HR’s job anyway? 

• Ensure all employees understand the organization’s mission and strategy
• Provide strategic human resource planning Identify the A positions
• Ensure top talent is assigned to roles where e value is created (A Positions)
• Ensure development of a highly skilled and motivated workforce
• Ensure expectations are being met
• Provide consequences for exceeding, meeting or failing to meet expectations
• Constantly communicate organization’s strategy and strategic needs
• Leader managers don’t just manage, they change things

Performance Appraisal Criteria - Employee Performance Appraisal

Most appraisals use traits such as: leadership, team work and communication to describe job standards for all jobs. One size fits all appraisal format. Every employee shares the same appraisal form. So, the actual appraisal form doesn’t measures actual job performance. It measures the manager’s opinion of the employee’s performance. Traits are open to interpretation. Different managers may have different opinions over the same employee’s performance. Usually there is little if any relationship between the appraisal items and strategy. This commonly referred to as “finger in the wind appraisals”. Examples include,

Poor Example of Phrases for Performance Appraisals
Examples Taken From Working Appraisals

Customer Service - The ability to anticipate the customer’s needs and seeks to find solutions and solve problems related to customer satisfaction.

Decision skills - Refers to the ability to make appropriate well-informed decisions in a timely manner, balancing competing needs, dealing with complexity and confusion, and being decisive but not impulsive

Team Building - Finds out and suggests meaningful ways of improving the operation of the department and constantly looks for ways to improve efficiency when carrying out key responsibilities. Builds and exhibits effective team spirit to foster organizational goals and objectives, by utilizing the skills of all team members to achieve both business and individual results

Set Direction - Fosters the development of common direction, provides clear direction and priorities, and clarifies roles and responsibilities, sets goals..:

These factors taken together create stress and frustration for everyone.

Building Effective Appraisal Rating Systems

So how can you reduce the bias inherent in rating scales? First behavior anchored rating scales (BARS) can define ratings by identifying job specific behaviors to define the rating scale. What actions indicate when an employee meets, exceeds or does not meet expectations. Human Factors Rating Scales

The Human Factors rating scale (HFRS)is a new technology developed by Performance Path® LLC. HFRS measures the developmental factors associated with employee performance. These factors may include observable measures of both skill and motivational levels. This allows managers and HR professional to quickly identify effective coaching strategies by pinpointing the underlying factors affecting performance. When combined with job specific performance standards HFRS provide objective measures of management and staff skill sets, motivation level in key result areas, innovation or conduct. Developmental trend analysis provide feedback on management coaching and training effectiveness, 

A common dilemma for many managers is how to fairly evaluate the level of work difficulty for different people assigned to the same job category. I once had a hedge fund manager tell me he had 80 accounts with the same job description. But he said, they were not all doing the same job. Some of them were doing basic accounting. Others were working with very complex accounts containing CDOs, mortgage backs and derivatives. How can we fairly use the same measuring stick with them? We solved this by creating a second rating scale that evaluated the staff on the factors ranging from the size of the account, technical complexity, Client profile, etc , This rating scale was used boost the overall rating of the final score. This provides extra compensation for individuals working in more difficult jobs. Suddenly difficult jobs become more appealing to staff. who would otherwise play it safe.

Fixing the Fatal Flaws of Appraisals - Employee Appraisal Tips

How many managers would consider running a business without a way to accurately measure up to 70% of their budget. Yet, this is exactly what is happening with most business and organizations around the world. Nearly all government organizations and most businesses do not have an objective way to accurately measure staff performance. 

Comp and benefits accounts for up to 70% of the budget..Appraisals are frequently used to evaluate employee performance, determine pay increases, bonuses and support promotion decision. Unfortunately appraisal criteria are usually vague This leads many employees to view them as biased and unfair. It is critical for managers to recognize the importance of performance management and find more accurate and fair ways to measure staff performance. 

The key contributors to appraisal failures include: ill defined rating scales and subjective performance criteria.

’ Poorly Defined Rating Scales. 

‘Prejudice is the child of ignorance. Wooly rating scales are those that rely on the rater’s perceptual to determine staff performance. The underlying problem here is that most managers do not know the difference between an observable behavior and an opinion. Which statements below are observable statements. Behavioral Vs Opinion Execcise

• Sandy liaises with other departments ensuring all customer files are up-to-date.
• Kim followed-up with customer complaints
• Tracy maintains the fork lift.
• Francis keeps the file cabinets organized.

The correct answer can be found at the end of this blog. 

Some managers are hard raters while others are soft. I once had a general manager for a local utility tells me, “No one deserves a five This essentially turned the appraisal’s five point rating scale into a four point rating scale. Not only is this a very biased statement but increases “regression to the mean”. That is to say, the smaller the rating scale the more likely you are to get rating in the middle of the scale.. On a three point rating scale (1 2 3) most people will be rated 2. When the majority of staff are rated “meets objectives” or “average” the more pay increases resemble across-the-board raises. This drives up the cost of pay overall. See my previous blog, Across-The-Board Raises Increase Cost and Reduce Performance for more details. In other words, the larger your rating scale the more differentiated your work force becomes and the flatter your compensation bell curve becomes.

Many appraisals rely on the manager’s perception.. Here s an example. 1. Unacceptable, 2. Developmental,3. Meets Objectives, 4. Exceeds Objectives, 5. Walks – On - Water and 6. Talks With God. Bias results when rating criteria are not applied consistenly, And biased ratings will lead to erroneous decisions. Think about the many ways raters bias can distort well meaning managers.