Finally! Performance Assessment That Works: Big Five Performance Management

Admit it, we all hate annual performance appraisals, and with good reason. Over 85% of companies say that their current performance management processes are only "moderately effective." Only 50% of employees believe that their managers provide them with honest feedback that actually improves their job performance. Managers spend, on average, 400 hours per year on the process! The return-on-investment for that time is very low. Most participate in the process "because the Human Resources department requires it." So why do we continue, year after year, with this outdated, tedious, and questionable process? Probably because we have not had any better alternative... until now! Roger Ferguson, a human resources and operations professional with more than thirty years of experience in Fortune 500 companies, has created Big Five Performance Management, a commonsense alternative. Big Five creates better accountability than traditional annual performance appraisal, requires less time, and is actually embraced by managers and their employees. Big Five is born from the sales culture where it is said that good salespeople are “born on Monday and die on Friday.” That means that good salespeople are 100 percent accountable for positive, documented, successful efforts on a weekly basis, creating a culture of ongoing accountability and demonstrated performance. Human Resources can learn a lot from sales; Big Five tells us how. This innovative process, tested in multiple corporate environments for the past fifteen years, is presented here for the first time in a conversational, easy-to-read style, and is not just limited to human resources professionals or upper-level management. It is for the rank-and-file employee who may not know how to prioritize their work; calculate the value they bring to their organization; or communicate that value to their management. It is for frontline supervisors and managers who struggle to effectively align the efforts of their team members; are not always comfortable with confrontation when coaching employees; and dread the thought of having to prepare one more round of annual performance appraisals. It is for companies and organizations looking to build a more effective, accountable, and inspired workplace by improving processes and eliminating waste. Finally, performance assessment that works!"Big Five is the coolest thing to hit Human Resources since Covey and his Seven Habits!" -Doug Thorpe, Headway Exec "The best 100 pages you will ever read on the subject of performance appraisal! Big Five is an absolute game-changer."- Rick Gillis- Author, Consultant, Speaker"I installed Big Five in our business and was amazed at how quickly my teams embraced it. Most of us have never questioned HR on the value or validity of the traditional process. We should have! Big Five provides us with more and better data; data that actually helps me run my business more effectively. -Cathy Penland, General Manager, Houston home builder

Ask anyone who knows him and they will tell you that Roger Ferguson is not your typical “HR guy.” He is likely to be found leading a mid-afternoon trivia contest to keep workers in redundant functions energized and smiling. He once imitated Bob Dylan and sang the company’s strategic plan to a ballroom of 300 bankers. He prefers to be in the field learning about how HR can help improve profitability, not in an office writing policy. And if you really want to see him at his best, ask him to improve an operational process. His latest effort is performance appraisals.

“I believe that traditional, annual performance assessment is a very broken process. A simple return-on-investment calculation will show that most managers spend far too much time on a process that results in so little benefit. I am leading the charge to change the process, increase managerial productivity, and improve the quality of coaching in the workplace.”

Roger is well qualified to lead this effort as he has over 30 years of experience with two of the best employers in the world, JPMorgan Chase Bank and the Fluor Corporation. He has participated in leadership roles in both companies to revamp the performance assessment process. Roger began his career as a recruiter at Chase after obtaining degrees from Texas A&M University, spending almost twenty years in a number of operations, human resources, and talent development roles. He joined Fluor in 2000 and spent thirteen years designing and delivering training and other Human Resources initiatives in many global locations, including a two year assignment in Afghanistan supporting US warfighters. There he led the Fluor transition of personnel in Afghanistan and his teams accomplished the eighteen month mission in nine months, 100% ahead of schedule, saving the US Army client and taxpayers some fifty-three million dollars in redundant contactor expense. The client called the transition, “the most successful Transfer of Authority in US military history!” After returning from Afghanistan, Roger established iSi Human Resources Consulting, specializing in Big Five Performance Management; a creative and no-nonsense alternative to traditional, annual performance appraisal. To learn about this innovative process please visit www.bigfiveperformance.com or www.isihrconsulting.com.