Bello's rule: Don't slack on employee reviews

FORT WORTH, Ind. - Industry consultant Ty Bello has come out with a new Web-based tool to help companies conduct quarterly reviews of employee performance for two reasons: First, with mandatory accreditation on the horizon and most accreditors requiring annual employee evaluations, it's a good business opportunity; and second, communicating regularly with employees has never been more important. "The people we have on our team are getting feedback all the time," Bello said. "They have iPods, text messaging on their phones, e-mail. And we think that as an employer we can sit down once a year--and maybe be late with that--and give them what we think is a report card? No." Bello released e-Praisal in October for companies that either have no performance appraisal system or want a more structured system. e-Praisal is designed to automate, enhance and simplify the employee review process by, among other things, providing basic questions for managers to review with employees (communication, competency, compliance, creativity, dependability, initiative, etc). While he has not yet reviewed e-Praisal, Tom Cesar agrees that employee reviews play a critical role in running a topnotch company. "You want to have criteria that people have to meet as part of their job description and periodically review that and give them feedback," said Cesar, president and CEO of ACHC, which requires an annual employee review as part of its accreditation process. A philosophy of good internal communication for employee performance can only help improve your business, agrees Mary Nicholas, executive director of HQAA. That's Bello's point exactly. "If you don't do it every quarter, the employee doesn't know how he is doing," he said. "Then there can be a big surprise factor when he walks in for his performance appraisal. This improves communication and takes that away. I'm helping them to have forced meetings at least once a quarter to sit down and say: 'How are you doing and how are we doing for you?'"