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'Your assistant, normally gregarious, happy, and extremely helpful has become sullen and, withdrawn. At first, you assume that he/she is having some problems at home. But after thinking about this sudden and drastic change for awhile, you realize this shift of attitude came shortly after the yearly performance reviews were completed. Your assistant seemed to be pleased at the time with the rating, especially after you explained that you do not give the highest ratings to anyone because no one is perfect.

Today, your HR manager told you that this person has requested to interview for another position within the company and the position tells you the whole story. The manager of this department is known for his/her extra high ratings under the current review system. His/her team members always get the highest percentage raises and his assistant was given $1000 more a year than your assistant even though both assistants do the same job with equal proficiency. This manager’s attitude, “reward high so you don’t cause trouble,' may be working for him/her but it is causing you a big headache.

You want to keep your assistant not to mention the hassle of training a new assistant as effective as your current one was before the evaluations and raises. Worse yet, you feel betrayed you thought you had a good relationship with this employee.' This scenario is all too familiar to leaders who have to work within businesses who have subscribed to a standardized performance evaluation program. While standardization of merit raises sounds equitable, more often the employees involved feel cheated or punished if their raise isn’t as high as someone else’s.

Perhaps your employee didn’t begin looking for another job or ask for a transfer maybe you simply feel a chill in your working relationship. What your employee has is a perceived unfairness and like it or not, you are the villain. This perceived unfairness in standardized performance reviews, especially when yearly raises are attached to the review, can attribute not only to higher turnover rates, but more illness, more accidents and pilferage which leads to higher costs in health care and workman compensation premiums and in supplies and products. While this information is interesting, it really doesn’t help you now. Your problem is how to keep your assistant, make him or her feel valuable, and find ways to counteract the damage done.

First step would be to start a coaching relationship with your assistant. Meeting daily or weekly with him or her regarding his or her issues sets the tone that you are interested and supportive of his or her goals. According to surveys conducted by CMOE, employees rank support, availability, listening, communication, and feedback as top qualities in an effective leader. As a leading global manufacturer of crushing and milling equipment, we offer advanced, rational solutions for any size-reduction requirements, including quarry, aggregate, grinding production and complete stone crushing station. We also supply individual sand maker and impact crusher as well as spare parts of them.