Six thoughts about the feds’ ‘five accomplishments’ directive
By Gordon Hecht, YSN
It was only last month when social media and cable news exploded with the biggest story of this century, an event so earth shattering that it dominated the press for days. Bigger than if the Cleveland Browns had won the Super Bowl.
In case you missed it, here it is: Federal employees were asked to list five things they accomplished on the job over the previous week.
Policies and politics aside, the directive to let your boss know what you’re doing brings up some interesting points about the value of those five weekly bullet points.
What’d I do?
No matter where people work, everyone seems hyper busy. Most workers are tasked with doing more with less people. Understaffing continues to be an issue in the workplace for both the private and public sectors.
Then consider the distractions at work. Many people start their day by filing through their email list. Get through a dozen notes and 10 more have popped up. Add in the meetings, including virtual gatherings, and half your day is shot.
The result is that we put in our eight to 10 hours and can’t recall one project that we completed.
The Ivory Tower Syndrome
Take time to speak with any frontline, customer-facing team. Ask them if the company’s senior leaders understand what a workday is like. Chances are good that the reply will start with “Those people in the Ivory Tower don’t have any idea …”
We, the people of The Retail World, understand that no job description can accurately list all the tasks we have to do to provide great customer service.
The Annual Review
Many larger companies require employees to undergo an annual performance review. If you add in medium and smaller organizations, it’s a fair bet that most workers haven’t had a review since 2020.
Even the diligence of an annual review is far too long a period to let an employee know how well (or poorly) they do their job. And rarely does an employee get to add their input into their own review.
Deadlines Cause Action Plans
You’ve heard it before: assigning someone a task without a deadline results in a dead task. Including a due date means they need to create an action plan.
When employees know that the deadline to report activity is weekly, they move toward wrapping up projects and noting the day of completion. In short time they can move from five weekly bullet points to 10.
Here’s the True Value
It’s communication. Informing your immediate supervisor of your five weekly bullet points does several things.
First, there’s no better feeling at work than a sense of accomplishment. The fact that we completed something that made a difference makes our work life worthwhile.
Next, it helps your boss understand the strengths of the team. By reviewing those five points for every team member, your supervisor can assign tasks that mesh with each player’s talents and skills.
Then, imagine the awakening of the Ivory Tower denizens when they see the volume and variety of chores and duties accomplished to keep the company running.
When it’s time for the annual review, both the employee and management will have a 52-page guide for the work performed during the previous 12 months. It makes the review process more fair and complete.
It Takes Training
Just like any new job duty, listing bullet points means training your employees. Let them know that journaling their bullet points is not a competition. Brevity is key. Five points is ideal; they can expand if they wish, but not beyond 10.
You can use a paper or online form. Simpler is better. Noting a completed task each day is an easy way to implement this, rather than trying to remember everything on Friday. Let them know that every week is different, and that you understand that some weeks will only have two or three victories.
Make week one and week two “Mulligan” weeks. Like pre-season sporting events, those weeks are for practice. No harm, no foul.
My List
Currently, the only supervisor I report to is my Everlovin’ Bride. Managing me is a full-time job and she does not require any documentation, although my annual review is April 11.
Nevertheless, here are my five bullet points for last week:
- Completed repair work on our upright freezer door handle
- Reached out to two friends who are looking for work to offer encouragement and employment leads
- Filled out and filed four sets of forms with the state government
- Registered for the AVB Summit in Nashville
- Wrote this column
Gordon Hecht is a BrandSource advisor and YSN columnist with over four decades in retail and manufacturing and more than 500 industry newsletters and articles under his belt. His award-winning experience includes tenured time with Ashley Furniture and Serta Simmons, with progressive responsibility for large and small retailers. Got questions about your business? Contact him at (614) 537-5997 or gordon.hecht@aol.com.
