In the previous post I talked about the need I had for a more consistent form of employee evaluation and feedback.

What I needed was something quick, direct, clear and actionable.

The B.A.K.E. Method

What I came up with was a simple table, on a single piece of paper called the B.A.K.E. Sheet, that captures short written elements for each of 4 areas:

• Behaviors
• Attitudes
• Knowledge
• Execution

Behavior

This is what I (or other employees) observe you doing. These are the actions and interactions of your work. Your words, actions, gestures, and the overall way you conduct yourself in the workplace (or outside it – thank you social media).

Attitudes

These are the mental patterns, thinking, bias’s and mindset that drive behavior, speech and motivation.

Knowledge

This is the expertise of the employee, what they know. It is the skills and training they have or need to get the job done.

Execution

This is how they apply all of the Behaviors, Attitudes and Knowledge coupled with processes and procedures/tools to get the assigned task or job done.

The B.A.K.E. table has 2 columns, one is “Observations” and one is “Desired/Comments”.

How to B.A.K.E. an employee

Every few weeks you sit down with the employee and summarize what you have observed and what needs to be changed improved or doubled down on using the B.A.K.E. sheet. By doing this you have the feedback loop as part of a regular interaction with employees. Necessary changes are discussed more. Incremental improvements can be recognized and rewarded where appropriate. Other circumstances can be responded to as required.

The point is that the discussion occurs on a regular basis. What you end up with is a more engaged workforce and one that has more regular improvements. Regular touch-points also foster a more continual dialog about culture and values that drive the desired outcomes in the 4 B.A.K.E. areas. Its like AGILE for feedback management.

After doing the B.A.K.E. method for a year, the annual review becomes more of a formality. But one that has fewer surprises and more concrete milestones to review, and like a good cake will taste better after its thoroughly baked.

 

It seems its a continual struggle to consistently get and give good actionable feedback to employees.

Annual Review Surprise?

I hate annual reviews where the employee seems surprised by the revelation of some undesirable behavior or action that hasn’t been as clearly discussed as needed along the way. Especially if that employee is me.

Effective employee feedback in 2 forms

Effective managers give feedback at the point of need, whether good or bad, in One Minute Manager style. While this is good, and immediate, there needs to be a more concrete long term environment where change and improvement can be discussed, planned, encouraged and agreed to, regularly. This promotes  change in smaller increments. The discussion gets easier when it’s regular and part of the culture. It builds relationship. Feedback, in the absence of relationship, especially critical feedback, usually yields defensiveness. However, feedback in the presence of relationship, while still difficult sometimes, is more trusted and more likely to be acted upon. So the question is how do you do that type of feedback?

But do you have the right tools?

The times I have worked for large corporations they always had what I called “Performance Review DeJour” where online tools or documents were available to help the feedback process. And these were changed very regularly. However, being at a small company, or being a small business owner, can mean you don’t have access to these formal tools or methods.

So what is needed is a simple form that allows for the easy and regular capture of simple elements of feedback to the employee. Something that could be done on one sheet of paper (or screen). Something that would only take a few minutes but provide clarity and actionable discussion points.

In the next post I will share what I came up with, that is how you can B.A.K.E an employee to better results.