Getting personnel: tools for managing employees - business software: includes notes on a barcode software package and software for building multimedia web sites - Evaluation

Entrepreneur, Sept, 1996 by Cassandra Cavanah

A big reason to develop written job descriptions is to give yourself something concrete to fall back on if any problems arise between you and your employee regarding job requirements. This way, you have a legally binding document that clearly describes what is expected of the employee. Descriptions Now! also helps you follow general employee/employer laws, including compliance with the ADA. Additionally, job descriptions can enhance the performance review process and make it easier to hire the right employee in the first place.

Unlike the template-based EmployeeManualMaker, Descriptions Now! is its own program; it works under any Windows 3.1 system or higher and requires at least 7MB of free hard-drive space (TOMB with the tutorial). The program is easy to use and worked almost like a standard word processor. Along with KnowledgePoint's extremely successful Performance Now!, an employee evaluation program, it's a worthwhile addition to your company's personnel tools.

* FOR YOUR APPRAISAL

Rounding out this trio of personnel programs is Austin-Hayne's Employee Appraiser, a tool designed to make writing performance reviews easy and painless. Every employer knows how writer's block can strike as you sit before a blank page trying to write an employee review. Employee Appraiser helps break the block by supplying professionally written phrases and paragraphs you simply incorporate into a review.

The program is fairly robust, allowing users to import their own evaluation forms from Word for Windows, Ami Pro and WordPerfect word processors. In fact, the program looks and feels a lot like Word for Windows. The word processor within Employee Appraiser also supports graphics, like employee photos and multimedia files.

The performance review forms are easy to work with. You open a new, blank file and input general employee information. The first part of the review form addresses the employee's previous objectives and outlines how well he or she reached them. There is no pre-defined text for the objectives area.

Depending on which of the dozen or so appraisal templates you use--these range from administrative to sales professional--you are then prompted to access various applicable aspects of the employee's work habits. For example, when evaluating an administrative assistant, you may take into consideration adaptability, communication skills, dependability, personal organization and more. A supervisor's performance review might contain similar sections but also include hiring skills, employee and project management and so on.

A drop-down menu provides access to more than 30 different employee performance categories. Users simply click on "adaptability," for instance, and then on one of three boxes marked "improve," "meets" or"exceeds." Depending on how the employee rates, you can then choose from between five and 10 different paragraphs that put the evaluation into words. You can edit the words to make the evaluation more personal and specific.

There's also an Employee Folder application within Employee Appraiser that serves as a central repository for employee information. The Employee Folder maintains an organized list of employee names, along with general background notes and various documents relating to the employee, including performance reviews, memos and the like.