Search engine risk ratings… Performance review don’ts… Employees rate their bosses… Quote of the Day…

Search engine risk ratings

Search engines are slowly getting better at not sending searchers to dodgy websites, according to McAfee research, reported by Marketing Charts.

The research found about 4% of search results were high-risk websites, down from 5% last year.

AOL has the safest search results, with just 2.9% of its search results failing McAfee’s SiteAdvisor safety tests or being rated by McAfee as warranting advisory information. Google searches resulted in an average 3.4% in risky sites, MSN 4.2% and Yahoo the riskiest at 5.4%.

Overall, McAfee estimates that, each month, US search users conduct about 276 million searches that lead to websites that could compromise online safety.

Interestingly, sponsored results (paid for by advertisers) contain 2.4 times as many risky sites as organic sites, with 6.9% of all sponsored sites rated as questionable by McAfee.

Scam sites remain prevalent, accounting for 3.2% of all sponsored listings. Typical scams include download sites selling free software, ringtone sites with misleading billing practices, and work-at-home sites with deceptive terms.

Performance review time – how NOT to handle it

News that some companies are scrapping performance reviews will be music to the ears of employees and employers across the nation, hoping that the painful yearly ritual will go out of fashion. But don’t get too excited, many experts in the field believe that done well, they are a valuable management tool.

The Australian Financial Review has kindly compiled a list of 10 things NOT to do in a performance review.

• Talk money. Discussion about pay and rewards should be separated; otherwise staff will be less honest in their review of their own performance.
• Irrelevant job descriptions. Using templates can be a waste of time for staff all doing different roles.
• The bell curve. Ranking staff against each other is attractive for managers but it can create disharmony. And who wants to be damned with the faint praise of a “satisfactory” rating?
• Moving the goal posts. When targets are unachievable, they are meaningless.
• The personality contest. If you don’t like your staffer, how can you give them a good review?
• Lip Service. Just filling in a form and following the script is not real management.
• No praise. Employees expect it; managers that resist will disappoint.
• Bias. Judging someone on yesterday’s performance (recency error), or just to confirm what you already thought (confirmation bias), or just on one quality (halo or horn effect).
• Reward the wrong behaviours. Just looking at results can overlook methods and means.
• Enormous expense for doubtful benefit. A bad review can be so disheartening that employees are less productive for days or months.

Good luck!

Do your employees want your job?

Most employees believe they can outperform their bosses and two-thirds of executives say they would like to replace their bosses one day, according to a new survey in the US. Inc.com reports that Korn/Ferry, a Los Angeles-based talent-management firm, surveyed 2996 executives, and the employees ranked themselves pretty highly.

While a majority of executives admitted they would like to be at the top of the ladder, few indicated that they were actually dissatisfied with their boss. In fact, 42% of respondents rated their boss’s performance as either “excellent” or “above average”, while an additional 23% rated their boss as “average”. Only 11% rated their boss’s performance as “poor”.

Two-thirds of employees trusted their boss, a third did not. The study’s author reckons that survey results may indicate employees feel they aren’t being utilised to their full potential. “It’s really about recognition, and feeling like the boss is doing something to make sure you are developing in your job,” he said.

Sounds like something to raise at the performance review…

SmartCompany Quote of the Day

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

– Theodore Roosevelt