Decisions, Decisions: Performance and Money.

Giving blood generally isn't easy or pleasurable. (If it were, blood supplies wouldn't so low, would they?)

Think about it: There you are, lying on a table with a needle in your arm. For some people, the realization that they are doing the right thing--that they are helping someone

Sometimes managers have similar reactions to giving performance reviews. It helps their employees. It's the right thing to do. But it can be like giving blood--a draining, almost painful experience.

Believe me, I know.

Right now I am thinking about the performance evaluations I must give to the staff of HR Magazine. The other day at lunch a friend caught me staring into space and asked me what I was thinking about. I realized that my mind was occupied with visions of evaluation forms--and the work I'd need to expend to fill them out properly, fairly and accurately.

Bear in mind that, compared to most managers, I have things pretty easy. The staff of HR Magazine is talented and dedicated. There are no problem employees to deal with, no slackers to scold.

What's more, our HR department has made a point of simplifying our evaluation process, especially in the last year or so. As a result, it is fairly painless for managers--and it gets employees involved in their own evaluations and development.

Even so, I'm not looking forward to this. Perhaps because I know this is one of the most important things I will do this year as a manager. Perhaps because the people putting out this publication already do good work, which can make it even harder to find ways to further develop their skills and improve their performance.

If I am having this much trouble, imagine what it's like for managers who must contend with burdensome paperwork or underperforming employees. Or a system they don't agree with or understand.

It must be like giving blood.

For tips on making the performance appraisal process as easy and effective as possible, turn to page 36 to see our two-part cover package by Contributing Editor Carla Joinson and Lin Grensing-Pophal.

Patrick Mirza

If you took economics in college, you learned about supply and demand curves, and probably drew innumerable charts representing those two functions with intersecting lines sloping in opposite directions.

How times have changed. These days, modern economists are trying to put much finer points on the so-called dismal science. Case in point: Econometrics uses sophisticated data-gathering and analysis to examine how people value monetary rewards and how they make financial decisions for themselves and their organizations. Understanding these decisions has important implications for HR in such areas as compensation, recruiting and training, to name a few.

To better understand these new tools, Contributing Editor Robert Grossman spoke with Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist James Heckman about the HR uses of his research. Be sure to check out his interview on page 50.

Leon Rubis