Assessing Team and Individual Performance

Most firms have ‘performance management’ or ‘appraisal’ systems. They often have a bad name. People complain that they feel like end-of-term school reports. Frustration is caused by endless form filling. They are often backward looking with little emphasis on career development. Appraisers sometimes complain that they feel like ‘God sitting in judgement’. They are uncomfortable [...]

Although there are one or two useful measures, such as staff turnover and retention rates, for the firm as a whole, they have little meaning if applied to relatively small teams. However, it is a good idea for you and your team members to review personal development goals and achievements. This is probably best done [...]

Some professionals still make the mistake of assuming that high-quality technical work means high-quality service. Of course the quality of work is critically important but the provider of professional services is probably judged more often on manner and style. Buyers of professional services usually ask themselves ‘Do I like and do I trust this provider?’ [...]

One way to do this simply and economically is to have periodic team discussions on questions such as these: What proportion of our highly valued clients, that is those generating above a specified fee level, are we retaining from one year to the next? What proportion of our fees comes from new services offered within [...]

Most professional service firms are partnerships and they either charge by the hour or on a fixed-fee basis for a specific service. There is a well-known formula governing profitability when hourly rates are used. This formula can be applied to a team as well as to the firm as a whole. It is: Average equity [...]