Submitted by willow on
in
Forums
I have an employee who is up for a raise. Overall he is a wonderful employee, he does his job well and then some. He is creative and does not mind taking chances to help improve the business. He is always early and ready to work when he arrives.
My only concern is how he is with customers. He is polite, never rude etc which is great. But he has a shy quality about him and is not very talkative with them. When he does talk with them he is quiet. He almost comes off as being uninterested in them.
Out of everything this is my one and only complaint. But the thing is in my business ( and others) customers are money. If the customer is not happy or does not feel welcomed they may not come back. If that happens we lose money and are out of business. I have talked to him about this and even though it seems he tries right after I talk to him about it, it seems to fizzle off after a bit.
I need to do a performance report along with the expected salary increase. How would I or should I approach this? Being able to interact with customers is a big thing in this business. I would love to see him get a raise, he does work hard, but since this is a major point on his review, how do I handle it?
Any help would be great.
Employee Up For Raise
Either you believe he deserves a raise based on how you believe raises are to be awarded, or you do not.
If you believe he deserves it, then it's reasonable to assume that you believe his customer service skills are enough to justify the raise. If you think his level of customer skill is too low to justify the raise, you don't give him one.
If you still believe he deserves the raise, you write a review that will motivate your boss to agree. If you believe you can't persuade your boss to give him a raise if the boss truly knows what his skill level is, then you have to decide how lightly you are going to touch on this area to get him the raise. And, you would have to take responsibility for failing to get him where he needs to be so the raise could be pitched effectively.
No one here can know what your boss/company/industry/his role are and how they might impact (and this information will help us help you more in the future), but I would suggest you consider giving him a solid though not spectacular rating in customer service, and focus on his improvements.
The things that worries me is your line, "I would love to see". I would love to see all my employees get a raise. But often few do.
Mark