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I could provide a list but it might not fit your organization at all. Loosely:
Domain experience - how well they know your company's industry, the
people working in it, its needs, demands, etc.
Writing ability - do they follow the style guide? Did they write the
style guide? Are they efficient? How does their work impact reuse and
localization?
Tech ability - what tools do they use and at what level of proficiency
do they work? Any additional tech knowledge outside the writing world
that is of use?
Social skills - never overlook this! How well does the person interact
with their team, their tangential teams, other groups? Do people enjoy
working with the person? Does the person influence/drive collaboration
across and within departments?
Additional responsibilities - Has this person contribited to any
non-techcomm projects? Worked with other groups to solve an internal
or customer issue? Worked to improve process or relationships with
other departments?
Those are all things I used to evaluate on. And yes, I had a skills
matrix that I updated and referenced regularly. I used this to keep
track of who knew what, so if a question or issue arose, I knew who to
pull into the discussion. Quite handy when you have 25 people
scattered across 5 time zones.
On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 6:40 AM, Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> wrote:
> I recognize this is a hot topic among many. In fact, I read the bulk
> of the techwr-l threads dating back to 2003 and found mostly disdain
> for the practice of grading staff with a matrix. I feel mostly the
> same way, while at the same time understand a company's need for
> objective measurements to justify an employee's salary.
>
> All that aside, I am hunting for wheels so that I don't have to
> reinvent them. Would anyone be willing to share a list of essential
> skills for a Technical Communicator that could be used to (gasp)
> influence
> an employee's salary increase?
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