As important as they are, it’s no surprise that 95% of managers dread employee performance reviews. Depending on your company culture, delivering positive feedback can feel awkward, and delivering negative feedback even moreso. Two-thirds of companies in the UK are currently rethinking their employee performance review process, because it’s clear that the traditional annual appraisal process just isn’t working for most of us.
Why don’t most employees like performance reviews, and what can you as a manager do to make it a more productive, positive conversation for both you and your employees?
Treat your employees like adults
Many employees – and managers – feel like the performance review process surfaces a ‘parent-child’ relationship, whereby the manager leads the conversation and the employee just listens passively to their feedback. Instead, ensure that you are having an ‘adult-adult’ discussion, in which the employee has their say, offers input and provides context for any feedback. This is also a fantastic time for managers to ask for feedback from their employees – just make sure they know that there will be no repercussions for any constructive criticism they may offer.
Give timely feedback with check-ins
There has been a huge shift in the number of organisations moving towards regular performance check-ins. These most commonly take place monthly (though may be as frequent as weekly), and give managers and employees the opportunity to touch base and discuss any performance issues as and when they arise. This ensures that employees know what they need to work on, and they get a fair chance to address any concerns. If a manager has a concern about an employee’s performance in June and their next appraisal isn’t until next March, the employee will likely feel blindsided when it is finally brought up – and the manager won’t be getting the best out of their employee for many months.
Avoid bias with 360 feedback
All managers have their own opinions of their employees. But whether your views are positive or negative, you may only have part of the picture, which could lead to a biased performance review. Avoid the bias by introducing 360 feedback, where you also collect feedback from an employee’s colleagues and teammates. This will give you an interesting insight into the way others see your employee, and can help provide context, confirmation or clarification for your own thoughts.
What to discuss in an employee performance review
Obviously every organisation (and employee) is different, and will require different topics to cover. However, there are a few key discussion areas to get the conversation flowing:
- How are you finding your role?
- Where would you like to see your role go?
- Which skills would you like to develop?
- What do you consider to be your biggest achievements since we last spoke?
- Are there any blockers that I can help you remove?
- Do you have any feedback for me?
How to follow up on employee performance reviews
One of the major challenges when it comes to employee performance reviews is that very often, the goals, outcomes or discussion points are never mentioned again as soon as the conversation is over.
Instead, ensure that these conversations, the key points and agreed actions are captured in your performance management system. Systems such as Totara Perform ensure that no matter what your performance management process looks like, you can keep track of everything from informal check-ins to the annual review, and everything in between. This means that you have a record of what was discussed and any expectations and any important points raised, and you can even link performance goals to learning activities to support your employee.
It’s also vital to keep employees engaged and motivated by knowing that they’re working towards something, whether that’s a promotion, a salary increase, more responsibility or even professional development. Use your performance management system as a tool to track progress to ensure that you and your employee know exactly what they need to do to accomplish their goals.
