Employee performance reviews play a crucial role in every business, however, their effectiveness depends on how you conduct them. It can either empower your employees and help them reach newer heights or could drive them away from your organization.
With the help of a great review, it will help your employees identify their strengths and potential areas of improvement without hampering the manager-employee relationship. However, writing a solid performance review is not an easy task. Recently, traditional employee appraisal has received a lot of criticism.
Regardless of whether you conduct these reviews on an annual basis or quarterly basis, performance discussion can be tricky. Managers should try to create a positive experience for their employees and aim for high performance. Although creating such an environment is easier said than done. However, don’t worry as we are here to guide you.
Some of the best ways you can conduct an effective performance review are as follows:
1) Performance reviews should take place often
If you are aiming for employee success, you need to branch out and leave the traditional review system behind. So much has changed in the way people do their business since the last year, it is of paramount importance to stay aligned and keep the communication flowing during those changes.
Conducting quarterly or monthly performance reviews with the help of performance evaluation software will allow employees and managers to stay on the same page regarding progress and goals. Moreover, it also helps:
2) Provide pertinent examples
As a manager, if you are discussing areas of improvement, make sure to have a tangible example to refer to. If you have nothing to refer to, then you are speaking anecdotally and that prevents clarity. Hence, if you are addressing an employee that is falling behind, then give specific examples because that shows that you are paying attention and it adds credibility to your experience.
3) Make sure that performance reviews are always future-focused
Earlier, performance reviews always used to be centred around the past- how the year went, what went well and what did not. Employees can’t go back and change the past, so it is disengaging to ask questions based on situations they have no power to shape. However, employees do have control over what happens in the future and this is exactly where the bulk of your performance questions should derive from.
4) Be a good listener
When discussing your employee’s performance, make sure that you are actually listening and facilitating dialogue. When you do that, it will help you learn and understand where they are coming from. Moreover, follow up with questions, it will help you paint a picture.
5) Performance reviews need to be a two-way conversation
Not only performance conversations need to happen more frequently but should be more engaging as well. Employees and managers need to equally contribute to the conversation, and these conversations should not only focus on performance but also:
Conclusion
Writing an effective performance review can be difficult for managers, especially when they don’t have a functional framework that can guide them. However, hoping that the aforementioned tips will lead to a successful interaction. To know more about our product, you can get in touch with us.
