Maximize Your Performance Reviews

As we enter the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, it's a good time to start preparing for your next round of employee performance reviews. Meeting individually with your employees a few times a year can be a great way to keep your staff motivated, improve the quality of work produced, and develop goals to grow your company.

However, the truth is that many employees and employers find performance reviews to be a waste of time. When these reviews are seen and treated like a mere formality, it can be hard to produce worthwhile results. Employees might not feel as if their true performance or potential is being seen, and might instead feel that they are just being criticized instead of receiving helpful and actionable feedback.

So, how can we break this perception? Instead of going through the motions, try using these five steps to help make sure your next round of performance reviews is effective and beneficial for both you and your employees.

1. Preparation

You might think it goes without saying, but coming in with a plan can make all the difference. A comprehensive performance review generally covers three topics: Assessments, Feedback, and Goals. Before each review, go through these topics and gather the relevant data for each one. Ask yourself, "What metrics are most relevant for assessing this employee's performance?" "What are some clear strengths and weaknesses that can be addressed?" "What metrics would be a good basis for developing actionable goals?" Questions like this will help provide you with the necessary data to develop the most essential talking points for each employee.

2. Communication

While metrics and figures are a great foundation for your meeting agenda, clear and respectful communication is essential to ensuring that data is properly utilized. As you go through each of the three topics, make sure you're properly communicating relevance and future expectations. Remember to be constructive and encouraging with your feedback, highlighting their strengths and achievements, as well as areas for improvement. Avoid speaking in a way that might come off as accusatory, as this can result in the employee becoming discouraged with their work. Listen actively and attentively to any input or responses from your employees to show that their thoughts or concerns are both heard and valued.

3. Direction

Despite being referred to as "performance reviews," perhaps the most important aspect of these meetings is looking toward the future. As mentioned in Step 1, the last of the three topics discussed in a comprehensive performance review is goals. One of the main purposes of performance reviews is to help your employees grow and improve in their roles. This means setting out clear, actionable steps and expectations for your employees to meet. These steps should tie into how they can better serve the company's overall vision, as well as further their own personal career goals. Ask them how they would like to grow within the company over the next few years and share what areas of improvement could help them reach that goal. In some cases, it helps to create a solid roadmap of time-based and measurable goals for them to work toward.

4. Participation

One key aspect in making those last two steps work is employee participation. Performance reviews should not be a one-way conversation where you dictate what your employees are doing right and wrong. Make sure your employees are providing their own perspectives every step of the way. Your employees know themselves better than anyone else and may have valuable opinions or suggestions that you never considered. These ideas can help you develop the best possible custom path for improvement. Don't let them sit this meeting out silently! Make sure to stop every once and a while to ask them their thoughts. By involving your employees in the review process, you can increase their engagement, motivation, and ownership of their work.

5. Conclusion

One reason so many people see these meetings as a waste of time is that they can go on for over an hour, and by the time the employee leaves, they've forgotten all of the most important information. Or worse, they leave feeling completely downtrodden by all of the criticism. It’s important to end each review on a positive and optimistic note. Summarize the main points you discussed, emphasizing their achievements and progress so far, and remind them of the goals you set together for the next period. Finally, end by expressing your appreciation for their hard work and dedication, and assure them of your investment in their future.

Sam Lowinger is the Executive Officer of Brand’s Paycheck, where he's been providing innovative payroll and HR solutions for more than 15 years. His mission is to help business owners ease the everyday burdens that come with running a business, allowing them to concentrate on taking their business to the next level.