Employee performance reviews are essential for both manager and employee. They give the manager a look into the employee’s improvements and detriments while simultaneously giving the employee an idea of how they are perceived by the workers and managers around them. The importance of employee performance reviews is unwavering; however, the methods vary from organization to organization. Luckily, there are some core principles that can apply to any employee performance review process.
- Remember, performance reviews are a time to discuss and work on positive or negative performance. Introducing a performance critique for the first time in one of these meetings is counterproductive. Give the employee this information ahead of time so that, by the time they arrive for their performance review, they have progress updates to share.
- Regardless of the other components of your specific employee performance review process, the first step should always be goal setting.
- Communicate clearly how you plan to evaluate the employee’s progress and performance.
- Don’t let yourself get distracted by recent events. If the employee had an impressive first few weeks of their evaluation period, followed by one or two negative events more recently, don’t forget to acknowledge the older events just as heavily as the newer ones, regardless of positivity or negativity.
- Use a 360-degree feedback method in which you survey the employee’s co-workers for feedback. This way, the employee is receiving feedback from every level.
- When trying to make sure the negatives are addressed, don’t let the positives fall by the wayside.
- The attitude you give off from the beginning of the meeting will determine how well or poorly it will turn out.
Employee performance reviews are too important—to both employee and manager—to be handled mistakenly. Make the effort to perfect your performance review process, and you’ll see results in the form of improved performance from your employees.
