Many employees tend to dread performance reviews, as they are afraid of hearing they are not doing well enough. Yet if done right, employee performance reviews can play a vital role in improving the workplace of your company and can help employees aim even higher. But as with any other HR strategy tool, there are certain dos and don’ts.
The importance of giving regular employee reviews
A performance review is an opportunity for your employees to sit down with a manager and discuss their performance, aims, and potential. As such, it is just as important for team leaders to be given the chance to hear how an employee feels about their performance at work. As a manager, you will be able to see whether your team members are accurately gauging their skills and disadvantages – and take measures accordingly.
It is also an opportunity to find out how they feel about their workload, whether there are aspects of the workplace they are unhappy with, and whether they view their tasks as too challenging or not challenging enough. All in all, it is a great way for managers to develop emotional intelligence and a sense of empathy, as they will be able to see whether their conclusions about a particular employee are also shared by that specific person, or if there are blind spots they have not discovered yet.
As for employees, it is an important step towards progressing professionally, as they are given the opportunity to ask questions and understand better what their manager’s expectations are. It is also a great way to let their manager know whether they are facing problems at work and how things could be improved. Finally, feedback is the ultimate driver for professional growth – but only if a performance review is done right.
How to hold a productive review
First of all, it is important for performance reviews to be regular and universal. Meeting with employees at specified intervals ensures that there are no missed opportunities to clarify issues, and also disconnects reviews from any expectations about negative or positive feedback. Holding regular reviews with every employee in effect means that there is no specific ‘trigger’, so employees won’t view them as necessarily linked to praise or punishment – which allows for a more open and honest discussion. This last point is very important in order to disassociate reviews with that feeling of dread that is ultimately counterproductive.
It is important to make sure that a review meeting is a safe space where both parties can honestly discuss and plan together, rather than a battlefield that an employee is bound to enter with a defensive mindset. In order to make sure that a review is as beneficial for an employee as it can possibly be, you need to be prepared and be specific. Look for inspiration on how to do that in other industries, too: on a list of forex brokers reviews that is done correctly, you are bound to find reviewers highlight essential information and present both bad and good points succinctly but not too quickly. They will also avoid any misleading information aimed at promoting a predetermined viewpoint.
The same principles apply for employee reviews: take the time to prepare and don’t make it too short. Make sure to both give praise for a job well done and highlight areas for improvement. It is vital to be specific: the more information you give to your employees in your feedback, the easier it is for them to follow through. Finally, follow up on how they took your feedback on and whether it has helped them to improve.
Keeping an open mind is key for holding a successful performance review – and that is true for both the employee under review and the manager.
This article is sponsored by MB Peco medija.