Performance Reviews Flashcards
Collect peer feedback
Honest criticisms and recognition from a manager is important. But, to truly give employees a holistic view of how they’re doing, collect feedback (this can be done anonymously) from an employee’s peers as well. As Gartner research shows, peer feedback can boost performance.
Avoid ganging up
Delivering peer feedback leads to a more well-rounded review, but be mindful of your language to avoid seeming like the entire team is ganging up on that employee. Phrases like, “Everybody says that…” or “The team has noticed…” can make your employee feel singled out.
Provide specific examples
You’ll notice that a lot of the templates and phrases above include spots where you should lean on specific examples. Those anecdotes will help support your point. Something like, “You stepped up to cover Sasha’s responsibilities when she needed to be out for a family emergency,” carries a lot more impact than a generic statement like, “You’re always willing to help team members.”
Don’t skip the positives
When the goal of your performance review is to help employees improve, it’s easy to place way too much emphasis on constructive criticism. But, employees also want to hear what they’re doing well. That’s why many of the phrases above help you deliver positive feedback to your direct reports. When only 26 percentof workers feel highly valued, keep in mind that they need to hear the good stuff too.
Remember to listen
Performance reviews should be a conversation — not your chance to dole out directions and criticisms to your employees without pausing. Make sure you ask questions about how they feel about their performance, what things they think they need to work on, and what goals they’d like to set moving forward. Keep those lines of communication open, so your employees don’t become one of the 67 percentof employees who don’t feel heard during reviews.
Check in frequently
Think a performance review is a good time to dump a bunch of feedback onto employees and send them on their way? Think again. The things you discuss in your performance reviews shouldn’t be a surprise, as you should be providing feedback to employees frequently. Make sure that you discuss performance regularly in your one-on-ones. That’s far more effective than overwhelming them with feedback once or twice per year
What is a Performance Evaluation?
An employee performance evaluation is a regular assessment and review of an employee’s performance on the job. Typically, managers conduct a full performance evaluation annually, with regular check-ins throughout the year. Performance evaluations allow an employer to set clear expectations and measure the employee’s success. The information gathered as part of a performance evaluation can help drive decisions about pay raises, promotions and layoffs.
Often, performance reviews include the manager’s evaluation of the employee’s performance as well as a self-evaluation conducted by the employee about their own review of their success. Performance evaluations should be judged against specific goals using clearly defined metrics.
What’s the Purpose of Employee Evaluation?
Employee evaluation serves a number of purposes meant to improve the individual’s performance and the company culture. Here are some of the benefits of professional employee evaluations:
They help employees better understand what’s expected of them
The manager has an opportunity to better understand the employee’s strengths and motivations
They give helpful feedback to employees on how they can improve their performance in the future
They can help the employee and manager plan for the employee’s future
They give objective reviews of people based on standard metrics, which can be useful for fairly evaluating promotions, raises and bonuses
Listening to employees concerns can help you develop retention strategies that focus on boosting employee morale. With a solid program in place, that encourages active listening of employee concerns, you can have
a positive impact on your retention percentage.
What makes an effective performance review?
Three qualities make performance reviews more effective. Performance reviews should be achievement-oriented, fair and accurate, and developmental. All too often performance reviews feel punitive rather than constructive and often demotivate employees.
How to Evaluate an Employee
To evaluate an employee effectively, companies need to have a standard evaluation framework in place and review each individual employee against those standard metrics. Here’s a step-by-step guide to effectively evaluating employees:
1. Set Performance Standards
It’s important that you set clear performance standards that outline what an employee in a specific role is expected to accomplish and how the work should be done. The same standards must apply to every employee who holds the same position. All performance standards should be achievable and they should relate directly to the person’s job description.
2. Set Specific Goals
You should also set goals that are specific to each employee, unlike performance standards, which can apply to multiple workers. Goals are particular to the strengths and weaknesses of the individual employee and can help them improve their skills or learn new ones. Work with each employee to set goals that are reasonable and relevant to their position.
3. Take Notes Throughout the Year
Track the performance of your employees throughout the year. Create a performance file for each worker. Keep records of notable accomplishments or incidents, whether they’re positive or negative. Remember that you can give immediate feedback to employees when something stands out as well, you don’t have to wait until the year-end review process to give praise or constructive criticism.
4. Be Prepared
When it comes time to actually give an employee evaluation, it’s best to prepare for the meeting ahead of time. Review your documentation for the employee before the meeting and make notes of what you want to discuss with the employee. The performance review should be mostly about the positive elements of the employee’s performance, with some helpful advice on how to improve in the future. After all, if the worker’s performance was mostly negative, they probably wouldn’t still be working for you.
5. Be Honest and Specific with Criticism
When you do need to give criticism in an evaluation, be honest and straightforward about your feedback. Don’t try to sugarcoat or downplay the situation, which can create confusion for the employee. Give clear examples and then provide helpful, specific advice on how the employee can grow and improve in the future.
6. Don’t Compare Employees
The purpose of an employee evaluation is to review the performance of each staff member against a set of standard performance metrics. It’s not helpful to compare the performance of one employee to another and doing so can lead to unhealthy competition and resentment. Always circle back to your evaluation framework, not the performance of other workers.
7. Evaluate the Performance, Not the Personality
Your evaluation should focus on how well the employee performs their job, rather than their personality traits. When you make judgements about the employee’s personality, they can feel attacked and the conversation can turn hostile. So, for example, rather than giving feedback about an employee being immature or emotional, it’s more productive to instead give specific examples of the employee’s actions in the workplace that demonstrate those characteristics. Don’t make criticism personal, always tie it back to the work.
8. Have a Conversation
An employee evaluation shouldn’t be a one-way street where the manager gives feedback and the employee listens to that feedback. Instead, a productive employee evaluation should be a conversation between the two of you. Listen to your employee’s concerns and how they’d like their career to grow. Find out how you and the larger team can help the employee meet their career goals. You may also ask for an employee to provide a self-evaluation of how they think they performed at their job for the year. A performance review should allow the employee to review the workplace, their managers and themselves, as well as reflect on their own career growth.
9. Ask Specific Questions
To foster productive conversations with employees during the evaluation, it can help to enter the room with specific questions you’d like to discuss with the worker. Here are some questions you can ask employees to spark conversation and receive valuable feedback:
What do you hope to achieve within the company this year?
What resources or support do you need from the department to reach your goals?
What will your biggest challenges be in working to meet your business goals this year?
How often would you like to receive feedback?
How can I be a better manager to you?
What are your long-term career goals and how can the organization help you achieve them?
What new skills would you like to develop this year? Is there training we can provide to help develop those skills?
10. Give Ongoing Feedback
Ideally, employee evaluation is an ongoing process throughout the year, not a one-time task. Giving feedback throughout the year and touching base with an employee to see how they’re working toward their yearly goals can help improve worker morale and keep employees on track at work.
