Are you ready for better performance reviews?

Helping employees to improve their work performance can be challenging. It is easy to get frustrated and wonder if we are carrying out performance reviews effectively when:

• Performance does not improve
• Performance actually gets worse
• Performance improves a little but not enough
• Performance improves immediately but the improvements do not last

What can be an effective way to conduct performance reviews that leads to positive performance outcomes, continuous performance improvement or growth for the future?

Traditionally, performance reviews – also known as performance appraisals – focus on an employee’s past performance. They provide an opportunity for managers to present their assessments or appraisals of their employees’ performance over a defined review period – typically 1 year.

But as managers are finding out, performance review is a shared process between the manager and the employee. It involves the meeting between the manager and the employee, and when conducted well, they exchange information, including assessments of performance and ideas on how to improve performance. The performance review meeting is important because it provides a formal setting in which an employee receives additional feedback on his performance.

Here are some useful tips to become more effective in conducting performance reviews, especially when you are a new supervisor or manager.

Preparation

The manager’s preparations

Prior to conducting a performance review, the manager does his or her homework which involves reviewing:

• the employee’s job description
• the performance goals that the manager and employee have agreed upon at the beginning of the review period
• the ongoing documentation of the employee’s performance
• any documentation of coaching and feedback efforts
• notes from the last performance review

The employee’s preparations

The employee’s self-assessment may or may not be a part of your company’s performance management process. If it is not, you can ask the employee to submit his self-assessment several weeks before the performance review meeting. Reviewing the employee’s self-assessment before the meeting allows you to use it as a resource in your assessment if you choose to. Employee self-assessment also encourages open discussions since it gives employees the opportunity to express their thoughts, concerns and questions about their performance.

Prepare the setting

To show that performance matters, the performance review meeting need to be scheduled in advance. It is useful to give at least a two-week advance notice to the employee to inform him of the meeting, and to allow the employee to prepare for it.  It is also useful to block out sufficient time for the meeting and arrange to meet in a private location without interruptions so as to indicate to the employee that the performance review meeting is important.

Performance Review Meeting

When conducting the performance review meeting, you should consider these steps:

1. Open the discussion

When opening the meeting, it is beneficial to put both you and the employee at ease by using small talk, and to set the stage for an open dialogue. Thank the employee for coming to the meeting and taking the time to complete the self-assessment. Then, you should describe the purpose of the meeting and give the employee an overview of what will be covered during the discussion.

2. Ask for the employee’s perspective

Begin the performance discussion by asking the employee to share his perspective on how well he has performed over the review period. Ask the employee to comment on whether he has met each of the goals set in the performance plan. At this point, you should withhold any disagreements that you may have and show the employee that you are really interested in what he has to say by listening actively.

3. Discuss your assessment

 After the employee has explained his assessment of his own performance, you should revisit each goal and let your employee know the rating you have given for each goal and the reasons that led to each rating. Always start the discussion with the areas on which you agree before you move on to areas in which you disagree. This will help reduce tension, and demonstrate to the employee that there is common ground and that the meeting is not confrontational.

When you discuss areas of your employee’s performance on which you disagree, you should explain how you reached your conclusion. Provide specific examples to support your assessment. Usually, employees are more willing to accept your assessment when they understand the reasons behind it.

4. Discuss accomplishments and learning opportunities

Once you and your employee have established whether he has achieved each goal from his performance plan, take some time to identify lessons learned from the successes and failures in achieving his goals. It is important to identify the factors that supported or undermined his performance during the review period in order to help him build on his successes and address areas for improvement. At this point, you and the employee should discuss and agree on the developmental steps that will be taken to help improve his performance in the future. Keep in mind that your goal is this discussion is not to place blame but to help the employee learn from any failures that he has experienced.

5. Set a time for performance planning

Discussing how an employee can learn from successes and challenges naturally leads to a discussion about setting new performance goals. Therefore, when you have finished examining each of the employee’s goals, you should schedule a performance planning meeting with the employee to set performance goals for the next review period.

6. Close the discussion

After you and the employee have concluded the discussion of past performance, addressed any developmental needs and established new developmental goals, you should summarise the agreements, as well as express appreciation for the employee’s participation. You should also make notes about the entire discussion. Typically, you and the employee are required to sign the appraisal form – whether it is electronic or paper - to show that the discussion has taken place.

In summary, the guidelines for conducting the performance review meeting are as follows:

• Establish and maintain rapport
• Encourage two-way dialogue
• Focus on performance and not personality
• Emphasise both accomplishments and learning opportunities

Follow-up

Once the performance review meeting has been concluded, you need to ensure that the agreements are kept and plans followed. If this is not done, the entire performance review process loses its impact and the employee assumes that no one really cares about performance or commitments.

Conclusion

Finally, one’s attitude towards the performance review process has a strong influence on whether one will succeed in helping employees improve their performance. Many managers and employees dread the process because managers often feel that they are forced to make judgments of their employees while employees feel that they are having a manager’s assessment forced on them.

However, if you use performance review as a tool instead of a final judgement, involve your employees in setting their own goals, communicate with them on a regular basis, as well as provide ongoing coaching and support, it will help you work as a partner with your employees towards greater performance.

Written by: Juliana Ong, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Singapore Polytechnic