I speak to many managers who either don’t conduct systematic and regular performance reviews with their staff, or do so ineffectively. When I talk to them about why this is, they typically respond in one of several ways:
- We are a small team, everyone knows how they are doing and we don’t need to do anything so formal.
- Time gets away from them and they don’t realise that the staff member hasn’t received a review in more than a year – i.e. they don’t have a system in place.
- They don’t know what to do and how to do it – so they either avoid it or do it badly.
So what? Many ask – it’s not that much of a big deal, is it? Regular, systematic and structured performance reviews form a critical part of your overall employee management. Whether you have 1 employee or 100, this can be one of the most important processes you go through with your staff, both for them and your business! Tips to getting the most from your performance reviews:
- Diarise and schedule the reviews – don’t rely on your memory. Staff will appreciate that you prioritise and ensure their reviews are organised and on time.
- Conduct reviews regularly and let staff know what the schedule is. This may be monthly throughout the probation period, and annually from the time they start with you.
- Have a standard document ready to use. As a basic starting structure use the Position Descriptions for each role, and attached a ‘rating scale’ to each task. You may use something like a score out of 10 for each task, or a ‘needs training’, ‘competent’, ‘highly competent’ sort of scale.
- Continue to develop your process. Your document can be a work in progress which you develop and review each time you conduct a review.
- Remember reviews are a two-way conversation. They are a great opportunity for you to communicate with your staff how you feel they are performing, but just as importantly they are the time for your staff to reflect on their own performance and communicate to you how they feel they are performing, and what areas they require development in.
- Ask your staff to complete the documentation and reflect on their thoughts and comments before the review meeting. This way you will get their honest opinion, and they won’t be basing their thoughts on your discussion with them.
- Discuss training and development, this is a great time to work on career progression with your staff and ensure you are providing them with the training and challenges they desire.
- Use this time to communicate to staff the organisations goals and objectives, and really engage them in how they can be involved in achieving these goals.
- Ask for feedback – by simply asking your staff what you can do better as a manager, and as an organisation, you may come across a whole range of great ideas which will benefit you, other staff and the organisation as a whole.
- Make it interesting – neither party should feel ‘daunted’ by this process. Treat the performance review meeting as an ‘opportunity’ not a ‘task’ and you will both get the most out of it.
Performance reviews can be as simple or complex as you want to make them. The most important thing is to make them count! Importantly, remember that performance reviews form a critical part of your overall staff performance management, but are not the only component. Regular and ongoing feedback and communication with your staff, monitoring of performance and assessing of team, individual and companywide goals and targets are equally as important.
