A Starter’s Guide to Effective Performance Reviews

Handling people can be one of the most challenging tasks in an organization. Many new Frontline Managers claim that they find annual performance reviews particularly daunting, especially in the first year or so. Research shows that Managers dread this activity as much as employees do!

On the other hand, performance reviews are critical because they allow the organization to gauge how much an individual or team has accomplished over the last year and at the same time, they set a growth & development plan for employees. It is therefore important for people managers to become good at conducting fair and effective performance reviews as early on in their careers as possible.

Here are a few essential steps to make this activity easier –

1. Keep an open mind: Most employees fear reviews because they believe that their managers will use the session as a chance to point at all their flaws and failures. It is therefore important to set aside personal opinions and focus on the person’s behavior, strengths, opportunity areas, aspirations & self-assessment. People should know that they will be treated fairly.
2. Start at the beginning: It is called an Annual appraisal for a reason. Managers are supposed to take the performance and behaviors of the whole year into account, rather than just focusing on the last few months. Of course, keeping track of accomplishments and opportunity areas can be difficult and so, good managers document their observations about their team members each month. They use these notes to share regular feedback with employees too, so that there are no surprises during their final appraisal.
3. Allow time to prepare: The rush of completing & justifying one’s self-appraisal usually adds to the stress. Managers are often seen pushing employees to get it done hours before the deadline, while managing their workload. Most people managers know the exact deadline weeks in advance and the timelines months before hand. It is best to start keeping people informed about what they need to do at least 3 to 4 weeks before the due date. Why not even block team members’ calendars for 30 to 60 minutes every week, so that they can get a head start on their year reflection?
4. Go with the facts: As teams start gearing up for their reviews, managers should start making notes of key highlights that they would like to focus on during the discussion. This should include quantitative data and qualitative information (ensuring there is no element of bias). While doing so, it is essential to seek 360-degree feedback from peers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders that the employee interacted with regularly over the year. Of course, the employee should know about this and should even have the leeway to suggest names.
5. Decide on a structure: After listing down all the points decide on how to conduct the review. Most managers prefer to start off by asking the employee to talk about their big-wins, learnings, and highlights of the last year. This can form the basis of the discussion.

To conclude, there are many ways in which managers can eliminate the fear and anxiety associated with performance reviews, to make the experience a pleasant one for themselves & their teams.