What makes a good performance review?
Performance reviews aren’t the most exciting part of the job, but they play an important role in understanding your employee’s development and the part they play within the business.
Don’t let it become a box ticking exercise. Take the opportunity it brings to learn more about what your team needs, as a good performance goes both ways!
Talk the Talk
Open communication in the workplace is vital. Keeping your employees out of important updates which affect their experiences and time within the company will only sabotage morale and workplace relationships, if they feel shut out from information that impacts them and their future. At the beginning of the performance review, take the time to speak about recent developments for the company you are able to share, and get their feedback and opinion. You may find that they have a new perspective your team had not thought of before.
Emphasise that this is a safe space for them to open up about how they feel about their role and how they are doing within the company, and in their personal lives. Their performance at work may be impacted by something happening at home, and it is important to understand that physical and mental health may provide context for how they are currently working. If you have an Employee Assistance Programme set up for your employees to use, it may be worth mentioning this as an option to speak to someone confidentially about anything they may be worried about.
Positivity over Pessimism
It’s no secret that people enjoy having their praises sung, but it’s their errors and shortfalls that are more likely to stick in their minds. Make sure your approach to this conversation is constructive, and any negative feedback is followed up with ways the company can assist in making sure their role is delivered in the way management expects it to be. Ensuring that feedback is given with assistance or new ideas to improve procedures is necessary to minimise the likelihood of the errors occurring again, and to show your employees that mistakes can happen, and that help is at hand to make sure they understand how to progress following on from their performance review. And don’t forget to recognise their achievements! Long service to the company, working on a particularly demanding project or even an improvement to their work ethic and output shows that their impact on the business does not go unnoticed, and provides the momentum for your colleagues to continue their hard work and dedication to their role.
Moving forward
End the meeting on a high note, and ask the employee for their feedback. How do they think the meeting went? Do they have any feedback on processes, or actions being undertaken within the company? The goal of the performance review is for your employee to leave the meeting feeling positive, prepared and ready to tackle their work with a renewed sense of purpose. Trust is vital within a company, and ensuring your team feels trusted with their feedback and their ability to do their job successfully, will only improve every aspect of your business.
Want to learn more about what you can offer your team? Request a free demo with our sales team.
