Five Tips to Help You Ace Your Next Performance Review
“Yay! It is that time of the year again”, no employee ever said. The annual performance ritual is not new for both employers and employees. During the review, the former gets uncomfortable in discussing a few areas, while the latter gets anxious about a few areas. It is not one of those processes where you will find an environment of enthusiasm at the workplace.
While there are two sides of the coin, people tend to forget that employee growth is motivated by feedback and appraisals. If implemented effectively, performance reviews can result in implementation of plans regarding employee growth and development. This makes them feel motivated, increases their satisfaction and engagement contributing to an overall healthy employee experience in the workplace. Ultimately, boosting the organisation’s performance.
So, how can you ensure your employee feels like they are treated in a fair manner during the evaluation? Here are a few tips that help you ace the next performance review discussion with them :
1. Distribute the Power :
During performance review, does the conversation only revolve around the employee? It is time to change that! The purpose of performance reviews is to let your employees know how you feel about them, as well as offer them a chance to share their opinion.
As much the review focuses on the employee it is also a mirror for the manager. You get the opportunity to know what kind of manager you are. Therefore, managers/leadership should distribute the power during the review where an environment is created to express in a free manner. This helps in removing the communication barrier in the review and creates a two-way dialogue. Feedback from a two-way dialogue fosters trust, flows with the rhythm of work, and sets the stage for a positive, lasting change. Employees should be guided to look in the right direction rather than being told what to do.
2. Real-time Recognition :
While organisations have adapted to quarterly reviews it is equally important to have a culture of real-time recognition. When managers start recognizing when it matters the most, they can witness a difference in employee contribution towards work. It is a great way to manage performance.
For example, if an employee is doing well, you can reinforce positive behaviour immediately rather than weeks later which leads to better results. Further, it is also one of the factors in driving workplace engagement, inclusion and employee retention. So, do not wait for appreciating your employees only during performance reviews rather than make it a continuous process.
3. Continuous Review :
42% of millennials want feedback at least on a weekly basis. A continuous performance review ensures there are no surprises for the employee since they are getting constant feedback from their managers. Managers should never catch their employees off guard at a performance review. Periodic reviews ensure that timely-feedback is given to employees be it on formal or informal basis. This helps them create a better relationship with their employees by timely looking into their strengths and areas of improvement. Traditional review methods can demotivate employees, let the common errors go unnoticed and can have employees look elsewhere for recognition.
4. Avoid Unconscious Bias :
The vast majority of human decisions are based on unconscious bias, intuition and beliefs, rather than truth or logic. To increase your employee’s perception that your evaluation is fair and accurate, here’s how you can avoid unconscious bias:
5. Performance Enablement :
Evaluations should not solely focus on performance assessment but should talk about enablement too. Helping the employee perform better every time is one of the goals, right? In light of ‘The Great Resignation’ movement over the past year, performance enablement is the answer. Setting the context straight by providing them with guidance and direction to achieve organisational goals helps them stay engaged.
Coaching, timely feedback, and other support can enable them to perform. Finally, effort should be made to continuously develop worker skills, careers, and experiences. With these efforts, managers can develop their employees over a long time and retain their workforce.
To simplify, performance reviews are daunting and time-consuming. However, they should be taken as a priceless opportunity to grow and interact with employees and address and resolve performance challenges. However, most employees are scared of it and consider it unfair. So, how to develop a culture of performance that is fair and decides on merit?
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