Documentation related to performance reviews takes managers 200 hours annually, per Gartner research. Despite this commitment, 95% of workers detest performance reviews, and almost the same percentage believe they paint an unfair picture.

In some organisations, most managers recognize that giving feedback is an important part of the manager's role, but they did not do it.

What is an employee performance review?

An evaluation of an employee's work habits, output, attitude, and impact on other employees is called an employee performance review. Every performance review centers on an employee's activities over a given time frame. You can conduct these reviews quarterly, monthly, biannually, or annually, depending on the preferences of the company. The reviews could take place according to each employee's hire date or all at once for all employees.

In the twenty-first century, how should performance reviews be structured? It all comes down to having intelligent, fruitful discussions with a stronger emphasis on finding solutions. Employees will be informed of their progress through routine check-ins, which will help to prevent any major surprises at the annual review.

Regarding the more difficult-to-quantify soft skills, the well-known BARS tool (Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale), which uses dialogue to define acceptable, good, and excellent behaviors in a work environment.

Framing of Reviews

Starting from a position of positive intent and being open and receptive is the way to go. Then, when you go into the questioning, frame these in a helpful way such as, ‘Can you point to an occasion when you had a particularly stressful project? How did you cope with that?

By revealing a person's potential reactions in various scenarios, role-playing aids in the investigation of behavioral competency.

When managers realize they can succeed and it won't be a disaster, they may find these talks to be very inspirational or illuminating.

Overloaded Conversations

Performance reviews tend to go wrong when too much is loaded into one conversation.

Separating difficult conversations is more effective, and these should be approached with supporting evidence.

“If someone is always late, for example, communicate it as a problem for you, their manager. ‘Help me fix my problem.’ It shifts the focus to the problem rather than the employee. When we have that conversation, the majority of the time we re-engage that person or they make an active choice to leave.”

In this blog, let's practice 5 practical ways for a better performance review.

5 Tips to Conduct Effective Performance Review

1. Goals

Decide on specific goals and come to an agreement. Verify that the measurements are accurate.

2. Ask

Use an "ask, not tell" strategy. The more you talk, the less you will actually learn.

3. Catch-ups

Maintain regular, ongoing informal and formal catch-ups. Rescheduling suggests that you don't value the meeting, so avoid doing so.

4. Skills

Give managers training in personal skills. Provide examples to support your observations about deficiencies in soft skills.

5. Focus

Pay attention to development and the future not from failure.