When you’re great at what you do it’s easy to fall into the humdrum of working on everyday tasks week in and week out without much variation. You do your job well. You’re efficient. You meet all required standards.
But maintaining routines without periodic evaluation can cause you to carry out tasks using stale methods. Since all skills can be improved upon, today’s post will cover some vital tips needed to conduct a performance review.
1. Take a Fresh Approach
If you’ve been conducting performance reviews in the same way without notable change or benefit, it might be time to reevaluate your approach.
Rating an employee’s work performance on a scale from 1 to 10 might not provide either of you with insight into that individual’s level of productivity, or their strengths or weaknesses.
Consider what makes for quality performance specifically within your company as a whole, and then within each department. How might those expectations be accurately communicated, monitored, objectively recorded, and then assessed?
2. Increase Performance Review Frequency
Traditionally, performance reviews are conducted annually.
Performance evaluations assess an employees’ level of performance in comparison to:
- The company expectations
- Areas that need improvement
- How improvements are carried out with training and education
This makes it only fair to carry out reviews more often. By increasing performance review frequency, you can mentor employees in order to help them develop their skills over time instead of unloading demands on them once a year without much direction thereafter.
3. Quality over Quantity
Another typical component of performance reviews has been an emphasis on quantitative evaluations. But companies have been taking a different approach. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, quantitative evaluations can deflate company morale and cause valuable employees to unnecessarily resign from their positions.
You recruited each employee for the uniqueness they could contribute to the company. So why compare one employee’s performance to another employee?
The best way to objectively evaluate an employee’s performance is by qualitatively assessing the manner in which they’ve contributed to the company in comparison to their individual potential.
4. Maintain An Open Dialogue
Performance evaluations shouldn’t be a one-way street. When employees are evaluated in a non-threatening environment, they can offer valuable feedback to the organization without fear of being penalized.
Have you set expectations without creating an environment to produce such work? Have you created standards without providing employees with the tools to effectively carry out such tasks?
By listening to employee feedback with calm and intention, you’ll learn ways in which you can support your employees in maintaining company standards – which leads to individual and corporate growth.
How Have You Been Performing?
Are your employees fairly evaluated at a frequency that benefits their growth while also promoting company progress? If not, how can you alter your approach to performance reviews in order to effectively evaluate employee performance without losing gems in the process?
We’ve outlined some excellent ways to enhance your performance review, so be sure to tell us in the comments your favorite tip.