Employee Performance Reviews

Employee performance reviews (or appraisals) have several purposes. For the employee, they often determine raises, promotions, and sometimes whether they get to keep their job. For the manager, a proper performance review will assist in developing the employee and improving employee and company performance.

According to the article, "How to Do an Employee Appraisal," the goal of an appraisal should be to "increase communication, establish clear expectations, reinforce good performance, improve unsatisfactory performance, and foster a spirit of cooperation and teamwork."

The use of an employee performance review will allow an organization to outline the specific standards that an employee is expected to accomplish. These standards should be measurable, understandable and achievable. The employee should have goals and objectives outlined with an established timeframe for completion. Depending on the role of the employee, the goals should address the quality of their work, the quantity (how much work the employee is expected to produce or services expected) and timeliness. Effective and timely feedback addressing the employee’s performance is an essential component of a successful program.

For a performance review to be effective, reviews should be held throughout the year, not just once a year. As a manager, you should have frequent, regular conversations with your employee, encouraging frequent feedback in the form of informal evaluations. There should be no surprises during the performance review for the employee. Remember - If the employee doesn’t receive feedback to know that the performance or behavior needs to be corrected, then to the employee, such performance or behavior is acceptable.

As a manager, you should continually monitor the employee’s performance throughout the year. Document all successes and failures (compliments and complaints) of the employee over the course of the appraisal period. Maintain a file containing pertinent data that you have gathered. This data will jog your memory when developing the review and assist you in avoiding some of the more common rater errors such as Recency Bias. This data allows you to ensure that specific examples can be provided to the employee during the appraisal and the employee receives a full “picture” of their performance over the appraisal period.

Remember to focus on the employee’s work performance, not on personal interactions you’ve had with the employee. Do not confuse poor performance with differing opinions. Taking your personality out of the performance review process allows you to assess your employee's skills fairly. Additionally, encourage the employee to participate in establishing the performance review process for their position. In allowing employees to participate in this manner the employee gains a better understanding of his/her role and how the role contributes to the success of the organization. Employees can participate in a number of ways, one of which is allowing them to write or define critical elements of their performance review.

Use the same measurement standards and criteria for all employees who have the same job descriptions. Do not evaluate an employee in areas that go beyond his/her job description.

Follow up on each performance review. Provide the employee with training and development opportunities. Assist the employee in strengthening his/her job-related skills. Assign special assignments to provide the employee with an opportunity to learn as well as to broaden his/her understanding of the organization.

If you have an ongoing performance review process, use the employee’s last review as a benchmark standard for the next review. If you are a new supervisor and you don’t have six months of observation time with the employee, ask the former supervisor for help in the assessment. If unavailable, ask for feedback from other supervisors who may have interacted with the employee or who may have observed the employee’s work.

You can't motivate employees! Motivation is a choice. But, the performance review process can assist with either motivating or de-motivating the employee.


My on-going thanks to Mrs. Emily McGowan for providing proof-reading services on this blog.