If you think performance reviews are a waste of time, you’re not alone.
They are time consuming, heavy on the paperwork and sometimes even downright awkward. For employees and managers alike, they add up to a human resources formality with little value.
But that need not be the case, says Sandra Reder, president of human resource consulting firm Vertical Bridge Corporate Consulting in Vancouver. If executed properly, performance reviews can serve as “a road map to get your business where it needs to go,” she says.
This is particularly true for small businesses, she says, which typically don’t have top-heavy leadership teams to rigorously manage staff. “Trying to develop consistency in how you run your business is contingent on the people who work with you,” she says. “And [performance reviews] are a way to set expectations.”
Here’s how to ensure that performance reviews achieve tangible results – for both employees and employer:
The first is to think of reviews as a two-way conversation. “You want to set that expectation before the review,” says Ms. Reder. “The employee needs to know that this is not me talking at you. This is an opportunity for us to discuss your role, both what’s working for you and what’s not working for you.”
Valerie Corbin, president of the human resources firm Full Circle Consulting in Toronto, suggests taking it a step further by involving employees in determining the structure of the review.
“You need to take into account the staff itself and the kind of business you have when you develop your review process,” she says. “Ask your employees how they want to be evaluated.
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“You should even ask them who they want to evaluate them,” she adds, referring to the growing popularity of the 360-degree review, in which various people review the same employee, such as a manager, a peer and a customer, and the upward appraisal, in which an employee reviews a manager.
A two-way conversation should include employee feedback on both their manager and the company itself, a process that can uncover valuable insights that might otherwise go unnoticed. “Employees are the eyes and ears of your organization,” says Ms. Corbin. “Who better than them to tell you what’s going on?”
Opening yourself and your business up to feedback, of course, means opening yourself up to criticism, says Ms. Reder. “You have to go in there knowing that you may not hear everything you want to hear as an employer,” she says.
But the upside of an open, meaningful conversation far outweighs any downside. “If you have a two-way conversation, it gives the employee the chance to say, ‘I’m not doing it the way you want but this is why and this is how you can help me do better.’”
In fact, says Ms. Reder, the primary purpose of a review should be to help employees perform better, not simply to highlight shortcomings and leave it at that. This starts with reviewing previous goals, including any shortcomings, but then moves on to constructive feedback on how to make improvements, including solutions such as more training or support.
But making false promises of training and support is a quick way to turn employees against the exercise. “Not following through is the kiss of death of the performance evaluation,” says Ms. Corbin.
“It undermines the entire process,” adds Ms. Reder.
