Performance reviews are a part of every job, and with good reason. A professional performance review not only allows employers to determine how productive their employees are being — it lets employees get an understanding of how their employers view their work strategies. Furthermore, a performance review leaves employees with thoughts on how they can improve in their positions. Simply put, performance reviews are useful for everyone involved.
So why should a remote position miss out on them? Well, they shouldn’t.
Remote employees should be receiving performance reviews on a regular basis from remote employers.
If you’re a remote employer and wondering where you can even begin with this process, take some time to read through this article. Being hundreds of miles away from somebody shouldn’t stop you from being able to assess their productivity and professional attributes. Thanks, wifi.
1) Take some time to critically look at the work your employee is completing.
The first thing you should do when trying to assess your employee’s performance is to take a close look at the work they are doing. This means taking the time to really dig into the work and seeing what kinds of improvements could be made to it. At the same time, take note of what is working well in your employees’ assignments and projects so that you can point these things out during the performance review meeting.
The work that a remote employee outputs is the crux of his or her success as a part of a company, so the majority of your performance review should be focused in on the work that your employees complete.
2) Schedule a time when you can video call your employee to discuss performance.
Nobody likes to be taken off guard, so be sure to let your remote employee know that you are planning to conduct a performance review ahead of time. This way, the employee can be prepared to hear your feedback and have time to prep any questions he or she might have for you as an employer.
3) Conduct the performance interview.
During the actual performance interview, you’ll want to tell your employee everything that you think they could do better, as well as recognize all the things they already do wonderfully. Remember, it can be emotional to be on the receiving end of a critique, so you want to be aware of how you’re speaking and reminding the employee that he or she has many professional accomplishments that you recognize in addition to the areas that could use improvement.
The best way to make sure that you are coming across as concise and clear to your employee is to actually reference their actual work assignments, rather than speaking in the hypothetical. Grounding the conversation in the real will help keep everyone on the same page.
Finally, before ending a remote performance review, ask your remote employee if he or she has any questions for you. You should always end a performance review on a positive note, as this will be more encouraging to an employee and help to motivate them to work harder in their weaker areas.
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This article was originally published on Remote.com