The dreaded performance review- many organizations are starting to question if they still need to do them. Many think that performance reviews have been replaced by continuous feedback. While they do have a point, continuous feedback is critical in any organization, but they should be accompanied by quarterly reviews. Performance reviews allow an organization to look at an employee body of work throughout the quarter and make those tough decisions based on that data. Many organizations don’t like performance reviews because they are not sure what points need to be covered in those uncomfortable conversations. Performance review tools alone don’t work, but the 1:1 conversation is important for both the manager and employee.
In this article, we cover what topics need to be discussed between manager and employee so that both parties can get the most value out of them.
1) Objectives
Before every quarter, it likely that employee set specific objectives that they want to achieve by the end of the quarter. During your performance reviews manager should reflect on those objectives with employee and analyze if their work is reflective of those goals. Discuss the progress made towards the goals and what steps they took to get there. This also provides a chance for employees to share if they felt supported by the manager to meet those objectives. Including objectives in performance reviews helps all employee become accountable to complete what they set out to.
2) Company mission
The mission and values of a company should be directly correlated to the type of work your employees are producing. One study found that employees that knew their company values were more engaged than those that didn’t. Reviewing the organization wide mission with employees is not a bad thing. Try to find examples of when the employee demonstrated company values in their work and bring that example to the performance review to recognize that you appreciated their efforts. Recognizing their good work will only engage them in their work and encourage them to continue representing the organization well. Recruiting and retaining talent that aligns with your organization should be a top priority.
3) Competencies
Similar to objectives, the competencies, or skills that organizations are expecting from their employees should be covered in performance reviews. By quarter 4, you have a large body of work to look through that the employee completed. What skills did they demonstrate through their work? What skills are they lacking? Bringing clear examples of each can help the employee better understand what they need to do to improve these attributes.
4) Bring documented feedback
Organizations should be documenting most of the feedback conversations that take place throughout the quarter. These conversations should be summarized and brought to the performance review. This allows the manager to analyze if the employee has taken the effective feedback they have received and acted on it to improve what they may have been struggling with. This also included past upward feedback that the employee has provided to the manager. Upward feedback provides the opportunity to discuss how the employee feels about the manager’s performance. Upward review needs to focus on behaviors, like regular performance reviews for an employee.
5) Career development
If you want to keep your employee engaged during a performance review, be sure to talk about career progression or development opportunities. A focus on training and development has been known to boost employee morale and productivity while decreasing staff turnover. Therefore, discussing what opportunities an employee has during this 1:1 performance review can encourage them to either keep their hard work up, or improve their performance if they are struggling. In today’s workforce, employee like to be challenged and they are consistently trying to develop, if your organization is not providing opportunities they may start looking elsewhere.
Conclusion
Remember that these topics need to be delivered in the right way. We encourage that in any performance review, and even when giving any kind of feedback that you bring examples of the employee behavior so that both employee and manager can get what they need out of the performance review.