Feedback is the essence of growth in business. If your employees don’t get their performance reviews, they won’t get to improve, celebrate their good work, or have any insight into their performance whatsoever. Performance reviews should be a regular practice in every office, but because they’re often not executed correctly, there is a sort of stigma around them. More often than note performance reviews are used to list criticism and further demotivate employees. Because this is not the real intention of many companies, it’s important to shed a light on some other fascinating performance review tactics that work.
Make sure the environment’s comfortable
This is a stressful time for any employee, as no one wants to be told they’re doing a bad job. If the employee has made a mistake or two the previous month, the stress is bound to increase. This means that you’ll be dealing with a very anxious and worried individual. People don’t tend to take any sort of news well in this state of mind. Some may even get angry at themselves or at you for their poor results. The blame game helps no one though, and just puts you both in an awkward situation.
To help ease the tension, you can try to make the environment as comfortable as possible. Make sure your office has comfy chairs, play some light music in the background, and offer them something warm to drink. These simple gestures will go a long way in making the person more relaxed and thus more accepting of the news, whatever they might be. This is also a great way to show your employees that you’re their friend, not their enemy.
Have a few key points
It’s easy to get carried away with your review and get lost in your train of thought. This is why it’s always a good idea to have some key points for when you talk to the employee. This way, you’ll have a coherent plan to stick to and won’t risk getting lost in conversation. What this also means is that you won’t go on and on about something, without covering something else important. Key points also make sure you stay relevant and on track.
Another good idea to implement this strategy is that you’ll be sure you didn’t forget anything. Each point can be talked about for an equal amount of time, or you can easily set aside the time you want to cover something that you think is more important. Talking in key points also makes you look more professional and organized, thus strengthening your reputation.
Lead and end on a positive note
The way you organize your thoughts can also have quite an effect on your employee. If you start with the negative, you may demotivate your worker and make them feel bad before you’ve even begun the evaluation. The first point will set the tone for the whole review, so it’s best to make it positive. Likewise, you want the review to end on a positive tone.
The middle should be reserved for the topics for improvement and possible mistakes. If they’re tackled in the end, you will probably make the employee feel down and forget about all the positive things you’ve said before. The last point is always the one that sticks the hardest, so make sure it’s a good one.
Have a solution in mind
It’s easy to evaluate an employee, but once they receive their performance review, it may leave them with the question “what now?” Your employees will know what they’re doing well and what they’re not, but they won’t know how to fix it. Feeling lost and confused can lead them down the wrong path a further hurt their performance. This all leads to loss of motivation and even poorer results during the next evaluation.
To help your employees understand how they can improve, a good tactic to have in mind is to have a solution in mind. This means that you’ll already have a plan thought up before you hand out the reviews. The most common problem employers face is the lack of skills they employees have. In these cases, it’s enough to turn to MAUS Business Systemsand similar companies as they offer quality training programs. Thus, your workers can refine their skills and work much better and more efficiently than they used to.
Conduct frequent reviews
A performance review isn’t something that should be conducted every few years or just once a year. This method can prove to be more trouble than it should be. After all, you won’t achieve any real results by evaluating your employees only once or twice a year. For performance reviews to be effective, they’ll need to be frequent. Once every six months should be enough to cover the person’s progress and give them constructive criticism for the month to come.
Conducting frequent reviews allows you to handle one issue at a time. This gives you a more thorough and personal approach that your employees will surely cherish. What’s more, it’s much easier to summarize someone’s performance from the previous months than from the previous year. It also means that your employees will get to focus on just one or two things at a time, increasing chances for success and improvement.
Conclusion
How you evaluate your employees will greatly affect how they work. If you’re a fair boss which acknowledges success as well as failure, you’re going to have more positive results. The point of performance reviews is to help your employees understand what they’re doing right and where they can stand to improve. With a clear picture of their performance in mind, they’ll have more motivation to work and succeed.
Lucas is a business consultant with a passion for writing. Doing his research, exploring and writing are his favorite things to do. Besides that, he loves playing his guitar, hiking and traveling.
