It’s that time of year for many companies for annual performance reviews. A groan can be heard from managers across businesses, as the bureaucratic exercise of box ticking begins. Many complain that it is time consuming and a pointless exercise. Take a moment, if this rings true with you and your managers, then your company performance reviews really do need a review.
Part of a managers job is to coach and cultivate top performers. When you make finding the right talent and then coaching this talent your priority, the benefits to your business are huge. By doing this everything else will fall in to place much more easily, from achieving revenue targets to completing projects.
Here are five tips for achieving the most out of your people and their performance management reviews.
1. Preparation is key
As a leader and manager it is essential that you go in to the review prepared with what your key messages are. Consider the location for the review, for example does it offer privacy and a setting that staff will feel comfortable to discuss their performance in. Put your employee at ease by opening with an agenda of what to expect during the review. Remember to encourage an open discussion between both parties.
2. Provide constant feedback
Many large organisations have already introduced on-going feedback facilities and informal check-in meetings throughout the year, rather than waiting for an annual performance review. People want greater accessibility to leadership and feel that an annual review isn’t enough, it leaves them out of touch with their manager and vice versa, and problems can go unresolved for long periods of time without regular contact and feedback.
Many employees want a mentor, not just a boss, with a proactive approach to feedback to stay on top of their performance and to ensure they are meeting their goals and objectives. If performance is only discussed annually or quarterly, it is difficult for both a manager and an employee to always know what is going on and if they are performing well.
3. Align your employee’s expectations with your company’s goals
You need to clearly define the overarching goals of your company with your people, this is key to engaging with them and will clarify what expectations you have of them. They need to know how they will be evaluated and how they can achieve their goals and objectives on a day-to-day basis in order to achieve success.
4. The performance management review should be directly linked to company core values
Are your core values clear and well defined for all your employees? If not you need to make sure they are, or you will struggle to hire the right people, and to foster a culture in which people demonstrate the behaviours that support the company values. When you are looking at your individual employees, evaluate their fit as well as their skills, and think about how they fit in with the company. Always keep your company’s core values in mind, and recognise those employees who embody them. Other team members will soon pick up on this, even subconsciously.
5. Deal with issues
Don’t shy away from dealing with issues, instead help your employee to get back on track. Whilst reviews are a great time to recognise great work, it is also an opportunity to reinforce expectations and make plans for anyone who hasn’t been meeting them or performing well.
If you want to know if you’re doing a good job as a leader when it comes to your performance management reviews, then watch for the reactions of your people in the review. They shouldn’t feel unprepared or terrified walking in to it, because nothing that you discuss should be a surprise to them. Throughout the year they should be receiving feedback and therefore, an annual performance management review, should be merely one more discussion in the on-going dialog of how they are performing.