Performance Appraisal: Doing it Right

50% of all companies conduct annual performance appraisals, and those that do tend to provide consistent and reliable feedback to their employees. It can be rather awkward at times to tell someone on your staff that they aren't doing well or trying your best to provide constructive criticism without sounding condescending.

So, how do you make a better performance review for yourself and the employee?

Standardize the Performance Appraisal Process

If your employees understand that they are judged on the same set of criteria, it is less likely for them to take criticism personally. Instead, they know whether or not they have met expectations ahead of time and the performance appraisal can target more on coaching workers as opposed to dwelling on the negatives.

Standardizing the process means you will be able to look back to previous reviews to see if employees have made enough progress during their time with the company.

Let the Employees Take Ownership of the Review Process

Always start the review by allowing your employee to assess themselves. After that, you can go through your own appraisal to see where both sides agree on the employee's performance and where you may disagree.

Usually, your employees are self-aware people who understand their strengths and weaknesses. Through a review, employees can better understand what the company's expectations are, what they are doing right and what they need to improve on before the next review. 

However, bear in mind that you should never ask employees to evaluate each another.

Choose Someone Personable to Perform the Appraisal

It doesn't really matter who conducts the review as long as it is conducted in a fair and consistent manner. It is also better to have someone who has supervised the worker in question to perform the review.

If you have a manager or partner who is more personable and easier to talk to, they should be the one to do the review. This way you will be able to eliminate the awkwardness on the management side, which should make the employee under review feel better about opening up.

Allow Time for an Honest Conversation

While some employers want to judge their employees on the same standards, how they get each worker to meet those standards may be unique to each individual. For example, some employees thrive on following the rules and others desire flexibility and the ability to make their own decisions.

Try to spend some time by having an open and honest discussion during the review. You may find valuable feedback from employees and gain some insight on why some are doing so well while others are struggling.

Both you and your employees can then work together to create a plan to allow every employee to work to their strengths while still working within the company culture.

A performance review can be a great way to help develop employees and make them the best they can be. The best chance for employees to improve and meet their expectations is through consistent appraisal standards. As such, employees can look forward to these events as it represents a chance to get better as opposed to a lecture from management.

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This article is adapted from Malcolm Rowlings' post titled "How to Achieve More Effective Performance Appraisals".