“Performance” and “review” are two words that will send a shiver down any employer’s spine. For many employers, the whole process is too labor-intensive and provides little value. As a result, they often push this task to the backburner. They know they have to do it but, hey, it can wait. Revenue-generating work items are more important, right? Already overloaded with work, employers feel ill-equipped for this task.
For what its worth, employees dread reviews as much as employers do. Reviews feel like a cross-examination, where employees defend their mistakes and try to remember what they said months ago, like a defendant on the witness stand. There’s research to back this all up: More than 24 percent of millennial workers fear the review process, compared to 16 percent of Gen X and 14 percent of baby boomers.
Does it really have to be this way?
Managers need to rethink the way they conduct performance reviews so they can better connect with their employees and meet their organizational goals. But they need help, guidance, and expertise on this topic. Here are five things employers really need to know about workplace evaluations (that no one told them).
#1. Employers Need to Solicit Feedback Properly
Seventy-five percent of employees want feedback from managers — but they rarely get it during performance reviews. Employers will often read out a list of “wrongdoings” from the previous year and hope employees will take all of this on board.
Employee evaluations need to be a two-way conversation, not a monologue, where workers can exchange ideas with managers and receive the feedback they crave. This feedback needs to be regular. A significant number of workers say they prefer quarterly feedback reviews, rather than annual ones.
All too often, managers use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to the performance review, where everything is rehearsed. It goes something like this: An employee walks into the manager’s office, sits down, listens to all the things she’s done wrong, and walks out. There’s no communication. No rapport. No real feedback. Sure, scripts/templates are great (more on that later), but employers should customize reviews based on the individual employee. The employee evaluation should also be a self-performance review.
“Managers can improve their performance appraisals and make them into an effective communication, goal setting, and development tool for employees while operating within the requirements of their system of performance evaluations,” says The Balance Careers.
#2. Employers Really Need to Use an Employee Review Template
Thirty-one percent of managers think performance appraisals are way too time-consuming. Often, managers will drone on and on for 30 minutes, maybe an hour, which provides employees with no real value at all.
This is mainly down to a lack of preparation. Managers might have 5, 10, even 20 employee evaluations in one day, and that’s a lot of things to remember, so they start waffling. The employee review turns into a pointless exercise. This is far more common than senior managers think. Eight percent of employees say they have received no feedback whatsoever during a recent performance review.
What’s the solution?
Performance evaluation templates provide management personnel with a single document that includes various performance indicators and a simple employee scoring system. Managers can use the topic starters on the document to initiate a conversation with employees, then score workers based on their answers.
The best templates have space for managers to leave employee evaluation comments, employee evaluation key words, plus plenty of opportunities to ask employees for their feedback, such as their personal development goals. These templates streamline much of the performance review process and just make life much simpler. There’s no need to ask employees hundreds of questions. And no waffle.
Using the same template for all employees will create consistency for employers who want to measure their performance review processes. However, the best templates will allow managers to customize their evaluations, with plenty of scope for employee feedback.
Here are some annual performance review sample questions:
- Did you build a logical approach to address problems and/or manage the situation at hand?
- Were you effective in interpersonal interactions?
- Did you think and operate creatively?
Looking for employee evaluation templates that will facilitate the performance review process? America’s Back Office has a wide range of HR documents that will improve communication, boost employee engagement, and reduce administrative workloads. It’s just one of the services of this professional employment organization (PEO).
#3. Use Data/Software for Better Performance Review Insights
The latest software will provide managers with unparalleled intelligence into performance review tasks and automate many of the processes associated with evaluations, such as sending out reminder emails to employees ahead of meetings.
Managers can even upload data from performance review templates and use these to gain valuable insights into their employee evaluation processes.
Software can provide managers answers to the following questions:
- Does an employee complete her duties, as per her contract?
- Does an employee take action to improve her behavior after an evaluation?
- Does an employee gain value from her evaluation?
- Does an employee require more training?
Employers shouldn’t become overly reliant on software, though. Employee performance evaluation programs provide managers with performance metrics that offer a wealth of information, but numbers alone can’t truly measure employee performance. A comprehensive overview of performance comes with personal insights from managers, who can provide employees with real feedback.
“Despite the myth that objectivity requires metrics, people generally want to know their supervisor’s opinion of their performance,” says the Harvard Business Review. “They want honest answers to their most important questions: How am I doing? Are you pleased with my work? Do I have a bright future here? Numbers alone can’t answer those questions.”
#4. Employers Shouldn’t Just Focus on the Negative
One of employees’ biggest pet peeves is managers who just focus on the negative — tasks they didn’t complete on time, deadlines they missed, those times they were late to work, etc. Focusing just on the negative doesn’t provide employees with much value at all. In fact, it can result in unmotivated, unhappy workers, and this can have a detrimental impact on workplace productivity.
It’s also important to point out the problem of employer bias here, as this is something that often influences performance reviews. If an employer dislikes an employee for personal reasons, this will sometimes spill over into the performance review, where the employee will receive unfair treatment.
However, an employer’s frame of mind can also influence performance reviews:
“When the manager or supervisor is in a bad mood, he or she is a much more conscientious performance rater and more attuned to employee mistakes and problems. When in a good mood, the manager is more likely to overlook poor employee performance,” says Regent Global Business Review. “Given that the manager’s frame of mind is often beyond the employee’s control, it adds another frustrating uncertainty to the appraisal process.”
Instead of focusing on the negative, employers should help employees set realistic performance goals for the future — goals that align with the organization’s mission and values. Goal-setting gives members of staff something to work toward and helps an organization move forward.
#5. Using Performance Review Examples
Performance reviews can be extremely abstract, relying on often intangible concepts like efficiency, relevancy, and cost-effectiveness to measure one’s performance. Instead, managers should use examples to demonstrate where an employee did good (or bad) and encourage workers to use examples of their own. This not only makes it easy to measure performance, but it can improve rapport during the performance meeting.
For example, an employee fails to meet her timekeeping targets, but the employer doesn’t explain the specifics. In this example, the employer should tell the employee the number of times she was late to work during her review period, as well as the consequences of these actions if she continues this behavior.
Using a performance evaluation template to trigger conversations about performance objectives combined with real-world examples will result in more effective performance reviews for both employer and employee.
“For performance, provide objective, measurable performance documentation if at all possible,” says The Balance Careers. “For behavioral feedback, provide 2-3 specific examples for each competency.”
Employers need to know the five things above before they plan their future performance reviews. The ability to solicit feedback properly, using templates, utilizing software and data insights, not focusing on the negative, and providing examples will optimize their performance review strategies and result in more engaged employees.
To learn more about how the HR experts at America’s Back Office can help your organization, schedule a consultation by contacting us today!
