The DOs and DON'Ts of Performance Reviews

Jan 07, 2020

By BJ Gallagher

Is there anyone in the workplace who has not undergone the torture of a operation review done badly? I'm sure nosotros take all had to endure the torment of a well-intentioned merely badly-executed performance appraisal—in which nosotros felt as if nosotros were the ones being executed! Blindfold, anyone? Got any terminal words before the exact assault begins? I don't even smoke simply I'k tempted to ask for a final cigarette!

Most operation review systems in most organizations are so poorly designed and conducted that they really practise more harm than good. I oft tell my clients that they would be better off doing nothing rather than doing what they're currently doing! I'm non kidding.

Here are x common mistakes managers make, and tips for avoiding them. These are practical activeness steps you lot can take to design and implement a system that volition do what you lot want it to do—meliorate performance!

Mistake: The performance review is a i-way, elevation-downwardly procedure in which the boss serves as judge and jury of employees' behavior and achievements on the task.
Solution: Make it a 2-style process, at the very least. (If you really want an constructive review organisation, design a 360-degree arrangement that involves peer reviews also every bit a self-review.) The employee should take written a self-appraisal prior to the meeting with his or her boss—a written certificate comparable to what the boss is preparing. That way, both people in the meeting will be focused on the documentation of job functioning, instead of the boss focusing on the employee. Recall: We practise not evaluate people—nosotros evaluate their results.

Afterward a brief setting-the-tone introductory comment or 2 by the boss, the employee should be invited to go over his or her self-appraisal commencement. This helps eliminate defensiveness and gets the meeting off to a proficient offset by establishing that information technology is a dialogue, a two-mode conversation in which both parties can share observations, perspectives, and comments well-nigh job performance.

You'll find that your top performers volition usually charge per unit themselves lower than you do. That'due south considering they have high expectations for themselves—frequently higher than y'all have for them. You'll discover that the opposite is too true: Your poorest performers will often rate themselves higher than you rate them. Whatever the situation, talking about the gap betwixt your evaluation and theirs volition be fruitful in getting you lot both on the same page (both literally and figuratively) in terms of futurity expectations.

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Error: The review process tries to serve as a coaching tool for employee evolution, likewise every bit a bounty tool to decide salary increases.
Solution: Your performance reviews should be washed for either evolution OR for compensation—non both. If you're interested in coaching and evolution for improved results in the future, then unhook bounty from the procedure and focus only on the work itself. Conduct your performance review discussions as far abroad as y'all can from the time of year when bacon decisions are fabricated.

If you're doing reviews in order to make bacon decisions, that's fine—simply be clear that that's what y'all're doing. And so you can conduct your review conversations in the few weeks merely before raises are announced.

The problem with trying to combine both employee development and bounty decisions in the aforementioned session is that employees are only going to pay attention to the coin—all the rest volition go in one ear and out the other. Y'all will get no coaching benefits from such a conversation. Employees will appear to be paying attention to what y'all're saying about their performance, but they're really just waiting to hear the magic number. Coin talks—all else is lost.

Mistake: The person doing the appraisal has little or no solar day-to-day contact with the employee whose performance is being judged.
Solution: This one is a no-brainer. The person having review conversations with an employee should be the supervisor or manager who has the most contact with that employee and is in the best position to accurately appraise day-to-day results.

Error: Employees receive footling or no advance notice of their "Judgment Day."
Solution: Performance discussions ideally should be conducted on a regular basis, on a schedule well-known and well-publicized to everyone in the organization.

Fault: Managers are vague in their feedback to employees. Or they assign arbitrary numerical "grades" with little or no substantiation.
Solution: Performance feedback needs to be well documented in gild to be constructive. Here'south where it helps to have a skilful newspaper trail—documentation of both the good results and the non-so-good results.

Don't rely on your memory in outlining how well the employee achieved his or her goals and met your expectations. (The human being memory is a mismatch detector and information technology volition e'er do a good job of remembering the bad stuff, while forgetting the good stuff.) Keep a file on each person who reports to yous, and make regular notes to yourself on beliefs and results as you lot observe them—the good, the bad, and yep, fifty-fifty the ugly. Encourage your employees to go along files for themselves, so that they, likewise, take documentation when they are writing their cocky-appraisals. Mutual documentation helps keep everyone's focus on the job, not on the person.

Mistake: The review process tries to evaluate traits, rather than behaviors and results.
Solution: This is one of the nearly common mistakes I run across on performance review forms—they endeavour to evaluate personal traits, such every bit leadership, motivation, conscientiousness, attitude and then on. The problem with traits is that they are internal and subjective— almost impossible to evaluate on a fair ground.

Instead of traits, keep your evaluation focused on two things: Behaviors and results. Behaviors are deportment that you can observe direct—she did the filing, he answered the telephone, she called on customers, he repaired the machines, and so on. Results are also observable: She achieved her sales quota, he reduced waste product by X%, she increased productivity past X amount, he completed his projects on time, and so on.

Mistake: The appraisal is a one time-a-twelvemonth event that everyone tries to get through as quickly as they can, because it's painful for bosses and employees alike.
Solution: The primary goal in evaluating performance is to improve it. Therefore, you want to design a meaningful organisation of coaching conversations that people welcome, find useful, and deem valuable. Employees need regular feedback on how they're doing—what they're doing well and what needs improvement. Once a year but doesn't cutting it. Design a simple, like shooting fish in a barrel to employ arrangement that encourages bosses and employees to engage in two-manner conversations throughout the twelvemonth—that'southward the only way you'll get any real mileage out of a performance review system.

Mistake: There is no investigation of causes that underlie employees' job functioning problems.
Solution: People don't perform poorly for no reason. There are ever causes—simply you'll never know what those causes are if you don't make the review process one of give and accept, support and coaching, with both parties focused on the same objective—doing the best job possible.

If an employee is performing poorly, ask questions. Don't presume you know the reason—or bound to conclusions that he's lazy, she's dumb, he's unmotivated, or she'southward incompetent. Use your operation review conversations every bit opportunities to notice out what are the possible reasons for an employee's failure to encounter standards and expectations. Hint: When an employee fails to perform fairly, the chief reason is oft the boss's failure to coach!

Error: There is no follow-up activity plan put in identify at the end of the functioning appraisement.
Solution: The final matter to discuss in a performance review chat is "What next?" What steps does the employee need to take to make sure that areas for improvement actually ameliorate? And what support does the employee demand from you to brand that happen? An action plan is the perfect element to conclude an effective performance review give-and-take. Go on it simple. Three or four next steps are just fine. Retrieve, this is the first of the next cycle in the coaching procedure. Continue it positive and applied.

Error: Whatever attempt at pay-for-performance is ineffective because the difference in pay for a peak performer and a mediocre performer is so small as to exist meaningless.
Solution: Well-intentioned attempts at pay-for-performance oft backlash because there is too niggling money available OR management is unwilling to brand the difficult choices well-nigh giving big increases to top performers and no increases to poor performers. So they try to offer a token of functioning-based pay, which often backfires. The difference between a 3% increase and a 4% increase is meaningless in any real fiscal terms—and all information technology does is create jealousy, hurt feelings, and resentment among employees. My advice: If you can't come upward with REAL money for REAL pay for performance, don't do it at all. You're better off giving everyone the same percentage increase.

Are you a new manager trying to learn the ropes on the job? The AMA provides many resource to help brand the transition easier, including this webinar for new managers. Or continue your leadership preparation with our seminar on Preparing to Pb.

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About the Writer(s)

BJ Gallagher is a Los Angeles workplace consultant, speaker, and author of YES Lives in the Land of NO: A Tale of Triumph Over Negativity (Berrett-Koehler; 2006). You tin can contact her at  or her web site, www.yeslivesinthelandofno.com.

Acquire more about managing performance reviews with the AMA webinar:
Hard Performance Reviews: How to Plow Painful Conversations into Positive Results