Annual performance reviews are dreaded by most employees and supervisors. For many it’s an awkward, uncomfortable conversation.
I actually love doing performance reviews with my staff. I look forward to them. I think it has a lot to do with some of the unconventional ways we do them.
So, here are 10 things I do regarding performance reviews, that I think contribute to making them really good.
- Hire well. Performance reviews are a lot more enjoyable if you have mostly positive things to discuss. That starts with hiring people who do great work. More than that, though, I make a point of hiring people who want to learn and get better at their jobs, people like that appreciate constructive criticism. I also make a point of hiring people I genuinely like and enjoy hanging out with. It makes work and performance reviews a lot more enjoyable.
- Keep a performance log for every staff person. It’s really important to me to be able to speak about specific instances – good or bad – when doing performance reviews rather than just generalities. I have a terrible memory, though, so I keep a log for every member of my staff.
- Discuss performance issues regularly. I don’t ever want anything I say in a performance review to be a surprise. I make a point of complimenting our staff regularly when they do something well. I also address negative performance issues as soon as I notice them rather than waiting to bring them up at performance reviews.
- Ask staff to do a self-evaluation. I have all our staff complete self-evaluation forms. They not only rate their performance in key areas, but also provide comments and examples explaining their ratings. This helps me understand how they feel about their performance before we sit down to discuss it.
- Do reviews over a meal. I take each of my staff out for lunch or dinner when we do their performance review. Everybody likes to eat. People appreciate it when you treat them to a meal. Eating also helps break any tension and makes the conversation happen more naturally.
- Invite a 3rd person to join you. When I do performance review with one of our senior staff, I invite my partner (and brother) Mark to join us. It makes the review more conversational minimizes the perception that it’s me vs them. It also helps prevent any misunderstandings because there’s 3rd person to hear and clarify things. When one of my senior staff does a performance review for a person they’re supervising, I participate. I’m mostly there just to listen, and it also shows that what they do matters to me.
- Give praise. A lot of performance reviews tend to focus on what’s wrong. I view performance reviews as a big opportunity to encourage a person, tell them what they’re doing well, and challenge them to continue to excel in their strengths.
- Provide opportunities to improve. A lot of the anxiety of performance reviews comes from having to discuss negative performance issues. But I look at it this way: I want my staff to be the best they can possibly be and I assume they want to be the best they possibly can at their job. After telling the person what they’re doing well, I follow that by telling them if they want to take their work to the next level, here are the areas I think they can get better.
- Have them evaluate your leadership. In the self-evaluation form and the performance review, I ask our staff to rate me on my leadership, how clearly I’ve communicated the expectations for their role, the amount of oversight I give, and the extent to which they have the resources to do their job well. If I want to empower my staff to do their best, that starts with giving them the best leadership I possibly can.
- Give the people they supervise input on their review. I ask all the people a staff person supervises to fill out a short evaluation form asking them to review their supervisor on the same things I ask people to review me on – leadership, clear expectations, oversight, resources. I don’t share these reviews with the person I’m evaluating, but they help shape my evaluation.
If you’re interested, here’s the self-evaluation form we use.
Which of these resonates with you? Any other suggestions to make employee performance reviews awesome?
Set the foundation early on by discussing expectations in depth. This starts during the interview process. It is not easy to review or evaluate if one does not know what is expected.
Yeah, clear expectations are huge.