How to Conduct Effective Performance Appraisals

Staff performance appraisals, and the meetings that go with them, are often challenging for both the employer and employee. In this post, we will be talking about how to streamline the process and make it easier on everyone involved. After all, feedback is an important part of any business and, if done right, can help both your business and your employees grow exponentially.

Constant Communication

Communication, feedback and evaluation, are not just for performance reviews. Communication is key, and it is important to make sure that you are talking to your employees about their performance on a regular basis. It is important to make sure that your employees know where they are performing well and where they need to improve. If this comes as a surprise during a big, performance review meeting, then you are likely to meet resistance and confusion.

Communicate with your staff, and let them know your expectations beforehand. It will save everyone in the long-run and you are more likely to have satisfied employees at the end of it.

Set Clear Goals

During the performance appraisal, it is important to talk about the future, as well as the past. Evaluating and discussing past performance is always important, but another critical aspect which is often overlooked, is setting goals with your employee. Make sure they know exactly what you expect for the next quarter, or year. This gives you basis for the next meeting and your employee knows what to expect, and where to focus their efforts. This is better for your staff and for your business!

Clear Evaluation Procedures

Don’t make your evaluation procedures a surprise. Your employee needs to know how you will evaluate their performance. This is where it becomes handy to have a formalised template, or form, to work from. It allows everyone in the company to stay consistent in evaluations. It is also helpful to keep record of your employee’s duties, and contract, allowing for clear and streamlined evaluation.

Good Record Keeping

It is your job to keep record of everything in your business- or to hire someone else to do this. Make sure that you keep record of both the positive and negative aspects of an employee’s performance. This way, you don’t have to rely on your memory, where recent events might influence how well you remember things. This allows for effective feedback and realistic expectations.

360-Degree Feedback

360-Degree Feedback refers to the process of gaining feedback from colleagues of the employee, your own records and experiences, as well as their superiors and reporting staff. This gives you a broad and realistic view of the employee. Use a template or form to make this process fair, unbiased and easy to review later.

Give Advance Notice

Using forms/ templates to give feedback is a very useful tool for your business. Using a formalised template allows you to present your employee with feedback, before your performance review meeting. This allows your employee to process criticism, and consider the feedback, before the meeting. This allows the meeting to go much smoother, and for the discussion to be positive, helpful and productive.

Prepare

Get all of your records and notes in order before the meeting with your employee. Make sure that you know what you want to discuss with them, and have clear records and proof of anything you want to bring up. This includes hiring details, contract, outlined duties and feedback. If you are prepared, you and your employee will both gain much more from the meeting.

Focus on the Positive and Don’t Lecture

Criticism is important, and you need to give clear and concise feedback to your employees. Let them know where they are underperforming and the seriousness of the situation. However, make sure that you spend more time focusing on the positive, especially for the employees who are performing well. This increases motivation and the desire to work harder for the business. Be open to discussion and ensure that the meeting is a conversation, not just a lecture from your end. If you can do this, you will benefit much more from your meetings.

Hopefully you found our tips helpful, and easy to integrate into your own business model. To get you started, we are offering a FREE performance appraisal for you to download and implement today.

If you’re looking for high quality templates, policies, forms and staff management systems, don’t forget to take a look at our website HR Australia for the best Australian HR practices, templates and HR tools recommended by Australian Business Lawyers and HR advisors.