Performance Review - DOs and DONTs

Posted by Judy Fort on July 30, 2015

Employee Performance Management  

Winning Bid

Performance Review - DOs and DONTs


dont do why
Use spreadsheets and/or email. Use an automated solution. An automated solution provides for tracking, consistency, and accessibility.
Exclude employees from the review process. Communicate value, process, and responsibilities. Regularly communicating with employees encourages alignment, engagement, and motivation.
Criticize employees in public. Conduct reviews regularly and privately. Communications with employees about their performance should be between you and the employee.
Set unclear goals. Use SMART goals. Make sure the goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Set goals that make sense to your employee.
Set an employee’s goals without explaining how those tie to the overall organizational goals. Focus everyone on how they can contribute to the organizational goals. Helping employees understand what their contribution means to the organization helps with alignment, engagement, motivation & productivity, and organizational success.
Have an overwhelming number of goals and competencies on the appraisal. Focus on goals and competencies specific to that employee. This helps make sure those goals are more realistic and achievable for that employee.
Have so many scale values that employees and managers cannot differentiate their meaning. Set a limited number of meaningful scale values. This makes you scales, and the values on the scale, easier to understand and provides more consistency.
Use inappropriate language. Use a language filter. This protects everyone from writing things they should and helps ensure constructive criticism.
Play favorites. Make the process fair. A fair process better motivates and engages.
Score without observed behaviors. Have defined benchmarks for scores and use notes taken throughout the year to see where an employee fits. Defined benchmarks help ensure all employees are being scored by the same standards.
Setup consequences and rewards but not apply them evenly. Give rewards and follow through on consequences. Consistently applying rewards and consequences promotes accountability and credibility.
Make performance a one-time event. Encourage ongoing feedback, development, and note taking. Having an ongoing process maintains engagement, promotes motivation, and ensures a more productive process.
Make performance end with the score. Use performance data to establish compensation, training, and succession plans. Performance scores can highlight areas of improvement and also help with compensation planning.

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