How to deliver an Effective Performance Review
Performance
review is an excellent opportunity for employees to know their strengths and
weakness, but it is the responsibility of manager to effectively deliver the
review in such a way it reinforces the star performers and redirects the poor
performers. During the appraisal, if the
manager tell positive things about the employees and sugarcoat the negative
qualities this would lead to mixed message in the mind of the employee and lead
to disappointment. The article helps us to know the various strategies that aid
the appraiser to deliver productive and stress-free performance appraisal.
Many
experts state that, face-to- face performance review is the toughest one for
employees and for the managers because it requires a person to stand in judgment
of other. James Baron, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management at Yale
School of Management articulated that, performance management is a process and
it involves significant amount of real-time for rendering feedback to the known
employees.
Setting
up clear expectations at the beginning of the year or at the commencement of a
project with your employees and learning their person’s goals and explaining
your expectations is paramount importance because it helps the employees to
know their accountability. James Baron also stated that, understanding the
ambitions of the direct reports would help managers to know their career
ambitions which would enlarge their professional experiences. Before the
face-to-face review ask the employee to jot down few best things he/she has
done in the company. The appraiser should have detailed note about employee
such as the targets achieved by him/her, missed deadlines, clients’ feedback
and so on. When the appraiser discusses
the performance review in personal with the employee, he/she sometimes tend to
churn out emotions (glad, sad, mad or scared) , so to avoid such emotional outburst,
give a copy of the appraisal to the employee a couple of hours before the
interaction so that, they can have their own time to think about it.
Often
during face-to-face review managers tend to provide sandwich feedback, this
would sometimes demoralize the star performers and encourage marginal or low
performers. So the appraiser should take a clear stand for both star performers
and marginal performers, so that they would know exactly where they are playing
right and where they are not, this helps them to excel in their career and
motivates them to do better.
After discussing the strengths and weaknesses
with the performers, ask them how they feel and listen to their concerns. Use a “stop, start and continue” model- what
the employee doing now which is not working, what they are best at and what
kind-off actions they should do in future. Give specific advice and not general
advices. Core issues associated with
performance review is the money and rank. The appraiser should be clear with
the amount that is to be allotted and ranking is the most challenging part of
the system. The appraiser is dealing with highly selective group of people, so
he/she should be clear with the ranking, under-ranking of a good performer
would let the person down and ranking everyone in the average is also not a
good sign. Ranking and conveying the message is the greatest leadership
challenge.
So
finally summarize the core message with two or three strengths to be carried
and important areas of development. These are the principles would help the
managers to deliver an effective and stress-free performance review.
Reference:
Author : Subburam N.N
College : Amrita School of Business, Bangalore
Email id : subburamnn@gmail.com
Email id : subburamnn@gmail.com
