Simple Performance Appraisal Methods That Get Results
Traditionally, an employee performance appraisal would have been an annual event. Often, they have fallen under the category of a dreaded event too!
While this format may have worked for organisations in the past, the fast-paced nature of business has changed drastically, right along with the needs and preferences of a new generation of workers. While formal appraisals can still occur annually, managers should have regular catch-ups and check-ins occur with their staff in between. Doing so ensures your team feel valued and that two-way feedback is timely and useful.
Hooray! It’s time to transform those awkward, often unwelcome yearly appraisals into valuable development opportunities by reframing your approach. Let’s look into how you can do that.
How often would you conduct a performance appraisal?
Here are 5 simple performance appraisal methods that will get results:
Inspire and engage your employees
Taking the time to catch up with your staff to give and receive feedback shows them that they are valued. It also shows that you (and the organisation) care about their development and experience in the workplace.
Shifting from yearly reviews to quarterly goal setting or even monthly check-ins helps break down goals and projects into bite-sized pieces. This assists your employees to stay on track by focusing on smaller time frames.
Not only can you monitor how tasks are progressing, but you can provide accountability with shorter deadlines. You can also catch any issues before they amplify and give your team credit for a job well done.
Allow for course-correction
Sticking to annual appraisals alone doesn't make sense for an active, engaged workforce.
In fact, you are actually robbing yourself of a year’s worth of potential coaching, mentoring, and problem-solving. While hindsight provides an overview of someone's performance, it's reactive, not proactive. Instead, you should be reviewing performance and providing guidance in real-time.
This also helps you to become a better leader as you get opportunities throughout the year to receive feedback from your team. You can then use that feedback to improve processes and your own performance.
Avoid recency-bias
Things move quickly in business. Even if you are diligent in noting down significant events throughout the year, they often feel irrelevant by the time an annual review rolls around.
Naturally, you will end up focusing the appraisal on what's happened in the last few months and discounting the other 75 percent of the year. Often, it means you are missing meaningful opportunities to offer praise or coaching.
By addressing things as they crop up, you create great learning opportunities for both you and the team. It also gives you the ongoing chance to build a strong team culture.
Schedule quick check-ins
Appraisals neither have to be lengthy nor formal. There is no written rule that they must be conducted as an hour-long meeting in the boardroom.
Even a ten-minute catch up gives managers the opportunity to provide direction, open communication, and receive valuable feedback from employees. You can balance these debriefs with slightly longer monthly chats, and back them up with more in-depth quarterly or six-monthly appraisals.
Tailor your approach
There's no one-size-fits-all approach for performance appraisals. The frequency depends on the size of your business, the needs of your team, and the resources available. Chat with your employees to help inform your decision.
Find out what support they prefer to assist them in reaching their goals and developing their skills. Then, turn that into a workable schedule that suits everyone’s needs.
Do I still need to conduct performance appraisals?
While the stiff, formal appraisals of decades past may be obsolete, the basic concept is still valuable. Close collaboration and two-way feedback helps to align individual performance with the objectives of the organisation, aids in employee growth, and ensures the channels of communication are open.
Reviews are a great way to acknowledge great work and set expectations for future performance. They can also make your job easier by guiding succession planning, delegation opportunities, pay and salary increases, promotions, or potential performance and discipline issues.
Find a frequency and style that fits with your organisation’s culture, and relish the opportunity to collaborate and catch up with your team.
Performance appraisals are just one of the things you need to master as a manager. And we can help you master them (and many more skills) in the Manager Academy.
Designed by a team of business experts, the Manager Academy helps people become more effective managers. Learn everything from hiring, firing and staff retention, through to employment law, leadership styles and delegation.
