The dreadful year end annual performance review is over and aren’t you glad it is done. You are probably thinking that it could have been done in a more strategic way so that it doesn’t feel like a yearly assault on employees and a tiresome tasks for managers.
And when you look at the Return on Investment (ROI), out of the time and effort that you spent to completing the process, both managers and employees would agree that it ended up with no value! And you are wondering what changes could make this dreadful and tiresome process into something valuable and welcomed by all.
Here are a few tips on how to make Performance appraisals REALLY work this year
Make it an ongoing process
Get rid of the yearly appraisal and make your Performance appraisal an ongoing thing throughout the year. Most employers have quarterly appraisals and if not then at least have a feedback mechanism that works in a structured manner consistently. This will be help make the process much more familiar to employees and managers.
Define & communicate goals
I even know of some companies where employees update their Key Result Areas (KRAs) in their system a couple of days prior to their appraisal date. And that is even only after a number of follow ups from HR. Does this mean that employees are not communicated about their KRAs until the end of the year? It might be, and here comes the HR intervention to solve this miscommunication between managers and employees, leading to bad morale & low productivity. So defining and communicating the KRAs at the beginning are very critical.
Train your people
Even if HR feels that we have a very user friendly Performance Management portal, it not necessary that all your managers and employees know how to use it. So train your people on how to effectively use the portal or system. And most importantly communicate with them how the evaluation and scoring works. This helps the mangers have an unbiased evaluation and help employees realize how their efforts are quantified.
Train managers to give effective feedback
Not every manager are good at giving feedback in a manner that helps bring out the best in your employees. Rather that it being just an year end ritual train your managers on how to provide a constructive feedback that makes the employees feel motivated to do better next time! Let your managers be a mentor who help your employees achieve their career goals.
Keep a log
Keep a note or file every month that lists your achievements and contributions throughout the year. This will help you to track your growth month by month and will be easy for you to recollect and discuss about it during the time of appraisal. Keep track of any help that you requested for or issues that were not addressed in time that might have hindered your work. This will position you to better explain unwarranted negative feedback. Also keep notes on feedback and opinions on peers and colleagues. This will help you give more accurate reviews for others.
Photocredit: HZ University of Applied Sciences
