In the past, the traditional performance review was effective for most industries. Business moved at a pace at which it made sense to conduct reviews only once or twice a year, but now that is not necessarily the case. In a world that evolves quickly, it is important to evaluate the performance review process so it does all it should, catching performance problems before they become problems and rewarding exemplary performance before it is forgotten in the shuffle. To avoid some of the pitfalls of performance reviews, consider taking a deeper look into how the review process works in your organization and take a few of the following steps to improve it.
A Measure of Success
Performance reviews should be sure to measure these three things: effectiveness, efficiency and improvement. If a company’s review process doesn’t meet those requirements, it’s time for a change. To best measure performance, consider asking variations on the following questions:
Effectiveness:
- How many calls resulted in sales?
- What percentage of project X did employee Y complete this quarter?
- How many problems were sent onto others to solve?
Efficiency:
- What is employee X’s attendance record?
- How much contracted work time was lost due to absences?
- Does employee X utilize resources available to be more productive?
Improvement:
- Of the issues discussed in a previous review, what is employee X doing to resolve them?
- Have they been working without supervision to resolve conflicts?
- Is employee X taking initiative to take on projects beyond their required workload?
Give Employees a High-Five
If you’ve already moved away from the more traditional, biannual performance review process in favor of more frequent check-ins with employees, Fortune suggests that managers use the Big Five method when having these meetings. Using this method, employees should be prepared to tell their managers five things they’ve done well since the last meeting and set five goals to accomplish before the next meeting. Document the goals and accomplishments of employees in order to revisit at the next meeting and keep them on track.
Keep it Together
A performance management system can help keep all performance information in one spot. The BirdDogHR Performance Management Software can help companies to more efficiently conduct performance reviews and allows both employees and managers access to review information for better goal setting and evaluation. The cloud-based solution makes recording reviews simple so you can get back to tackling your to-do list. Contact us today to schedule a demo.
