Employee performance appraisals: a guide for managers

Employee performance reviews, also known as performance appraisals, are an important part of the performance management process.

They give managers and employees an opportunity to assess individual performance, to discuss current goals, objectives for the future and employee development opportunities—both in their skills and their careers.

What is a performance review?

A performance review (or appraisal) is an important time to discuss your employees’ performance and development.

Performance reviews are a meeting between an individual and their line manager to record recent achievements and decide on future objectives, helping them to maximize the potential of their role.

Performance reviews should also cover everything from the good and bad, to their past and future performance, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of individual employees, their performance, and to support their development and wellbeing.

The best performance reviews will validate your data; you will know how well they’re performing, why their performance is that way, and how to improve from there (and hopefully what you are each doing well!).

How often you should hold performance reviews

Traditionally, an appraisal is completed every 12 months, however, as it may not be possible to cover everything in one meeting, some businesses choose to favor bi-annual or even quarterly appraisals. It’s important to identify which frequency works best for your business and employees.

Holding more frequent reviews can allow you to have a more granular understanding of your business and employees, however, holding them too frequently can undermine their effectiveness and be a poor use of time.

How to conduct a performance review

Review preparation

The most valuable performance reviews will be well prepared, and the deeper your insight, the better you’ll understand them as an employee.

To prepare for a performance review, evaluate the employee’s performance on their assigned projects and responsibilities. Review the outcomes of their projects, ask those involved about their insights.

Holding the review

It’s important to conduct appraisals without bias and to try to motivate your employees through inspiration, as opposed to creating a hostile environment and motivating them out of fear.

Try to frame criticism constructively, and highlight what’s going well alongside any criticism.

If the review is with an employee who is performing well, but has some areas of improvement (who doesn’t?!), it’s best to deliver your review in a balanced feedback method. Lead with strengths, present opportunities for growth, and finish by reinforcing confidence in the employee’s abilities.

It may prove valuable to allow your employees to give honest feedback on how things are going and your management, ensuring that you’re hearing any concerns before they become problematic, and knowing what you’re doing well—so you can keep doing it!

Post appraisal process

To get the most value out of your performance appraisal process, you’ll need to follow up and ensure that any points of development are being addressed.

How to improve the quality of your performance reviews

Be prepared

As with any other task, preparation is key. It helps you to efficiently plan your appraisal meetings. Creating an agenda of focus points and areas for discussion. This will ensure that you stick to the proposed plan and get the most insight from your review.

Document the process

Keeping clear written documentation of your conversations and any objectives set within your appraisal meetings makes it easy for both you and your employee to understand the plan moving forward. Plus, this gives you something to look back on when you come to complete your next performance review.

Give honest feedback

It’s important to use this formal meeting to communicate openly with your employee. Providing valuable feedback that they can apply within their role moving forward.

Discuss and offer ideas for improvement

It’s important to not shy away from discussing skills gaps or areas for an improvement. In fact, any employee will benefit from knowing where they may be able to develop skills and what type of training could be provided to support their professional development.

Agree upon actionable steps

At the end of an appraisal meeting both manager and employee should be aware of the next steps. Some good examples include:

• Undertaking a training course

• Collaborating with the wider team on a new project

• Focusing on deadlines and quality of work over quantity

Follow up frequently

To ensure your employees are on track and making good progress be sure to hold regular follow up meetings. These can be as simple as a weekly one-to-one meeting. It may be that during these meetings you discover an employee requires some extra support. Such as some additional training or even an extension of the team with a new hire.

How to address employee performance improvement

Whether staff are performing well or poorly, employee appraisals present an ideal opportunity for HR to identify the next stage in their development. Many organizations use personal development plans (PDPs) within staff appraisals, to direct and record staff development. You can use PDPs to set development goals that the employee should try to reach before their next appraisal.

For underperforming staff, you can use appraisals to identify skills gaps and training needs. Employees can then take the training programs they need to perform their role better.

Another option for underperformance is the use of a performance improvement plan (PIP). This is like a PDP In the sense that it identifies areas for improvement and provides the employee with actionable steps to take to improve their job performance.

How to reward high performing employees

Appraisals are therefore extremely useful in the talent management process, a major element of which is developing and retaining high-performing employees. Without an effective appraisal system, you might never spot talented individuals who could be the future of your organization.

You could opt to recognize and praise high performance with the following types of rewards:

• Internal promotions

• Salary increases

• Bonuses

• Extra annual leave

• Investment into training and development

How a performance management software can support your review process

Another way to improve your performance appraisal process is to implement the use of a performance management software. Tools such as these allow for the digitalization of several internal performance management processes. Helping you to store and track employee details, goals, progress, development, and annual performance metrics.

• With BrightHR’s performance management software you can:

• Set SMART goals and track progress

• Align employee goals with business objectives

• Gain full visibility of goal progress

• Add reminders for employees to complete goal-based tasks

• Keep notes of performance meetings

• Access ready-made templates for your appraisal meetings with BrightBase

Enhance your employee appraisals with BrightHR

With BrightHR’s performance management software, it’s easier than ever to schedule appraisal meetings, set agendas, and document meeting notes.

Your appraisal process can be streamlined and enhanced with data-backed performance feedback and a 360-degree view of your employee’s performance progress. Putting the purpose back into annual and bi-annual performance appraisals.

Book a free demo with BrightHR today to discover how our award-winning HR software solution can transform your performance management processes.