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According to a study by Adobe in 2017, 47% of millennials started looking for a new job after their performance reviews!
Performance reviews might seem like just another task for managers but they are a huge deal for the employees. Whether you love them or hate them, performance reviews are here to stay!
Different organizations follow different practices for their performance reviews. What really matters is the frequency of performance reviews at your organization. If you’re reviewing the performance of your employees annually, then filling out review forms and evaluating performance could seem like a lot of work and there is more scope for making mistakes and ruining performance reviews for your employees.
Here is a list of common mistakes that you could avoid during performance reviews.
It is never acceptable to conduct a performance review meeting with your employees without sending them a prior notification about it. Performance reviews require both the managers and employees to be prepared. Remember that the agenda of the entire process is not just for you to assess their performance but also to analyze on how to improve it.
Annual performance reviews are abandoned by many organizations and are ignored by a few others. While annual performance reviews aren’t exactly seen as an accurate way to evaluate performance, you cannot delay or cancel these reviews without replacing it with a different structure for employee feedback. If you feel that annual performance reviews are too much, then replace them with frequent mini-reviews. Cancelling performance reviews, while your employees’ promotions, salaries and OKRs depend on them isn’t very ideal.
Lot of managers underestimate the amount of damage this practice can cause to their employees. The purpose of employee performance reviews isn’t just to tell employees how they failed, but also to acknowledge and recognize their accomplishments. As a manager, employees expect you to recognize and reward them for their good work. Utilize this opportunity to identify their areas of strengths and make use of these strengths to improve your organizational productivity.
This is one of the most common issues of annual performance reviews. Managers tend to review with a recency bias. It is important to be accurate with the evaluation, particularly when performance reviews affect employee compensation. As a manager, it is important for you to do your homework about your employees’ past work and have a clear idea before reviewing their performance, eliminating the scope for any recency bias.
Never base your employee performance evaluation on your own personal judgement. Always check for data and numbers from the past. Set goals and objectives for your employees and see how they accomplished them. Setting OKRs for employees helps you assess the performance of your employees based on concrete data.
Most managers forget that performance reviews aren’t just about the appraisals and compensation but also about managing employee performance and discussing about their future plans. So, don’t just focus on the appraisals, but also discuss and decide on how you plan to help your employees improve their performance in the future.
One of the most common mistakes that managers do during performance reviews is that they compare different employees to the same job levels and decide their compensation or promotion based on the analysis. Unfortunately, this practice demoralizes employees. And as a result, they will avoid discussing their future performance or career plans with their managers. This can also breed unwanted competition at the workplace.
Performance review is supposed to be a healthy discussion between the managers and employees. Managers usually tend to just ask employees to fill in the performance evaluation forms, get it signed and not bother about giving or receiving feedback. This practice is demoralizing and yields no positive result. If you want your employees to improve themselves and contribute to organizational productivity, encourage your employees to speak up and give feedback.
Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you improve performance management? Request for a demo!
