Watch your language during performance reviews
During performance reviews it is easy to get caught up in trying to make your employee comfortable with your feedback and to reduce stress. Many managers do this by being less careful with their language than they should, which creates problems down the track.
Here are some of the most common problems:
Telling white lies
“Senior management wouldn’t let me give out higher ratings than average”, “I didn’t have any problems with your performance, but I did have a few people complain” are all examples of telling the odd porky pie to cover your own level of discomfort. If you can’t tell them honestly – don’t tell them at all. Employees can pick up on your subtle body cues that you are being less than honest and this can tarnish any trust they have in you.
Trite sayings
To avoid conflict, many managers tend to fall back on trite sayings rather than tell the truth. Things like “There were a few problems, but nothing that can’t be dealt with”, “I believe you have the potential to do anything you put your mind to”, and “At least you learnt from this project” are less than helpful. Be explicit and tell people the truth “Yes it will impact your promotion prospects”. Being honest builds rather than breaks trust.
Enforcing secrecy
Many companies request employees keep their reviews confidential. This is seen as self serving and potentially trying to hide something by many employees. You are bound by confidentiality and must take active measures to keep their information private, but if they choose to pin up their results on the staff bulletin board, that is their responsibility.
Cookie cutter reviews
Many managers try to save time by using standard words or paragraphs. Some employees can see this as being insincere and lacking any real depth. They want to hear in your own words what you see are their personal strengths and challenges.
Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony
We put your business into words
I wish I had read your blog and articles and had known more about performance reviews back when I was working for an employer.
Every 12 months we had a performance review and I used to get so worked up over it. There were never any problems and in hindsight, I realise that my then supervisors – as wonderful as they were – had no idea how to do a performance review.
From memory, most reviews lasted around 10 minutes at the very most and consisted of the supervisor asking if I had any problems I wanted to raise – ‘No’ – then telling me they were happy with everything, would recommend my pay be raised to the next level as per the relevant Award, then tell me to keep up the good work. That was it.