Tips to make your next performance appraisal powerful & effective

There are many ways to create effective employee performance review systems, but no matter the style of system, all successful systems share a few key elements. First, they are customized to the situation and the job description. Using a performance review template from the web or an e-book is a great start, but the template [...]

Many firms are starting a new cycle in their employee performance review process and this year it is even more challenging with the economic downturn. For both managers and employees employee performance appraisals can be a very stressful time. However, there are ways to turn this highly charged time of year into a constructive conversation [...]

With good performance review processes, you have the employee complete a self rating before you meet. Generally many employees rate themselves quite hard, or on par with your views of their performance. But what do you do if the person has rated themselves as exceptional on many areas and you think they are borderline competent [...]

Performance appraisals should never be conducted in isolation of the overall business direction. It is important to link each person’s goals and objectives back to the business overall goals and objectives. Unless each person can clearly see how their job contributes to at least one part of the business success, then they begin to wonder [...]

When scheduling your employee performance reviews, the temptation is to start with the person you have been itching to tell exactly what you think of them. This is the absolute worst thing you can do! Always start your employee performance reviews with the easiest person to review. That way you will reduce your nerves, get [...]

Managers often ask how much time should they spend appraising compared to planning for the future. I have a strong view that there should be no surprises during performance reviews. With that viewpoint I recommend managers spend more time planning for the future rather than focusing on the past at performance review time. If you [...]

One of the most common questions I get is “how long should we put aside for the actual review”. My answer is it depends on a number of factors: have you had regular feedback sessions one on one with the person throughout the year? have they completed a self assessment (this cuts down on meeting [...]

Preparation is the key to a successful employee performance review. Reviews are not something you can just pop into and “winging it” if you want to get the best results from the review. So how do you prepare? Start by gathering your data – by that I mean: dust off last year’s performance review – [...]

Employee performance reviews need to be conducted using a clear system that everyone understands and follows. If you do this you will increase your ability to manage employee performance – both good and bad. All performance management systems in business are made up of just 4 basic stages – everything else is just window dressing. [...]

In real estate the catch phrase is location, location, location. This is also true for your employee performance review. One of the first things you need to consider is the location where you will be holding your review. Performance reviews need to be held somewhere where your conversation will not be overheard by other team [...]