Productive Performance Review Tips

When it comes to team development, placing your skilled leaders and strong team members in charge is the key to great success. But even in the best of situations, performance reviews should be used as a tool to review growth and any areas that still need improvement. 

To some, review time can seem daunting, and in some cases when it’s time for a yearly review your team may seem to dread the impending evaluations. However, giving a productive performance review doesn’t have to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth. Giving a productive performance review can be a great tool to invigorate and lift your team, and when done with a little finesse, even the issues that need improvement can be a tool to make your team even stronger. We’ve put together some performance review tips to help you deliver this very important feedback in the best way possible.

Productive Performance Review Tips

No one likes to hear what they’ve been doing wrong, and to be honest, any real issues should be brought up long before your evaluations are done. You’ll still need to give constructive feedback, especially if there’s a habit or repetitive issue that needs correcting. 

• Be prepared – You want to make sure you have all your paperwork, you’ve thought out what you’d like to address, and you don’t have meetings or calls that need to take place while you’re giving the review.
• Make it a priority – Productive performance reviews start by helping your employee feel at ease – it can be scary enough without them feeling like their time isn’t a priority for you.
• Have an agenda – You can create a quick agenda and send it to your employee. Ask them if there’s anything they’d like to discuss and ensure that gets on the agenda as well.
• Stay positive – It’s still possible to give feedback regarding negative actions in a positive light – some ways to achieve this are by sandwiching the good with the bad. Comment on positive growth or actions, then go into details on something that needs to change, then finish with another positive attribute or action.
• Ask for their thoughts frequently – A constructive performance review means giving and receiving feedback. In order to do this, your employee needs to be an active participant. 
• Do reviews more frequently – To take the edge off of a performance review, you may consider doing them a bit more frequently. This way employees don’t have to wait an entire year before concerns or issues are addressed.
• Discuss goals and development – Most workplaces have a set form or template for work reviews. If goals and career development are not a part of your conversation, that should change. This can help excite and engage your team members and reignite interest in things. It can be difficult to feel impassioned if you’re bored at work.
• Be upfront and honest – If your employee is a rockstar, make them aware! (You shouldn’t wait until review time for this feedback anyway!) If you have very serious issues to discuss in a review, don’t mislead them by acting as though uncomfortable topics aren’t coming. 
• Tell them what you do, and don’t want to see from them – If they do something they excel at and it impresses you, tell them you want more of it! If there’s a bad habit they tend to repeat, let them know why it needs to stop by explaining the consequences. 
• The “why” is important – For many, explaining why they should or should not do something a certain way is vastly important to engaging them in the process. This goes for good and bad performance in the workplace. 
• Use the opportunity to empower – If your employee walks out of your office feeling empowered and engaged, it’s almost guaranteed to make a huge difference in their performance. It builds loyalty, trust, and knowing that you support them will impact how hard they want to work for you.
• Ask how YOU are doing – Sometimes in management we forget that our learning and growth is not over. Ask your employee for feedback on your own performance. Questions like “how can I support you more” or “what are some things I could do better” can be a great starting point.

Of course, not all reviews will end up being empowering and great news – sometimes hard decisions and actions like personal improvement plans are put into effect. Even in those scenarios, you can utilise positive feedback and leave them feeling like they’re valued and can improve. No matter how your review goes, we hope some of these tips can help take the edge off of a sometimes unpleasant situation!

At hug, we aim to help you understand your team and build a happier, healthier and more productive workplace. Our four core modules, Mind, Money, Health and Engagement allow employees to provide actionable insights. Our platform offers holistic real time analysis of your employee wellbeing and smart matches products, services and benefits to employee needs. Interested in learning more? Book a demo by clicking here today.