Top Tips for Effective Employee Reviews

by Stacey Mc Grath, Digital Marketing Executive with Intelligo Software who provide Corporate HR Software and Payroll Software

Employee Reviews are essential for many companies as they provide an opportunity to discuss crucial topics with employees, whether it’s a performance review, a salary negotiation, or the implementation of an improvement plan. While employee review processes and procedures differ from business to business, there are some general principles about how to handle these reviews with employees. The all-over guiding principle, however, is that these meetings should improve, not deflate, your employees. These tips will help you make employee reviews useful and motivational, and therefore an effective tool for your organisation.

Establish a Purpose
You will already know the message that you will be bringing to the review due to your preparation as a manager; it may be to discuss future possibilities within the team or a particular skill you would like them to learn. However, a significant error can be to forget to inform your employee know what the meeting is about beforehand. After all, an employee review is not a one-way discussion. Employees often save inquiries about their positions for such meetings, but communication errors mean the potential of the meeting can be lost and therefore ineffective. A few days’ notice and brief notes about the review, allows an employee to come to the meeting equally prepared. It even affords you the opportunity to ask the employee to do a self-review and find out their goals and hopes for the future of your business.

Although this is not necessarily the only purpose of the meeting, there is more to it. The purpose should also be the message or feeling you want your employee to leave the meeting with or the aim you hope to get from the discussion. In simpler terms, the end goal in a personal and professional sense. This kind of planning and forethought makes for effective employee reviews.

Summarise and Support
When the review meeting is winding down, ask your employees if you have done a good job of getting the points across you wanted to make. Ask them whether they need clarity on anything and explain further if needed. Wrap-up the discussion by summarising the key discussion points, thanking the employee for their participation, and showing your support for them in the future.

One other point you might consider is to ask the employee to give you some feedback in return. Find out if you’re providing the support they need and ask for suggestions on ways you can improve as a manager or for any ideas as to what you could do to help them be successful in their position. After all, If you want your employees to become the best versions of themselves, you have to be willing to help them along the way. A well-planned employee review gives both the employee and the manager feedback to be successful.

Agree on Action Points
Following on from a review, both the manager and employee should leave with a to-do list, though it doesn’t need to be extensive, and it doesn’t necessarily have to have an equal number of tasks. The purpose of doing so is to have a solid plan on paper, which should be achievable and of high importance to both parties and include any deadlines agreed. It also allows you to make sure you explicitly and concisely communicate what you expect from your employees going forward ensuring you are both on the same page and likely to achieve any goals or aims.