Do You Manage People?

An article by Rose Opengart     2 Comments

Do you manage people? If so, do you give regular performance feedback to your employees?  Performance reviews are fundamental to good leadership and organizational improvement. If your employees receive feedback now, they will have time to make use of it and improve their performance.  If, on the other hand, they find out in December that you think they need to improve upon something, they won’t have the chance for development and improvement.

Communicate with your employees, about both positive and negative issues, so they are not surprised during an annual performance review.  It’s no wonder most people approach a meeting for their performance review feeling nervous and dreading the thought of it.  That is more likely to occur when you have no idea what your boss is going to say.  It is fundamental that employees know how they are doing, and specifically how their performance measures up to your expectations and to the standards of the job for which they were hired.

You will be a more effective leader if you communicate with employees regularly in order to avoid potential annual surprises where an employee might be told that their work is not up to par.  As a manager or leader you should meet with employees quarterly or at least semi-annually to discuss performance. This gives you the opportunity to express any concerns and gives the employee the chance to improve before the end of the year. It benefits everyone because the employee can become more effective, which in turn helps you as well as the organization.

This more developmental approach to performance review, sometimes referred to as performance management, is a win-win situation that helps employees develop and improve, and makes the organization more profitable.  For a poor performer you should use these sessions to review prior goal-setting and objectives. When done regularly, the actual performance appraisal should be a confirmation to the employee on how she or he did during the past time period.

Here are some important do’s and don’ts for performance management:

1) Allow the employee to comment on his or her review and take it seriously.

For some employees, this is their only opportunity to voice opinions, give and get feedback, and provide insight.  So listen, as well as review. Goals and objectives set should be clearly understood and agreed upon by the employee.

2) Do make sure that you are trained on the “how-tos” of evaluation.

The evaluation should be objective and job-related, focusing in on such items as quality of work, timeliness, and quantity.  Be wary of common appraisal errors such as recency error.

3) Don’t spring any surprises.

4) Don’t focus the appraisal process on pay increases alone.

Yes, pay is important, but it is not the only thing that has an impact on employee performance. For example, morale and self-esteem have a major influence on how an employee performs his or her job.

5) Finally, do remember that the performance appraisal should not be treated as a substitute for regular, on-going communication between you and your employees.