13 MIN READ

Performance Appraisals

Getting Real Results From Performance Reviews

How people perform is critical to an organization's success, yet many organizations fail to monitor their progress properly.

And recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of remote, dispersed teams, so regular contact and feedback are more important than ever.

When you think of performance appraisals, what comes to mind? Perhaps it's a dreaded meeting in which you must pull up a team member for their failings. Maybe you see it as a box-ticking exercise in order to get your boss to sign off on yearly raises. Or perhaps it's just a case of cutting and pasting comments from old reviews to make "new" ones?

For too many people, it's all of the above and worse! As a result, this potentially powerful tool for managing and improving people's performance is underused and underappreciated.

In this article and video, we examine what makes a good appraisal, what you and your team member should get from it, and how to run one – even from the other side of the world.

Performance reviews are a chance to offer constructive feedback and set goals together.

What Are Performance Appraisals For?

An effective appraisal process provides ongoing opportunities to recognize your people's successes, and to give them constructive feedback on their performance.

Regular performance appraisals help you to detect and eliminate barriers to high performance. You can use appraisals to focus people's efforts in the right direction, and motivate them to work toward their goals.

Appraisals also encourage people to develop the skills and competencies they need to achieve these goals.

How Should Performance Appraisals Work?

When used properly, performance appraisals can build an open, positive, collaborative relationship between individuals and their managers.

Traditionally, appraisals tended to be infrequent, top-down, subjective judgments of an employee's performance. They usually involved a manager conducting an annual critique of past performance, often with little active input from the employee. This could lead to misunderstandings, conflict and poor results.

That process has changed in many organizations. Now, the performance appraisal process likely involves more frequent, less formal meetings, and collaborative goal setting. The Five Conversations Framework is a great way to structure your team's appraisals.

Performance Appraisals in Difficult Times

The emergence of COVID forced many of us to make huge changes to our working practices, and some of them have stuck for the long term. In many organizations, regular time in the office feels like a thing of the past, and virtual meetings are the new normal.

The pandemic has affected employees in other ways too. They may have continuing health or financial worries, childcare issues, or other caregiving responsibilities. And they may feel isolated from their friends and colleagues.

So, it's vital to conduct appraisals with compassion and understanding – without allowing global upheaval to become an excuse for poor personal performance.

Conducting Effective Performance Appraisals

For an appraisal to be successful, the manager and team member will need to contribute equally to the outcome. There'll be a truly two-way discussion, with the appraisee participating actively and feeling properly valued.

This allows you to develop a shared understanding of what's expected from and by both parties, and to establish a fair, positive and realistic plan to monitor and evaluate performance against agreed goals.

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Before the Appraisal Interview

Consider following these five steps before holding an appraisal:

1. Review the Appropriate Documentation

Revisit the job description for the person you're appraising, and their goal statements from previous appraisals. It's important that people are clear about what's expected of them, both in terms of their duties, and in the knowledge, skills and abilities that they need to develop.

As you do this, think about whether these documents accurately reflect the work that this person actually does. If there's a discrepancy, you may need to rewrite the job description and consider whether past goals are still relevant.

2. Think About Wider Assessment Criteria

Be sure that you're seeing the whole picture of your team member's performance, particularly if you're working remotely. Find out from other team members whether your appraisee is communicating and collaborating well (but make sure you are tactful and discreet about doing so).

Consider assessing other aspects of your appraisee's performance, too. A team member who shows resilience and emotional intelligence, for example, may be performing well, even if their objective key indicators don't reflect that.

Also, take into account whether the team member has taken on extra or different responsibilities. If so, your appraisal needs to reflect that.

3. Ask for Self-Assessment

It's a good idea to ask your team member to evaluate their own performance before the appraisal meeting. They can write down how they think they've done, or you can use a "forced choice" or "multiple choice" scale, where people choose statements that best describe their performance. (Mind Tools own self-assessment quizzes are a good place to start.)

If you're using a questionnaire-type format, make sure that the options you present reflect the competencies you ask for within the job description.

At the same time, ask if there are any issues outstanding that you may need to prepare for. That way, you can address these issues fully and comprehensively at the appraisal interview.

4. Complete an Assessment of the Individual Yourself

Whichever method of self-assessment you choose, complete the same task from your own perspective. Don't let positive or negative bias cloud your judgments. Be prepared with examples to support your ratings, particularly in areas where you feel that the person is underperforming.

Where necessary, draft a performance improvement plan. This can act as a helpful guide that you can refine during the appraisal meeting. Where you are facing underperformance, see our article on Dealing with Poor Performance for practical ideas about what to include.

Tip:

When you have a performance review scheduled, do your best to stick to that time and date. Moving it is like saying to that person, "there's something more important than you." This is a particularly bad message to be sending when you're discussing something as personal as performance.

5. Get the Technology Right

If you need to carry out an appraisal online, make sure that you and your team member have access to a suitable platform.

For a relatively informal appraisal, or for shorter check-ins, platforms such as Slack or Zoom can work well. They all offer basic video calls, which can also be recorded. For more complex reviews, you may need to share a number of documents. In this case, applications such as Microsoft Teams, Citrix™ GoToMeeting or Cisco WebEx® may be more suitable.

Video conferencing can be a great way to display nonverbal cues when you can’t have an in-person discussion. However, bear in mind that some people might feel self-conscious using it.

Video calls can also be mentally draining. They demand more constant, intense focus than face-to-face meetings, and continuous eye contact can be uncomfortable. So, try to keep the appraisal as brief but thorough as you can.

Read our article, When and How to Hold a Video Interview for more tips.

During the Appraisal Interview

Aim to achieve these six things during the interview:

1. Create a Supportive Environment

First, schedule your meeting for a mutually convenient time, free from distractions.

Be enthusiastic but structured in your approach. Explain the agenda for the meeting, and then cover everything you said you would: performance relative to expectations, goals achieved, future goals, any issues which may be getting in the way of goals being achieved, and so on. Remain objective throughout, and avoid generalizations.

2. Recognize and Build on the Positives

As a manager, you want people in your team to play to their strengths. But during appraisals it's all too easy to focus solely on the problems. Don't fall into this morale-busting, performance-sapping habit: make sure that you allow plenty of time to cover the positives!

As well as thanking and rewarding your people, consider with them how they could repeat or even extend their successes. Mind Tools Club members and enterprise licensees can listen to our exclusive Expert Interview with Anna Wildman to learn more about this.

3. Address Any Areas for Improvement

Encourage your team member to offer their own thoughts about weaknesses or performance lapses. This can reduce defensiveness, and it sets a good tone for the rest of the meeting. When the other person is talking, listen actively, and, where appropriate, repeat information to make sure that you understand exactly what is being said.

Consider comparing your evaluation of the person's skills with their pre-session self-evaluation and discuss any significant differences. When you give and receive feedback, be sure to focus on the situation – not the individual. And where there are disagreements, allow your team member to describe their point of view and try to reach consensus before moving on.

Tip:

No team member should be surprised by something they hear in an appraisal. Give feedback on positive and negative behavior immediately, rather than saving it for appraisal time. And "catching people doing things right," can vastly improve team morale! (For more on this, see our article on Giving Feedback.)

4. Identify Obstacles and Solutions

Is there anything that's stopping your team member from performing at their very best? Perhaps a colleague is routinely late in providing necessary information, for example.

Once you've identified any problems, agree how you will solve the issue together and set a deadline to hold yourselves accountable.

5. Set New Goals

The appraisal is a chance to make plans for future growth and development. Take some time to explore how this person can use and develop their skills to contribute to the organization's success, and set goals accordingly.

Bear in mind that you will likely need to recalibrate existing goals to reflect any significant changes in the business environment, such as widespread disruption to supply chains, recruitment or customer confidence.

6. Summarize

End with a clear summary of what was discussed and what was agreed. Plan another meeting if you need to follow up about anything.

End on a positive note but avoid confusing any tougher messages you've had to convey. And be sure to make this the start of an ongoing feedback process, rather than the end of the discussion until next year.

Tip:

When you appraise people who are, themselves, managers or supervisors, consider assessing how effective they are at conducting performance appraisals within their own teams. It's your responsibility to ensure that they're doing this properly, too!

After the Appraisal Interview

When you're done, think about the future. Plan for regular appraisal meetings. Think about how often you should conduct these meetings.

Schedule the actions you've promised. Where you've agreed follow-up actions, schedule these appropriately, or put them onto your To-Do List or Action Program.

Remember, these meetings are not optional. Ongoing performance appraisals are vital if you're going to get the best from your people and reward them fairly.

Key Points

Performance appraisals can be positive experiences!

They're a great opportunity to start important, meaningful, ongoing conversations with team members. And by conducting regular performance appraisals, you'll find that you can do a lot to improve your people's performance and job satisfaction.

Remember that, in times of global crises, your people might be working under unfamiliar, difficult conditions. Be understanding and supportive in response.

When appraising a team member virtually, make sure you get the technology right, and create a supportive environment for the call. Bear in mind the stress a video call can produce, and limit the time you spend in them.

With a good performance appraisal process, you can reinforce the link between people's performance and their success. Make performance appraisals an integral part of your day-to-day management process, and take time after each appraisal session to incorporate the results into your own forward planning.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter, or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

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Comments (24)
  • Over a month ago charlieswift wrote
    We've updated this popular article to take account of the increase in *virtual* appraisal meetings. Take a look at its companion resource, too: Getting the Most From your Appraisal. - Charlie Swift and the MT Content team
  • Over a month ago Michele wrote
    Hi pmg1974,

    Thanks for the feedback on the article. Although there is a lot of popular press out there that gives performance appraisals a bad rap, it isn't the appraisal itself that is the cause of the issue, but rather supervisors and managers who don't take the time to learn how to do them well or don't spend the time to have the right kind of conversations with employees. As with many management practices, it's all in the execution.

    Michele
    Mind Tools Team
  • Over a month ago pmg1974 wrote
    Great tips and ideas, fantastic resource
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