Gurgaon (Haryana) [India], July 24: Despite performance reviews forming an important part of an employee’s professional development, they may seem to be a little intimidating for employees, especially if the employees are new.
Traditional methods of performance appraisals are not as effective because they tend to revolve around recent happenings. These reviews have large gaps of 6 to 12 months between them, and a lot happens during that time period. Therefore, a single review may not offer adequate information to evaluate employee performance objectively. Further, the lack of well-defined constructive feedback makes traditional performance reviews incapable of offering insights into employees’ professional growth.
“Periodical assessments of employees make employees feel valued at the organization. Annual feedback sometimes creates distrust among the employees as there is no means to track the growth journey. Meanwhile, periodical performance anchors their career plans.”
Siddhartha Gupta, CEO, Mercer | Mettl
Performance reviews have three purposes:
Discussing and setting performance goals for employees based on job expectations
Delivering regular feedback on progress against the goals that were assigned
Rewarding performance achievements
Performance reviews foster productive and open conversations about what is expected from employees and whether they are meeting their performance goals. They also identify the strengths of employees, where they excel, growth areas, and areas for improvement.
When executed efficiently, performance reviews support professional growth, improve employee engagement, and facilitate effective workplace communication. These reviews are one of the best ways to analyze performance, ensure progress, implement training, provide guidance, and deliver feedback on how employees can keep growing professionally.
Most organizations have started using human resource management systems (HRMS) for smooth performance review processes. The integration of AI into the performance review process brings several capabilities, like providing access to review dashboards and real-time feedback delivery tools, which can also offer managers continuous insights into the performance of employees.
Managing performance reviews
Individuals should receive feedback on improvement areas instead of criticism. Employees should not be compared with other employees, and they should be encouraged to look beyond salary appraisals, focusing on personal and professional growth. Employees should be offered a suitable medium to assess their skills, engage in self-reflection, and keep clear records of their projects, feedback, and achievements. This helps employees stay open and receptive, highlight their achievements, ask relevant questions, acknowledge their areas of improvement, seek guidance, and express gratitude at the time of performance reviews.
When providing negative feedback to an employee, it is important to clearly outline the areas where their performance needs attention and provide specific examples of the issues observed. It is essential to communicate if the negative feedback is related to skills needing improvement or behavioral expectations not being met. Encourage employees to seek support and join relevant learning programs to enhance their skills and address performance gaps.
It's important to emphasize that negative feedback is provided to help the employee grow and improve, and it should be received with a growth mindset. Offer to work with the employee to create a tailored plan for improvement and provide guidance on how they can address the areas of concern. It's also helpful to suggest reaching out to mentors for additional support and guidance.
Mercer | Mettl offers self-assessments, 360-degree feedback tools, skills gap analysis tools, and a range of other types of assessments that can help organizations optimize their performance review processes. Utilize these tools to enhance the performance review cycle, improve learning and development, and ensure employees’ personal and professional growth.
