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Typically, employees hate performance-reviews. Many claim the reviews don’t serve as a guide to help them improve their performance.
Employees who lack emotional intelligence are the most likely to hate performance reviews. That would be the majority of employees – probably 60 percent or higher in my experience.
Performance reviews weigh heavily on their minds:
Whether or not they might get a pay raise, be promoted, get selected for new training programs or whether they’re added to the company’s list of employees who are laid-off after a merger or in an economic downturn.
Not only do most workers stress over getting performance reviews, many bosses stress over having to give them.
No doubt, you know the reasons range from lack of courage or apprehension over confronting poor-performance or ultimately having to fight an expensive discrimination claim whether it’s bogus or not.
So, a well-managed paper trail really matters in hearings held by state-employment regulators regarding unemployment benefits, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the courts.
As a boss, you’ll want to demonstrate very clearly how you consistently treat employees fairly. You need precise documentation on the who, what, when, where, why and how you arrive at your conclusions on employee performance.
Always do your best to approach your reviews as opportunities for employees’ growth for results; in-depth conversations about strengths and weaknesses in their work.
Fairness is vital: Be consistent in your treatment of your staff. Don’t reproach an employee for something you ignore in others, and avoid the typical 12 errors in evaluations.
The three biggest mistakes in performance reviews:
Mistake 1: The employee is shocked to be disciplined or terminated
Ideally, supervisors are on top of things and document when employees are performing well or poorly.
But in typical human resources disputes at performance-review time, employees are surprised by being disciplined or terminated because their supervisors hadn’t been assertive.
That’s why it’s paramount not to avoid putting an employee on notice – failing to meet with the employee or failing to start the process of creating documentation early when the employee begins to falter.
All too often in suspected discrimination cases, employees have positive comments in their personnel files, but are terminated any way.
Solution: Avoid unnecessary risk in performance reviews. Documentation must be explicit on why an employee is under-performing and what is expected to meet goals for satisfactory performance.
Start and consistently maintain a record for each employee. On a regular basis, note the performance whether it’s positive or negative.
Mistake 2: Poorly worded documentation
The documentation must be error-free with no ambiguity or questionable, stereotypical language. Leave no doubts. Specificity in facts counts in legal hearings.
Solution: When employees under-perform or are in some way remiss in their duties, be specific on the details with dates, times and why. Always note when policies or procedures are violated. Your document must include the time and date (include the year).
Avoid inserting any emotional labels or subjective impressions such as “I think she’s a trouble-maker”and writing your conclusions such as “I think she had money troubles because she’s wasteful.”
Mistake 3: Failures in ongoing follow-up coaching meetings
You must schedule regular follow-up one-on-one discussions with documentation. Discuss your employee’s performance deficiencies with a written plan with steps for the person to follow.
You must be able to adequately demonstrate that you are being assertive is assisting your employee to improve. That necessitates coaching meetings.
Solution: Accuracy, specific facts, the employee’s explanations or responses for not meeting goals and details about your coaching efforts to help the person to succeed.
Include documentation that the employee knows about the prospect of being terminated if failing to conform.
You are encouraged to keep two types of files for employee discussions: One is informal that you keep separate for day-to-day chats that aren’t discussing a serious problem for repercussions. I like these because it helps the employee to listen without feeling threatened. The other is the actual personnel file that’s kept for permanent legal reasons.
Whether you keep such logs separate from the all-important personnel file, ask your employee to sign and date the personnel document. Remember to note if the employee refuses to sign it.
From the Coach’s corner, more HR strategies:
4 Mindsets for Leadership in Performance Reviews – Are you nervous at the thought of giving employee-performance reviews? You’re not alone. Your employees aren’t exactly thrilled, either.
For Best HR Performance Reviews, 10 Sample Goal Phrases – A well-written set of performance goals work to motivate employees and help them to focus better on their responsibilities. They must be written with the right phrasing so they inspire performance and don’t invite costly lawsuits.
Management: Coach Your Employees to Better Performance – In talent management, coaching, counseling and giving feedback is of utmost importance. But it’s a difficult challenge if you don’t have a coaching culture.
HR: Avoid Bias in Evaluating Top Employees Who Backslide – Don’t be too lenient with talented employees with a history of strong performance but who decline in their work. Document every event in any downtrend of performance. Inevitably, many terminated employees will file claims accusing you of discrimination.
7 Management Tips – Communication with Difficult Employees – Multiple problems including loss of profit result from ineffectively dealing with difficult employees.
“Keeping customers is about the experience, and the employees control the culture and temperature of the business. Never forget that.”
-Steve Wynn
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