No one loves performance reviews. Managers don’t love doing them and employees don’t love getting them. But that doesn’t mean they’re not useful or that they shouldn’t be done. It’s most important to make sure that you and your employees are getting the most out of the experience. Here are a few ways to take the pain out of the one-on-one reviews and benefit everyone.
1. Create a Structure
The most effective performance reviews have an easy to follow structure. This allows you to treat each employee the same way while plugging the specific information into the framework. The structure itself can be just about anything, just formalize the process so everyone knows what to expect.
2. Choose a Distraction-Free Setting
Especially in a busy shipyard or fabrication environment, choosing a distraction–free setting is paramount. Your employees deserve your full and undivided attention and you need them to feel comfortable enough to pay attention as well.
3. Prepare Ahead of Time
An employee review isn’t something you can wing or do off the top of your head. Each employee will have specific goals and metrics they should have reached, so you need to prepare yourself with this data ahead of the meeting.
4. Ask the Employee to be Prepared
You also want to be sure your team is prepared before their individual meetings. Ask them to do a self-evaluation or be ready to discuss their achievements and concerns with you in the meeting. This will help give your conversation a guideline.
5. Review Goals
What were their goals for the previous year? What were they expected to accomplish on an individual level? What were the company goals? How did they help the company achieve their goals along with the rest of the team?
6. Focus on the Positive
While you may have some concerns and constructive criticism, which we’ll discuss below, you also need to be positive in the review. Talk to your employees about the things they did right and why you like having them on the team. Positivity helps motivate employees.
7. Be Constructive
In terms of criticism and the improvements, your employees need to be, be constructive. Simply point fingers, accusing, or acting angry over an outcome won’t get the results you want. Instead, offer alternatives that can help them understand how to perform better.
8. Establish Action Items for Improvement
To that end, when discussing their improvements, come up with some action items. Give them a specific timeframe to make these improvements so you can review them again at that time. Knowing what to do exactly will help them focus and achieve new goals.
What are your hiring and production goals as an employer? Talk to Hutco to hire top-quality candidates.
