Performance Review – The Ultimate Guide – Fynzo®
What is a performance review?
It is nothing but an overall assessment of employees done by managers of all organizations in a timely manner. The main motive behind doing a performance review is to analyze and understand the strength and weaknesses of an employee and give constructive feedback on the basis of it and make a road map for the employee’s future performance, keeping in mind, both the personal objective of an employee and organization’s goal and objective.
These are sometimes also termed performance evaluations or performance appraisals as they act as a basis on which companies provide appraisals to employees or give promotions.
These should be taken seriously by any organization as it ensures employee engagement in the organization and also sets a culture of feedback and continuous growth and learning in your organization.
Create a free performance evaluation survey to know your employees
Types of performance review
There are multiple types, ways, and approaches to performance review but irrespective of any of that, one thing that should be common across all types is that they should align with the culture of your organization and must be relevant and meaningful for both the manager as well as the employee.
Below mentioned are the few types of performance reviews that are being widely used across multiple organizations.
Self-assessment
Self-assessment as the name suggests is the type of performance review where an employee assesses himself/herself by reflecting upon one’s goals and growth they have achieved by being in that organization. Based on that reflection, an employee also sets future goals and expectations they have for themselves. This type of performance review helps managers as they get to know better how to guide and coach the employee.
Peer review
Peer review is where an employee is assessed by his/her peers or team members. This performance review can help managers as they possibly will not be around all the time but will need to know the input or output of an employee and so the people with whom an employee works can act as a good way to review the employee. It also has a positive impact on employees as when a review comes from peers, it holds the chance of better recognition.
Annual performance review
Annual performance reviews are conducted on a yearly basis. This kind of performance review gives more time to analyze the performance of an employee but is filled with way too much information to be passed on and discussed with the employees. This type is usually referred to as a traditional method of performance review and is getting modified and replaced by many organizations in modern times.
Mid-year performance review
Mid-year performance reviews are the ones that are conducted every six months, that is, twice a year. This type of review is more flexible than an annual review as they allow the managers and employees to review back the goals and objectives and give time for any adjustment or corrections required for the same.
Quarterly performance review
Quarterly performance reviews are the ones that are conducted every three months, that is, four times a year. Most companies set their organization goals and targets and generate reports of the same on a quarterly basis. This implies that most of the set goals and targets of an employee should also be met every quarter and they should be given new tasks and challenges to learn and develop their skills. This also acts as a better way of performance review as it might be possible that due to some unavoidable reason an employee could not perform in a specific quarter but will do better in the next quarter.
Try out these types of review and see which one suits your needs best
Importance of performance reviews
There are ample ways in which these reviews can be useful not only to managers but to employees and the organization as a whole. Let’s look at some of the varied reasons why performance reviews are important.
- As mentioned earlier, each review is set in a way that also includes the future goals and expectations of the employee as well as the organization. This particular section of the performance review gives a better understanding of the job role of an employee.
- These reviews help in aligning an employee’s personal goals to that of an organization’s goal creating a more efficient work environment.
- A regular performance review helps both an employee and a manager to understand the strength and weaknesses of the employee which, by giving constructive feedback can help both employee and manager in a positive manner.
- These reviews helps employees analyze their true potential and the pace of their growth and development which helps them enhance their skills and career in the long run.
- Performance reviews are often looked at by organizations as the basis on which they can provide an appraisal to the employees or give them a promotion if needed.
- These helps an organization in adopting a culture of giving and accepting constructive feedback and providing the motivation to enhance one’s skills and accept more challenges.
Things to keep in mind while writing a performance review
Now that we all know the importance a these reviews has for employees, a manager, and an organization as a whole. The importance of performance review makes it a task that requires delicacy and proper use of words. Even today, in many organizations these reviews, scare most of the employees and are looked at as something that has a negative meaning attached to it but we all know that that is not the case.
However, if one is not mindful while creating a performance review it can do severe damage to an employee on a personal level and can also have a negative impact on employee and manager relations. Below mentioned are a few things that to keep in mind.
- Make sure to clearly communicate with the employee the things expected from him as an employee of the organization in his/her early days. This will be really helpful as it will eliminate any chance of confusion that one might have or surprise one might receive in his/her first performance review which will create a significant difference in all aspects of the employee’s time period in that organization.
- Being a manager, you should avoid including any kind of personal issues or reasons with an employee while writing his/her performance review.
- One should be very mindful of any kind of bias one might be inclined to. This may be the working style or a particular belief one might hold regarding work or office culture and environment. Managers should be considerate of employees’ working style or office culture and environment. Any kind of difference in it should not be reflected in the employee’s performance review.
- While providing any constructive feedback to an employee make sure to also provide a way or a roadmap that can help employees work on that feedback and mitigate the factor where he/she was lagging behind.
- Performance review is not where one just discusses what an employee has done in the past and set future goals and objectives for them. A very important aspect of is to take feedback from employees to see if they are going in the right direction or if they need help with something.
Create a free performance review survey while keeping the above points in mind
FAQs
What do you write in a performance review?
Performance review covers all the aspects relating to the employee in his/her work environment with a detailed description of where the employee stands out and where they need to work. It also provides a roadmap for the areas where employees need to show some improvements.
What is considered to be a good performance review?
All performance review contains the ratings and the details on employees working but what makes a performance review good is that it also covers the part where employees need to work, providing a roadmap as to how the person can improve in the areas which need improvements.
