An employee performance review gives insight into your employees' ability to perform their duties. It also ensures that they're done as efficiently as possible. According to one Gallup poll, approximately 19% of workers stated they received feedback from management once per year or less.
When it comes to evaluating employee performance, what's the best practice?
Read on for a list of seven ways you can evaluate your employees' performance. With these tips, you'll be able to create the best outcome for all involved.
1. Focus on the numbers
If your aim is to remain objective, looking at raw numbers can give you insight into employee performance. Things like total monthly sales or goals reached provide accurate insight into a person's success.
Use these numbers to show your employees how they're doing on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Numbers don't lie, and they allow you to provide precise informational feedback. While total sales aren't always the most important thing, they can help you get a clear picture of your employees' productivity.
Integrate software that allows you to look at employee performance at any time at a glance. You can then compile these numbers and reports whenever you do an evaluation.
2. Consider peer review
The peer-review process involves employees providing anonymous feedback about their coworkers. You can do this by submitting a survey to each employee so that the request for information remains consistent across the board.
Ensuring anonymity is vital if you're using peer review. The last thing you want is for coworkers to harbor resentment toward one another if their review is less than stellar. But peer review is also helpful if you're looking for more insight into how your employees work together as a team.
Peer review can also help you assign tasks to the right people. This unique insight allows you to tailor jobs to employees who excel in a specific aspect of the job.
3. Set goals and use them for employee performance
One of the best ways to evaluate employee performance is to set individual goals. This applies to things like reaching sales numbers or completing projects on time. Setting goals is an effective way to gauge an employee's ability to perform certain tasks.
Set your employee performance goals in advance and make your expectations clear. If an employee reaches the goal, it should reflect positively on their review. Meeting goals isn't the only component of a performance evaluation, but it's a vital component of the process.
Always be sure that the goals you set are reachable and realistic. Setting lofty or unrealistic goals could backfire. It might also cause employee resentment and frustration if they're simply not attainable.
4. Give honest and raw feedback
Sitting down with your employees and talking about their performance is one of the best ways to encourage improvement. Be open and honest, realistic and raw, yet compassionate when meeting with employees one-on-one.
Be as professional as possible, and always stick to the facts when doing a personal employee performance evaluation. Never let your emotions get in the way of the feedback you provide.
This is also an excellent time to listen to your employees' concerns. The more you know about what's going on, the sooner you can correct and address various issues.
5. Focus on the positive
It's easy to look for flaws when you're knee-deep in an employee performance evaluation. Don't forget to keep your eyes on the positive aspects of your employees, too.
Make sure you always include a few points of praise in the evaluation. Offer words of encouragement and highlight some of the employee's key accomplishments. A balance of positive and critical feedback will encourage your workers to strive toward improvement rather than feeling like they've failed.
6. Use the SMART method
The SMART method for employee feedback integrates several methods into one. This acronym is as follows:
- Specific: Be specific when setting goals for employees and teams
- Measurable: Devise a clear, measurable way for employees to meet their goals
- Achievable: Always ensure that these goals are realistic and achievable in relation to the task at hand
- Relevant: Keep goals relevant to the individual's position and skillset
- Time-Bound: Provide a clear, reachable timeline for when a specific goal should be reached
Using this method for employee performance review makes it clear to everyone where they stand. It also provides a much more reasonable request if you need your employees to reach specific goals within a certain timeframe.
7. Provide clear, actionable feedback
If an employee is struggling, providing them with clear, actionable feedback should help with performance improvement. Give your employees specifics about what they need to do in order to be better with task efficiency or accuracy.
Make sure that your employee understands their mistakes or shortcomings, but always do so in a calm, compassionate way. Afterward, give them the tools they need to correct these issues so they can improve in the future.
Offering real specifics shows that you care about your employees and their success. It also gives employees real guidance about what they should do in the future to improve.
A better evaluation means better performance
Keep these tips in mind to help you design an effective method of employee performance evaluation. With the right goals and proper feedback, all of your employees will succeed and thrive.
Keep your employees on track to reach their goals with the performance management tool from Mesh. If you're ready to improve your workforce, be sure to contact us today to find out how we can help.
