Rasmussen MA CEC PCC On our long list of things to do for our employees is to provide them with a performance review. Typically a boss sits down with each team member and goes over what they are doing right and wrong. Often these conversations will lead to a pay raise. Sound straight forward enough? What you might not know is how much damage these reviews can cause costing you a valuable employee and the corresponding costs to replace them when they leave.
The reality is that people don’t like performance reviews any more than they liked report cards in school. Considering how humans are wired reviews are counter productive unless the individual is getting only praise. What works better is a written yearly performance plan where you sit down together and collaboratively establish personal goals that support the company’s objectives.
This is how I felt after receiving my first official review back in the days when I worked for a big company.
The one and only time I had a performance review I almost quit that day. I couldn’t fathom how after being one of the top sales people in the company could they berate me about my paperwork!
I felt like they were just looking for something wrong and the few nice things they said felt pale in comparison to the shame I felt when they went on and on about my not so perfect paperwork.
This is why I always recommend small business owners do performance plans instead of performance reviews. Maybe Dr. Edward Deming one of my business hero’s from the past says it best:
"Evaluation of performance, merit rating, or annual review... It nourishes short-term performance, annihilates long-term planning, builds fear,demolishes teamwork, nourishes rivalry and politics" ~ He goes on to say... It leaves people bitter, crushed, bruised, battered, desolate, despondent dejected, felling inferior, some even depressed, unfit for work for weeks after receipt of rating, unable to comprehend why they are inferior. it is unfair, as it ascribes to the people in a group differences that may be caused totally by the system that they work in” - Deming
Deming understood that the best way to strengthen an employees performance is to work collectively to continuously develop better, more efficient systems to support the work that is being done.
“When something goes wrong in an organization chances are it’s not a people problem, it’s a missing or broken system”
What is a performance plan?
Taking the place of a performance review, a performance plan allows for you, as the employer, to sit down with the employee and collaboratively establish personal goals that support the company’s objectives.
Sample questions:
- State your understanding of your main duties and responsibilities:
- Has the past year been: great / good / bad / satisfactory for you and why?
- What do you consider to be your most important achievements of the past year?
- What do you like about working for this organization?
- What elements of your job do you find the most difficult?
- What elements of your job interest you most and least?
- What do you consider to be your most important aims and tasks in the next year?
- What actions could be taken to improve your performance in your current position by you and your boss?
- What kind of work or job would you like to be doing in one / two / five year’s time?
- What sort of training / experience would benefit you in the next year? (Name any specific training programs you would be willing to take).List the objectives you set out to achieve in the next 12 months.
- In light of your current capabilities and your future personal growth and / or job aspirations, what activities, training/and tasks would you like to focus on during the next year?
Download your own fillinable performance plan template here >>>>> (get Sandra to prepare this and set up with ConvertKit link)
