You're not alone if the prospect of doing performance reviews or appraisals makes you nervous. Lots of people-managers find them a bit daunting!
This article, plus our downloadable list of sample performance review discussion points, will make reviews easier for you and help you and your team to get the valuable outcomes that can result.
Why Do Performance Reviews?
Ideally, performance reviews are not just about covering all the areas your team member needs to improve. Historically, this is what many of us have experienced, and that’s often why you (and your team) may feel anxious about them.
Areas of improvement and development should definitely be part of what you cover, but reviews also present an excellent opportunity for you to:
Spend dedicated time with each member of your team.
Explore ideas and suggestions for the practice.
Share organisational achievements and plans for the future.
Explore what professional development/training/education would interest and help your team to do their jobs better and engage them moving forward.
Review each team member’s position/job description.
Get feedback yourself as a manager.
This review time together provides an opportunity to focus on the above in a way you don’t get a chance to in the busyness of the day-to-day.
Tips to help you get the most out of your reviews
Preparation – consider:
What outcomes do you want from the reviews?
What do you want your team members to gain? (These two points will determine the questions/talking points you include.)
How will you ensure coverage of the team member’s role during your meeting so you can both be focused the whole time?
Where will you do them so you’re not interrupted or overheard?
Do you want to set KPIs at this time? It’s something to consider but may be more formal than your current approach.
Will you seek input about each team member from others in the team before the review?
Will you be discussing pay raises at this meeting? Are these part of the review process or handled separately? This is important to consider ahead of time so you’re ready for discussions that might be raised.
What changes in company goals and strategic plans would you like to discuss with them?
You want your team members to be prepared, too, so at least a week before the review, provide them with the questions/talking points you’ll be covering. This gives them time to come up with considered responses and takes the ‘mystery’ away from the process so they’re not so nervous. Putting the discussion points on letterhead helps to formalise the process. At the same time, give them a copy of their position/job description to review so you can discuss any additions, things to be removed, and areas not being met.
Allow yourself enough time for the process:
Beforehand, to develop your questions and points to cover, and give considered thought to each team member.
During each meeting, so you can have a relaxed conversation and make the most of this one-on-one interaction with nobody feeling rushed.
Afterwards, to write up what was discussed and agreed upon.
Follow up with each team member:
Ensure you follow up soon after (within a week of the review) in writing, thanking them for their contributions and covering agreed goals, action points and dates for training/support/review, etc.
Request a reply to your email/get them to review and sign a copy. This will create a ‘paper trail’ and show they’ve received your write-up and agree on what was discussed and the outcomes, or trigger clarification where needed.
If their position description has been updated, provide a copy of it too.
Invite them to get in touch about any other thoughts that come to them on reflection after the meeting. This helps keep the ideas and communication flowing.
Sample performance review discussion points for download
To help you kick off your reviews, we’ve created a list of some of talking points you might like to include in your reviews. It’s great to change these up a bit from one review to the next, so it’s a pretty long list. Just add your logo and tweak the discussion points to suit. You can find this on our Downloads page.
Hopefully, with all these tips, you feel more relaxed and positive about doing performance reviews with your team. One final tip – schedule the first review with one of your ‘easier’ team members. This will help you practice and boost your confidence.
The Augmentum team provides a broad range of consultancy and management services, supporting healthcare business owners and decision-makers in many key areas, such as strategy development and action planning, building effective foundations and teams, keeping your finger on the pulse, and driving growth and success.
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