The Surprising Truth about Employee Performance Assessments: A Two-Way Dialogue to Guarantee Understanding

Giving and receiving performance feedback is an essential part of any performance-based organization and an important part of any working relationship. This is especially true during performance reviews, when employees and management come together to discuss the employee's work performance.

Unfortunately, many companies struggle with the performance review process because it can be difficult to provide feedback that is both meaningful and actionable. Many performance reviews fall short of this goal. Employees often feel that their fate is pre-judged, or they are anxious about the review process and what it will mean for their future. This can lead to a lack of communication and understanding between employees and management.

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In fact, recent studies show that up to 70% of employees feel that their performance feedback is inaccurate. This can be due to a number of factors, but the two biggest are a lack of trust and a lack of communication.

In this blog post, we will discuss how to create a two-way dialogue during performance reviews, so that both parties can understand each other's expectations and goals. We will also discuss how to build trust within the performance review process, so that employees feel comfortable sharing their feedback. By creating a two-way dialogue and building trust, we can ensure that performance reviews are accurate, actionable, and meaningful for everyone involved. Thanks for reading!

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The Objective of The Process:

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Establish an effective performance feedback program that is beneficial to both the employee and management. A process that is well understood, agreed upon, and consistently executed, yielding positive results and measurable outcomes.

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List of Benefits:

• Improves Manager & Employee relationships
• Improves connectedness of the Employee to the organization
• Helps the employee to understand their performance metrics, how they are aligning to expectations, and where they need to make improvements
• Improves the productivity and efficiency of the employees through better connectedness.

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List of Observations:

• Employees are only getting annual reviews
• Quality of the reviews lacking. Not substantive
• The feedback is designed to support the pre-judged rating
• Managers are scrambling at the last minute to complete the reviews
• Reviews are short and not meaningful

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List of Recommendations:

• Use the Employee Development, Employee Feedback, Employee 1-on-1, and Employee Team Meetings process to engage the employee
• Provide feedback through regular cycles and not at the end of the year
• Feedback should be given in a manner that allows the employee to make adjustments to correct any misalignment with expectations.

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Assessment Questions:

1. Do you have a documented Performance Review process?
2. Is the process executed at the Organization and Department level consistently?
3. Are there any deviations from what is being done against what was defined?
4. How often do you meet with your employees?
5. Do you have a structured approach to the discussions?
6. Do you provide feedback ahead of time?
7. Do you share meeting minutes?
8. Do you build a roadmap with the employee on any misalignment with expectations?
9. Do you manage the implementation of the roadmap?

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Do you have any tips for performance reviews? Let us know in the comments below! And be sure to check out our blog next week for more great tips on performance management!

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