Conducting Effective and Meaningful Performance Appraisals

February 07, 2012, by Stephanie Messier | Performance Management

The performance appraisal should represent a summary of an ongoing, year-round dialogue. Focusing only on an annual appraisal form often leads to misunderstandings or disputes between employee and manager. Imagine a hockey coach who waits until the end-of-season tournament to provide his team, who has lost all season, with any meaningful feedback. The team would be upset, and rightly so: “Why didn’t you tell us before this game; we could have practiced with that feedback in mind and actually won the tournament!” So it is with a manager providing coaching throughout the year to his/her employees.

Below are suggestions to improve the performance appraisal experience for both managers and employees:

•  Provide them with a simple template they can use as a guide
•  Equip them with open-ended questions that will generate a good performance review discussion
•  If stuck for words, provide your managers with performance review statements to help them get started
•  As a leader, be a role model with your own performance review discussion
•  Educate your managers on the importance of having performance discussions with their employees
•  Train and coach your managers on providing effective feedback
•  Ask employees if they are receiving enough feedback  from their performance review discussions

Timely and meaningful feedback supported by facts, examples and observations is key to getting the most out of your performance appraisal process.  The results of an annual appraisal should never come as a surprise to the employee.