Performance Appraisals

Whether you love them or loathe them, there is still a good case to be had for having regular performance appraisals with your team. An effective performance appraisal process can help you acknowledge high achievers, monitor performance, and allow your team to understand how their work contributes to the business they work for. Ideally, this will result in you the employer, developing a positive culture while helping to build your employees confidence and competencies.

A performance appraisal will generally follow the below process

1. At the start of the year (whenever you choose to do this e.g. may be 1 April to coincide with financial year) an agreement is made between the manager and staff member where targets or goals for the staff member are set for the year ahead
2. The manager and staff member regularly meet to discuss progress and allow an opportunity for feedback
3. At the end of the year the manager and staff member meet to complete a final review of the employee’s progress. the result of this review may then be related to a remuneration review.

In recent years we have seen that some employers’ have opted for a more informal approach – this can also work well as long as employees know what is expected of them, and there is regular two-way feedback as to how they are going.  However you undertake the performance reviews in your practice, it should be a positive experience for both parties.

Goals should be set based on the employee’s current job description and should be used to evaluate the overall performance of the person. Goals should be SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. Goal setting can also be used to discuss the employees career aspirations and determine any needs for training and development.

Although some Managers like to offer ‘an open-door policy’ with an ‘as and when needed’ approach to dealing with staff catch ups, that can result in disruption to workflows for both parties.  We suggest that you have a set time on a regular basis to meet with each staff member. This will ensure that regular catch ups actually happen, and that staff are involved in each step of the performance appraisal process. How often you meet with your staff will depend on things such as the needs of your business, the size of your business, and the staff members tenure.

The end of year wrap up should provide an opportunity for two-way feedback. As you would have been meeting with the employee regularly during the year, there should be no surprises in this meeting for the staff member. Provide examples of the performance/behaviours that you have witnessed and want to acknowledge and encourage, and approach the areas where improvement is required with a coaching viewpoint so performance can be worked on in the following year.

Finally, all stages of the performance appraisal should be well documented. Goals and targets should be signed off by each party and notes should be taken at each catch up. This way both parties can refer back to items discussed and at the end of the year there is a clear understanding of the outcome for both the employer and employee. If the outcome includes a salary increase this can be confirmed via a letter congratulating and thanking the staff member with a copy held in the HR file.