Employee Reviews

Effective employee reviews

Tim Connor

There is a basic management premise that states, “You get the behavior you reward.”  Thousands of employees perform tasks and duties every day are totally unaware of how they are doing according to the systems, structure or expectations of their management staff.  As a result, there are hundreds of man/woman hours wasted each day in redundant activities as well as a tremendous waste of time and capital resources.

All of this can be avoided by a constant vigilance regarding employee behavior and performance. The time to modify behavior is not once a year at an annual review. Incorrect behavior or inappropriate attitudes should be corrected when it happens – not several weeks or months later.

The annual review should be more of an overall career path discussion than an attempt to “fix” the employee.

Most managers who conduct employee reviews have never been trained in how to conduct them; therefore, they end up wasting time and these “so called reviews” can even have a negative impact on the employee’s attitude and performance.

One of the questions I always ask when conducting confidential interviews in preparation for an in-house training program is, “Does your organization have a formal review policy that you feel is relevant and effective?”  The answer for the past ten years has been 70% no. Next question of the 30% who say yes is, “is it effective, timely or of any value to you as an employee or the organization?”  Response: 75% have said, “It is of little value in terms of their real world as an employee, it is just a formal exercise that my boss is required to perform”.

What about your review policy, program or strategy? How would you describe it? How would your employees respond to my questions? Might be an interesting and valuable exercise! 

In this short article it’s impossible to cover all of the ramifications of employee reviews. My purpose is to signal a simple wake-up call regarding this employee motivation and career development process or tool.

There are a number of excellent books, seminars, and audio and video tapes on how to plan and conduct employee reviews. As a manager, failure to develop the required skills in this area will cost you good employees, as well as have a negative impact on morale, communication, and overall organization performance. 

If you don't you might want to consider re-evaluating your review philosophy, policy and techniques.