Performance reviews don’t have to be scary or negative. In fact, they can help you grow in your role. When done effectively, reviews give you clarity and direction.

Picture yourself having an open, constructive conversation with your manager. She praises your recent wins and achievements. You beam with satisfaction. Then she talks about areas needing improvement. You listen closely, taking notes and asking questions.

By the end, you have a plan to build new skills. Now let’s explore everything you should know.

What Are Performance Reviews?

A performance review is a formal check-in where your manager examines the quality of your work over a set period of time. They assess your strengths, weaknesses, and goals.

Reviews are also called performance evaluations or appraisals. But they all serve the same purpose – to measure and discuss performance.

Traditionally, reviews happen annually. But many companies now opt for more frequent, informal check-ins. What matters most is having meaningful conversations.

Well-done reviews offer value to both you and your manager. You gain insight about your abilities and priorities for growth. Your manager communicates expectations and tracks team performance.

When you leave the review meeting feeling energized and focused, you know it was a success. Now let’s look at what’s evaluated.

What Should Be Included In A Performance Assessment Of An Employee?

Though each role is unique, certain competencies get assessed in almost every review:

Communication

Do you communicate clearly and effectively with colleagues, clients, and leadership?

Teamwork

How well do you collaborate with teammates and contribute to collective goals?

Problem-solving

When faced with challenges, do you think critically to find solutions?

Quality

Is your work accurate, thorough, and polished?

Time Management

Do you use time productively and meet deadlines consistently?

Goals

Did you successfully complete goals set at your last review?

Your review will also cover skills specific to your position and achievements from the past year. The goal is a comprehensive view of your performance.

Performance Ratings

Once your manager looks at all the key areas, they’ll evaluate you on each one. There are different ways they might score your performance:

Letter Grades

A, B, C, etc. This is a simple and straightforward approach.

Number Scale

Rating you on a scale of 1-5, 1-10, etc. Easy to quantify and compare.

Descriptors

“Exceeds expectations”, “meets expectations”, etc. Defines different performance levels verbally.

However they score, the system should be clear and fair. An effective review leaves no ambiguity about expectations.

The Review Meeting

The most critical element is the face-to-face meeting with your manager. This conversation brings the review to life.

Schedule ample time so you can have a meaningful, productive dialogue. Having your review document handy keeps things focused.

Listen openly as your manager explains your scoring and provides examples. Ask clarifying questions and share relevant insights.

The meeting is also an opportunity to give your manager constructive feedback on their management skills. This two-way dynamic fuels mutual growth.

Making the Most of Your Review

Approach your performance review as a valuable opportunity, not a moment of judgment. Walk away with clarity about your abilities and defined next steps.

Celebrate the wins and achievements your manager highlights. This builds confidence to take on new challenges.

For areas needing improvement, avoid getting defensive. Listen, reflect, and ask how you can grow. Then integrate that feedback to refine your skills.

Employees and employers’ benefit from performance reviews because they shed light on what is and is not successful in the workplace and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Reviewing an employee’s work performance is essential for any company, but the success of these evaluations is contingent on how they are carried out. They have the potential to inspire your staff to achieve even greater things, but they also have the capability of driving them away from your firm.

Writing a solid review isn’t easy, but it’s worth the effort because it helps employees recognize growth prospects and potential areas for improvement, all without straining relations between employees and managers. In many cases, managers do not receive sufficient information regarding an efficient and complete assessment format.

Give comments on a consistent and unstructured basis.

Feedback should not be limited to the brief review periods that generally occur once or twice a year, even if performance reviews are typically conducted during these times. It would help if you administered consistent assessments throughout the year so there are no unexpected findings regarding reviewing.

You should also keep a running log of employee performance, mainly if there are no upcoming performance assessments in the immediate future.

It would be a mistake to ignore your best performers. Let’s say that you’re simply addressing problems or concentrating on employees who aren’t performing as well as others in the workplace. If this is the case, you are passing on a chance to show appreciation to the people at your firm responsible for shaping its innovation, creativity, and culture. Even while they might not require as much direction as other workers, these employees are nevertheless at risk of losing their passion and motivation if they are not occasionally recognized for their hard work.

Be honest

There is no such thing as a flawless employee, but there is always space for development. Consider what aspects of the situation are important enough to bring up, and don’t be afraid to do so. If you know that a problem is harming your team, avoiding the subject will accomplish nothing and may even worsen things.

Be straightforward with workers without being harsh with them. Feedback should be provided in the manner you would prefer to receive it. Because conversation is inevitable, you should select an appropriate approach and stay with it.

Face-to-face is the way to go

The written review needs to be a concise but direct overview of the things up for discussion, which will make for a more nuanced face-to-face debate. To create a relaxed environment for the meeting, you could arrange for it to take place in a coffee shop or some other venue outside of the office. You should schedule a video chat if you are evaluating remote workers so that you may continue to have a live conversation. This strategy eliminates the possibility of misunderstandings while leaving open conversation and input on their end.

After pointing out any deficiencies or errors, discuss possible remedies to those issues, and then encourage employees to comment on the concerns you’ve brought up.

Use tangible, pertinent examples

Make sure you have clear examples to reference if you are discussing areas in which an employee can improve or things the employee has done well. (Because of this, it’s essential to keep a log of your thoughts for a considerable time.)

The availability of examples demonstrates to the employee that you pay attention to their needs and gives credibility to the standards you have set.

The finish is on an upbeat and optimistic tone

Please don’t walk away from the review without having mutually understood and respected each other’s opinions, and don’t leave any employee with the impression that they are in the dark moving ahead.

An employee’s morale can be brought back up after a mostly positive evaluation by providing encouragement and showing gratitude, or it can be brought back up after a somewhat unfavorable evaluation by providing encouragement and showing appreciation. Workers can gain the self-assurance and motivation needed to accomplish their jobs more effectively if provided with positive reinforcement and constructive criticism.

Take caution with the words that you choose

Pay careful attention to how you express your assessments. Compared to more common expressions such as “good” or “satisfied,” the impact of meaningful and action-oriented words is far more robust. When describing your accomplishments, use adjectives like an accomplishment, communication skills, innovation, improvement, and management abilities. Consider employing phrases such as “exceeds,” “exhibits,” “demonstrates,” “grasps,” “generates,” “manages,” “possesses,” “communicates,” “monitors,” “directs,” and “achieves” in your writing. These words are more powerful.

The first thing you should focus on is mastering your approach and language. The time managers and HR staff spend collecting and producing the information that serves as the foundation for each performance review represents your firm’s actual cost of performance evaluations. That is where software that manages performance can be of use.

You can include an open API system or outsource the entire process to a third party, depending on the demands placed on your HR department.

An employee performance review, also known as a performance evaluation or performance appraisal, is a formal examination of an employee’s work in each period. Other names for this type of review include performance evaluation and performance appraisal. During an employee performance review, supervisors assess the individual’s overall performance, determine the person’s strengths and weaknesses, provide comments, and assist the employee in goal-setting.

Employees are often permitted to pose inquiries to their managers and provide feedback to them as well. To evaluate their performance, they could also fill out a self-evaluation form.

Traditional performance reviews have been conducted once per year; however, many businesses are shifting toward conducting quarterly, monthly, or even weekly reviews. Some companies have done away with the conventional performance evaluation process entirely, and in its place, they have implemented more frequent, less structured one-on-one check-ins with management.

Meetings to discuss employees’ and managers’ performance should benefit both parties, regardless of how regularly or the evaluations are carried out in your firm. Workers can better understand what they are doing well and where they can improve, and they are also allowed to ask their supervisors questions or provide feedback. In return, managers can communicate expectations with their team, determine which employees are the most productive, address problems before they become more serious, and boost employee engagement and motivation.

What should be included in a performance assessment of an employee

The following competencies are typically evaluated as part of employee performance reviews across all sectors:

• Communication
• Cooperation and cooperative effort
• Problem-solving
• Accurate work and of high quality
• Attendance, promptness, and dependability are all critical.
• The capacity to achieve one’s objectives and observe one’s due dates

A review should also contain company-specific or position-specific competencies and the employee’s accomplishments and contributions to their job or organization. Lastly, the evaluation should include any employee feedback regarding the review.

To gain a picture of the employee’s performance, you will need to analyze and weigh each of the main areas of assessment once you have addressed those critical areas. It is up to you and your firm’s requirements to structure and organize this information in a particular manner. Some businesses employ a grading scale that ranges from A to F, numerical scoring or percentages, or written descriptors (such as “most of the time,” “some of the time”) to evaluate employees’ performance. Make sure that whichever method you employ is objective and not too tricky to grasp.

After you have completed the grading process, schedule a time to go around to each employee’s desk and discuss the results. When trying to keep your meeting on track and avoid getting off-topic, having a written copy of the evaluation can be quite beneficial. Be sure to provide the employee with feedback that is open and honest, providing examples when it is appropriate to do so, and allow the employee sufficient time to ask questions or provide comments.