Employee performance is the secret sauce to business success in any industry. Getting the highest level of productivity, however, can be the most elusive of all your business objectives. One way to ensure employee performance is optimised is to measure it (which makes logical sense), but businesses often get the performance review wrong.
Take a quick self-audit to make sure you, or your management team, are not making any of these common mistakes in your performance review efforts:
- Not doing performance reviews at all
- Not doing performance reviews on a routine basis
- Not training management teams on how to do one on one reviews effectively
- Not instituting uniformity so rolled up performance reviews can be assessed across the organisation
Winning at the one-on-one performance review game is not only a way to help your employee performance soar, but it also contributes to a positive culture in your company, raises employee retention levels and heightens employee engagement. In fact, studies show that although career satisfaction tends to drop slightly around performance review time, job search activity decreases. Now that it’s established that performance reviews are a quintessential component of your business operations, it’s time to drill down on how to get it right.
Four Ways To Get 1:1 Performance Reviews Right
- Set a schedule (repeat). Even if your one on one performance review is on point, if it’s not done regularly, it is not going to impact your employee’s performance positively. Calendarise and prioritise your performance reviews to ensure you get the results you seek.
- Train your team. Create a training program so that you and your management team are on the same page. While a variety of performance review styles can be effective, some styles are at best ineffective and at worst create a negative impact. Managers sometimes struggle to identify the critical skills that need to be reviewed and optimised for higher performance. A solid set of measurable guidelines will help managers determine whether a skill is truly critical to the enterprise’s goals and objectives.
- Use the right tools. Although excel spreadsheets are great tools for certain aspects of your business, they are not the right tools for one-to-one performance reviews. A robust yet easy to use technology platform should be used to keep your performance review efforts on track. Look for employee performance software that is accessible on mobile and desktop, and that offers visual presentations of KPIs to help with engagement and support a clear understanding of progress. These types of tools provide benefits that include visibility into performance with desk, non-desk and contracted employees – ultimately providing your organisation the ability to drive optimised productivity at scale.
- Keep it real time. While annual performance reviews serve a purpose and the yearly planning exercise is another excellent tool to keep your team’s productivity moving forward, the sweet spot lies in the short, real-time visibility of progress. You and your team should be able to quickly check out where they are at this point in time as it relates to others and the goals they have set. This makes your 1:1 performance reviews more effective, empowers employees and saves time compiling custom reporting.
Learn how StaffCircle is the tool that can bring your employee productivity to its optimal level:
- Reach employees where they are. StaffCircle’s HR software is accessible via desktop and mobile.
- Personalisation is baked into the tool. Custom dashboards allow managers to see employees progress toward goals in real-time, and each team member can have their own targeted dashboard.
- Visual insights are easier to understand. Visual presentation of data to easily display performance and support growth toward goals across departments.
- Sync up with other departments. When the entire organisation is using this powerful (yet uniform) tool, it’s easy to roll up the data and compare how departments are performing – creating a 360-degree view of the overall enterprise’s performance.
It is commonly understood and intuitive that a highly productive employee is engaged in his or her work and more likely to stay with the company. A strong understanding of management’s expectations and goalposts is an essential component of this strong relationship. The 1:1 performance review (done correctly) facilitates that level of productivity with the added benefit of improving culture and improving retention rates. Creating a high-performance culture is within grasp with the help of StaffCircle’s powerful performance management software.
Schedule a free demo today and take your employee performance to the next level.
