4 Tips on Conducting a Thorough (and Productive) Review

Experienced managers know that there’s an art to giving a performance review. It’s not as easy as just watching somebody do their work, making a few basic notes, and then sitting down with that person and talking to them for a little bit. The review is a lot more than the sum of its parts — it represents the manager’s insight into the relationship that he or she has with members of the team, and the roles that people play within the general structure of a business. Here are four great guidelines for coming up with thorough and comprehensive reviews that will do more than just fill in the blanks.

Categorize and Itemize

A lot of the key to a thorough and comprehensive review involves the structure of that review. The review should measure every aspect of the worker’s performance, and so having subtitled categories is extremely helpful. Within these categories, make room for details about someone’s work. For instance, you may want to look at productivity metrics like quotas, sales numbers, or units of paperwork completed during a certain time frame. That would go under some kind of category such as “productive performance.” Then you may also want to measure somebody’s people skills, which would go into an entirely different category. Formatting and categorizing the review is one of the best ways to make sure that it covers the necessary ground.

Balance Positives and Negatives

Nearly any professional manager knows that reviews can’t be too negative. They’re not supposed to be punitive experiences that “make employees work harder”. They’re supposed to be insightful, intelligent commentary on how someone is doing in a business role, and they’re supposed to be participative, not top-down.

But some reviews can actually suffer from the opposite problem. They may not be honest or direct enough to really affect outcomes. Experts would suggest being honest and frank, without being punitive, malicious or condescending to people. Overall, it’s extremely important that the review respects the individual employee, but it also has to touch on areas of improvement. So walking this balance is another extremely important part of guidelines for writing the best performance reviews.

Make it Interactive

Another way that top leaders build the best reviews is by making those reviews track activity in a series or sequence. That means taking material for previous records, and building it to future reviews in a way that’s consistent and clear. A set of employee reviews should be like a budget — outside auditors should be able to track it in a way that shows that the review doesn’t just show where someone is today, but where they have been over a period of months or years. This also helps to provide more precise feedback and commentary for the next review that will take place in the future.

Include Discussion

As the review is supposed to be respectful of the person that is being reviewed, managers can also open it up as a forum for feedback and discussion. The reviewer and the reviewee may agree emphatically on certain points. They may disagree on others. A review discussion can be a place for debating company policy or growth. It should be an open space where two people can work together and exchange input, not a one-way street for a boss or supervisor to simply demand things from people.

For more, check out the Full Steam Staffing blog to learn more about our take on best management practices, and how we work with our clients throughout California.