How to evaluate a company
For most companies, December means two things: end of the year performance reviews and planning for the new year. Depending on your current stage of HR maturity, preparing these tasks with the right tools, mindset and skills can set your company on a path of higher efficiency and growth.
Providing valuable and constructive feedback can help create your next steps towards smart goals and effective development plans. To get you off on the right foot, we’ve compiled a list of ways you can best prepare for your performance review so you’re set up for long-term success at work.
Take time to reflect
One of the first things you should do when preparing for your performance review is to reflect on the tasks and projects you’ve accomplished over the past year or few months. Think about everything you’ve worked on or contributed to over that time period, and connect your goals and what you’ve accomplished to the greater goals of the company, and be prepared to share that with your leader.
In fact, to better prepare for your performance review, start a work journal at the top of the year so that you can accurately reflect every achievement you’ve reached and discuss them with your boss. Use it to record what you started, achieved, learned or even screwed up, and write in it every single day.
At most of these meetings, you and your boss tend to focus on what happened in the previous two to three months, which can give short shrift to your accomplishments overall. But by journaling daily and reviewing your entries, you can turn your performance review into a more in-depth conversation where you’re discussing the full scope of your accomplishments.
Don’t base feedback on results
Be careful not to base positive feedback exclusively on results. Sometimes even if an employee puts forth their best effort, a project could fall through due to some external reasons. It’s at these times that positive feedback can be most effective in counteracting the demotivating feeling your employee may be experiencing after not seeing their efforts materialize.
Be clear and specific
It’s important to clearly explain why this is hurting their performance. Refer to specific situations will encourage employees to recall their past behaviour and think about what actions they could take to change their performance.
Use a growth mindset
Remember that the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset is that people with a fixed mindset see their abilities as static so feedback can often be seen as a personal attack. Framing your feedback in a way that focuses on behaviour, rather than traits, emphasizes that you are drawing their attention to certain areas because you believe it will help them improve their performance. The safest way to avoid this is to make statements based on facts and observations.
Find a solution together
Give your employees a chance to respond to your comments so you can see it from their perspective and properly address the situation. Remember your job is to give them perspective on their actions. Give suggestions of ways they could adjust their performance and ask what steps they think they could take. This is also a good way to make sure they understood and will take steps to change their behaviour. Ask for advice on how you as their manager can help them to achieve this goal. This will reinforce your willingness to help them and demonstrate your receptiveness to receiving feedback yourself.