goals and needs with those of individual employees while also factoring in a realistic assessment of an individual’s skills and abilities. Conducting a year-end review is a great opportunity to gain clarity about what is really going on in your organization and things you might do to improve individual and company performance. Here are a few helpful tips for getting the most out of a year-end review.
Don’t go unprepared into your next performance review. Check out our worksheet to help you get more from your year-end performance reviews.
Your Time to Learn
A year-end review is a great time to step outside of the urgent needs of the everyday workflow and look at the bigger picture. What are you learning from your reviews? Are there important considerations (such as employee morale, company values and culture, health and safety, personal growth of employees) that are being overlooked or treated lightly? These large issues can have significant impact on company performance.
Clarity is King
A quality assessment of performance begins with a clear set of standards against which performance is measured. Have you provided employees with clear goals against which they can measure their own performance? Are you in a position to provide that clarity for the next year?
Be Specific
When reviewing an employee’s responsibilities, skills, strengths and accomplishments, focus on the positive and be specific. Constructive feedback on specific performance issues empowers the employee to improve. Helping them understand what they are doing well provides useful guidance for future action, while your acknowledgement of their successes can serve as a motivation for the coming year.
Bite-Sized Pieces
It may be advisable to split the year-end review into two shorter meetings, the first to hear from the employee and share your assessment, and the second to define a clear set of company and employee goals for the coming year. This gives you time to integrate everything you learn from the first meeting (with the employee and with others) before forming a game plan for the coming year.
Be sure to check out our Year-End Performance Review Worksheet, and join our mailing list to get tips and ideas to help you grow your business. Remember to print important work materials on high quality paper such as Hammermill® Color Copy Digital, 28lb printer paper.
