Performance reviews can be a chance for both the employee and employer to discuss goals, needs, salary, and initiatives. Many companies, though, avoid performance reviews, thinking that they are impersonal, threatening, or a waste of time. In fact, they are what the company makes of them. Performance reviews can be easy going, friendly, and highly beneficial to the company and the employee.
The Benefits of the Performance Review
- To reinforce, recognize, and reward outstanding workers
- To encourage higher standards from the under performers
- For a chance to help motivate employees to increase sales or productivity
- To discuss long-range issues and plans
- To set goals
- To discus a raise and/or bonus
- For documentation purposes
Who Does the Review
- Manager or Supervisor – The most common review process involves the manager writing the review and discussing it with the employee.
- Peer Review – Allowing fellow employees to rate and critique performance is often less intimidating and can even be more down to earth than a review written by a higher up.
- Self Assessment – The employee writes his own review and then meets with the manager to discuss it. This takes the load off the manager when there are many employees to review at once.
- 360-Degree Review – This includes a manager review, peer review, self assessment, and subordinate reviews. This helps to remove the bias of the review process.
The Reviewer Must Be Sure To:
- Do employee reviews for all employees. If all levels and all employees are not reviewed, the ones that are will feel singled out.
- Be realistic, specific, and fair. All employees are different. When devising a plan for the year, remember that employees all have their own strengths and weaknesses.
- Avoid surprises at the year end by maintaining a verbal review throughout the year by offering and listening to feedback.
When to Hold the Review
It is common to conduct a review around 60-90 days after hire and then at regular intervals at six months or a year.
Built In HR Docs
Human resources documents are a commonly neglected employee tracking item in the world of employee tracking software but Timesheets.com believes HR docs are an important tool for employers in determining what employees should be paid.
Our templates help employers track performance in four ways, namely, with the performance review, commendation letter, disciplinary action, and termination letter. These documents are saved as PDFs in our system so that the date and outcome of the event are never forgotten. The performance review includes the pay increase field and even figures the percentage of the raise. Employees do not have access to these documents, which can only be viewed by administrators and direct supervisors with access.
