Mangers often do things, unintentionally, to mess up performance management and performance appraisals.
Have you ever noticed that a mere mention of the term “performance appraisal” makes employees roll their eyes or grimace a little? I’ve personally seen this happen.
And why do you think employees perceive performance appraisals as a negative experience?
One possible response to that question would be because many managers handle performance reviews quite poorly.
In the end, the manager and the staff member typically don’t understand each other, never appreciate the other’s point of view and never quite settle on appropriate goals. This can make the experience negative.
There are, however, ways to overcome the negativity associated with performance appraisals.
Here are the five most common mistakes I see employers make with performance appraisals. Do not make these mistakes!
- Waiting for Appraisal Time to Give Feedback—This often occurs when a manager fails to give an employee adequate feedback on their performance throughout the year, and waits until the performance appraisal meeting before dumping everything on the employee.
Employees, as you may suspect, often end up shocked and wonder why their manager didn’t say something to them sooner.
But remember, the key in all performance appraisals is NO SURPRISES!
You also have to wonder how a manager can expect an employee to do the right thing the right way if the manager hasn’t provided the employee with any guidance or feedback all year long.
Employers need to take performance appraisals seriously and develop an on-going review process with their employees.
- Overemphasizing Recent Performance—It’s human nature to remember and give greater weight to recent events, rather than past events. However, this can lead to an inaccurate and unfair assessment when it comes to reviewing an employee’s performance.
The bottom line is this: Managers should take note of each employee’s work performance throughout the year, and not just focus on the events that might have happened in the month leading up to the performance appraisal. That is the fair way to handle appraisals.
- Being Overly Positive or Overly Negative—Managers sometimes tend to be too negative or too positive when giving a performance appraisal.
For example, some managers can be too honest to the point that they give overly negative feedback, while others may feel uncomfortable giving poor appraisals and so they will be overly positive and avoid any kind of constructive feedback.
As a manager appraising someone’s performance, you should give an honest opinion and make sure your employee understands and appreciates what you’re saying in the review.
Even if your constructive feedback has merit, the employee is more likely to miss the validity of what is being said if you do not provide concrete examples of the negative behaviors being addressed.
- Talking without Listening—Mangers have a tendency to talk too much during performance reviews and not listen enough. These meetings are supposed to be interactive, which would include both parties talking and listening—the employee and the manager.
The manager should not relay his/her own appraisal of the employee’s performance without also listening to the employee’s input. As part of the feedback regarding an individual’s performance, a manager should also elicit an employee’s response as to why he/she may have underperformed.
Remember, a key objective of a performance appraisal meeting is to agree on goals for the following year. That’s why communication between the two parties is necessary.
- Failing to Investigate the Facts before Expressing an Opinion—Feedback needs to be based on verifiable observations of behavior in order to avoid a loss of credibility. And sometimes the information managers receive may not be totally accurate.
That’s why it’s very, very important —before you document anything— to make sure the information you have is correct and verifiable.
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