- Keep the review positive. While there may be some negative points to discuss, keeping the overall tone of the review positive will relieve a lot of possible tension after the review for the employee.
- Stick to a schedule. Whether it’s yearly depending on when the employee was hired, or whether you hold everyone’s reviews at the same time, keep to this schedule.
- Don’t substitute the performance review for regular feedback. You should be regularly communicating with your employees with, and they should have an idea about what areas you would like to see improvement in before they head into the review.
- Schedule a review in advance. In order to prepare both yourself and your employees, make sure you both know when exactly the review is going to happen – and stick to the proposed date and time.
- Educate your employees on the system that you use. They will understand what you are doing and why you are doing it.
- Don’t be confrontational. Remember that you are evaluating the job performance, not the person.
- If you’re implementing a review system for the first time, find inspiration from other review systems. Whether it from different departments in your company, with assistance from HR professionals, or from online resources, there are many places where you can draw inspiration from as far as how to hold a performance review and what to discuss in them.
- Be consistent. If you are evaluating two employees who do the same job, measure their job performance on the same standards.
- Listen to your employee. This is an opportunity where you can discuss with your employee how they can improve their skills and performance, but it can also be an opportunity to get their feedback.
- Follow up with the review. Follow up with the employee covering the main points of discussion to make sure that you and your employee are on the same page after the review.
