A First-Hand Account Of The Benefits Of Working Remotely

By Alex Yohn

May 4, 2017

Good performance reviews require planning, even if managers provide informal feedback on a regular basis. Preparation is key and demonstrates that your organization is committed to helping employees succeed in their role.

“What’s worked for us is ongoing dialogue that’s fluid and current. We use simple review forms that score performance based on characteristics we want our employees to embody, as well as technical expertise,” says Don Martelli, Vice President at Schneider Associates, a public relations firm in Boston, MA.

He cautions against waiting to provide feedback once a year and also suggests rolling feedback into one document rather than allowing multiple managers to contribute.

“We use real key performance indicators that are measurable and quantifiable, such as growing an account financially, attending networking events and securing a business lead as a result. We provide honest—and sometimes brutal—feedback.”

Solicit support from leaders

The organizational support for employee objectives, ongoing feedback, and performance reviews is crucial. From the frontline to executive leaders, everyone must understand and support the need to build constructive feedback into daily interactions.

As you begin evaluating the performance review culture, answer the following questions:

• Is there a culture of open, honest communication?
• How are employees treated when they make a mistake?
• Do workers and managers openly discuss performance and look for ways to make improvements?

For a performance management shift to happen, the review process must be efficient and contribute to the health of the organization. If it doesn’t, you will experience resistance and face issues around lack of participation.

Establish employee objectives

Employee objectives lay the foundation for effective performance reviews. They’re actionable milestones that help align employer expectations and employee performance. Effective objectives are on behaviors and observable, job-related outcomes. This helps ensure clarity and makes the entire performance review process less prone to bias. It’s also important that employees understand the company’s overall objectives and goals and how their efforts contribute. If an employee knows how their actions support an area of the business, it’s easier to understand the impact when objectives aren’t met.

The creation, tracking, and celebration of employee objectives all reinforce the need for regular dialogue and open discussions between managers and employees. Discussing objectives and providing regular feedback helps employees understand current company goals and how their objectives support those goals. Most importantly, objectives allow you to set expectations for employees.

“The most important place to begin when writing employee reviews is to set clear expectations. Employees are not mind-readers, and they need to know what’s expected of them. Expectations need to be specific. For instance, your expectations might include the business results you expect, the type of work you expect them to complete, a certain type of reporting, how you expect them to communicate with colleagues or what type of attitude you expect in the workplace,” says Susan Katz, Certified Facilitator at The Alternative Board.

What types of objectives can you measure?

• Financial savings
• Process improvement
• Accuracy
• Reduced conflicts
• Accountability
• Productivity
• Efficiency
• Consistency
• Communication
• Demonstration of leadership

Effective objectives focus on the individual, their role within a team, and how their position contributes to the larger organization around them. They should also include an expected result, and in order to meet it, should have smaller tasks which will an employee achieve the desired outcome.

Completing the smaller tasks can help motivate an employee to meet the overall objective. If an employee completes an objective before their performance review, celebrate the success, and identify a new objective to replace it. Then during the next review, revisit that accomplishment and discuss what the employee did to achieve the desired result.

Collect observations, data, and insights

“Instead of trying to remember months-old details about things done well or poorly, I talk with employees immediately after a project or incident that warrants feedback,” says Jason Anderson President of DataGame, an online survey gamification platform.

In The Essential Performance Review Handbook, author Sharon Armstrong also recommends gathering specific, objective examples of employee behavior that illustrate an employee’s performance.

Who should provide observations and insight about an employee’s performance?

• Supervisor or manager
• Colleagues
• Cross-functional team members
• Direct reports
• Clients
• Customers
• Employee’s self-assessment

Some people may provide unsolicited insights and information about an employee’s performance—for example, a colleague might send a manager an email to express their appreciation for an employee’s contribution during a meeting. Or a customer might submit a complaint via an online mechanism about the way an employee addressed their issue. In other cases the manager or employee will need to request feedback from other sources.

Before a review, it’s important for managers to collect this information and reach out to people with whom the employee interacts to collect a wide range of insights and data related to their performance. Gathering performance information from various sources makes it more objective, which is essential for effective performance management. A consistent, defined process for gathering feedback helps ensure fairness, as does access to information, and a regular review of the process.

Organizations often use a 360° feedback process in which employees complete a self-assessment, request feedback from peers, subordinates, and their manager around specific job skills or competencies. Assembling specific feedback from a variety of sources and using it to craft an employee’s review pays off. According to Armstrong, specific feedback demonstrates to an employee that their manager—or others in the organization—notice and appreciate their performance.

Provide feedback often

Historically, performance conversations occurred once a year during an employee’s annual review. The ineffectiveness of this approach may be why some companies have recently abolished their performance review process. An annual process makes it’s too difficult for managers to provide timely, relevant feedback about the past 365 days’ of work, it’s not frequent enough to address issues or inspire employees, and the review doesn’t deliver any change in results.

The solution is not to stop talking about performance, or entirely eliminate reviews—as we mentioned earlier, employees crave feedback about their performance. Instead of leaving performance to chance, managers must focus on providing employees with timely feedback as often as possible rather than waiting for the employee’s performance review.

“Employers should meet regularly with their employees. If they wait a year, they risk what might be a small problem growing into a big problem, so meeting more often is better,” says Sharon DeLay, president of BoldlyGO Career and HR Management.

“The meetings don’t have to be an hour, but why can’t an employer meet with an employee for 30 or 60 minutes each month? It’s a great way to build team, stay in touch, and address issues before they become problems.”

Another key to providing productive feedback is to take some time to evaluate the situation. Ensure that feedback provided to employees is objective and rational. If possible, wait before providing an immediate reaction to an employee’s negative performance.

Self-reflection is another important part of the feedback process. When preparing for performance reviews at Garment Exchange, employees are asked to reflect on “what they could be doing to increase productivity, as well as given an opportunity to express if they are in need of something that could help them in their role,” says Kaleigh Wise, co-founder of the San Antonio-based consignment boutique.

If managers provide frequent feedback, employees know what skills they should use, areas in which they need to improve, and how their objectives contribute to the larger organizational goals. And then, when it’s time for an annual review, a manager has all the information they need to draft the formal review.

Document employee performance

Companies that are dedicated to the power of performance management have a place to record and access employee objectives, as well as track progress and add notes that can be referenced as needed. Documentation is a critical part of keeping managers and employees informed, as well as supporting any performance decisions that are made. These records should be kept with the intent to share.

When documenting employee performance, managers should record performance success as well as areas for development or improvement. When it comes time to complete the performance review, thanks to ongoing documentation, the manager has a record and won’t be limited to recent examples. If an employee does exceptionally well or meets deadlines consistently, these records should be used as a reminder to recognize and appreciate employees for their efforts. If a manager notices an area of opportunity, the documentation can highlight upcoming tasks, follow-up discussions, or other details regarding performance improvement goals.

“Be sure that your documentation is direct, factual, and detail-oriented, and remember to be honest with your employee performance reviews…documenting employee performance evaluations is key when conducting performance reviews to inform employees about the quality of their work, identify areas needing improvement, and set goals for performance,” says Tom Ceconi, Co-founder & CEO of HR 360.

The most important thing to remember when documenting employee performance is to be honest. Some managers may want to avoid conflict or confrontation if there is negative feedback to provide, but doing so doesn’t help the employee improve and certainly won’t benefit the organization.

Prepare for and deliver the review

When they’re done well, performance reviews provide an opportunity to build a healthier, happier work environment. Instead of making a performance review a dreaded annual activity, it should be a time for the employee and manager to tailor his or her role in a way that the employee’s skills, abilities, and passions are put to use.

Be as transparent as possible with the performance review delivery process. Share with employees how it will work and when it will occur. Be sure to provide any information regarding how performance reviews may affect their salary, bonuses, or any other compensation.

As an organization, be sure to emphasize that performance reviews are a two-way street—managers and employees must come prepared to offer feedback, engage in discussion, identify wins and address issues. Managers should arrive prepared with an agenda of topics they wish to cover, and a desire to establish a positive tone that will facilitate a productive, helpful conversation.

“To maximize the effectiveness of your evaluation process, employers should review the employee’s overall performance based on specific, job-related criteria and provide concrete examples related to performance issues,” says Ceconi.

Using the identified objectives, or the employee’s job description, DeLay, the president of BoldlyGO Career and HR Management, recommends the following process:

• Review the employee’s performance against their objectives or job description.
  • Put a checkmark by those things the employee is doing well
  • Put an X by those items the employee is not successfully completing
  • Put a ? by those that are open for discussion.
• Begin the meeting reviewing and celebrating the positive, checkmark items.
• Discuss the items that have a ? beside them. Based on discussion, update items into a checkmark or an X.
• Review all the items with an X.
  • Discuss what is preventing the employee from doing these parts of the job, and then create an action plan that might include training, access to additional tools and resources, and deadlines to accomplish the plan.
• Record the new objectives required to accomplish the plan.

Demonstrating that level of preparedness helps reinforce the trust required to create an environment in which developmental feedback can be delivered.  Aim to keep the conversation open-ended and allow plenty of time for the employee to share their perspective.

“We have semi-structured evaluation conversations, but we schedule them whenever the employee or I feel there is something to discuss. Depending on the person, that might be an annual conversation or once a quarter,” says Anderson the president of DataGame.

Keep in mind that reviews can be a stressful experience for employees—try to put them at ease and let them know you’re committed to their development and success. After the review, managers should follow-up regarding any questions or next steps related to the employee’s objectives.

Tailor your message

Another drawback of traditional, annual-based performance reviews was a focus on what wasn’t working. Most managers spent their time focusing on providing low-performers with extensive feedback about what they were doing wrong and what they needed to do to correct it. By comparison, they were spending just a few minutes with top-performers, telling them to keep up the good work.

“Your top performers are the ones giving you the best and the most results. So you need to spend the most time with them,” says Michael Mehlberg, co-founder of Modern daVinci, a firm that supports small business owners with tools to develop their business.

“Give top performers more goals, more responsibilities, more praise. For your lower-performers, keep it short and to the point. Tell them exactly what you need them to do in the coming months and what they can expect if they meet, or don’t meet your objectives.”

Use technology

“Most of my clients struggle with the performance review model; they have a template they follow but they don’t measure the impact such reviews have on the performance of their employees. In essence, they’re just pushing paper and get caught up in the task of doing a review,” says Samuel Madani, Managing Director of Sam the HR Guy.

Indeed, outdated, bad process, and overly complicated technology are a significant contributor when it comes to ineffective employee reviews. As HR leaders address the complaints about performance reviews, technology provides ways to improve the process with:

• Collaboration: a way for employees and managers to communicate about performance goals, as well as organizational goals. 
• Organization: managers and employees need a system and place to store information and record notes related to performance.
• Real-time feedback: access to web-based platforms means employees and managers have visibility to progress as well as the process. 

Using HR software, employers can communicate goals with employees and create greater clarity around performance expectations. Many organizations are leveraging technology to eliminate the manual processes that made performance reviews cumbersome and unfriendly for everyone involved. Web-based platforms like Kin help ensure that employee objectives and performance reviews are easy to complete, efficient and consistent.

With a focus on facilitating constructive conversations between employees and managers, Kin’s HR platform starts by providing a place to capture employee objectives. These objectives are then used by employees and managers to align daily work with company goals. (And, because performance isn’t just about company goals, Kin also provides space for employees to record their professional development objectives, too.)

As the year progresses, managers and employees use Kin to track progress, add notes, manage due dates, and provide feedback for each objective. It’s easy to check the system for real-time updates that can be used during check-ins and one-on-one conversations. Rather than focusing on keeping track of handwritten notes or spreadsheets stored in various folders, managers have an organized system for tracking feedback and employee objectives.

Kin also helps companies ensure that the larger team stays connected and well-aligned regarding objectives by providing a simple format that provides real-time access to review objectives, confirm any progress that’s been made, and then assign reviews with employees. For HR or operations, the system allows an administrator to schedule groups of reviews (monthly, quarterly, etc.), attach employee reviews to specific managers, and then assign a timeframe in which the reviews need to happen.

Prior to the review discussion, employees finalize any progress made on their objectives, and are asked to provide feedback regarding their contributions, as well as those of their manager and the entire company. Managers then use Kin to provide direct feedback to an employee in the review form, which they use to facilitate an in-person discussion. Once a group of reviews has been created and saved, Kin also helps administrators track the progress and completion of the reviews.

The thought behind Kin’s employee review software is to bring people together, then to get out of the way. The system provides a simple way for employees and managers to collaborate around objectives, organize documents, and assess progress using real-time data. We want Kin to help facilitate the employee review process, not complicate or add unnecessary confusion.