Conducting an Effective Appraisal
Conducting an Effective Appraisal
Performance appraisals are regular reviews of an employee’s job performance and overall contribution to an organisation. Normally conducted on an annual or 6 monthly basis, performance appraisals evaluate an employee’s skills, achievements, and growth. In this blog, we are going to delve into the topic of appraisals and how you can conduct one in the most effective way.
Purposes of an appraisal
Generally, performance appraisals have one of the following functions:
To provide feedback to individuals on their performance;
To serve as a basis for modifying or changing behaviour in the workplace;
To provide organisational leaders and managers with data to assist with the monitoring of employee performance and progression;
To give organisational leaders the opportunity to support, develop, and motivate employees;
To establish the employee’s career aspirations; and
To set objectives aligned to the organisational core strategies.
Conducting an effective appraisal
Before any one to one meeting with an employee, there are some ground rules that we recommend you follow to start you off on the right foot:
Make sure you’re on time - if the employee is already a little apprehensive about having their appraisal, being late is not going to make them feel any better.
Ensure that you’re 100% present - it’s important that all of your attention is on your employee; turn off your phone and anything else that may distract you.
Be prepared - this one may seem obvious but, ensure you know what you’re going to discuss within the meeting. Make sure you know what needs to be discussed and addressed during the appraisal.
Consider their mindset - if you have ever completed T2’s Leading Others workshop you will be familiar with the different types of mindset you can come across in the workplace. What mindset the employee has may influence how they will react to any feedback that you give them. Being aware of their mindset ahead of the meeting and knowing what leadership style they will respond to best will reduce the chance of any tension arising.
Once you’ve got the ground rules out of the way, here are the steps you should follow to ensure your appraisal goes as smoothly as possible:
1. Stick to Your Structure
The basic structure of an appraisal is generally made up of three sections:
A reflection of the individuals progress and performance since their last appraisal. Have they achieved their previous objectives?
A discussion which results in the agreement of personal and professional objectives for the employee to achieve before their next appraisal.
A discussion around the employees future career aspirations, both short term and long term. This also includes any future training, or learning and development the employee may want to engage with.
2. Let the Employee Do the Talking
An appraisal is not a one-way process, and the employee self-assessment is a very important part of it. Guide the discussion using your structure, but let your employee lead the conversation. Invite them to provide their thoughts on how they think they have performed since their last appraisal. What have they achieved? Where do they think they could improve?
3. Address the Positives as well as the Negatives
Although you may need to address some negative aspects of an employee’s performance, an appraisal is a chance to celebrate success, identify areas for improvement, and develop your people. Even if an employee is underperforming, make sure you provide lots of positive feedback and point out things they have done right. Praise helps to motivate employees, and it helps them relax, ultimately making the appraisal easier for both parties.
4. Agree a Plan of Action
Based on your own assessment, and the employee’s self-assessment, agree (together) on a plan of action going forward. There might be areas where your employee is falling short, and these need addressing at the end of the appraisal. However, remember to finish on a positive note and remind your employee of the good things they are doing for your organisation.
Providing feedback on performance
An ideal performance appraisal would just require you to provide positive feedback, but the chances are, you are going to have to address some negatives at one point or another. Following the 3 steps below will guide you through having a potentially tough conversation with an employee.
Step 1: Positioning - Many managers start tough conversations by explaining and presenting the situation to the individual from their perspective. Instead, spin this on its head and ask them to share their view of the situation first, then show an instant understanding or appreciation for this (even if you think they’re misguided or wrong!) This will earn you the right to have your say in good time. If you want to guard against initial resistance, you need to ensure you are conducting the conversation in the right environment and demonstrate that you want to understand the situation from their perspective first. Then, and only then, will you earn the right to present your views and suggestions and progress to a productive outcome.
Step 2: Language - Assuming we’ve done a great job of step 1 and now have an open and collaborative dialogue progressing, the next step is to become conscious of the language you’re using. Think of it this way - you can use either ‘green’ or ‘red’ language in a conversation. ‘Green’ language is anything which is positive and focused on achievement, whereas ‘red’ language is anything negative and focused on consequence.
Try to use words such as: ‘achieve’, ‘improve’ and ‘execute’ but remove words such as ‘can’t’, ‘avoid’, ‘critical’, ‘poor’ and ‘fail’. The language you use is incredibly impactful on the outcome. You need to be sending a message of optimism, support and achievement rather than pressure, stress and consequence.
Step 3: Focus - Throughout the conversation, be conscious of your positioning and focus. As with green and red language discussed in step 2, maintain focus on what you want to achieve rather than what you want to avoid. This could mean the difference between putting the individual in a ‘challenge’ or ‘threat’ state mindset. Bring the conversation back to the present and focus only on the things which you and the individual can control, then agree the next actions.
Many managers don't deal with tough conversations very well because they focus too much on what they want the individual to avoid. This only triggers a threat state mindset, leading to further stress, anxiety or defensiveness. The golden rule of thumb when having tough conversations is this: always focus on what you want to achieve and make it instructional.
Setting objectives
Once you have provided feedback on the employee’s performance, you next need to agree on personal and professional objectives for the employee to achieve before their next appraisal. Clarity is key when setting objectives, doing these three things should help you out with the process:
Set the objective - ensure that they employee is clear on what the objective actually is, and invite them to ask any questions to clarify anything.
Agree how it should be achieved - discuss with the employee what actions they are going to take to achieve the objective, and whether they require any resources or assistance to achieve it.
Deadline - finally, you need to agree when the objective needs to be achieved by. It may be that the objective is a ‘quick fix’ and can be completed within the next week, or it could be a long term goal that needs a bit more TLC. Whatever the timeframe, make sure you agree it with the employee and ensure that is realistic.
Having a Career Conversation
Taking the time to ask the employee about their career aspirations is a really important aspect of a performance appraisal. Although you may think that you’re aware of someones career plans, their circumstances may have changed since their last appraisal.
The first thing to bear in mind when having this conversation is that career progression can mean different things to different people. Where someone may consider a pay rise or promotion as career progression, another person may see gaining skills and knowledge as progressing within their career.
You also need to consider during this conversation that some employees are more than happy doing what they are currently doing and don’t necessarily want to progress. This doesn’t mean that they are a poor performer or don’t want to contribute to the success of the organisation, they just want to continue doing a good job!
In Summary: performance appraisals are a vital process within any organisation and if conducted correctly, are key to employee performance and engagement. Following the guidance within this pathway will set you on the right path to carrying out a successful performance appraisals with your employees.