Top 10 Mistakes You Make When Giving Performance Reviews

How often do you give performance reviews? Most employers schedule a sit down with each and every employee once or maybe twice a year. Organizing, preparing, and giving performance reviews is not something that many employers look forward to, but it’s a necessary part of the employment process.

Performance reviews are a simple concept. They are a discussion between a manager and an employee that allows for a documented exchange of feedback. It’s a chance to pat your team members on the back, tell them where they can improve, and let them know where they stand. By providing honest and effective feedback, you will help your employees grow, improve, and become more productive.

Unfortunately, no one really looks forward to this valuable process. The result is that lots of mistakes are made when you give performance reviews, such as:

Too Vague – Take the time to give adequate, honest, and thorough feedback to your employees. Provide constructive criticism and valid praise. Try to paint a vivid picture of the employees performance so they know where they stand in the work place.
Make It One-Sided – It’s easy to sit there and tell your employee what they do well and what they don’t do so well, but take the time to listen to what they have to say too.
Miss The Big Picture – Take into account the entire year’s worth of work. Don’t just focus on a single mistake or a one time result. Look at the big picture to properly assess an employee.
Rate Your Employees – It’s easy and quick to use a scale of 1 to 5 to let an employee know how they are doing, but it doesn’t personalize the experience. Provide individual feedback that makes people feel important.
Lack Of Preparation – Performance reviews require you to spend time organizing your thoughts and chatting with your team members. Prepare your feedback and reviews so that they add value to the discussion.
Dwell On The Negative – If you only focus on the negative, it can result in an employee feeling bad about their work performance. Provide feedback on all aspects of an employee’s tasks, behaviors, and future.
Only Focus On The Positive – If you only focus on the positive, an employee may believe they are perfect. Let them know what they do well, but also identify areas that need improvement.
Lack Of Regularity – Try to schedule performance reviews regularly throughout the year. This will create consistency.
No Follow Up – After giving a performance review, be sure to touch base with the employee to see how things are going.
No Performance Review At All – Well this may be the ultimate performance review mistake. If you don’t give a performance review, your employees will never know where they stand at work. Even if you hate this process, you need to do it. It’s your job.

Make the most of the performance review process. It’s a valuable way to help your team and your business constantly improve. Document each and every performance review because it’s always smart to have a record of these events in case you need to fire an employee in the future.