Glossary
Performance Reviews
customer experience
While many ignore the essentiality of performance reviews, these honest conversations allow managers and employees to discuss the way forward for their organizations. When you rely on performance reviews, you keep track of your employee performance, promote quality work, encourage effective communication, and enhance productivity. But, to optimize their advantage, you must understand what are performance reviews.
What are Performance Reviews?
Every manager requires a tool to assess work performance to determine the best actions and strategies to enhance their operations. A performance review is that formal assessment managers use to evaluate employees' work progress, identify strengths, weaknesses, and productivity, provide necessary feedback, and set objectives for better future performance.
Effective performance reviews are frequent, with immediate feedback. However, many organizations are also moving away from the structured formal performance review to promote flexibility.
Performance Reviews FAQs
Performance reviews are essential for any organization, but their effectiveness depends on how you conduct them. If you aren't sure how to conduct performance reviews effectively, you're not alone. Here are frequently asked questions about performance reviews.
What are the Types of Performance Reviews?
There are multiple types of performance review approaches you can adopt. However, regardless of the choice of your performance review, the approach should integrate efficiently with your organizational culture and be relevant to your management and employees.
Some of the most prominent types of performance reviews:
Self-assessment
This is a two-stage assessment. First, employees respond to a questionnaire to identify strengths and weaknesses. Then, managers discuss their strengths to improve performance. Self-assessment aims to improve shared accountability, assess challenges, and determine future priorities.
Peer Review
Managers can't and shouldn't be everywhere. Successful organizations allow employees to perform peer reviews and provide feedback. Peer review is effective since employees tend to trust feedback from peers — peers can be mentors and confidants.
Team-wide Performance Review
Relying on team performance is essential in determining the strengths and weaknesses of a team. This type can be easy and effective since it allows managers to coach and evaluate progress in a team context. An effective team performance review helps identify challenges and opportunities and sets plans to leverage the opportunities.
A team performance review can also help you:
- Promote collective responsibility and accountability
- Prioritize what is most important for the organization
- Set strategies to support team performance
Annual Performance Review
This is the most common performance review in business. This type allows managers and employees to reflect on the year's challenges, contributions, and achievements.
The annual review always has the big picture of the organization. It allows businesses to reflect on long-term goals and future priorities. While it gives managers a clear picture of employees' contributions, it also allows employees to reflect on their annual performance and accomplishments.
Mid-year Performance Review
Annual performance reviews can be difficult for large organizations, where employees are involved in different tasks annually. However, mid-year performance reviews allow necessary adjustments and goal-setting to keep employees focused for the rest of the year. In addition, identifying challenges and weaknesses at mid-year enable your business to evaluate and plan effectively to achieve annual objectives.
Quarterly Performance Review
Creating a regular performance review schedule allow managers and employees remain focused on the goal. Long-term goals are best achieved when broken into manageable sections. This type allows you to review progress with a future-focused approach.
What are the Goals of the Performance Review?
Wonder what are performance reviews for? Employees and managers are becoming more intentional in their actions. Setting performance review goals can help you track progress efficiently.
Professional Development
Employees assess their development based on their performance. Reviews allow them to realize their weaknesses and focus on improving their productivity and personal growth.
Behavior Change
Performance review informs managers about what behaviors promote or inhibit productivity. As a result, your organizations can focus on behaviors that promote attaining goals.
Compensation Check-in
Conducting a performance review help manager and employees evaluate productivity against compensation. It helps managers determine what compensation strategies to adopt for employee-improved performance.
Training Opportunities
When you conduct a performance review, you can determine what training opportunities to invest in for organizational growth and employee professional development.
Goal Setting
You can't set goals if you don't have clear knowledge about the team you're working with. Performance review allows managers to set goals and assign roles based on productivity.
Other Terms Related to Performance Reviews
