Around 9 in 10 HR leaders report that peer feedback has a positive effect on their organizations. Effective communication from managers is key to employee retention, happiness, and growth.
This is why employee performance reviews are essential. They provide employees with a comprehensive overview of how they are doing and what the future of their career looks like. As an HR executive or manager, it’s your responsibility to not let your employee down.
And you won’t! Because this guide will show you how to write employee performance reviews and everything you need to include. After your meeting, your employee will no doubt feel motivated for the next year as a valued member of your business.
Summarize Role and Responsibilities
This is an often overlooked part of an employee performance review but it is the best way to begin one. Start with a simple overview of your employee’s role and other general details. These are things like:
- Job title
- List of regular tasks
- List of responsibilities
- Other roles they’ve held at the company
- How long they’ve been with the company
- List of main (and relevant) qualifications
It’s easy to get wrapped up in recent events and forget key details about your employee. You don’t want to recommend that they take a managerial course in your review only for them to tell you they took the same course two years ago!
Plus, there is a sensible reason for this roll call. Employee turnover and other issues can lead to confusion over exact job titles and responsibilities. Their annual employee performance evaluation is a great time to make sure you’re both on the same page.
Mention Attendance and Punctuality
Next, dig into your employee’s calendar. Make a note of all the vacation days, personal days, and sick days they took. This is an important part of your employee performance review as it’s where you can check on their mental and physical health.
Let’s be clear; don’t ask them any probing questions. But express your desire to help your employee avoid burnout and better accommodate long-term illnesses.
Praise your employee for taking their vacation days as this means they are well rested for work. And if they didn’t take them all, you should encourage your employee to do so next year.
If they are often late, take long lunches, or leave work early, express concern before scolding your employee. There may be a good reason for their less-than-stellar punctuality.
Key Projects and Accomplishments
In the next part of your employee performance plan, go over their key accomplishments in the past year. This article source suggests focusing on facts, numbers, and statistics to avoid showing bias.
Here are some good examples of workplace accomplishments:
- Signing new clients
- Gaining qualifications
- Increasing sales
- Delivering projects to deadline
Make sure you cover accomplishments throughout the whole year leading up to this performance review. It’s good practice to keep an ongoing list for each employee so you don’t have to wrack your brain at the last minute.
Main Strengths and Good Qualities
This is the part of your employee performance plan where you heap praise on your employee. Mention their great qualities, personality traits, and strengths.
Here are some examples of strengths your employee might have:
- Good communication
- Optimistic demeanor
- High levels of professionalism
- Great problem-solving skills
- Reliability and trustworthiness
- Good collaborator and works well in a team
Try to think of at least one example for every trait, so they are not empty compliments.
Constructive Criticism of Weaknesses
No one likes focusing on the negatives. But providing constructive criticism is essential to improve employee performance. If your employees don’t know how to improve, they will plateau.
Be very specific when giving constructive feedback, and do not let your emotions get involved. Try to give them a positive comment before giving them a negative one, and then end with a constructive suggestion.
Here is an example:
Ethan, you always submit your monthly reports on time and I appreciate being able to rely on you. But I have noticed that there are often mistakes in the figures.
Would it help if you gave Ben the report to check over before you submit it? Or we can arrange a quiet room for when you write the report so you don’t have any distractions?
This example doesn’t make a bigger deal of the weakness that it needs to be. But the issue is still very clear and there are two suggestions on how to improve. If the manager said, “your attention to detail isn’t great” then Ethan would still be scratching his head.
Future Training Plans and Career Goals
Throughout your employee performance review, you should be focusing on the future. You need to set expectations and goals for the year with your employee. They should leave the conversation feeling motivated and determined.
Here are some common employee goals:
- Promotion
- Pay rise
- Qualifications
- Training
- More responsibility
- New/bigger challenges
Let the employee lead this part of the discussion. They’ve likely thought about their future much more than you and will no doubt have plenty of suggestions.
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Notes and Feedback From Other Colleagues
It won’t hurt to gain some insight from your employee’s peers and other people in the company that they interact with. They will be able to help you put together a list of your employee’s accomplishments. And they might also provide you with more examples of their good qualities and things they need to improve on.
Employee Performance Reviews Explained
Every employee and business model is different. But all employee performance reviews should follow this general structure. As long as you include everything listed above and ask for questions, you will ensure the future success of your employee at your company.
As an employer, you have a lot of personal and legal responsibilities. Browse our business articles to brush up on your human resources skills!
