Employee Performance Appraisals

What to do after the Appraisal Interview

 

 

 

“What do leaders do after completing their employee performance appraisals?”

 

After your Performance Appraisal Interview

You will find that some managers view their appraisal interviews as an annual event or a task that needs to be ticked off on their “to do” list. Where, in reality the performance appraisal is just one step in the overall performance management cycle, this cycle starts when a new employee commences and ends when they move to another department.

So, if performance management is a cycle of activity, then makes sense that there is always a next step. In the case of the appraisal interview the next steps are

• Finalize/document the appraisal
• Follow up on all commitments
• Blend with your one on one process
• After the end of year review: Set expectations for the coming year

Note: Leaders, who achieve high performance, do not take shortcuts with their people management
 

 

Finalize the Performance Appraisal Process

If, during your appraisal interview, you had a meaningful two way discussion with your employees you will find that this will sometimes result in a need to update your appraisal form. Generally you may need to change a performance rating or update your summary comments.

It is always wise to complete your updates as soon as possible, whilst the information is fresh in your mind.

Once all updates to the appraisal form are complete, you should provide your employees with a copy of the form and an opportunity to review your “final product”. It is good practice to get your employees to sign off their completed performance appraisal.

Note: Everyone has their own policies on electronic signatures, however many businesses will accept an email approving the content of the appraisals.

Occasionally you will come across an employee who is not happy with their final rating. In which case you should allow your employee to note their opinion on the appraisal form, this does not mean that you are accepting their opinion, you are simply acknowledging it.

Normally someone more senior to you or someone in HR needs to confirm that you have completed all of your appraisals, they may require copies of the performance appraisal or a confirmation that you have completed them.

In larger organizations you may have an online performance appraisal tool that simplifies the administration of this process step.

More importantly you should ensure that your employee has received a copy of the finalized signed off appraisal document, and where relevant a copy is placed on/in their employee file.

Now your employee performance appraisal is complete, now you need to blend with your one on one processes, find out how.

 

 

After your Mid Year Review

On occasion, you will find a compelling reason to change your employee’s objectives for the year, you should be open to making these changes where required. Common examples include

• When performance expectations are aligned to a project that was delayed, or abandoned
• Where a dependant activity was delayed,
• Restructure has removed responsibility from your department

Between your mid year review and your end of year review you should have several more one-on-ones with each of your staff.

During these one-on-ones it is important to remain consistent with the areas of feedback provided in your appraisal interviews. Ideally your one on ones will include updates on progress towards the same goals outlined in the performance appraisal.

During these one-on-ones you will also follow up on actions from your mid year performance reviews. 

Tip:

As a leader, you need to support and encourage your people, motivating them to complete their actions.

Some employees will complete all of their actions without prompting, while others will need support and encouragement, helping them to get started.

The challenge for you is to adjust your style to the needs of each of your employees. 

 

 

After your end of year Review

Normally, sometime soon after your end of year review you will have another session with each employee to set and agree expectations and development goals for the coming year.

Whilst tempting, it is uncommon to combine setting expectations the performance appraisal interview, mainly because the combined meeting would run for too long.

If, from year to year you make changes to the expectations that you set for your people you will need to ensure that you also update your one on one process to reflect the new expectations.

 

Tips for setting expectations:
When setting development goals you can consider any areas where your employees were rated low in their end of year reviews, or where your employee’s performance is lower than they would like.

For development planning a rule of thumb is

 

Summary Employee Performance Appraisals

You should view your employee performance appraisals as just one step in your performance management program. Before and after your mid year review you should have regular one on ones with your people.

After your employee performance appraisals you may need to update your appraisal forms, and transfer any resulting actions to your time management system for follow up, including actions that your employees undertake.

 

After completing your employee performance appraisals, you will probably have to consider next years performance targets, for help setting performance targets click here