Managing Employee Performance - Hire Immigrants



CONDUCTING A PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL MEETING

Applying a consistent approach across the company when delivering performance feedback will help to avoid bias and/or human error within the management team when dealing with performance and ensure that the process is fair and effective. A consistent approach also lends itself to the fair and equitable treatment of all employees, and ensures that all employees equally receive recognition for a job well done, and constructive feedback in areas that can be improved.

Throughout this process, a good practice is to relate performance objectives to company goals. Think about:

• What is the company’s mission?

• What are the goals of the company?

• How does each job contribute to company goals?

• Why is each job within the company important?

Managers need to understand the answers to these questions adequately in order for them to be able to explain it to their employees. Taking key words from your mission statement and using them in your discussions with employees will help them to understand the importance of their job and how it connects to the overall success of the company.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Performance Appraisals

Do:

• Discuss employee performance

• Prepare for the review, provide facts and examples, and document all findings

• Create and commit to written future plans

• Explore possible career paths

• Involve the employee

Don’t:

• Regurgitate job descriptions or just read the performance ratings on the form

• Have a 5 minute opinion-based chat

• Leave the Performance Appraisal Meeting open-ended

• Make promises you can’t keep or say things you don’t mean

• Talk too much

Following the steps outlined below will provide you with an effective process for carrying out a Performance Appraisal Meeting.

Step 1 – Prepare

Ensure that you have the current performance appraisal, which you have recently written, as well as all documentation regarding the employee’s performance since their last appraisal. This should include information on their achievements, quotas, absences, written warnings, awards/bonuses and copies of their previous performance appraisals. Before you have a discussion with the employee, put your thoughts about the employee on paper. This way, you will be able to refer to your notes during the meeting to keep the discussion on track and make sure you cover everything you want to.

You should review (and have available during discussions with the employee) a copy of the job description and any training or procedural manuals provided to the employee that relate to their performance.

Let each employee know, well in advance, when their performance appraisal meeting will be in order for them to prepare their own questions and comments.

Step 2 – Select Meeting Time and Location

Set aside appropriate time in your schedule to meet with the employee – you do not want the meeting to be rushed or interrupted. Performance Appraisal meeting should last between 30 and 90 minutes. Schedule adequate time (at least 30 minutes) between performance appraisal meetings in case they run overtime. This extra time will ensure that meetings are not rushed and all material is discussed. It is better to schedule fewer performance appraisal meetings in one day as to avoid a “rapid fire” feeling. Employees want to feel valued and important – this impression will not be given if they are one of twenty brief 15-minute meetings. Rather, try to perform 2-3 meetings in a given day.

You should try hard to not re-schedule performance appraisal meetings as you risk giving the employee the impression that the meeting is not a priority for you. Plan meetings and inform employees of their meeting at least one week in advance. Treat these meetings as a priority – plan around them.

Privacy and confidentiality are extremely important when dealing with performance. Ensure that you have a private area available to meet where others will not overhear your conversation (meeting room, office, etc). The meeting location should be free from interruptions such as phone calls, office visitors, general conversations and similar common office activities.

You also want to make the environment in which the meeting will be held as comfortable as possible. Provide comfortable seating, temperature, lighting, etc. Remove any distracting items such as a ticking clock or a radio. Have all phone calls held, and do not allow anyone to enter the room other than yourself and the employee.

Step 3 – The Meeting

• Put the employee at ease. Begin the meeting with positive general friendly conversation / small talk. Describe the purpose of the meeting. For example,

“Good Morning, Employee’s Name, how was your weekend?….etc,”

“Thank you so much for meeting with me today. As you know, the purpose of this meeting is to discuss your performance appraisal. What I’d like to do is to review your progress and achievements, examine opportunities to further enhance your skills, and go over any questions or concerns that you might have. Let’s get started!

• Unless the employee is receiving a very negative performance appraisal, try to begin on a positive note with an acknowledgement of a contribution or effort and wherever possible, relate it to company objectives. For example:

“I was particularly impressed with your work on the Colburn Project – you did an excellent job. The client noticed the extra effort that you put in and really appreciated your efficiency in meeting every timeline and deadline that was set. He informed me that he was 100% satisfied and even spoke about working with us again on a similar project in the future. You’ve successfully created a “happy, returning, and referring customer” – one of our company goals!

• When starting to review the ‘meat’ of the performance appraisal, it is good to begin with a summary of the strengths that the employee has demonstrated and the areas that require strengthening.

• Next, you will want to review and discuss each area of the performance appraisal. Depending on the method used by your organization, this may focus on tasks and responsibilities as outlined in the employee’s job description, specific competencies or objectives identified through previous performance reviews. Do not focus on the ratings themselves, but on the performance and behaviours. Remember to use examples when discussing each area to better illustrate your comments and to help ensure the employee understands how they can improve performance or continue to do things that are viewed as very positive.

• Once you have reviewed all of the areas of accountability, you will want to ensure that you specifically discuss any very high or very low ratings that the employee is receiving. Now is also the time to bring up related issues such as absenteeism or lateness.

• Remember, the performance appraisal meeting is not the time to bring up serious issues for the first time – they should be addressed through regular communication with employees. A good approach to follow is that there should be no surprises for the employee in this meeting.

• When discussing ways in which the employee can improve his or her performance, focus on behaviours and avoid offensive or personal comments. For example, if an employee does not know how to use all of the equipment that they are supposed to use, you’ll want to address this issue. Remember, the point of this discussion is to get to the root of any problems, identify solutions and create an environment for the employee to succeed and excel. Give the employee a chance to raise any issues themselves.

“Were there any machines that you have not been shown how to use, or that you feel uncomfortable using?”

If ‘Yes’:

“This machine can actually make your job a lot easier and is required for some of the projects that you are working on. I’m going to get John, who is very experienced with the machine, to go over the procedures for using it with you. He’s a great teacher and knows all of these machines inside out.”

If ‘No’:

“I’ve noticed that you don’t use the xyz machine as much as you could. I understand that this machine is a bit more complicated to use, but it can be a great tool for you to produce high quality work and save time. Why don’t I get John, who is very experienced with the machine, to go over the procedures for using it with you? He’s a great teacher and knows all of these machines inside out. I think you find this very useful.”

• When you are comfortable that each element of the employee’s performance has been sufficiently discussed and you are confident that they have heard the message you are sending with the performance appraisal (i.e. keep up the good work, we are seeing improvement, improvement is required, performance is unacceptable), ensure that you ask for and receive the employee’s commitment to addressing any areas that have been identified as needing improvement.

• If your company uses a goals and objectives approach, now is the perfect time to discuss the specific goals and objectives you and the employee would mutually like to see for the upcoming year.

• You should start to wind up the meeting with a discussion about developmental and training activities that you and/or the employee would like see them undertake in the upcoming year. Again, agree on specifics, including timeframes.

• Close the meeting on a positive note and summarize and reinforce all key details and decisions that were discussed in the meeting.

• If you have made commitments to get the employee information, assistance, training, etc, make sure that you keep track of those commitments and follow though. Nothing hurts your credibility as a manager and your ability to hold your employees accountable more than if you fail to meet your commitments to them.

• Now that the formal performance appraisal meeting is complete, remember to talk to your employees regularly and deliver positive feedback and constructive criticism throughout the year. A simple ‘well done’ and a pat on the back once in a while can achieve amazing results and major problems can usually be averted by dealing with issues when they first arise.

Step 4 – Documentation

Once the meeting has been completed, document all key points that were gone over including employee questions, input, the date of the meeting, etc. Make a note of any further effort required for the training/development of the employee.

Ensure that the employee adds any comments they wish to the performance appraisal document, signs and returns it. Keep a copy for you to refer to in your regular communications with the employee and place the original in the employee file.

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