10 Essentials for Enhancing the Performance Management Process

This week, I’m in the middle of the performance management process for my team members.  This is an annual opportunity to provide feedback to my team members on their performance over the past year.  With 12 direct reports, it could be easy to rush through this process which is required by my company.  I could simply write a couple of sentences about each team member and move on to the next year.

Taking this approach doesn’t do them any favors, and it doesn’t help my team or the company get better.  A well thought out  and carefully executed performance review can be the bedrock of success for your team and your company.

In today’s post, I offer ten ways to improve the performance management process.  This is written from a managers perspective; however, this is a great reference for those who don’t manage direct reports.  After reading today’s post, you may want to suggest that your supervisor start this type of performance management process for you.  You may simply want to tweak what is already happening at your job.

Whether you are a manager of direct reports or not, I hope you’ll find this list helpful in understanding ways to get better.  Success doesn’t happen by accident.  Success happens by being intentional, and this list offers suggestions – no, essentials – for being intentional with the performance management process.

10 Essentials for Enhancing the Performance Management Process:

1. Start with regular one-on-one meetings.  It’s important to meet with your employees on a regular basis.  These meetings provide an opportunity to touch base on performance issues and other business and non-business related items.  You can read about the power of one-on-one meetings in a guest post I wrote for Matt McWilliams.  This year I started having monthly one-on-one meetings with my team, and it’s been helpful for my team members and for me.
2. Set performance targets.  It’s critical that employees have SMART targets.  Targets should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.  At the beginning of each year, I sit down with my team members to set targets.  These targets align with our overall business objectives, and they also provide opportunities for individuals to grow personally.
3. Quarterly review progress towards targets.  It shouldn’t be a surprise at the end of the year when doing a performance evaluation.  I sit down with my employees once a quarter to review their progress in achieving their targets.  Doing this once a quarter provides an opportunity for my team members to make performance corrections that will help them meet or exceed their targets.
4. Get feedback from others.  I encourage my team members to ask for feedback from their peers.  And I get feedback from other managers and supervisors regarding the performance of my team members.  Before completing the annual performance management process, I meet in a roundtable meeting which helps to calibrate my overall assessment.  This meeting also provides extra insight into developmental action items I might want to suggest to my team members.
5. Take time to write an honest and detailed assessment.  When I write evaluations for my team members, I want them to be fair, well-thought, and encouraging.  Writing this kind of assessment takes time.  I schedule time to carefully review the past year of activity.  I look at notes from my past one-on-one meetings.  I review previous results from the quarterly updates.  And I take into account comments shared by my fellow management team members.  A written record provides employees a tangible document to review as they seek to grow and improve.
6. Meet with employee to review results.  At the end of the year, it’s important to let your employees know how they have done.  Feedback provides information necessary to help them improve.  Feedback also keeps them doing the right things.
7. Remember the good things.  Make sure you praise your team members for the good things they have done throughout the year.  A pat on the back goes a long way towards encouraging the right behavior.
8. Create a development plan correcting issues.  As managers, it is our responsibility to help our team members succeed.  We have to give our team members help in getting better.  The performance review process is the perfect time to help employees get better.
9. Discuss career progression essentials.  Most employees want to know what it will take for them to get tho the next level in their career path.  It’s important to talk regularly to employees about their plans for the future.  What are their goals for the next 5 years or 10 years?  What do they need to do in order to be ready for the next steps?  These are questions that will help you help them.  Are their expectations realistic?  How can you help them?  The performance review process provides an opportunity to discuss essentials for career advancement.
10. Do it again.  It may seem repetitive, but you have to do it over and over and over again.  Doing this for only one year does not demonstrate a long-term interest in the performance of an employee.  Repeated year after year is essential to a successful performance management process.

How has the performance management process helped you succeed?  What would you add to the list above?  What do you need to do differently in order to improve your own performance management process?