It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I’m not talking about the Holidays, I’m talking about Performance Review Time!!! In our work, we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of performance reviews. I think the toughest thing about performance reviews is that it is an objective look at what someone did during the year. For certain jobs, where there are not clear metrics to measure whether an individual has been successful or not, it is increasingly difficult.
The easiest way to go through performance reviews is to look at your “the highest performer” and “least effective performer” people. Give the highest performing person the highest rating that you believe they deserve, while giving the least effective person the lowest rating that they deserve. Notice that I did not say the highest or the lowest rating, but the highest or lowest rating that the person deserves. Next you should rank the rest of your staff and rate them based on their performance according to how they performed. This is a good way to be as objective as possible, while not being distracted based on your personal feelings toward any individuals.
What is the criteria upon which you will evaluate people? Is it quality of work? Is it impact on the organziation’s success? Is it ability to develop performers or to cross train a team? Determine the criteria first, before you begin to determine who is the highest and least effective performer in the organization.
Also, we think that the job during performance reviews is to bring some objective information into the process to make the process more objective, rather than subjective as it is in many companies.
Add your ideas here, and see what other ideas people are using!
