What is Performance Review? Process, Feedback, Performance Counseling

What is Performance Review?

Performance review is an continuous process to document expected results, standards of performance, and evaluation of the employees’ performances. Performance review also tracks the progress towards achieving the results, assesses how well the performance results are achieved, provides suggestions, and so also present the guidelines to follow the suggestions to increase future performances, etc.

It is continuous, as organizations requirement to remain watchful on workers’ performances, instead of focusing only on isolated performance issues. It means, it stress on the holistic evaluation of performances. Also, the performance review process requires organizations to collect information, and such information gathering cannot be just a one-time affair.

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Elements of Performance Review

Performance appraisals generate a great deal of anxiety and suspicion. When utilized properly, it aids in goal setting, training and development and provides more efficient use of human resources. The purpose of the review conversation are to make sure that the employee and manager share a clear definition of the job, an understanding of performance expectations for the position, and an assessment of the employee’s performance.

Managerial Elements

• Leadership: Effective leadership is an essential trait of the ‰ manager. It is the ability to inspire or influence others and acts as a team. A good leader works well with other departments. It requires being strategically focused and applying behavioural techniques to build commitment and attain the best work from the employees.
  
  
• Budget: In any organization, meeting budget is important. This fact is magnified in a non-profit organization. How does the manager use financial resources? Is the manager cost-conscious?
  
  
• Human Resources: A manager timely review the performance of his staff to meet the departmental as well as organisational objectives. He successfully delegates work to accomplish the needs of the department and develops employees’ skills and competencies should rate well in this element. Thus, he evaluate and consider the overall performance of the department.

Job Elements

• Job Knowledge: An employee must know what is his job? What he has to do?, etc. It is the accountability of the every employee to be aware of the basic functions of the position, and the rules and objectives of the department.
  
  Few examples of job knowledge are:
  • How much does the employee know about the basic functions of his/her position?
    
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  • How proficient is the employee on that software? (If the position requires knowledge of certain software)
    
    
  • Does the employee understand what is expected of him/her every day?
    
    
  • These are some questions to think about when determining the rating of job knowledge.
    
    
    
• Work Quality: Work quality is very essential element is performance review as it sets the benchmark and keep different from the competitors. Use this element to rate such areas as thoroughness, neatness, accuracy, adherence to instruction and policy as well as productivity, planning and meeting deadlines.
  
  
• Judgment: Every employee must make his decisions every day. Employees who face problems and can precisely solve those troubles should be noted here.
  
  
  • Does the employee consistently make sound decisions?
  • Does the employee “fly off the handle” and react irrationally to unexpected problems?

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Process of Review

Performance review is the most important part of the total performance management system and process. It is a open discussion of an employee’s performance of his/her duties and responsibilities. For such an obvious range of activities, the performance review process goes through different stages and in every stage we need to follow certain steps.

Such stage-wise steps are documented below.

Pre-Performance Review

• Make the time schedule for performance review and the venue for this discussion.
  
  
• These meeting or discussion essentially should be conducted during the working hours of working days even not at lunch time too.
  
  
• Define the assign duties and responsibilities to employees very clearly and assess the expectations from the employees that were decided during the performance planning. ‰ Analyse employees’ self-assessment reports.
  
  
• Determine the supporting documents for employees’ performance.
  
  
• The review meeting should be done in two-way communication channel, so that the employees can open up during the review process.
  
  
• Suggest employees to come prepared with all supporting ‰ documents during the review process.

During the Performance Review

• Guide employees with specific feedback on the performance, which helps them to prioritize with performance goals decided during the performance planning, and to understand the performance area, where they have excelled the expectations or failed to meet them.
  
  
• Make sure that the employees are able to share their self-evaluation and understand where they are right or wrong.
  
  
• Ensure employees understand their needs and responsibilities.
  
  
• Make mutual agreement by determining the targets for future performance improvement

Post Performance Review

• Ensure that the employees get a copy of their performance review report.
  
  
• Keep record of the performance review report. ‰

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Role of Reviewer/appraiser

The supervisor’s role in the performance review and development process are as follows:

Maintain a Development File for Each Staff member

This will be your informal record of the staff member’s development and could include such items as:

• The current job description and specification for the staff member’s position
  
  
• Performance standards and objectives for the staff member’s position, work unit, and/or department
  
  
• Copies of any performance development or other activities you and the staff member worked on during the review period
  
  
• Records of any verbal or written counseling on performance issues Copies of prior performance reviews ‰

Understand the Objectives

Know the relationship between the mission and objectives of the Organization, the department, the work unit and the various positions you supervise. Know how the work of each staff member relates to the larger plan of the department and the organization.

Know the Performance Standards

Understand the performance standards for each and every position. Be able to determine the source of those standards and communicate that to the involved staff members.

Consider the following as possible sources of performance standards:

• The current job description for the staff member’s position
• Expectations of the persons served by the work the staff member performs
• Performance appraisal criteria
• Professional standards
• Performance objectives
• Unit, department, University mission or objectives
• Knowledge, skills or abilities required for the position
• Existing guidelines, policies, contracts or regulations ‰

Assess Performance

Become familiar enough with a staff member’s performance to provide an objective and constructive assessment. Observation will be your best source of information, along with the staff member’s own assessment and feedback from those served by the staff member’s work and other supervisory staff. Many staff members work in teams making input from team members another source of valuable information.

Meet with the Staff Member

Schedule time for a formal performance review at least annually with each staff member you supervise. Conduct the review at a time and place when you can give your undivided attention to the staff member.

Then, don’t limit performance feedback to an annual, formal meeting. The performance development plan is an excellent tool for providing ongoing coaching and performance assessment. Frequent, brief meetings can keep performance focus fresh and allow for timely assessment and recognition.

Complete the Process in a Timely Manner

Prepare the Staff Performance Review Form normally within two week of meeting with the staff member.

Keep Development in Mind

Remember that the University hires the best possible individuals. Your first task is to help the new staff member learn the job and successfully meet the performance standards. The initial review period is designed both as a learning time and as the last step in the selection process.

Once competency is established, the focus shifts to continued development of those skills and abilities to a consistently high level of excellence.

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Feedback and Performance

Feedback is information about performance that leads to action to change or maintain performance. Feedback is transmitting information from one part of the system to another part to do corrective action or initiate new action built in the system itself. Feedback is considered positive because it is with view to further development and improvement.

It is helping people to help themselves. It is to assist appraise to make change in his work life or to accept or adjust to change. It helps to voice concern to problems; to come to term with his own feelings and understand his own motives and aspirations more clearly.

Performance feedback provides information that helps employee to alter, change and maintain/develop their, skills, behaviors and/or attitudes so that the organization continues to operate effectively. Self feedback is highly desirable feature of PMS but there is always a need for managers, colleagues and customers (internal + external) to provide holistic feedback based on their suggestion.

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Types of Feedback

One of the responsibilities of managers is to give performance feedback to employees. Performance feedback can be given in two ways: through constructive feedback or through praise and criticism. Praise and criticism are personal judgments about a performance effort or outcome.

Positive/praise

The word praise originates from the Latin verb pretiare, meaning to highly value. The term feedback is often used alongside praise but is quite different. In organizational context, feedback is used to guide students in ways to improve their performance by providing information about their ability or inability to achieve success.

Following are some of the points that can be kept in mind while praising employee performance: ‰

• Praise should be sincere, credible, and spontaneous.
  
  
• Praise should be given in recognition of noteworthy effort or success
  
  
• Praise should be about specific behaviors or results and be given within context so that employees know what they need to attempt to repeat in the future.
  
  
• Let each piece of praise stand on its own – avoid mixing in a bit of criticism or using praise as a sweetener for some negative feedback
  
  
• Use clear, descriptive language to make it very clear what it is you are praising and why. Don’t rush it and move on.

Examples of Praise and Positive Feedback

Boss: “You did a great job on that project. Good work.”

Supervisor: “The contributions you made on this project were a big help. It has been noticed that the work produced by was thorough and accurate. In addition, your coordination with the team and managing the project schedule, and your assistance which kept the team and the project on schedule is acclaimed. Thanks so much for your contributions in helping make this project a success.”

Employee: Thank you sir, for considering my work.

Another Example

“Susan, I really appreciated the way you stepped up to the plate and filled in on the XYZ contract when Richard was out with the flu. Your efforts helped us land a new customer that should increase sales by 10% over the next year.”

“Paul, nice job on the presentation today. You got the message across in a way that enabled everyone to have a much better understanding of our objective and why it is important.”

Negative Feedback

Negative feedback is news to an employee about an effort that needs improvement. Negative feedback doesn’t mean a terrible performance, rather a performance in which the outcomes delivered should be better. People sometimes try to avoid negative feedback in the workplace and clamor for positive input.

But criticism is just as important to the success of a company as positive feedback. Learn to use positive and negative feedback to improve your company processes and develop a product offering that is more acceptable to clients. Feedback has value regardless of its intent or origin.

Negative feedback or criticism is the process whereby you tell people in what way you consider the other person’s behaviour is wrong or annoys you or their performance is below an acceptable level.

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Problems in Feedback

A number of problems in giving effective feedback are as follows:

• A fear of upsetting the superior-subordinate relationship.
  
  
• The employee being resistant or defensive when receiving criticism.
  
  
• Poor handling of a reaction to negative feedback can result in feedback being disregarded thereafter.
  
  
• Feedback being too generalized and not related to specific facts or observations.
  
  
• Feedback not giving guidance on how to rectify behaviour Inconsistent feedback from multiple sources.
  
  
• When giving feedback, it is important to be clear about the expectations and aims in developing a supportive, relaxed and informal environment. It is also about having respect for the person giving feedback.
  
  
• Other aspects between the person giving feedback and the recipient include differences in sex, age or educational and cultural background. These are not necessarily obstacles, but they may make feedback sessions strained and de-motivating.

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Need for Feedback After Performance

Feedback is an essential element for everyone in an organization’s workforce. Giving feedback is a task you perform again and again as a manager or supervisor, letting people know where they are and where to go next in terms of expectations and goals – yours, their own, and the organizations.

Feedback is a useful tool for indicating when things are going in the right direction or for redirecting problem performance. Your objective in giving feedback is to provide guidance by supplying information in a useful manner, either to support effective behavior, or to guide someone back on track toward successful performance.

Feedback is needed after performance for several reasons, some of which are as follows:

• For providing specific performance pointers
• To follow up on coaching discussions
• Giving corrective guidance
• Letting someone know the consequences of their behavior
• When someone asks for your opinion about how they are doing
• At the time when unresolved problems persist ‰

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Suggestions to Enhance Feedback Effectiveness

Giving feedback is a skill which requires very careful handling; done in the wrong way it can be very destructive.

Below are some general suggestions that should underpin all approaches to giving and receiving feedback:

• It should be BALANCED between positive and negative. People learn best from knowing what they do well now and what they could consider doing differently.
  
  
• It should be given with CARE AND CONCERN for the individual, not to punish or score points.
  
  
• It should be SPECIFIC rather than general.
  
  
• For example “you made three very constructive points in that meeting” rather than “you were good in that meeting” or, “page 2 of your report was too technical for me to understand” rather than “I didn’t like your report”.
  
  
• It should be directed towards MODIFIABLE BEHAVIOUR. It doesn’t help someone to be reminded of a shortcoming or a characteristic over which they have no control, e.g. “That is a typical attitude of a medic!” 

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Conditions for Effective Feedback Discussions

Following are the conditions for effective feedback discussions:

• Objective: comments clearly focused on skills needed for task or qualities of behaviour (stay constructive)
  
  
• Specific: comments clearly targeted to meaningful aspects of skill/task/behaviour being taught (be concise and relevant)
  
  
• Guided: comments clearly divided into achievable steps with emphasis on continuous personal improvement (remain positive and encouraging)
  
  
• Consistent: comments clearly tied to learning/behavioral objectives (know the benchmarks and learning targets)
  
  
• Timely: comments clearly provided when students can make the most use of them (make feedback efficient and routine)

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Types of Feedback Interviews

The three types of appraisal interviews: tell-and-sell, tell-and-listen, and problem solving.

Tell-and-sell Interview

The skills required in the tell-and-sell interview include the ability to persuade an employee to change in a prescribed manner. This may require the development of new behaviors on the part of the employee and skilful use of motivational incentives on the part of the appraiser/ supervisor.

Tell-and-listen Interview

In the tell-and-listen interview, the skills required include the ability to communicate the strong and weak points of an employee’s job performance during the first part of the interview. During the second part of the interview, the employee’s feelings about the appraisal are thoroughly explored.

Problem-solving Interview

The skills associated with the problem-solving interview are consistent with the nondirective procedures of the tell-and-listen method. Listening, accepting, and responding to feelings are essential elements of the problem-solving interview. However, this method goes beyond an interest in the employee’s feelings.

It seeks to stimulate growth and development in the employee by discussing the problems, needs, innovations, satisfactions, and dissatisfactions the employee has encountered on the job since the last appraisal interview.

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Key Terms

• Performance Review: Performance review is an ongoing process to document expected results, standards of performance, and evaluation of the employees’ performances.
  
  
• Feedback: Feedback is information about performance that leads to action to change or maintain performance.
  
  
• Performance Feedback: Performance feedback provides information that helps employee to alter, change and maintain/ develop their, skills, behaviors and/or attitudes so that the organization continues to operate effectively.
  
  
• Self Feedback: Self feedback is highly desirable feature of PMS but there is always a need for managers, colleagues and customers (internal + external) to provide holistic feedback based on their suggestion.
  
  
• Positive Feedback: Positive feedback is news or input to an employee about an effort well done.
  
  
• Negative Feedback: Negative feedback is news to an employee about an effort that needs improvement.
  
  
• Counseling: Counseling is a formal process, initiated when a person has not responded to advice and assistance you have provided on a less formal basis.
  
  
• Performance Counseling: Performance Counseling essentially focuses on the analysis of performance on the job, and identification of training needs for further improvement.