Now more than ever, remote working has forced teams at small businesses to change the way they communicate with each other. In an office you could simply shout over your shoulder, but in the remote world this conversation takes place through video calls and instant messages.
Overcommunication is important in preventing misunderstanding, and people need to make sure they get the tone across in their messages – in person, or even to an extent over video calls, you can listen to tone of voice and pick up on facial cues, but this element is completely lost across a static message.
Companies should always ensure they have a robust, effective performance review system in place. Now more than ever, with limited face-to-face interaction, it seems like the perfect time to make sure the meeting you share with those who report to you is used wisely, and in a way that benefits both parties.
Here are five tips to creating a great performance review – that works both remotely and in person – as well as a few ideas on how we follow these steps at Juro.
1. Understand what is (and what isn’t) a performance review.
Remote or otherwise, too many managers try to cram several different objectives into these reviews – from career development to general updates on day-to-day work. The problem with this is that if you attempt to cover all these points at once, chances are, you’re not covering any of them particularly well, and your direct reports could leave the meeting feeling dissatisfied, confused, or even frustrated at the outcome.
Instead, try and focus on one objective for performance reviews – and make sure you nail it. Make sure you separate career development sessions – which have their own agenda and outcomes – from performance reviews.
2. Review before you … review.
Many companies make the mistake of assuming each review is a standalone meeting – when rather, the performance reviews should link neatly from one into the next, so the review you carry out at the end of Q2 contains the notes from the previous meeting in Q1.
This is particularly important – performance management isn’t a one-off; it’s a chain of constant improvement, from their original offer letter through to their annual reviews – so your meeting needs to reflect this. By linking one meeting to the next, and reviewing notes from the previous session before starting the next, managers can establish a sense of continuity and improvement.
At Juro, we ensure that performance reviews offer an opportunity to both reflect on the past three months, and look ahead to the next three months. This way, employees feel like they’re on a developmental journey from day one, as opposed to undertaking one disconnected meeting after another.
3. Don’t just focus on ‘what’ – focus on ‘how’.
We all know meetings need a structure to be effective. When it comes to performance reviews, what should this structure look like? I try and ensure that performance reviews focus on both behaviours, and outcomes. Both are equally important and can help the business maintain a strong culture – which is really challenging to do, especially remotely.
Outcomes. This refers to targets, or the ‘what’ aspect of a performance review. Make sure that the targets you set for your direct reports are clearly tracked, understandable, and attainable – we all love a good challenge, but there’s nothing more discouraging than constantly falling short of an unachievable goal! Reviewing targets is a fairly straightforward process, but looking at ‘how’ the employee worked to hit their targets is a little more challenging. That’s where behaviours come in.
Behaviours. Most performance reviews overlook behaviours and solely focus on outcomes, but behaviours can help employees address the ‘how’ of their objectives. The business needs to be really explicit about the types of behaviours it incentivizes – this helps everyone maintain a positive company culture, and ensures a healthy working environment as the company scales.
An effective way of doing this is by revolving behaviours around the values your company upholds. During reviews, Juro’s employees identify examples of behaviours that address these, and look at how these behaviours ultimately helped them hit their target. Through this method, they can better understand their progress over the past quarter, and tie it into the top-level company values.
4. Have conversations.
While everyone’s working remotely, this is even more important – there’s a tendency to feel disconnected without the physical presence of your colleagues or the office around you. Giving your employees a voice and listening to their experience – be it with the workload, their targets, their relationships with other colleagues – is essential. Make sure the performance review feels more like a manager talking to someone, instead of at them.
The benefits of making that small change, from a presentation to a conversation, are clear:
- It improves the employee’s self-worth, and makes them feel like they’re playing an important role at the business
- It can help with talent retention – at a small business, where turnaround may be higher, this is invaluable
- It strengthens the dynamic between a manager and their direct report
5. … And base these conversations around examples.
During a performance review, it’s important to tie everything back to examples – if an employee really went above and beyond in a certain project, make sure you reference it. If an employee fell short of a certain goal, make sure you’re ready with examples so they can learn from their mistakes. People need to know exactly where the praise (or constructive criticism) is coming from, so they have a stronger foundation for development and improvement.
Small steps like these can have a massive impact on many aspects of the business – from culture, to employee dynamics, to morale. And for a small, scaling company, these changes can make all the difference between a business that is staying afloat, and one that is ready to thrive.
Thomas Forstner is people and talent lead at Juro, the all-in-one contract automation platform. Thomas joined Juro in April 2020, and previously worked at Paddle and Algolia.
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Source: http://hrnews.co.uk/5-steps-to-consider-when-reviewing-performance/
