Tomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Tomas Laurinavicius ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Written By Tomas Laurinavicius ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Tomas Laurinavicius ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing opera.
Contributor Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Updated: Apr 30, 2024, 10:41pm
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
Getty
Performance review: these two words evoke mixed feelings in managers and employees alike. Some might be excited. Others become intimidated. But most managers feel stressed, because giving constructive performance feedback is a tough task.
You have to walk the fine line between coaching and criticizing. It’s easy to slip into the wrong territory. You can avoid this scenario with our tips, examples and a downloadable performance review template.
Performance review is a systematic process of evaluating the employee’s past performance and articulating future expectations for the job. The purpose of reviews is twofold: Give constructive feedback and suggest the next steps for personal and professional development:
Numerous psychological studies suggest that regular, fair and diverse feedback leads to substantial improvements in employee performance. Separately, workplace research suggests that meaningful feedback improves employee engagement levels and prevents talent attrition. But to capture these benefits, you must schedule regular performance reviews for each team member (typically once or twice per year).
Performance review is a dialogue between the feedback recipient and the giver. To have an impactful conversation, both parties should take the time to prepare their assessments, examples and commentary.
Without the lead-up work, a performance review session will lack substance and fail to deliver on its core objective—promote desired employee behaviors.
Performance review offers an opportunity to speak about the person’s strengths and weaknesses candidly. There’s a fine line between being helpful and overly critical. Less than 20% of United States employees agree that they’ve received meaningful feedback in the last week.
Performance reviews include an evaluation of an employee’s accomplishments, along with a data-based assessment of their strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. Effective feedback doesn’t condemn. It guides the employer toward doing better next time.
To provide feedback in a growth-encouraging way, try to phrase your statements in the following way.
Tie your improvement suggestion to past action. Instead of telling the employee to fully change their behavior, indicate how they improve upon past actions. For example:
Your data visualizations weren’t great and you should do better next time.I liked how you brought up data from Power BI [business intelligence] in your presentation. But next time, do spend more time visualizing it.
See More See LessPut fallout into context. To better articulate the need for change, explain the downstream effects of the employee’s behavior on the team, company and their own career prospects.
Your inability to submit new interface layouts on time was rather unfortunate.Your delay with the new interface layouts has led to a delay in the new website release. The development team couldn’t switch to other tasks because they were waiting up on you—and this also affected timelines on other projects.
See More See LessUse positive reinforcement. Promote repeat behaviors through appraisal. Acknowledge the person’s strengths and explain how to succeed further—not just avoid failure.
You’re definitely good with customer service, but still this doesn’t fully compensate for the lack of qualifications in social selling.
Customer service is your definite strength. If you work further on improving your sales demo techniques, I can see you moving up to the Lead position.
See More See LessWhen writing your review feedback, think like a coach—and talk like a mentor.
Performance review is a corrective tool. However, to result in meaningful change, it should be paired with supplementary action on goal-setting and progress tracking. Design an accountability mechanism to promote continuous improvements.
Research on performance management suggests that people set higher goals under the condition of accountability. They’re also more likely to perform better when held publicly accountable, such as the goals known by the manager.
Instead of merely expressing praise and constructive criticism, set up a process for follow-up action. It can be documented either as an employee development plan or a performance improvement plan (PIP).
An employee development plan―also called an employee growth plan―provides workers with a sequential list of tasks they must complete to improve skills and acquire knowledge for new roles.
Show the employee what actions they should take in the future to accomplish a certain goal—get a raise, advance to a new role, secure new responsibilities, and more. Doing so helps retain ambitious talent, improve overall employee engagement rates and perform succession planning.
Here’s what to include in an employee development plan:
A full employee development plan sits at the nexus of your company’s organizational needs and employees’ strong sides.
A performance improvement plan (PIP) documents the employee’s current shortcomings and outlines corrective steps. A PIP can comment on poor performance ratings, address skill gaps, draw attention to inappropriate past actions—and suggest mandatory follow-up steps.
Unlike an employee development plan, a PIP is designed to address past failures or problematic on-the-job behaviors rather than set the backdrop for future successes.
What to include in a performance improvement plan:
If an employee fails to follow the PIP, punitive action may be taken, such as transfer, demotion or termination.
Use this performance review template to create an evidence-based approach for evaluating employee competencies and on-the-job behaviors.
The ultimate goal of the performance review is to guide, not admonish, your team members. Your feedback should help the receiver practice the right actions and make them feel recognized for their achievements.
To ensure your feedback achieves the above goals, use the following techniques:
“Jumping straight to performance scores” “Convey a positive intent” “Acting on a hunch” “Rely on quantifiable data” “Passive-aggressive statement” “Constructive criticism” “Emphasizing relationships” “Highlight achievements” “Suggesting fixes” “Indicate areas of improvement” “Making a blanket statement” “Describe your observations in detail” “Commenting on actions or behaviors” “Comment on the impacts made” “Keeping the conversation one-way” “Provide an opportunity to respond” See More See LessPerformance review software offers a consolidated set of tools and storage for governing employee evaluation processes. Such platforms help you create standardized performance evaluation forms, process feedback and manage review schedules with the managers.
Best-in-class performance review software also promotes a good governance model by making the review process standardized, transparent and cross-attributable. A strong methodology, paired with data traceability, prevents personal biases from affecting evaluations—and protects your organization against discriminatory accusations.
Regular feedback and coaching are crucial for nurturing an engaged workforce. A documented performance review process is your first step toward creating a more productive work environment where A-level work is regularly acknowledged and temporary performance slips get resolved fast.
Advertisement Benefits administration Contractor payments Base monthly price$40 per month + $6 per user
On OnPay's Website
Benefits Administration Contractor Payments Base Price$29.99/mo plus $5 per employee
On SurePayroll's Website
Benefits administration Contractor payments Base monthly price$40 per month plus $6 per user
On Gusto's Website
Benefits administration Contractor Payments Base Price$35/month plus $8 PEPM
On Rippling's Website
Benefits Administration Contractor Payments Base PriceOn Justworks' Website
Conducting performance reviews every 6-12 months is the standard practice. Initiate performance for new and entry-level candidates sooner, such as after three and six months, as part of their onboarding. Schedule reviews of other team members less regularly (unless there are issues with their performance).
Ensure the receiver understands what’s going to happen next and has clear takeaways from the conversation.
Was this article helpful?
Share your feedback Send feedback to the editorial team Thank You for your feedback! Something went wrong. Please try again later.
By AJ Dellinger
By Evan Tarver
By Juliana Kenny
By Leeron Hoory
By Leeron Hoory
By Jacqueline Nguyen, Esq.
Information provided on Forbes Advisor is for educational purposes only. Your financial situation is unique and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances. We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Forbes Advisor adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted, though offers contained herein may no longer be available. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and have not been provided, approved, or otherwise endorsed by our partners.
ContributorTomas Laurinavicius is a writer and designer. He's a co-founder of Best Writing, an all-in-one platform connecting writers with businesses. He has built multiple online businesses and helps startups and enterprises scale their content marketing operations. He worked with TIME, Observer, HuffPost, Adobe, Webflow, Envato, InVision, and BigCommerce.
© 2024 Forbes Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Are you sure you want to rest your choices?The Forbes Advisor editorial team is independent and objective. To help support our reporting work, and to continue our ability to provide this content for free to our readers, we receive compensation from the companies that advertise on the Forbes Advisor site. This compensation comes from two main sources. First, we provide paid placements to advertisers to present their offers. The compensation we receive for those placements affects how and where advertisers’ offers appear on the site. This site does not include all companies or products available within the market. Second, we also include links to advertisers’ offers in some of our articles; these “affiliate links” may generate income for our site when you click on them. The compensation we receive from advertisers does not influence the recommendations or advice our editorial team provides in our articles or otherwise impact any of the editorial content on Forbes Advisor. While we work hard to provide accurate and up to date information that we think you will find relevant, Forbes Advisor does not and cannot guarantee that any information provided is complete and makes no representations or warranties in connection thereto, nor to the accuracy or applicability thereof. Here is a list of our partners who offer products that we have affiliate links for.
