How to Create Effective Employee Reviews Using Routine Timeframes
Feedback should be a valuable element of every workplace.
Co-authored by Stephen Huffaker
Annual reviews are an outdated means of providing employee feedback, left over from a time when employees were expected to do their job and go home, no questions asked. People of today’s workforce are usually expected to think for themselves on some level and have a much greater need for instant feedback. If your only official means of employee feedback is once a year, you have a lot of room to improve.
First off, no employee should be surprised by the feedback they are given on an annual review, though it happens far too often. Consider the following scenario: The boss hears about a mistake made by an employee, but rather than address it (perhaps because either or both people are too busy), they just make a note to add it to the employee’s annual review. This take-care-of-it-later approach may lead to the issue remaining unaddressed.
This approach sets the employee up for failure and repetition of mistakes, which is a problem for a number of reasons:
1. Next time they repeat their mistake, there may be more dire consequences.
2. Someone else may copy them, believing that they are doing things correctly.
3. That mistake will turn into a habit which will require greater effort to break later.
Instead of reserving feedback for annual reviews, employees should receive feedback at a variety of intervals, including daily, weekly, and monthly.
Giving more frequent and timely feedback reinforces good behavior and provides a chance to eliminate unwanted behavior before it becomes a habit or a serious risk. A one-time mistake that is immediately addressed will have far fewer negative consequences than a long-term string of repeated mistakes; each time a mistake is repeated, the problems it causes are exacerbated.
Imagine you have an employee who has been failing to follow up with customers for whatever reason, which is causing the customer loyalty rating to drop. If this situation is left to be addressed for 6 months or more, in addition to losing even more customers, a greater amount of work will be needed to improve customer reviews as well as retrain employees.
Additionally, a lack of regular feedback contributes to a culture of indifference. If you don’t demonstrate investment in the quality of your employees’ work, they may not feel obligated to put in effort. The mindset can become, “Well, if no one’s watching, then they must not care, which means it must not be important.”
To avoid these problems, here are a few tangible actions you can take to ensure that your employees regularly receive valuable feedback. These suggestions don’t need to be highly time-consuming; what’s important is that you are accountable for the way feedback is presented and received. And as with any good business practice, you should periodically evaluate your feedback-giving methods to see if they can be improved.
Daily
1. Provide at least as much positive reinforcement as you do critical, corrective suggestions, if not more. This will ensure that you do not focus too narrowly on negatives or come across as harsh.
2. Encourage a culture of feedback. Ask your employees for suggestions regarding your own methods, and encourage them to do the same with their co-workers. This will go a long way in ensuring that everyone feels comfortable giving and receiving feedback.
3. Use a shared dashboard to log important instructions. Employees can refer back to it to ensure that they are performing their duties correctly and not repeating mistakes.
Weekly
1. Provide end-of-the-week reports to your employees, so that they know what they did well and what they can improve. These reports don’t need to be lengthy or formal as long as they clearly communicate important praise and suggestions.
2. Send an email to your team letting them know that you appreciate their efforts in the past week.
3. Schedule a weekly huddle. This doesn’t need to be its own meeting; if you meet with your employees on a weekly basis already, just include a brief opportunity for everyone to share and receive feedback.
Monthly
1. Track your employees’ long-term performance and look for emerging patterns. This will help you identify trends on a more comprehensive scale.
2. For long-term projects, consider holding monthly progress meetings as well as weekly. Use these to give feedback regarding your employees’ long-term performance.
Remember, your employees should have the opportunity, at all the suggested time intervals, to give feedback and submit ideas for improvement. Learning to take feedback will help you provide it more effectively and contribute to a more trusting environment.
Overall, the key is to implement an evolving feedback strategy, rather than a box you check once a year. Strategy involves having a purpose, setting objectives, and creating measures by which you can track progress. There isn’t one right way to implement a feedback strategy as long as you remain focused on your main goal: adopt a feedback method to create a trust-driven, high-performance environment in which your employees will thrive.
