While leaders inevitably complain about having to do reviews, they also say that they want to develop their employees. How do those two concepts coexist?

Think of it like this: Reviews are foundational.

If you don’t have good base information, you can’t develop a plan to encourage change and growth. To get that base, you need more than what a basic performance evaluation provides. After all, if the only information you share about an employee is whether they meet expectations, exceed them, or shouldn’t be working here, it’s hard to develop a targeted plan for their future.

We encourage leaders to start with an evaluation process that includes the most important aspects of the job and provides behavioral examples of completing those successfully. Once you know how an employee compares, you can start the conversation about the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to develop by looking at examples of what it would require for them to take their performance up a notch. A best practice is to schedule regular touchpoints to monitor progress and encourage their growth throughout the year.

That opens the door to individual development plans and succession planning. Those are key to long term employee success and retention.

Comfortable with the system you have now? When’s the last time an employee shared with you that their review was impactful in a positive way? If that’s not what you’re hearing, it may be time to reevaluate your process.

Want to learn more about ways to evaluate performance that can be used as a basis for developing employees? The HR Consulting team at Rose Street is ready to help!