Most of us have been involved with performance reviews in a past corporate life. We remember our experience with these as being impersonal, subjective, and punitive. The administration of these processes was largely complicated, bureaucratic, and largely ineffective.
As a result, you may not be very excited about the idea of introducing Performance Assessments into your business. I’d like to introduce a few thoughts on how you can use performance assessments to positively change behavior within your business.
As you know, growth does not occur without new learning and constructive feedback. In today’s stage, we want to introduce you to a routine, structured approach to providing constructive feedback that everyone needs to improve. There are three fundamental elements:
First, the process must evaluate what gets done against established standards. Secondly, the process must evaluate how work gets done against established norms. And thirdly, the process must allow for self-evaluation in addition to supervisor and/or peer review.
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There are three fundamental elements: First, the process must evaluate what gets done against established standards. Secondly, the process must evaluate how work gets done against established norms. And thirdly, the process must allow for self-evaluation in addition to supervisor and/or peer review.
To document the fundamentals of your performance assessment process, simply follow this step-by-step recipe.
● Step 1 – Establish your Work Standards – the measure of WHAT the individual has accomplished. This can be as easy as defining 3 different levels of goal achievement: Superior, Expected, and Below Expectations.
● Step 2 – Establish your Behavior Standards – the measure of HOW to work gets accomplished. This can be as easy as defining 3 different levels of teamwork and behaviors: Superior, Expected, and Below Expectations.
● Step 3 – Write a 1 or 2 sentence description of each level of performance for both the WHAT (Step 1) and the HOW (Step 2). This is how you would describe that level of performance in your own words.
● Step 4 – Share your standards and descriptions with everyone on your team. They must know what standards they are being measured against.
● Step 5 – Determine how frequently you will provide this feedback to your team members. At a minimum, it should be twice annually, but ideally, it would be at least every 3 months.
● Step 6 – Schedule 30-45 minutes with each of your team members to discuss their performance. Allow them to give themselves a self-assessment based on your criteria and descriptions. Use this opportunity to discuss what they need to focus on over the next 3-6 months to improve their performance and behaviors.
You do not need to make it any more complicated than this. It does require some pre-work and planning. The more thought you put into the criteria and descriptions the better. But don’t get all wrapped up around documents and forms, structure and formality.
Once you get started, you can always add more structure and documentation. Give them the best chance to be successful – create a performance assessment process that you will follow on a regular basis.
If you’re looking for more success and freedom from your business, join my FREE, private Facebook Group called The Peloton. It’s where business owners like you are learning, sharing and working together to get better every day! Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jointhepeloton/
Come on – join us! And remember, whatever you do, RIDE HARD!
