A Successful Performance Review Process: It’s All in the Preparation

Mid to late fall is one of the more popular times of year for organizations to conduct performance appraisals. As the HR leader, is your organization taking the right steps to make sure both your managers and employees are prepared? Just a bit of upfront preparation can help make the process go smoothly.

Managers need to take time to carefully prepare, gathering the information they need to effectively rate their employees’ performance, provide them with constructive feedback and coaching, and identify needed development activities. You might want to share this manager’s checklist for appraisal preparation with your supervisory teams.

You’ll also want to encourage employees to actively prepare for the performance review. Regardless of whether or not your process includes a self-evaluation, employees can still do quite a bit to prepare for the meeting and ensure their manager has a full picture of their individual performance and career goals. Here’s a great checklist of steps they can take to prepare as well.

As you’re taking the time to prepare for the review cycle, now is also the perfect time to consider whether the appraisal process is consistent across the organization. Giving feedback is often very subjective, so ensuring consistency and fairness is critical to the success of performance management in any organization. You can read more here about best practices for driving consistency in your performance appraisal process.

These are just a few – I’m sure there are many more ways to prepare. Let us know about steps you take to make sure your organization’s performance appraisal process goes smoothly and is a valuable, actionable exercise for your company.