How to Conduct a Good Annual Employee Review

...from the perspective of an employee who just had an annual review.

There is nothing more frightening than that time of year when your boss or supervisor announces that annual employee reviews are coming up. Suddenly, every deadline looms that much larger, every little side-eye from a coworker seems that much more sinister. You feel like you're being watched - and you are - but it feels like someone is just waiting for you to screw up in some way.

Oh, just me?

So, here are some ideas from an employee (who regularly deals with anxiety and paranoia) on how to conduct the best annual employee review possible.

 Announce it ahead of time

Please give us time to prepare and get into a head-space that allows us to analyze our own strengths and weaknesses. That way, when you're discussing our apparent strengths and weaknesses we are all on the same page and able to level with each other.

My supervisor told us two months ago that employee reviews were coming up. And then we were reminded again early this week.

Provide a Self-Assessment Form

Which ties into this - provide your employee with a self-assessment form. This is a great place for us to put pen to paper on those strengths and weaknesses we've been thinking about. Sometimes we overestimate how well we're doing at something and sometimes we're a little too critical of the things we should be doing better - being able to jot some notes down about that really helps us (and you!) to see how we feel about our place and our accomplishments.

I also tend to be better at communicating my thoughts in a written format, like most introverts, so having that at hand during a verbal meeting can keep us grounded and on track. Being put on the spot is no bueno.

Email the results of our review before meeting

If there is a standardized form or method of scoring employees, make sure to provide a copy of that to your employee beforehand. Let them absorb that information and internalize it for a bit, so they're prepared coming into that meeting and have an understanding of specific areas that need to be addressed.

I looked over my Performance Review Form just minutes before going into my meeting and it was beneficial to have glanced at the rating definitions so time didn't need to be wasted discussing that and we could get to the good stuff.

Keep things brief and to the point

Department meetings are allowed to be long-winded and agonizingly endless. A employee review should be neither of those things. Stick to the topics that need to be discussed and clarify what is necessary. Allow your employee to ask some questions and request feedback for improvement as needed. Agree on any changes to job duties and pay grade, then go your separate ways.

You likely have more reviews to conduct and they still have at least half a day's worth of work to tackle after decompressing a bit.

Offer tangible feedback and sandwich it between praise

It's impossible to give your employee nothing but gold stars and we all require a bit of feedback on the things we could be doing better. Still, the best method in which to deliver any kind of criticism is be placing it in between things we are doing well.

For example, I have a lot of initiative in my role - which is great - but sometimes things can fall through the cracks because my organizational system is not as tight as it could be - so that's an area for improvement that could further my growth in the company and really help my continued success at providing the best results for our clients.

You get the idea.

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Some annual employee reviews bring no real change and just an update on where you're at in your role. Maybe you get a $0.25 bump in your pay and count yourself lucky. And some annual employee reviews bring big changes - like a shiny, new job title - and a significant raise. Yay, me!

But no matter how new or seasoned you are in your role, it's important to have benchmarks to track your success and know what kind of goals you have yet to reach. It is my hope that any supervising or managing member of an organization is either already employing these concepts or will take some of them to heart in order to have the best review process they can with their team.

Cheers! <3