What Employees Expect From A Reliable Performance Review Process

Career Management

Performance reviews always sound daunting from an employee’s perspective. Consider them a report card that marks your performance on a scale. Being compared to co-workers is even more stressful. Moreover, you may always worry about bias when others judge your work. Not surprisingly, organizations and managers struggle to create a positive picture of performance reviews. But knowing what employees expect can help them implement a feedback mechanism that works. As an employee, you want an honest and reliable review system you can trust. Here are the factors you may look for in a trustworthy performance review process.

Look for genuine effort from the manager

When you sit down with your manager for a performance meeting, you must listen to what they say and how they say it. Their words can give you a fair idea about the value you deliver as an employee. Ensure that the manager invests genuine effort into the review, from making correct observations and backing them up with valid evidence and arguments. You cannot trust the process if they seem to rush through the review. 

Prioritize corrective feedback

Another sign that your manager is authentic with your performance review is that they provide corrective feedback instead of open criticism. At the same time, do not expect praise for everything you do. The best feedback is constructive, even if it comes across as a negative one. Pay attention to the balance in words because anything that tilts too much on either side lacks authenticity. Be open to getting insights into what you can do better.

Value broad reviews

As an employee, you must value broad reviews coming from different sources, such as your leaders, managers, peers, and anyone else you collaborate with. Consider 360 reviews the best instance because they gather facts from different sources. You will probably get a list of 360 review questions about co-workers if your employer follows this review process. These questions give you a fair idea of the criteria for measuring up employee performance, so you can decide whether they are good enough.

Seek clear expectations for the future

Employees also expect managers to provide them with clear expectations for the future. Of course, feedback on current performance is crucial, but it is only half the work. Managers cannot expect employees to improve on their own. Showing them the way to address the gaps is an ideal approach to performance reviews. It fosters trust because employees feel more comfortable if they know what managers expect from them.

Expect regular check-ins

Regular check-ins make employees open to embracing performance reviews rather than fearing them. You feel comfortable with a better rhythm and structured feedback coming several times instead of a single annual formal review. The best thing about the increased frequency of reviews is that it can improve productivity in the long run. Moreover, employees are happy with short-term improvements because they are easy to embrace.

Knowing what employees expect from an honest performance review puts managers in a good place. They can implement these measures to make employees comfortable with reviews and improvements.

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