Dos and Don’ts of IT Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are a valuable tool for getting you and your employees on the same page. Unfortunately, if not handled properly, a performance review can deliver more insults than insights. The key is to approach the process in a thoughtful way and treat it as more than just an administrative waste of time. We’ve listed some dos and don’t below to help you and your team get more out of the performance review process.

Do’s

• Take the process seriously. If you want your employees to treat the review as a meaningful exercise, you need to do the same.
• Prepare your thoughts in advance. Spend time looking over data, and as much as possible base your conclusions on objective measures. Never do an off-the-cuff performance review.
• Make the focus of the performance review issues that actually matter, not petty concerns and minor critiques.
• Give your team ongoing feedback throughout the year. The performance review should serve as more of a summary than a surprise.
• Give and receive feedback. The best reviews are conducted as a conversation, and both parties participate.
• Spend more time talking about the right things to do moving forward instead of harping on the wrong things that defined the past.

Don’ts

• Resort to using a report card system. This approach is both patronizing, and like most report cards, people focus far more on the negatives than the positives.
• Deliver any personal attacks. This is a performance review, not a character review. If you have a problem with someone personally, now is not the time to bring it up.
• Introduce a disciplinary element. People should not leave their review with a punishment assigned to them. This does nothing to further your goals, and could open the company up to legal challenges.
• Leave anyone out. If you exempt someone from the review process for any reason, you call into question the credibility of the whole exercise.
• Focus only on the recent past. It may be what’s closest to the front of your mind, but the review must take into consideration everything that has happened since the last review.
• Accentuate the negatives. Everyone does something that deserves your praise. If they don’t, they probably shouldn’t be on your workforce.

You only get as much out of the performance review process as you put into it. So remember that your performance matters too. Learn more about refining your management strategies by contacting INSPYR Solutions.