Each year, more companies are doing away with annual reviews. Performance management best practices support this trend, as 90% of HR heads and 49% of employees feel annual reviews are inaccurate.
If you’re looking for a better way to assess employee performance—while also helping your team improve—read on for suggestions about creating impactful assessments as well as employee recognition gifts that can help.
Start with an annual conversation
Instead of starting or ending the year with an assessment, have a conversation instead. This gives you the opportunity to:
Celebrate achievements
Discuss achievements and present associates with an employee recognition gift, like a company-branded hoodie, to celebrate their successes.
Identify roadblocks
Figure out what prevented staff from doing their best work and how to fix it going forward.
Choose goals and growth opportunities
Determine which skills the employee will develop and set goals for the coming months or year. A planner or motivational wall calendar can help them plan and stay on track.
Focus on the future
Talk about how the company can help team members achieve their goals with mentorships, training or other opportunities.
Provide immediate feedback—especially praise
More than half of employees prefer to receive immediate one-on-one feedback. And whether you’re praising their good work or turning an error into a learning opportunity, providing immediate feedback is a performance management best practice that has a number of advantages:
- Prevent future errors.
- Keep small issues from becoming larger ones.
- Improve employee retention.
It’s especially important to remember to praise your employees. Most associates say they haven’t been recognized in the last 50 days—and 40% say they would work harder if they received more recognition.
Send them an email, call them out in a meeting or offer them an employee recognition gift. Whether it’s something small, like a star highlighter for assisting with a project, or a jacket to celebrate them finishing a major training session, offering a token of thanks can make a big impact.
Hold frequent assessments
Holding one-on-one meetings with employees once a week, once a month or once a quarter provides you with the opportunity to:
- Check in on or revise employee goals.
- Remove roadblocks or offer coaching opportunities to help them reach project or goal milestones.
- Document in-the-moment employee snapshots after completing projects or training.
Providing frequent feedback helps prevent praise and instruction from being forgotten. This performance management best practice helps ensure nothing important is missed when discussing potential raises, bonuses or future opportunities to advance.
These assessments also create another opportunity to recognize accomplishments with an employee recognition gift. A logo duffel bag is a useful item that just about anyone can appreciate.
Assess your assessment with performance management best practices
If you want more from your annual assessments, it may be time to change up your process. Providing more frequent feedback and opportunities for growth are performance management best practices that can improve your employees and your organization.