

Recent research with employees in the Middle East found that only 34% were satisfied with their company’s performance management process. This is a huge wasted opportunity – not just to boost employee engagement, but also to get the best out of your workers. In this article, we’ll look at what performance management is, and how Small and Medium Business owners can improve upon how the performance appraisal is conducted.
What is performance management?
Performance management can be defined as a dedicated framework an organisation sets up to provide periodic feedback to employees. It is an essential management activity that is intended to improve the work of individuals and the organisation. It is useful because it provides a moment when employees and managers can pause and evaluate how things are going and encourages change. Rather than just carrying on as they have always done, it means employees and managers can work out how to improve mutually upon things.
Choosing the right performance management process
The traditional performance management process involves an annual meeting where a member of staff and their line manager discuss the employee’s work over the course of the year. While the performance management process can be highly valuable, many organisations have found that a traditional annual review doesn’t ‘work’ for them.
Employees often report that they find it stressful because recent events tend to dominate the conversation and they often come away unsure about what they are supposed to do. As a result, many companies are beginning to use different types of performance management systems.
There are now ever more types of performance management processes that can be tailored to different sized businesses, industries and ways of working. Let’s look at some of them.
Performance appraisals
A performance appraisal is a meeting in which the company’s performance management process is put into play – and this can vary drastically depending on the approach you take. In an organisation that has an informal approach to performance management, the meeting may be a casual discussion over a coffee in a staff meeting area. In other companies, it will be a highly structured ‘interview’ style meeting, where employees and managers mark off performance against an employee evaluation card that all staff must follow.
What is a performance appraisal?
Methods of employee evaluation
Employee evaluation form
Meetings and catch-ups
Rating scales
Ranking against objectives
360-degree evaluations
Performance evaluations
Self-assessment example questions
Achievement questions
Professional development questions
Issues and problems questions
Performance evaluation samples
- Do you agree that you are paid fairly for your work?
Completely agree | Completely disagree | |||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
- Do you feel that you receive enough support from your manager?
Completely agree | Completely disagree | |||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
- Is your work challenging enough?
Completely agree | Completely disagree | |||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
In larger businesses, this kind of information can tell you if one team is having morale issues, meaning you can then investigate what is going wrong and resolve underlying issues.
Performance reviews structure example
An employee appraisal will cover many of the same kinds of questions. The following performance review structure example shows the type of typical information an organisation might include.
- Introduction and purpose: Explain why you are carrying out the performance review.
- Points on general behaviour and performance: Discuss issues around punctuality, attendance, compliance and attitude.
- Job-specific discussion: Talk about how well the employee is performing with regards to their specific role.
- Year-on-year comparison: Discuss how well the employee is doing in comparison with previous years.
- Goals and targets: Discuss whether they have achieved objectives set in the past, as well as goals for the future.
Performance management for any organisation
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