Three Important Steps for a Positive and Profitable Employee Review © / Ernest F. Oriente / Business Coaching Section / ComPortOne of Rockford Illinois

Three Important Steps For A Positive
and Profitable Employee Review ©
by Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach

Can employee reviews really be positive and profitable?
You bet! Follow the steps in this article and the changes in your company will be felt immediately! How you and your company handle each employee review is a direct reflection of your leadership and the importance of each individual within your company.

Preparing for each review:
Start by establishing the frequency and time frame for your company employee reviews and be certain this is outlined in your administrative guidelines and employee manual. If each review is tied to a person’s anniversary date, keeping track of employee review schedules can be a challenge.

Consider doing all reviews during two months of the year, for instance--November and May. Each of your managers should be given a blank copy of the review form required by your company, and a list of their team members, who are scheduled for a review.

Instruct your managers to prepare each review in a typed format, as this makes it easy to read and looks more professional when being presented.

Lastly, ask each of your managers to give you a copy of the final review notes, prior to it being formally presented. This gives you an opportunity to assess the quality of the work being done by each of your managers and gives you a window for making any changes.

Tip from The Coach: In the same way you give a blank copy of the employee review form to your managers, give a blank copy of the review form to each person being reviewed. This will give your employees an opportunity to make notes about their performance, prior to each performance review. This step is critical because it allows each of your managers to "see" the gap between their point of view versus their employees’ point of view. This "gap" is exactly where the best coaching can be done to improve the performance of each person on your team.

Conducting each review:
Since your manager and your employee will both be well prepared for this review, the exchange of ideas and the depth of feedback will make for a rich and rewarding meeting.

The review should start by having your manager explain how each person’s review is a special time for personal and professional growth and the tone for each review will be both positive and productive. Have your manager begin by reading out loud the first question, then read his/her comments about their employee.

Next, their employee should read their comments out loud. After each person has read their response to the first question, then specific feedback should be given by your manager, about how the comments are similar and a discussion about any comments that are different.

This "gap" leaves room for personal and professional growth and is the perfect place to build "action items" to be addressed between this review and the next one. After completing the first question, have your manager continue the rest of the employee review, using this format.

Tip from The Coach: This review format communicates "mutual" respect for each employee of your company, but it must go one step further. Since the feedback of each employee is important, and since you are requesting their feedback during each employee review, a salary increase must consider the comments from both your manager and your employee. This means a final decision about the size of each person’s salary increase should be given one or two days after the review is completed. If a salary increase is given at the close of each employee’s review, this says to your employee that their feedback was not important, as the salary increase had been pre-determined in advance. I know this sounds like a small point…but it will make a BIG difference!

Using the review for grooming and growth:
So, the review is finished and the paperwork can now be placed in the employee’s file to gather dust for the next year, right? Not a chance!

Have your manager end each employee review by first recapping all the positive comments that were shared and have them summarize each "action-step" required for improvement or growth. These action steps should focus on the goals and objectives for the next period and must be in alignment with the goals of your company.

Have your manager schedule a short meeting in 30 days, to review the progress being made for each action item, as this review will become an important part of each month’s conversation between your manager and his/her employee. Then continue to use this employee review monthly until the anniversary of the next formal review.

Tip from The Coach: While your manager is using this "year-around" review process, ask them to keep you posted on those who are making the most progress on their action steps. This is a good sign and a strong indicator that this person has leadership abilities and can easily be groomed for additional responsibility. As you identify these leaders in your company, develop a second set of action steps to accelerate this person’ career path within you company.

Author’s note: Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach, founder of PowerHour®, a professional business coaching service delivering customized training, by telephone, in management, marketing and sales for property management companies, apartment locator/corporate housing services and publishing companies worldwide. We specialize in global distance learning by telephone, using our state-of-the-art conference call system for interactive and dynamic TeleForums. Twice-monthly TeleForums link 10 -100 executives/ professionals/ individuals who are geographically dispersed, in a time efficient and profitable format. PowerHour® is based in ski-town—Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@powerhour.com or visit our TeleForum website: www.coachingsuccess.com. To receive a FREE property management success newsletter send an E-mail to: ernest@powerhour.com. Recent PowerHour® articles have appeared in 1500+ business/trade publications and websites.

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