HOLDING THE STAFF REVIEW MEETING

In the previous issue we looked at why reviewing during a probationary period is so important to the success of the new member of staff, in terms of assisting them in their personal growth, ensuring that they are fitting into your organisation and carrying out the role that you want them to, and helping them take on more responsibility within your organisation so that they can truly make a difference to your business.

We also looked at how to prepare for a staff review, including the areas to cover during the review, where and when to hold it and how to create the right environment to show that you care and allow you and the member of staff to converse openly and safely.

In this edition we look at how to conduct the review to ensure that motivation is maintained and grown, so that the employee performs to their maximum, and at how to achieve this whilst being mindful of your own time. The aim should be that review meetings are properly beneficial for you too, rather than an arduous chore solely for the benefit of new employee.

The Start Of The Meeting

Whatever you call the review, be it a meeting, an appraisal, an assessment or whatever, the member of staff will be nervous and concerned. For the review to be effective and positive the employee needs to be made to feel comfortable and relaxed in much the same way as if you were about to interview for a new post; the goal is to ensure that the conversation is open and honest between the two of you.

To this end, when the employee enters the room offer them a drink and enjoy some pleasantries rather than wading straight in. This will also relax you, too, as it is important that you are receptive and able to listen properly, and not simply geared-up to dive in and pick them up on aspects of their performance where you feel they could do better.

You will notice when the employee has relaxed as the atmosphere palpably changes and there will be a certain level of rapport between the two of you. You should also become aware that you are yourself calmer and ready to carry on in a positive frame of mind.

Once you become aware that the necessary  rapport has been established, it will feel like the natural time to move on to the real business of the meeting, and you can take control and run through the points that need to be covered.

The Running Order Of The Meeting

Most of us will have been in a review at one time or another and will have varied experiences of them. The generally accepted way of running them, and certainly the way I have found that they work most effectively, is to run them in the following sequence:

1 – Employee to discuss performance, achievements and accomplishments and where they feel they need more assistance.

2 – Employee to discuss how they could develop and improve their performance which might include training, new assignments or new challenges.

3 – Manager to discuss performance with the employee and how they could achieve better performance including reviewing the data from the period under consideration.

4 – Manager to discuss their thoughts on the employee’s ideas on how to develop their role and performance.

5 – Jointly discuss areas of agreement and disagreement on the employee’s performance and reach consensus. The manager will probably be correct with their view with more experience, but for the review to be motivating and increase productivity it is important that they have the employee buy-in.

6 – Discuss specific areas of responsibility for the next part of the overall probationary period.

7 – Agree performance criteria and expected standards for the next period.

8 – Set the “SMART” goals to be met by the next review and why they are important to the employees development and to the business. (See the last issue for a brief explanation of “SMART.”)

9 – Agree the measurements for success with each goal.

10 – If previously-set goals have been achieved, discuss ways that goals that are important to the employee can be met, from their point of view.

11 – If the performance is poor:

• Jointly put together a performance plan.
• Set up more regular reviews to help the employee overcome the issues and bring them back to where they are expected to be.
• Remind the employee of the consequences of continued under-performance.

12 – Discuss the employee’s view on how the team, department or business can perform better. Some of the best ideas come from staff who are new to an organisation or in new positions as they see things from a different perspective.

13 – Discuss any other matter the manager or employee would like to discuss.

14 – Set a time for the next meeting.

15 – If the notes have been written legibly both sign them to evidence that the meeting took place.

16 – Close the meeting with the manager being positive about the outcomes and expressing confidence that the employee can achieve the goals and that the manager is available to provide assistance in achieving these plans.

That running order may look daunting at first sight but the reality is that the review should only take about an hour. With practice and some idea of the right amount of time each party should be speaking for, this does become quite easy to achieve in practice.

For instance, for points one and two I would allow the employee to talk for up to 15 minutes. I would expect to talk for something like 15 minutes during points three and four. Point five needs to be covered patiently and without raised voices and should be covered in five minutes or so, and thereafter you should find the remainder of the review will run quickly as any potential areas of dispute have been covered.

The key point to remember throughout the review is that it is important to hear the employee out and understand where they are coming from. You should be conducting the meeting with the goal of helping the employee.

Passions can run high in areas of disagreement and simply using your authority may ensure that you win your argument. However, that approach will be extremely detrimental to your relationship with the member of staff and de-motivate them, leading to their performance becoming a consistent issue - which is entirely the opposite of what a review process should be there to achieve. Instead of simply using your management position to 'win' any dispute, listen to and work with your new member of staff so that you get the best out of them, and they get the best out of their new employment.

Whilst this and our previous issue have been focusing on the probation review, the above process is one that can be used for any staff reviews in your business. By sticking to this format, your employees will become used to the running order and will come in fully prepared. Subsequently, the sharing of information and the clear focus of the meeting will produce excellent results and motivation for both your employees and you.

Next Time:

In the next issue we will look at the content of the meeting in greater detail and how to conduct it so that it does run within the timelines you set out. The result will be that you and the employee will be able to come out of a review meeting feeling it was a beneficial and positive experience, with both of you motivated and looking forward to achieving the agreed goals by the time of the next meeting.

CONDUCTING SUCCESSFUL STAFF REVIEWS

Following our last issue, we now have an understanding of how to use the probationary period to ensure that the new employee delivers what he/she promised to deliver.

At the same time it is also vital that the new employee is made to feel comfortable in their new role. Never forget that probationary periods are two-way - which means that it is easier for new staff to leave during this time.

To ensure that you as the hiring manager will be happy if your new employee passes their probation, you should conduct regular reviews. (In fact, in my view regular reviews should be conducted for the duration of the employee’s career with you.) In this article I look at preparing for these reviews.

It is very hard to find guidance on how to prepare and set the parameters for a review so we usually adopt the style of the managers who have reviewed us in the past. This can be good if they were good, but the opposite can easily be just as true. So, whilst some of the following may seem very simple, it is nevertheless important to apply this approach to ensure for maximum efficacy and  a motivated and well-performing employee.

So, What Should Be Reviewed?

If you have followed the hiring process detailed in previous issues of this blog, the subjects to be covered in the reviews will have been covered in your initial job description and requirements from the behaviours you were expecting and interviewing for.

Rather than spend a large portion of this issue running through those here, I will refer you to the relevant blog entries for June 2010

“Making Job Descriptions Work For You” Part 1
“Making Job Descriptions Work For You” Part 2
“Making Job Descriptions Work For You” Part 3

So, following that approach means we will have established the outcomes we are looking for during the interview process and agreed them during the induction and initial training period. This means we can now set out to review against these outcomes.

Borrowing from my examples from the earlier issues, the expected outcomes for a new recruiter are detailed below after 30 and 90 days of employment.

In 30 days

• To be fully cognisant of our database and able to demonstrate an in-depth ability to perform searches and enter all conversations on it.
• To be able to present a complete overview of the technical speciality they work in.
• To be able to have informed conversations with candidates in their sector.

In 90 days

• To have met the targets set, leading through the recruitment process from obtaining the role, submitting CVs and setting up interviews; and having basic control of the process.
• To be able to effectively present candidates to clients.
• To be able to plan the day effectively and unsupervised.

This provides for clear criteria to be reviewed at the start of the employment and throughout the probation period.

Likewise, ongoing targets and behavioural expectations can be agreed and set for future reviews - both once the initial criteria have been met within the probation period and thereafter, once the  probation period has been passed.

If handled correctly and professionally, these reviews can be highly motivational to your staff by providing ongoing challenges to them which will enhance their career and standing within your business, increase their skills and competencies and make them feel valued within the business - all of which will, in turn, increase their productivity.

In order to set appropriate and challenging targets remember the 'SMART' maxim: the targets should be:

Specific – detail the objective
Measurable – the parameters for success
Achievable – can they be achieved and have they been agreed by all parties?
Realistic – are the expectations realistic?
Time – the start and end time for the objective to be achieved.

Preparing For The Review:

When agreeing the review time and date let the employee know what you would like to cover. If the targets are “SMART” and have been agreed by both parties then both parties can prepare prior to the review by looking at the specific achievements and whether they have been achieved or not.

Normally the conversation will be about the specific targets but if additional points should be covered then it is wise to let the employee know in advance as well. That said, if there is a behavioural concern around attitude or treatment of colleagues or clients then I would bring this up in the review rather than prior to the review so that the issue can be covered informally without being marked on the employees records. This also prevents a drop in performance whilst the staff member worries about what will happen before the meeting has happened.

When And Where To Conduct The Review:

Reviews can be conducted formally at a set time or informally at the desk.

My preference is to review regularly at the desk and to formally review away from the desk on a monthly basis.

My regular reviews are daily to start with and move to weekly as the person settles in and is moving forward. My aim is to gain from these an understanding of how the employee is organising and planning, and to run through how they carry out their tasks in the live environment. These reviews can usually be conducted at short notice and are much more effective at the desk as -

a) you can often show them more effective ways of carrying out their day-to-day tasks and show them and their colleagues, who will be paying attention even though they are not being reviewed, how to be most effective.
b) it enables you to see that they are thinking about what they are doing and will ensure that the whole team does. This in turn ensures a better experience for your customers.
c) it allows you to praise them in front of others.

I provide a few days notice for the monthly reviews and set aside an hour for the review and ensure that there is private room/office to conduct it in.

The Environment:

The environment for conducting a formal review is very important and it should be akin to the environment you create when you set up interviews.

To be effective, it is vital from the outset that the employee feels safe to talk to you and that their development and concerns are important to you. The review should therefore be held in a closed room or, failing that, in a secluded area where interruptions are unlikely. Public places or open plan offices do not create an environment where an employee can feel comfortable being open and honest about their performance. Further, if there are aspects of their performance that you are not happy with then discussing this privately is always a good thing for the employee and - if handled correctly - motivational too. On the other hand, if problems are dealt with in an open environment in front of others, that can severely damage trust and the motivation of the employee and the team around them.

It is also important to ensure that you cannot be interrupted, your phone is off and that your attention is fully with the employee for the duration of the meeting. As with the interview, having a clock in your eye line is helpful so that you can track time without looking at your watch, which is a huge distraction to the employee and creates the impression that you are not really focused on the review.

Again like an interview, it is important that the employee is put at ease so that they are open and honest with you. So, start with small talk about themselves and how things are going just to create a more relaxed feel before you start the review itself.

Next Tme:

In the next article we will look at how to conduct the review.