In this conversation, the speakers discuss the challenges of performance reviews and how to make them more effective. They acknowledge that most people hate performance reviews because they are often rushed and not engaging. To make the process more effective, managers need to prepare for the review process well in advance and have clear guidelines and documented goals. They also need to have regular check-ins with their team members throughout the year to build towards the performance review.

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The speakers emphasize that the performance review should be a conversation, not a one-sided evaluation. The tone should be set in weekly one-on-one meetings, where managers and employees can have a dialogue about what is important to the team and the individual. This approach ensures that everyone on the team feels heard, valued, and engaged.

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The speakers warn against falling into traps such as waiting until the last minute to conduct the review, doing them infrequently, or having the employee fill out most of the review. They also stress the importance of incorporating areas of development and opportunities for growth into the review process.

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Lastly, the speakers emphasize the need for objectivity in the review process. Communicating the rules and expectations early and often can help avoid biased exercises. The review process is one element of evaluating performance on a regular basis, which is critical to becoming an elite organization. By building systems and processes that allow for consistency, managers can empower their employees and help build an elite organization.

In this conversation, the speakers discuss the challenges of performance reviews and how to make them more effective. They acknowledge that most people hate performance reviews because they are often rushed and not engaging. To make the process more effective, managers need to prepare for the review process well in advance and have clear guidelines and documented goals. They also need to have regular check-ins with their team members throughout the year to build towards the performance review.

The speakers emphasize that the performance review should be a conversation, not a one-sided evaluation. The tone should be set in weekly one-on-one meetings, where managers and employees can have a dialogue about what is important to the team and the individual. This approach ensures that everyone on the team feels heard, valued, and engaged.

The speakers warn against falling into traps such as waiting until the last minute to conduct the review, doing them infrequently, or having the employee fill out most of the review. They also stress the importance of incorporating areas of development and opportunities for growth into the review process.

Lastly, the speakers emphasize the need for objectivity in the review process. Communicating the rules and expectations early and often can help avoid biased exercises. The review process is one element of evaluating performance on a regular basis, which is critical to becoming an elite organization. By building systems and processes that allow for consistency, managers can empower their employees and help build an elite organization.

Timestamp

0:00:00 Introduction to the topic of making performance reviews more effective

0:00:36 Importance of planning and preparation for effective performance reviews

0:01:27 The need for regular check-ins and ongoing dialogue throughout the year

0:02:28 Traps to avoid, such as waiting until the last minute or doing reviews infrequently

0:03:14 Incorporating areas of development and opportunities for growth in the review process

0:03:39 Importance of embedding objectivity in the review process

0:04:04 Regular evaluation and progress towards goals as a critical element of becoming an elite organization

0:04:38 Empowering managers and engaging employees to build an elite organization

Conducting Effective Performance Reviews

Everyone hates performance reviews. Half the time when you're going through the process, you might be sitting across somebody on the team that is completely not engaged. It is a extremely unpleasant experience and there's a lot of reasons why that exists.

So what we're gonna talk about in this conversation is how we can make that performance review process more effective overall. Busy HR teams have to coach everybody and get those performance reviews done on time. The problem is that when you're at a small to mid-size organization, your managers have line of sight into the team, and oftentimes they leave performance reviews and the process for getting those done effectively until the last possible minute, and oftentimes you're just rushing to get them in.

That build to that performance review. Where a lot of organizations go wrong is that they only do this once a year or very infrequently, maybe twice a year. So getting out of that habit will create a more effective review process.

The second element that needs to be focused on beyond preparation is that this should be a conversation.

That's how you make sure that everyone on the team feels heard, valued and are engaged.

There are a couple of traps that you don't wanna fall into. One waiting till the last minute. Definitely not a trap you wanna fall into two doing these once a year and even worse, having the employee fill out most of it and you add your comments in after the fact.

Those are big no-nos. So you need to be consistent and this should flow from the one-on-one process that you're having. So that. Less formal conversations give you temp checks throughout the year on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis to give you real line of sight, and you're not impacted by recency bias that might happen that skews a review one way or another.

So that is gonna be critical in making your review process effective. And last but certainly not least, you need to make sure that you're embedding objectivity through your review process. Communicate the rules and the expectations early and often and throughout the year. And you don't have to run the risk of being seen as doing a biased exercise.

So if you wanna pursue the goal of becoming an elite organization, you need to build systems and processes that allow you to be consistent, and that's gonna be critical to your ability to become that elite organization. Regular check-ins and evaluation on progress to goals is a critical element of that. Empower your managers, get your employees engaged, and they will help you build an elite organization.