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COMMON MISTAKES MANAGERS MAKE WHEN CONDUCTING ANNUAL EMPLOYEE PERFOMANCE REVIEWS
IUnfortunately, there are a lot of mistakes that a manager can make when conducting an employee review. Annual reviews are performance based and are growth oriented. Let us look at some of the mistakes
Leniency / Desire to Please
Leniency, or desire to please, is a huge pitfall of employee reviews. Leniency, or desire to please, means giving a favorable rating to an undeserving employee just to avoid conflict. Giving constructive criticism is never easy. No one wants to make an employee upset. Even though the employee may not be thrilled by the constructive criticism you’re giving, they still need to hear it. Here are some ways to give constructive criticism:
- Be specific.
- Sandwich criticism between compliments.
- Offer solutions to problems.
- Don’t overwhelm employee with too much criticism.
- Be direct.
- Show them that you care and understand.
Another thing to watch out for is first impression bias. We have all been there, had a bad day, and made a poor first impression on someone. First impression bias means allowing a prior impression of an individual to cloud all future decisions. An annual review should consist of the employee’s full year, not just a first impression.
Rater Bias
Rater bias means rating an employee based on personal feelings instead of actual facts. It’s easy to let your personal feelings cloud your judgment. Regardless of whether your bias is in favor or not in favor of your employee, it’s wrong to let your personal feelings effect an employee’s review. Annual reviews need to be based on an employee’s performance only. Your personal feelings are not valid in this arena.
Recency Effect
When giving annual employee reviews, you also will want to avoid the Recency Effect. The Recency Effect is allowing the most recently concluded evaluation rating to skew the rater’s judgment with regard to the present performance evaluation. Have you heard that saying “I’m only human?” As humans, we are prone to error, but also have the ability to learn and adapt.
Employee reviews help employees learn what they need to improve. Having previous performance reviews in mind while doing one’s current review doesn’t allow them to grow. The point of an annual review is to show the employee what it is they need to work on, and what they are doing well. If you don’t take into account their growth, they will only become disengaged from the whole process.
