The performance review process is usually seen as a checkbox ticking exercise, both from an employee and a manager perspective. Moreover, doing it yearly paired with salary reviews, it usually ends up in a “big reveal” meeting that most often than not disappoints everyone.

This doesn’t need to be the case. We believe performance reviews can be a very effective and useful tool for both employees and managers for career progression and performance management. The process that we outline here revolves around the following main points.

• Performance reviews every 6 months
• Include 360° peer/stakeholder feedback
• Shared goal setting for the following 6 months
• Shared self and manager assessment prior to the review meeting. No surprises.
• Transparency and honesty

With this process, we hope to achieve the following.

• Setting goals becomes easier and we ensure they are still relevant for the next review.
• We avoid any big reveals, manage expectations and avoid disappointment
• 6 months is a period long enough to have done meaningful work to reflect on while it is still fresh
• 6 months is enough time to identify and apply any course correction measures if needed
• Performance discussions are always present as they are no longer a one year exercise and we set and review goals every 6 months
• By including 360° feedback we can identify additional areas of improvement that might scape the manager’s and the self assessment
• We enable a very clear career development path to follow for both the manager and the employee

Process

The process of the performance review is owned by the manager and can be summarised as the following:

1. The manager sends and gathers 360° feedback from relevant peers and stakeholders
2. The employee does a self assessment by answering specific questions
3. The manager also provides written feedback by answering specific questions