Home Health & Hospice Week

Follow these dos and don’ts to make your annual reviews more beneficial for both you and your employees.

Your performance reviews could be a total waste of your time if they aren’t yielding any actual results for you or your employees. Read on for the dos and don’ts of giving successful performance reviews from Anna Johnson, author of How To Manage People.

Don’t wait until the performance review to give your employee feedback. You need to give him feedback about his performance consistently.

If you wait until his performance review, you’re denying him the chance to make changes and improve before his appraisal.

Do give regular feedback to your employees. Let them know when they’ve been performing poorly or when they’ve done a great job, and specifically tell them what they need to change or did well.

For example: Telling an employee that she isn’t meeting your expectations is too vague. Instead, tell her that you’d like to see her meet her productivity goals and suggest specifics to help her make that happen.

Don’t focus on the most recent performances during the review. This might be hard to do, especially if your worker recently made a big mistake.

If your performance reviews are yearly or semi-annually, focusing on the most recent event is unfair to your employee and can lead to an inaccurate assessment. That mistake might have been the only one she’s made all year, so you don’t want to use that as the focal point of the review.

Do take notes of your employee’s performance during the year so that when it’s time for her performance review, you have a set of document examples to guide you. You can set up a folder for each of your employees and store your notes for easy retrieval when review time comes.

Don’t be too positive during the review just because you don’t like to give negative feedback. You’re hurting your employees by not telling them what they need to improve or change. Even the best employees can use a little constructive criticism.

Do think of what impression you want the employee to have after her review. For example, if you want her to feel like she’s doing okay but could improve her performance, plan your comments accordingly and your review will have the impact you want it to have.

Don’t focus on being too critical of your worker. If all you have to say are negative points about your worker’s performance, she will either tune you out completely or start looking for a new job. Merely listing all of her negative qualities won’t help either one of you. If you want her to know that if she doesn’t change you’ll have to let her go, say so.

Don’t rely on continuously telling her she’s doing a bad job. She might just assume you’re having a bad day. Give her the consequences, and she’ll understand you clearly.

Do provide constructive criticism about your employee’s performance and give advice about how she can improve.

For example: Instead of saying that an em-ployee is working too slowly, tell her that you’ve noticed that she’s been behind in her work lately and offer some possible solutions to help her correct the problem.

Don’t do all the talking. A performance review isn’t your chance to give a speech to your worker while she silently listens to you. It’s an interaction between the two of you about her performance.

Do listen to what your employee has to say. For example, if the employee is always behind on productivity, let her explain why. She might have a problem that you weren’t aware of. Ask your em-ployee to share her goals with you, and work together to see how you can help her meet her goals.