Practice Management Alert

A checklist like this can ensure successful meetings.

As practice manager, performance appraisals are likely part of your responsibilities, but you aren’t the only person in your practice conducting assessments. Keep everyone on the same page, performing helpful and legal appraisals with a standard guide.

Take a look at this before and after checklist from Bill Repp, author of the nationally syndicated column Working Best, based in Rochester, N.Y.

Before the Appraisal Meeting:

• Give the employee sufficient advance notice of the appraisal meeting.
• Ask the employee to be prepared to appraise his own performance.
• Tell the employee that the purpose of the meeting will be to help him improve his performance on the job.
• Review the appraisal, making sure you objectively appraise the employee’s job performance and focus only on the employee’s job performance.
• Schedule the meeting behind closed doors (office, conference room, etc.).

During the Appraisal Meeting:

• Let the employee raise questions and make comments.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Ask the employee for his self-appraisal in specific areas of responsibility.
• Clarify the employee’s responsibilities and areas of authority.
• Discuss areas that need improvement.
• Ask the employee how he thinks he can improve. Then, offer suggestions.
• Make a specific action plan for improvement.
• Summarize the performance review.
• Give the employee a clear idea of what will happen next.