Maximizing Productivity: Strategies for Scaling Performance Reviews and Feedback for Employee Development

We got our company all set up. The standard is in line with the mission and vision.

All trainings support the standard. The hiring process discovered the best candidate for each position. The compliance process keeps everyone in check.

We are all set now, and there is nothing else to do. We just continue with our business, and it will all be fine.

Or is it? Should we consider one ever-evolving segment: our employees?

We should, as they will need encouragement and feedback to stay motivated and in line with our company's mission, vision, and standard.

Table of contents

1. What is performance review and feedback

2. How do we design it?

3. What to look for?

   - Potential for employee development and progression

   - Potential for misunderstanding

   - Potential for power abuse

4. How to deliver feedback?

What is performance review and feedback?

It is a reflection on the employee performance against the set company standard in line with the company's mission, vision, and culture.

As we have already mentioned, we have created our company standard, backed up with trainings to empower and equip each employee to complete their job at the required level in line with our company's mission and vision.

Now, we are going to assess the employee performance against the same standard and trainings to determine opportunities for improvement and further development.

How do we design it?

First, we need to identify the core elements that make our operation successful. Those could be our KPIs (key performance indicators).

Is it performance, production, service delivery, hospitality, courtesy, problem resolution, compliance, training, cooperation, tidiness, safety, etc.?

Obviously, this will depend on the type of business we are in.

If we are in the hospitality business, then courtesy, initiative, tidiness, problem resolution, communication, customer satisfaction, efficiency, and safety could be our main KPIs.

If we are in the manufacturing business, then safety, initiative, efficiency, frequency of errors, problem resolution, product deadline delivery, productivity, and cost management could be our main KPIs.

With this being said, we will have people in different roles with different job descriptions and responsibilities, especially in a larger enterprise. This will warrant additional KPIs that will be position-specific, depending on the job responsibilities, such as:

• An employee on a production line will not be in contact with customers and will not be responsible for customer satisfaction, communication, and sales.

  
  

• An employee in a sales department will not be responsible for the quality of the product and safety protocols during production.

So, we will have shared KPIs that apply to all employees and specific KPIs that will be position-specific.

All combined will give us categories for the performance review.

It is then on us to align it with our company's mission, vision, standard and culture, as we need not focus solely on metrics but also keep the wider picture in mind.

• We need to design an evaluation process and deliver a performance review that will reflect all key categories employees need to excel in to be successful in their roles.

  
  

  Obviously, we cannot have this process tailored for each role, but it can be tailored for different departments that have specific KPIs that are not shared across the board.

  
  

• We also need to set a performance matrix to measure individual performance.

  
  

  It is important to have a scale to measure the performance of each category. It is up to us to come up with one that suits our operation. It needs to provide measurable conditions for each level of performance measured against the scale in each category. It also needs to provide a descriptive explanation for each performance level on the performance matrix.

  
  

  An example:

  
  

  1. Exceptional performance

  
  

  - Description: Constantly exceeds the expectations.

  
  

  - Performance:

  • Consistently delivers the highest quality performance.

  • Anticipates and exceeds objectives without direct supervision.

  • Demonstrates exceptional problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

  • Demonstrates initiative and proactively takes on additional responsibilities.

  • Consistently delivers innovative solutions or improvements.

  • Frequently receives positive feedback and recognition from colleagues and leadership.

  • Serves as a role model for others in terms of attitude, productivity, and results.

    
    

  2. Exceeds expectations

  
  

  - Description: Regularly exceeds the expectations.

  
  

  - Performance:

  • Produces high-quality performance with minimal need for supervision.

  • Meets and exceeds expectations on most tasks or projects.

  • Demonstrates strong initiative and consistently delivers performance above the minimum required standards.

  • Takes on challenges and works well under pressure.

  • Actively contributes to team success and shows strong leadership potential.

  
  

  3. Meets expectations

  
  

  - Description: Constantly meets the expectations.

  
  

  - Performance:

  • Meets job requirements consistently and reliably.

  • Completes work on time and at an acceptable quality level.

  • Demonstrates a good understanding of responsibilities and tasks.

  • Accepts feedback and makes appropriate improvements.

  • Requires minimal supervision to perform daily tasks.

  • Works well with others and contributes to team efforts.

  
  

  4. In need of improvement

  
  

  - Description: Occasionally fails to meet the expectations.

  
  

  - Performance:

  • Frequently struggles to complete tasks on time or at the required quality level.

  • Needs regular supervision or guidance to complete assignments.

  • May lack the necessary skills or knowledge to fully meet the job requirements.

  • Is occasionally inconsistent in performance, leading to errors or missed deadlines.

  • Demonstrates a lack of initiative and fails to go beyond the minimum requirements.

  • Feedback is often necessary to help improve performance.

  
  

  5. Unsatisfactory performance

  
  

  - Description: Constantly fails to meet the expectations.

  
  

  - Performance:

  • Regularly fails to complete tasks or meet deadlines.

  • Requires constant oversight and guidance to meet basic requirements.

  • Shows little to no initiative or engagement in work.

  • Performance does not improve despite feedback or coaching.

  • May cause disruptions in team dynamics or project timelines.

  • Performance is significantly below the required standards, affecting overall team or organizational success.

  
  

  - Provisional performance (OJT)

  This can be used during the on-the-job training period when the employee has not yet completed all required trainings and therefore cannot be measured against the same performance standard as the rest of the employees.

• We need to set achievable goals for our employees.

  
  

  It is important to set achievable goals that are realistic and not out of reach for most employees. This needs to be done up on analysis and identification of all performance standards for each position. Then we can set the expectations and measure against it.

  
  

  - We can achieve this with the SMART method:

  
  

  - Example: Improve customer satisfaction rate

  
  

  • Specific: Maintain the customer satisfaction score above 80%.

  • Measurable: Track weekly customer satisfaction reports.

  • Achievable: Based on the current average, a new customer satisfaction target is set to 85%.

  • Relevant: This aligns with the department’s goal to enhance productivity and meet targeted growth for the next quarter.

  • Time-bound: Achieve this goal within the next 4 months.

What to look for?

• Potential for employee development and progression

  We need to understand that performance review and feedback are tools for developing and empowering employees on their journey to becoming new leaders.

  
  

  Not every employee might be interested in such development, but each employee is interested in honest feedback on their performance with a clear understanding of the expectation to achieve the best performance for their role.

• Potential for misunderstanding

  We need to prevent misunderstanding from diluting the process and taking it away from the intended purpose.

  
  

  This is done by setting the unambiguous performance review and feedback matrix with explanations and descriptive instructions for evaluating each performance against the set standard.

  
  

  This needs to be done in a way that prevents misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

• Potential for power abuse

  With this in mind, we need to be honest and understand that the performance review and feedback have the potential to be abused and weaponized against employees if not designed and established in the company's mission, vision, and standard and protected from being influenced and diluted by personal opinions and goals.

  
  

  If we fail to do so, we are opening the process to personal opinions, which could result in watering down the process and abusing it to control employees by ruling with fear, in lack of a better leadership style.

  
  

  We also need to protect the process from being tampered with by preventing change without informing the employee and providing an explanation in line with the set standard.

  
  

  This process needs to be monitored and audited to detect deficiencies and deviations from the set standard, on time, to prevent a greater negative impact on the employees and the company.

  
  

  Also, the abuse of the process needs to be qualified as a severe company policy violation that warrants strong repercussions, not excluding termination.

How to deliver feedback?

• We need to understand that the performance review and feedback process is crucial in reaching and maintaining our path to success for both the company and the employees.

  
  

• It is a monitoring process that, when designed well and used accordingly, will detect anomalies in our operation and direct us in the direction of potential solutions before they negatively affect the company.

  
  

• With this in mind, we also need to understand our employees and the reasons behind the exceptional, but also the poor, performance.

  
  

• Our performance review needs to reflect facts and not our feelings and personal opinions based on our liking of the employee or alignment with their political or personal belief system.

  
  

• We need to be objective and untainted by any other influence than the employee's performance in accordance with the company's mission, vision, and established standards.

  
  

• Our performance feedback delivery needs to take into consideration the employee's best interests and serve the employee to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

  
  

• We should aim to understand the reasons for each performance, as it provides an opportunity for the employees to express themselves and potentially reveal opportunities for improvement for the leaders and the company.

Let's be human during this sensitive process and deliver insightful and motivating performance review feedback to empower employees to stay on the path of success, or get them back on it.

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#humanresources