Best practice for staff appraisals 

Staff appraisals can encourage productivity and growth across your business – but what is the best way to conduct them?

Read the full article below or read on page 20 in our January magazine

Staff appraisals are crucial for staff evaluation and development but, according to The HR Director magazine, 65% of HR directors have had to hold off on staff appraisals over the past year due to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff appraisals can bring a number of benefits to businesses and should be implemented across every team. These benefits include:

• Career growth: staff appraisals give employees the opportunity to express their professional development needs and plan a course of action for their long-term development in the business. 
• Improved performance: feedback motivates employees to work harder, especially when they are given positive feedback. An appraisal will often coincide with a bonus or promotion, which also provide motivation for better performance.
• Increased employee engagement: involving the employee in their own evaluation can increase the likelihood they will want to stay with the company for longer. Once they see how their actions affect business results and objectives, they will be able to see their own value within the organisation. 
• Opportunity for training and development: a staff appraisal is a great opportunity to identify the areas where an employee may need further training and development.
• Clear expectations: if the employee is not meeting the standard expected you can use a staff appraisal to raise this in a constructive way.
• Proactive assistance: as there no distractions, staff appraisals allow employees to have conversation they wouldn’t be able to in the day-to-day working environment and enable managers to provide assistance and feedback for problems that may be developing.
• Evaluation of goals: feedback from both the employer and employee can help identify what is needed for the employee to achieve their goals for the next work period.
• Documentation of performance: a staff appraisal allows employers to measure the employee’s work over a specific period of time and determine how well they are developing.

Despite these clear benefits, research by Breathe HR found that only one-in-five employees consider their current appraisal process to be motivating – what can be done to improve the appraisal process?

Make sure you are delivering effective staff appraisals 

To provide effective staff appraisals, employers must ensure they are considering key areas to benefit both the business and employee:

• Performance analysis: evaluate the employee’s communication and teamwork skills, their ability to meet targets, their quality of work, attendance and reliability. 
• Potential career progression: how has the employee contributed to the company, what are their aspirations, and what can be done to facilitate these?
• Areas for improvement: identify new training opportunities, areas for improvement and what is needed to develop more within their team. 
• Employee feedback: provide the employee the chance to share their views on their performance over the previous work period and any other general feedback. 

Once you have outlined what to say in your staff appraisal, the next step is working out how to say it. The Breathe HR survey revealed that 12% of employees feel that their managers aren’t well-prepared for staff appraisals. To make sure you are conducting meetings that are beneficial to both you and the employer being appraised, you can follow these steps. 

Prepare – arrange a private meeting venue – one without distractions – and give the employee sufficient notice and an overview of the appraisal process in advance. If your business requires a self-appraisal form ahead of the meeting, make sure you have sent this well in advance. 

Encourage discussion – make sure you are asking the employee questions related to their performance. Offer positive feedback and praise in areas where they have excelled, identify areas for development and  steer the conversation towards the ways in which these might be improved through training or support.

Listen – it is vital to employ active listening during a staff appraisal using non-verbal cues such as body language. Try not to interrupt the employee when they are speaking and, before moving on to the next discussion point, take a moment to summarise the conversation and ensure there is a mutual understanding of future expectations.

Give regular feedback – offer staff opportunity to discuss their performance on an ad hoc basis, not just at their annual performance review. This means you and the employee will be sharing feedback regularly and not saving things up for the appraisal meeting.

Set SMART objectives – SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) objectives are key to creating a manageable workload. Make sure both you and the employee are in agreement with all objectives before finalising them. 

Be open – it is key that you are open when you conduct a staff appraisal as it makes the employee feel comfortable to share their thoughts. Having frequent meetings where you practice openness can help build your relationship with all members of your team helping you to become more approachable.  

Document the discussion – either electronically or on paper and issue a copy to the employee. You should give the employee the opportunity to suggest any changes once they have had time to reflect.