Reducing The Stress Of Performance Reviews
It seems that no matter how good someone is at their job, almost everyone feels the stress of the performance review. There are several ways, however, that managers and organizations can reduce the stress for workers receiving the reviews and those who are giving them. The Forbes Human Resources Council recently shared their ideas on how to make this important business process easier for everyone involved.
One of the ways the reasons why performance reviews are one of the least favorite things for a worker to have to face is the lack of communication between management and teams until it’s time for the annual review. Evan Lassiter of Cloudreach suggests if communication between team members and team leads is consistent throughout the year, occurring once per quarter, the end of year review ends up being far easier on everyone.
Michele Markey of SkillPath says that if managers put themselves on the other side of the desk. The best way to do this is to directly ask the employee, “What would you like to accomplish in the next year, and how can I help?” This opens the channels of communication and turns the conversation to growth and accomplishment rather than one of judgment and deliverables.
Other suggestions by the Forbes experts to reduce the stress of the performance review are:
- Keep it simple
- Keep it conversational
- Make it meaningful
- Keep eyes focused forward and goal oriented.
When the review process becomes one that offers real-time feedback and focuses on individual goals, the review process becomes a more meaningful and far less stressful process.
