Quarterly Employee Review: an opportunity for performance improvment

A better way to administer the quarterly employee review

For many companies, the quarterly review of employees is a missed opportunity for performance improvement.

Here’s how to prevent that from happening at your business.

How to use the employee quarterly review for performance improvement

When used properly, the quarterly employee review can be a key tool to maximize employee’s performance improvement.

Best practice is to have the quarterly employee review (QER) be part of an employee development plan. This engages the employee and manager in collaboration together.

Unfortunately at many companies, quarterly reviews are usually a pro-forma process where the company evaluates the employee.

This puts managers into the position of being the ‘bad guy’ who has to evaluate the employee from a one sided perspective.

This is because the typical quarterly review involves manager-only appraisal:

The manager reviews what the employee is doing right in their job role and what needs improvement
Manager covers all the topics and checks off all the boxes that HR requires
Manager and employee review employee’s achievement of goals for the quarter
Manager offers feedback of their assessment

This kind of pro-forma appraisal process encourages the employee to stay within a narrow operating range.

In fact, both manager and employee will end up just covering their butt (CYA) to meet the employer’s performance standards.

The quarterly employee review as a way to improve employee relations

The employee quarterly review also has the potential to be a great employee relations tool.

It is chance for better communications between employer and manager to build a wide scope of performance improvement.

A more effective approach to maximize the quarterly review is making it part of an employee development plan based on the employee’s job description. It is the ideal way to truly engage the employee in performance improvement.

Using an individual development plan to supercharge your employee review

An individual development plan is a performance improvement tool administered by employers. It is used to strengthen employee job performance in their career discipline.

Used as part of a quarterly employee review, it can supercharge the employee job performance.

Employee development plan or a professional development plan are The individual development plan examples. I provide a link to some templates below.

The best template for an employee development plan is one based on the employee’s job description proficiencies.

This goes hand in hand with the employee quarterly review, making it a perfect way to administer and course correct employees development.

Try this resource for complete instructions, templates and employee development plan examples:

How an employee development plan addresses job role proficiencies as part of the quarterly employee review process

There are three areas of an employee’s job role proficiencies that should be part of the employee quarterly review:

Key job role functions
Job role support proficiencies
“Soft skills” such as interpersonal communication and behavioral skills; this can include leadership development goals and professional development

These 3 separate ‘buckets’ of proficiencies allow an employer tremendous flexibility in developing employees.

For example if they have behavioral issues you can focus on soft skills proficiencies. If they have technical skill deficiencies you can focus on job role support, etc.

All the while, you are removing the manager from the confrontational aspect of employee development.

An employee development plan can drive employee engagement strategies

The innovation of an EDP is how it engages the employee and empowers a level playing field:

The employee first completes the individual career development plan by themselves, rating themselves on each of their job proficiencies. This gives them a feeling of contribution to the quarterly review process, reducing their stress and anxiety while increasing their motivation
The manager just has to review employees evaluation to approve, edit or change – this makes it a collaboration rather than a one-way evaluation
During the employee’s quarterly review, together they agree on the few 3 to 5 proficiencies to work on for the quarter – this makes the quarterly review focus on key proficiencies and keeps it manageable for the employee
The manager can now run the quarterly review as a joint effort, rather than a one-way appraisal

The quarterly review, as part of an employee development plan can massively increase work performance

Using an employee development plan in this way can develop massive performance improvement in your employees.

You are now building performance improvement right into their quarterly review – and making it easier to affect positive change in your employee.

The employee quarterly review should be part of the employee self-evaluation. The skills development should result in outcomes that are based on specific skills.

How the quarterly employee review template can become a powerful tool for employers

When your quarterly review is a part of an employee development plan template, it changes the entire dynamic of the employer-employee relationship.

The manager and employee are both working together toward shared goals of performance improvement.

This builds in numerous advantages to the quarterly review, because it can now provide multiple ways to improve work performance:

As an employee coaching plan: manager and employee working together on specific skills development
As a leadership development plan: the individual development plan can include leadership skills as part of its focus
As a professional development plan: the CDP allows for a wide scope of skills development
For career development goals: you can address both long term and short term career goals for employee
One of the best ways to improve work performance: as the employee rates their job proficiencies each quarter, they quickly grasp the entire overall scope of their job roles
For strategic career planning: the employee quarterly review can now home in on critical key career planning goals

How to use the quarterly employee review as a smart way to handle employee behavior issues: for example coaching an employee with a negative attitude.

One of the big benefits of making the quarterly review part of an employee development plan, is how you can use it as a device to handle employee behavior issues.

Using the soft skills proficiencies area of the development plan, you can address almost any interpersonal communications issue. You can avoid needing disciplinary action or being confrontational.

Take for an example, if you are coaching employee with a negative attitude.

Rather than confront them, you can add the specific issue as a soft skill to improve.

You use any number of proficiencies to do this, such as ‘communicating with tact’ ‘communicating with respect’ ‘professional conduct’ or ‘show patience in dealing with internal employees’ etc.

This works to tightly focus on the source of the employee frustration, and allows them to work through it over a quarter.

For a complete development tool, find out more about my new Employee Development Plan.

Boost employee job performance from day one

Build job skills and soft skills quickly with concise templates

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