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Performance Review Examples You Need to See | Grammarly

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Few tasks among a manager's responsibilities stir up as many mixed feelings as writing performance reviews. We've scoured expert resources to bring you examples of how to communicate your company's needs and encourage productivity without breaking morale.

It's easy to extol an employee's virtues, but things get tougher when you're faced with assessing their challenges and keeping your feedback constructive. How will you find a way to discuss areas where your employees need improvement without raising their defenses?

Employees aren't often thrilled about the performance review process, either. Employee engagement company TINYPulse surveyed over one thousand professionals and discovered that 37 percent think the process is outdated, and 42 percent feel that managers leave important elements out of their reviews due to bias. Nearly a quarter said they feared performance reviews, and the trend was especially strong among millennials, who also said the process stressed them out.

Although face-to-face feedback on a regular basis is an important tool for encouraging and motivating your team, the written review gives both the employee and manager something concrete to refer to. Let's take a look at how to write a review that celebrates great performance and clearly communicates needed improvements.

What Is a Performance Review?

There are many types of performance reviews, and they differ from company to company. Some have grading systems. Others have question and response formats. Some are expected to be free-form. Whatever the case, commenting with clear, positive language is the key to keeping the review goal-focused and productive.

Most reviews will include your evaluation of the employee's performance in areas such as:

Quality and accuracy of work

Ability to meet established goals and deadlines

Communication skills

Collaboration skills and teamwork

Problem-solving skills

Attendance and dependability

How to Keep Your Performance Reviews Constructive

A bit of psychology goes into writing a performance review that leaves both you and the employee feeling that the experience was valuable. This is where clarity of language comes into play. Let's look at an example of the same critical feedback, one written with a negative tone, the other growth-focused and positive.

Negative:
Jill is always distracted and finds it difficult to meet project deadlines.
This comment is both hyperbole (Jill isn't always distracted; otherwise, she'd never get a single thing done!) and a generalization. Starting any piece of feedback with "You always do X" is bound to raise a person's defenses and create negative feelings. It's also not actionable. If distractibility is hardwired into Jill's nature, how will telling her what she already knows help her improve?

Positive:
A focus on prioritizing tasks early in the day will help Jill eliminate distractions to better meet project deadlines. I recommend we touch base briefly each morning to set daily progress goals.
This sort of feedback tells Jill that she needs to work on prioritizing and meeting goals, but it also offers a solution-a daily check-in to help her establish priorities.

Assume that most employees want to do the right thing. Unless Jill's wasting time posting selfies on Instagram, it's likely she's well aware of her problem with meeting deadlines and wants to get better. Rather than pointing out the obvious (Jill struggles to prioritize), it's important to offer a solution that will work for both of you.

Inc.com provides more examples of what not to write in any employee's performance review. The Muse offers advice for giving honest feedback that won't damage your relationship with your employee.

Three Performance Review Phrase Examples

Now that we've examined the psychology behind phrasing criticisms constructively, let's take a look at some sample text from employee reviews.

1 The Good Performer

The first is a positive appraisal from the Snagajob blog:

2 The Adequate Performer

This more critical take, for an employee who meets expectations but doesn't reach for higher aspirations, comes from Bright Hub:

3 The Underperformer

Writing negative reviews that are both honest about the employee's underperformance and motivational in a way that encourages improvement is a challenging task. LearnThat.com gives an example of constructive feedback for an employee whose frequent tardiness is limiting his potential:

Think of giving critical feedback like making a sandwich. The criticism (Jack is often late) should be sandwiched between a positive comment (he can be a very effective team member) and some specific steps to help him improve (Jack should focus on attendance and be ready for work at 8:00 a.m. each day).

Writing performance reviews requires managers to be specific with their feedback, stay constructive, and provide solutions to help the employee grow. Pay careful attention to writing clearly, with a positive tone, and soon you'll be writing performance reviews your employees won't have to dread receiving.

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3 Performance Review Examples You Need to See

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Few tasks among a manager's responsibilities stir up as many mixed feelings as writing performance reviews. We've scoured expert resources to bring you examples of how to communicate your company's needs and encourage productivity without breaking morale. It's easy to extol an employee's virtues, but things get tougher when you're faced with assessing their challenges and keeping your feedback constructive.

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How to prepare for your performance appraisal | Resources

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Ideally, you should share the materials you've prepared with your manager before your performance appraisal meeting. This will help them prepare for your meeting more effectively and encourage a more meaningful two-way dialogue between you. It can also help them prepare for any differences in perception that might exist between the two of you, avoiding surprises at review time.

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An effective appraisal and performance management process can have a significant impact on an organisation's culture, staff morale and employee engagement levels - all of which enhance employer brand and support the retention of key talent within a business.

There is debate as to whether traditional appraisal systems are still effective for the needs of an evolving workforce. Organisations such as Deloitte have announced that they are moving towards more ongoing discussions and feedback with employees. Whether it's traditional six-month reviews and appraisals, or ongoing one-to-ones and performance catch ups, the important element is that there is a clear and consistent approach to performance management and reviews.

A commitment to having appraisal conversations with employees can help to improve the bottom line by aligning individual performance with business objectives. It also supports the creation of a more people-focused culture and an environment in which employees will want to stay, progress and thrive.

Employee recognition and rewards

Appraisals provide the opportunity to recognise and reward employees and to ensure they feel valued for the work that they do. By monitoring performance and progress against objectives employers can assess whether to reward staff with salary increases, promotions or bonuses. It's also a chance to say thank you and to provide verbal feedback and praise. Rewarding any successes highlighted doesn't have to be financial. Although money still holds considerable importance, and salaries should be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain competitive and in line with performance, simple and sincere acknowledgements still go a long way towards maintaining employee engagement.

New challenges and clear objectives

Organisations with a great workplace culture are ones where employees feel a real sense of belonging. They understand what the organisation is trying to achieve, are inspired by its mission and values and recognise how their role plays a part in achieving overall success. The discussions which take place during appraisal meetings will help employees to understand how the individual objectives set for them will play a part in the wider business plan. This helps to give employees a sense of ownership within the collective vision and to empower them to achieve the results needed. It's also a great opportunity to regularly review objectives and to provide ongoing challenges to ensure employees remain motivated by new goals and experiences.

Continued progression and development

Organisations which provide clear progression opportunities are attractive to new recruits and are more likely to be able to retain talented employees by mapping out a career path for them. Regularly looking at performance will help to identify when employees are ready to take on more responsibility. Setting aside the time to discuss an employee's individual ambitions will also help organisations to spot and develop potential talent and build a strong succession pipeline.

Culture of trust and openness

In today's fast paced business world, it's more important than ever to maintain a meaningful, two-way dialogue with employees to help keep talented people within your organisation. One of the key enablers for achieving employee engagement is to ensure that employees have a voice and appraisal and performance review meetings can help to fuel discussion and empower staff to share their opinions. They will feel encouraged to influence innovation by feeding ideas upwards and the relationship which develops from open communication within appraisal systems will help employees to feel more able to approach and discuss any ideas or issues outside of these meetings as well.

Support and training

Open discussions on performance can help to identify any problems early and provides the opportunity to explore positive solutions. Managers can look at what additional training and support could be provided to enable the employee to achieve results which they would feel proud of. High performing employees can be supported with further training to help them to progress to the next level in their careers.

Prevention of long-term dissatisfaction

Issues can usually be nipped in the bud before they escalate to the point of someone leaving if they can be raised through appraisal meetings. It is a great opportunity for an employee to raise any worries or concerns, or to discuss any barriers which they feel are holding them back. Taking the time to listen to employees and address any concerns helps to create a happier workforce and will continue to fuel a culture of openness and trust.

Supporting staff to deliver an effective appraisal system

For appraisals and performance communications to work to best effect, managers need to feel effectively equipped to provide regular feedback and ongoing performance management. Investing in training for managers to able to deliver effective performance appraisals with an authentic approach is a worthwhile investment. Maintaining a natural management style will help them to foster the trust and respect needed to build open and transparent relationships and developing skills such as active listening and performance assessment will help to ensure a constructive appraisal system is in place.

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An effective appraisal and performance management process can have a significant impact on an organisation's culture, staff morale and employee engagement levels - all of which enhance employer brand and support the retention of key talent within a business. There is debate as to whether traditional appraisal systems are still effective for the needs of an evolving workforce.

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