Top tips

Natural/Normal distribution. The law of natural distribution dictates that 80% of your people will be in the mid-range, with some under performance and some over performance. This might be because someone is still learning and developing, or they have stagnated and become demotivated. Your job is to identify why they aren’t performing at full capability and help them to achieve it. Those who are over performing will need to be given opportunities to grow and challenge themselves, so they don’t stagnate or leave your organisation. How can you sustain their levels of performance? 

Call it like it is. When you have personal relationships with your team it is might feel difficult to give a fair and honest rating of performance. However, you are being unkind if you are deceiving them about their performance. Be honest. 

If an employee’s performance is not satisfactory, you are doing them a disservice by rating the performance acceptable.  Equally, don’t over inflate. 

Specific examples should be provided to support each rating. Evidence your ratings. Give specific examples of when you have seen a behaviour or an output. How are you collecting data or recording evidence? 

Rating performance without explaining why the rating was assigned turns the performance evaluation into a popularity contest.  While there will always be a level of subjectivity in the rating of employee performance, you can make it a more objective process by providing examples of performance that justify the rating you’ve selected. 

There is no correlation between last years and this year’s ratings. 

Rate this year’s performance only. But be careful not to only focus on the most recent piece of work.  Evaluate the whole year. 

Ratings should be discussed between managers and supervisors prior to the discussion with the employee. 

When you present your evaluation, ratings and all, to the employee without getting your boss’s buy-in, you are setting yourself and the employee up for a potential train wreck.  Your boss is a key player in the successful performance management of your direct reports.  Without their support and input, you are a lone paddler in the middle of a big ocean. Before you “finalize” an evaluation for an employee, make sure you have the backing of your manager.  If anything goes awry with the evaluation, you will need your manager’s support. 

How the rating scale is defined will vary based on the job. 

Know your scales and what good looks like.  Refer to your matrix and be clear on WDGLL from the offset. 

How often should you do performance ratings? 

Also known as performance reviews, performance ratings are typically held every six months. This seems to be the ideal amount of time to allow an employee to show improvements or applied feedback from the previous rating. Informal conversations should take place monthly, to track performance, coach and support members. The ratings process is annual, with a 6-monthly evaluation. 
 
While some team members may dread a performance rating, others look forward to it as a chance to prove they are ready for promotion. It’s also an ideal time to discuss if they’d like to move to a different department or continue their education to work toward another position.