Dylan sits at the table across from his manager, normally calm and collected. Today he is a little nervous. This is his first formal performance review, one in which he was required to rate his own performance against pre-established criteria. Now sitting across from his manager, it’s time to hear how his boss thought he measured up. Dylan received mostly great reviews from his manager, one area he felt he needed to work on, but overall a solid grade.
The employee doesn’t just feel relief when he leaves, he feels motivated. In the meeting, his manager highlighted some of his key accomplishments and how he contributed to the team and how that impacted the business.
A more formal, structured review has a strong impact, if executed well. We don’t want everyone to just work hard; we want everyone to work hard at the activities that matter most to the business.
In my family operation we grow potatoes, and quality is critical, especially when it comes to handling them going into storage or managing the seed. We also rent a lot of land, and our relationship with our landlords and taking care of their ground is eminent. The employees are rated on those areas that have the most impact.
Employees inherently want to do a good job and they perform at their best when they know they are contributing, valued and recognized. A performance review will accomplish all of those.
Here are four reasons why the low investment in time is worth the high payoff in improved performance in your operation:
1. Accountability
What a review essentially does is hold everyone accountable for predefined criteria and/or goals. If you are on the management side, it holds you accountable for actually setting those goals and monitoring progress. If you are the employee, you clearly know what is expected of you and what matters most to the company. Feedback should be given all the time, but it is often an improvement area on most farms. The review creates a platform to ensure that much needed feedback is given.
2. Motivation
Employees are more engaged and motivated when they have a goal to meet. Without goals they have no set target to aim for. They might be working really hard but feeling very unsatisfied because it is not clear to them if they have truly accomplished what you wanted them to.
You might think they are doing great, but they are unsure how you feel they are doing. The more motivated the employees are, the better performance you will see. Give employees targets, and they will work hard to meet them.
3. Development
Employees want to know how they are doing in their current job, but they also want to grow and know where to develop their skills. This does not necessarily mean being promoted; it could be cross-training to another department or outside training.
If they are new into a supervisory or lead role, they might want to go to management class. Performance reviews are a perfect time to look at future developments and partnering with your employee on where they want to increase skills.
4. Alignment
We don’t just want staff working; we want a team that works together. In team sports, every player has a unique position/job to do and if they do well in that job and work well with their team they can win. It is the same concept in our operations.
We want to align excellent individual performance along with high performing teammates with diverse talents. We also want to get the team excited for what the vision is for the company and how we can work together to get there. The review is a great time to reiterate the overall focus of the company.
The review should not just be about the employee. Don’t be afraid to ask them for feedback on you or the company. This is an opportunity to ask them where they feel some improvements could be made within the operation.
Ask them what you could do to better support their success in their position. Our jobs as managers is to make sure our team is performing at their highest level; ask how you can help.
For timing, I recommend a bi-annual review; a year is too long in between.
The review conversation itself should take no more than a half hour per employee. Keep the actual form simple. I aim for less than two pages. It is the conversation and interaction we are mostly after.
Keep them motivated, measure their performance, give them the feedback and partner with them on excelling your business. PD
