Episode 99! I talk to Matt about Performance Reviews, me from the perspective of having my first formalised ones and Matt from the perspective of being a manager doing them.
Episode 100 next and still time to get involved! Ask me a question on twitter, email me a question (or a recording!) at letstalkabouttests@gmail.com, leave my a skype voicemail at letstalkabouttests
For a business, why have them?
- Keeping career progression and rewards clear and transparent
- Encouraging self development and investment in employees
- Discovering and addressing discontent
As an employee, why care?
- Opportunity to take control of your training and development
- Opportunity to understand what the company/your manager really expects from you and how you can progress
Now I’m a manager…
- I book in time with each of my team
- I chase them to fill in the forms and regularly keep notes of progress in regular 1 to 1s
- I try to coach and point out when people perform well and what they could set as objectives
- I try to guide people into writing the best reviews they can
- I try to remind people that they aren’t tied to one path, they don’t need to predict the future. Its ok to change tack, as long as you’re happy and learning.
- I push people to make self development part of their work – its hard to make time sometimes but this is always true in every job. Its easier when your day to day is stuff you want to learn.
General thoughts
- I don’t think anyone likes “how have you lived the company’s values” sections – don’t put too much thought into them imo
- People always worry about promotions, pay rises and bonuses being tied to the reviews, don’t: focus on impressing in general and the rest sorts itself out.
- Every manager seems to run these things differently and have different values
- I like the format for objectives:
- What is it?
- What are your goals/how will you track progress?
- What examples have you got towards this objective?
- When it comes to rating/scoring – reasons why that rating or score?