Some of our client companies are changing from an annual review format, and instead, developing review processes every six months. But how does this help businesses?
The Benefits of Semi-Annual Employee Reviews
Tracking Progress
In general, it’s important to keep tracking the progress of individual employees toward concrete goals and objectives. There’s a lot of talk these days about “business intelligence,” and while a lot of this is customer or product information that goes into big fancy data warehouses, benchmarking employee progress is also part of this type of intelligence gathering that helps businesses succeed. In today’s business world, there’s the idea that all data is valuable, and that means more frequent check-ins can enhance the management process. Think of it as the “market research” component of managing people – the more detailed knowledge you have, the better decisions you can make, and doing reviews every six months keeps things current.
Dealing with Problem People
When you have someone in your organization who is underperforming, causing conflicts or generally creating problems, a year can be too long of a period of time to sit there and document those problems. A six-month review process allows for expediting disciplinary activities, or moving along with a process toward termination, when this type of last resort is actually necessary. When someone really needs to go, delaying termination can have a big effect on morale. It depresses the people who are harmed by this person’s behaviors, and it can send a message that bad behavior may be tolerated.
Providing Feedback
Many top performers at companies thrive on feedback. They welcome the opportunity to step into the corner office and talk frankly with a boss or supervisor. That’s because they’re confident about the results they are providing in the field. The more often they talk, the more they can fine tune and micromanage their own success. It also offers these high-performing individuals opportunities to give their own feedback to their managers and really huddle for continued planning.
Shorten Each Session
With six-month reviews, managers and supervisors can take some of the bulk out each individual review session. An employee review doesn’t have to seem like a mountain to climb or a tedious, elaborate process.
Breaking a review down into multiple components, for example, one annual to two semiannual reviews, can help to prevent some of the kinds of burnout that happen with annual reviews, for example, where a manager might feel like he or she is suffering from “review overload,” or individual employees dread that really long meeting with the boss.
For more on management and hiring, take a look at how Employment Solutions helps client companies to succeed in Elmira, NY. As a top light industrial staffing firm, we see how implementing best practices helps our clients to out-perform the competition and stay relevant in tough markets, while promoting better corporate cultures that attract the right people.
