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Below is the breakdown of our quick and easy “Peer Nomination Process”. This feature allows  HR to ask all or selective employees to nominate their peers for their reviews. To reduce huge workload, nominations are automatically shown when a review is created. HR can also set limit on nominations so no single employee is overburdened by too many review requests.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbookand president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

STEP 1: PLANNING AND PREPARATION

• Familiarize yourself with the form and the ratings
• Think about the goals each employee has been working on. What contribution is the employee/should employee be making? Does the employee know clearly what is expected? What are the strengths/areas for improvement?
• Collect objective information, pull examples, observations
• Pull job description
• Fill out the form privately; put it aside; review the next day or so; be ready to justify ratings
• Be sure to add specific examples
• Plan your discussion in detail; compliments; areas for improvement
• Schedule the meeting; plan enough time for the discussion; assure privacy; select a time when you and the employee are not under pressure
• Review appraisal once more before meeting
• Make sure it’s job and goal-related; fair and objective; based on performance
• Remember – ABC (accurate, behavioral, and complete and consistent)
• Discuss self-evaluation…and the value of it. This is optional. (If there are important differences, be prepared to discuss them as well as why you think one version is more accurate than another.)
• The manager needs to think about how to involve employees in the process…how to get them to take part in the appraisals…in addition to a self-evaluation, how to get them to do most of the talking during the session, and help them identify and plan their professional development.
• A Washington (USA) based employers, National Cooperative Bank, a financial services company in DC, calls its appraisal process the Max Plan. Their process is employee-driven. Employees seek feedback from their managers and team members, then review their prior year’s Max Plan and assess achievements demonstrating measurable results. They then draft a new plan – all before meeting with their supervisors.
• At the National Health Service Hospital in the UK, employees reported finding the process beneficial as long as they were actively engaged in the process. They reported that the objectives they set for themselves were more interesting and challenging than those set by their supervisors.

STEP 2: START THE MEETING ON A POSITIVE NOTE

• Always conduct a warm up/set the tone; keep small talk to a minimum
• Put the employee at ease; acknowledge that the employee may feel uncomfortable; try to reassure; stress the routine of it; share your experience; say you have many positive things to say – if that’s true (lowers the anxiety level right away)
• Keep it informal but business-like
• Outline what you want to cover; in what order; explain the structure of the meeting – so employee will know what to expect (this also lowers anxiety); employee will have a chance to raise concerns
• Clearly explain the purpose (and importance) of the meeting in positive terms. Say that appraisals: are designed to help employee know how he/she is doing; ensure you are both on the same track in terms of realistic goals and priorities; provide a forum for problem resolution; provide feedback to help the employee succeed; are an investment in their professional development.
• Indicate what you want to accomplish in meeting
• Allow the employee sufficient time to read the appraisal. Ask for their impression. You can read the self-evaluation at this point. Discuss any major differences.
• Encourage the employee to discuss the appraisal with you.
• Set ground rules – open and honest; 2 way; avoid defensiveness on both parts and getting sidetracked into a detailed discussion of one performance problem; problem-solving.

STEP 3: THE BIG DISCUSSION

• Describe the job in terms of how it fits into the larger picture; purpose of the position and importance of “less desirable” aspects.
• Listen – give the employee a chance to talk
• Go over the ratings; be prepared to be challenged/ready with examples
• Explain ratings don’t equate to grades
• Start with the positive; Say things like “You’ve made important contributions this year.” “I’m impressed by your performance on _________.” “You’ve been more conscientious about ________.” “I was pleased to see ______________.”
• Work your way through each section of the form– use it as a tool for facilitating discussion
• Review significant accomplishments – give praise and credit (nothing is more stimulating/motivating; helps increase confidence and reinforce good performance.)
• Ask open-ended questions to get a general reaction. Many start with “How do you think things have been going” “Do these ratings seem fair?” “What would you do differently?”
• Remember to focus on the job performance
• Consider asking other questions to facilitate discussion: What did I do for you in the last 6 months that really helped your performance? Hindered your performance? What can I do in the next 6 months? What do you want most from your job? Under what conditions do you do your best work? How would you like to receive suggestions for improving your work? How can I help you reach your career goals? What inhibits your best work? What things have made your job more difficult? What do we need to do in the next year to help you be more productive? (These last 2 questions are from author Robert Bacal)
• Discuss areas where the performance falls short – with specific examples. “I was concerned _______________.” Focus criticisms on performance, not personality characteristics.
• Be specific. Stay calm.
• Don’t discuss areas for improvement in a way that will seriously disturb a good employee; net result is to be encouraging.
• Identify specific actions the employee can take to improve performance. Ask for their suggestions.
• Work for understanding rather than complete agreement; can agree to disagree.
• Remind employee about the feedback page

STEP 4: THE CLOSING

• Just as important to end the meeting in a professional and positive manner, as it was to start the meeting. You want the employee to leave the discussion with a positive impression of the process.
• Summarize what was discussed
• If the employee introduced issues that would make you consider changing their evaluation, apologize for your oversight and tell employee you would like a few days to consider how this information might effect your evaluation.
• Settle on a plan for the future; important to let the employee have input
• Write goals together; make measurable; challenging but achievable
• Offer your help
• Express confidence that the two of you can successfully work through the difficulties
• Think about training, skills development, opportunities or added responsibilities
• Ask the employee to add any last thoughts/ questions/ reaction to the performance appraisal meeting; (“What’s been learned?” “Surprises?” “Was it fair?” “Your general reaction?” “ If you have more reaction later, my door is open.”).
• Remind about the Feedback Form
• If the employee disagrees with any points brought out, let him/her know he/she has the following options: a) document the areas of disagreement on the feedback form; b) he/she can discuss the issue with the supervisor’s supervisor; c) he/she can discuss it with HR.
• Review mutual agreement for next step and follow up
• Share your ideas on where the dept is headed
• Discuss department goals
• Discuss company goals and review mission/vision (employees want to be in the loop)
• Relate the employees past and present performance with department
• Close on a friendly note – let them know they’re part of the team, that their performance matters to the company and the department
• Encourage them; express appreciation for the employees participation; in the words of Former GE CEO Jack Welch, “I was a gardener providing water and nourishment.”
• Both sign and date form. Explain that signing the form merely indicates that the form has been discussed with him/her and indicates the date of the appraisal discussion
• Explain where the form will go; stress the confidentiality
• Tell them you’ll continue to give feedback throughout the year; say, “feel comfortable contacting me at any time to discuss.”

STEP 5: DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW-UP

• Follow up on commitments you’ve made for support, training, etc.
• Refer to HR to determine if a copy of the documentation should be sent to HR and kept in the manager’s employee file
• Review your notes and evaluate yourself
• Begin observa

Now HR can view the exact status of each review which are submitted to managers . We are adding a new legend as “Submitted for Approval” in our review details page. Below is the screenshot of our new legend. We hope this will make your review management even more easier.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbookand president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

When it comes time to conduct a performance evaluation following are  the 10 rating errors to avoid.

1. CENTRALIZATION. Clustering everyone in the middle performance categories to avoid extremes of good or bad performance… it’s easy, but it’s wrong!

2. FAVORITISM. Overlooking the flaws of favored or “nice” employees, especially those whom everyone likes.

3. GROUPING. Excusing below-standard performance because it is widespread; “everyone does it”.

4. GUILT BY ASSOCIATION. Rating someone on the basis of the company they keep, rather than on the work they do. Watch out for the “halo” version of this error as well.

5. THE HALO EFFECT. Letting one work factor you like affect your overall assessment of performance.

6. HOLDING A GRUDGE. A dangerous luxury that may result in your ending up in court. Never try to make employees pay for past behavior!

7. THE HORNS EFFECT. Letting one work factor or behavior you dislike color your opinion of other factors.

8. BIAS. Allowing your bias to influence the rating. Bias can come from attitudes and opinions about race, national origin, sex, religion, age, veterans’ status, disability, hair color, weight, height, intelligence, etc.

9. REGENCY. Don’t only rate a recent performance as good or bad. Data should be representative of the entire review period.

10. THE SUNFLOWER EFFECT. Rating everyone high, regardless of performance, to make yourself look good or to be able to give more compensation.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbook and president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

Few people love to give performance appraisals, but they do have their benefits. From my book, Stress-Free Performance Appraisals, below are few insights into how performance review meetings are good for the employee, supervisor, and organization.

BENEFITS TO THE EMPLOYEE

• They find out how they’re doing
• Receives recognition for their accomplishments
• Allows for two-way communication on goals and performance
• Encourages taking responsibility for their performance and progress
• Helps set goals and direct efforts
• Provides opportunities for career development and improvement
• Assures fair individual evaluations

BENEFITS TO THE SUPERVISOR

• Builds management skills
• Develops and improves rapport with employees
• Identifies and rewards high performers
• Identifies performers needing improvement for coaching/training
• Improves individual employee productivity
• Identifies general training needs
• Demonstrates fairness to employees
• Improves group morale

BENEFITS TO THE ORGANIZATION
• Communicates corporate goals
• Provides management with decision-making information on human resources
• Provides objective basis for raises, promotions, training, and other personnel actions
• Builds stronger working relationships
• Improves overall organizational productivity
• Provides documentation for inquiries on general promotion policies or individual claims of discrimination

We are excited to introduce new tools to help HR effectively manage and customize their performance review process.

Manager Approval Process: This new process can be enabled/disabled through “Configurations” under Administrative Panel. In this process, the managers can now review and approve reviews submitted by their direct reports before publishing. Managers can also disapprove the submitted reviews with a message for resubmission. To manage this process, we have introduced a new tab “Team Reviews” in left menu under Reviews.

Peer Nomination Process: In this process, HR can send requests to all employees to select their peers as reviewers (through Peer Nomination tab under Administrative Panel). HR can also set a limit to the number of reviews a peer can do within a review session to avoid over-booking. HR can also view all the nominations for a particular review session. This limit can be set from “Configurations” under Administrative Panel.

Goals Module: The HR administrator can disable or enable the entire goals management module from configurations.

View Only Self and Manager Review: Now HR can enable this option, so that the employees can see only their self-reviews and reviews done by their managers; they will not be able to view their reviews done by peers or direct reports.

Review Form Comments Area: HR can now manage default text areas like pros, cons and general comments from each review form. This option can also be configured from “Configurations” under Administrative Panel.

This is a guest post co-authored by Alice Waagen,Joyce Oliner and Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbook and president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

Current best practices of high performance businesses:

• Think of Performance Management as an entire system, starting in interviews with potential employees and continuing through orientation, training, coaching and counseling, and recognizing peak performance.

• Stop communicating about PM as if it is an annual event.  The only annual part of it is salary action and/or filing forms.  Think of it as an on-going workplace conversation.

• Train managers and employees on giving and receiving positive and negative feedback on an ongoing basis.

• Hold managers accountable for having ongoing conversations around work and goals.

• Actively seek to align individual goals with organization goals.

• Encourage employee participation and ownership in the process.  Create an environment where together the manager and employee can question, challenge and discuss goals and objectives to gain clarity.

• Use their performance management system to link with the organization’s values; reinforce the importance of the organization’s core competencies.

• Link the performance management system with retention, development, and succession planning initiatives.

• Get support at the senior-level.

• Openly communicate to all employees how your compensation system works.  If merit pools average 2 to 3% annually let everyone know this.  Manage expectations around annual increases to control rumor mill and misinformation.

• Where possible, have a second-level review of performance evaluations (by HR or second-tier management).

• Understand the legal pitfalls associated with performance management, such as penalizing employees for taking legally protected leave (e.g., FMLA leave), and allowing unlawful bias to infect performance evaluations.

This is a guest post by Sharon Armstrong author of The Essential Performance Review Handbook and president of Sharon Armstrong and Associates, a HR consulting and training firm located in Washington, DC.

As any business professional knows, the legal aspects of performance reviews are critical to understand. A lot of time and money can be spent if the process isn’t handled properly.While an employer can use performance appraisals to defend against a claim, they can also be the focus of an employee complaint, or can be used as evidence in legal disputes tied to other employment decisions.

Below you’ll find a Q&A I recently did with attorney and EEO expert Diane Gold who is president of EEO Management Solutions, a consulting, training, and investigation firm focused on employment litigation prevention located in Falls Church, VA. Here she offers insight into the challenges and legalities of conducting a performance evaluation.

Sharon Armstrong: What are the best ways to avoid legal challenges to performance reviews?

Diane Gold: It’s vital that the performance objectives and the rating are consistent with each other, and that the employee knows what to expect. If, for example, an employee is rated on elements that were not clearly articulated, he or she is more likely to allege that the rating is unfair. If there is no clear basis for the rating, the employee may assume that the reason for the low or negative rating is based on race, religion, sex, national origin, or another illegal categorization.

Sharon Armstrong: Is it true that objective rating elements make it easier to defend a challenged rating?

Diane Gold: That’s right. If an employee is rated on “friendliness,” for instance, what does that really mean? What is friendly to one person might be annoying to another. Subjective criteria such as attitude, personality, or demeanor are inherently difficult to measure.

Examples of more objective evaluation factors include measuring how many sales an employee made, how often a copywriter has met deadlines, or whether a vice president has brought projects in on budget 90% of the time.While it’s not always possible to quantify rating elements, aiming for objectivity makes it easier for the manager to prepare the rating and easier for the employee to understand it. Quantifying those elements may also keep the rating from being challenged.

Sharon Armstrong: Is it also vital that supervisors keep a running file of notes on their employees’ performance?

Diane Gold: Definitely. This ensures a contemporaneous record with specific examples to cite. With carefully kept records, supervisors won’t have to dig into their memories and are more likely to produce an appraisal that fairly reflects the whole appraisal period, not just recent events.  Also, if the rating is challenged, they can be confidant knowing that they can back up the review.

Sharon Armstrong: Regarding EEO Compliance, does staying out of legal trouble mean rating employees only based on their skills and abilities?

Diane Gold: Absolutely, because federal law prohibits considering an employee’s race, color, age, sex, religion, national origin, pregnancy, or disability in all employment decisions, including performance evaluations. State, county, or city laws, must also be followed.

The most legally damaging comments in an appraisal are those that blatantly indicate that the rater factored in a protected category. The focus must be on performance only. Also, managers must be trained in understanding and complying with employment laws.

Sharon Armstrong: I know from experience that another problem is giving employees higher ratings than they would otherwise receive—simply because a supervisor likes them, has a personal friendship with them, or is attracted to them.

Diane Gold: Right. Ratings that factor in personality conflicts can also trigger legal trouble. How much an employee is liked or disliked does not belong in the appraisal process, and supervisors must keep personal feelings in check to prevent claims of bias down the road.

Sharon Armstrong: What problems can arise when a supervisor gives a higher rating  than is warranted by the employee’s actual performance?

Diane Gold: Plaintiffs in employment cases often try to show that they do not deserve undesirable treatment by using positive performance appraisals. An employee questioning a demotion, low compensation or a termination will undoubtedly use prior positive performance ratings to prove that the negative action is unfair and discriminatory.If managers inflate ratings, they can find that their hands are tied later, when they need to let someone go.

In one age discrimination case, a court reasoned that the employer’s defense—that the plaintiff was a poor performer—was not substantiated by written ratings.

Sharon Armstrong: How would an employee prove a case of prohibited discrimination?

Diane Gold: They would initially need to prove three factors: 
1. They are part of a protected class.
2. They have suffered an adverse employment action.
3. They have been treated less favorably than someone who is similarly situated who does not belong to their protected class.  The employer then has the opportunity to defend their decision.  If the employee can show that the employer’s defense isn’t the real reason for it’s action, they can possibly prove a case of discrimination.

Sharon Armstrong: When is a bad appraisal considered an “Adverse Action?”

Diane Gold: A poor appraisal could be considered an adverse actions if it can be tied to a “tangible employment action” such as a change in compensation or benefits.

Sharon Armstrong: What is the most important thing for a supervisor to keep in mind when they are involved in a discrimination charge?

Diane Gold: They must take special care to treat the employee fairly even if the supervisor considers the employee’s claim unjust.

Sharon Armstrong: Thank you so much for all of this useful and important information Diane. I encourage readers to check out your Legal IQ quiz at the end of Chapter 8 of my book.

You can contact Sharon at Sharon@sharonarmstrongandassociates.com