HR Tip: Are you still doing annual performance reviews?

The farewell to annual performance reviews began in mid-2015 and more and more employers are restructuring their performance management process. In a blog, Nancy Owen, Senior Human Resource Consultant with East Coast Risk Management, notes that employers need to spend more time collecting information related to their unique environment and culture and examine the pros and cons of the process for reviewing employees.

Employers are realizing that they need to increase their communication to their employees about performance and conduct. Here are her suggestions:

• "First thing" stand-up meetings, conducted at the beginning of a shift to communicate daily updates and company or departmental news to employees, so that employees never feel "in the dark."
• Monthly one-on-one meetings between supervisor and employee, pointing out what is going well and what is not according the goals and competencies set forth at the beginning of the year.
• Quarterly and/or mid-year reviews, when any adjustments or changes should take place:

  Are the employee's goals still realistic?

  Has the employee moved to a different department or taken on new tasks?

• Year-end discussions, carried out in a non-formal meeting, to review the last year and what could have been done better or needs to change for the upcoming year.