A good review: performance reviews are key to satisfied employees and business success. Here are eight ways to make them less painful, and more effective - management

Let's face it: No one likes performance reviews. Thousands of boxes must be checked, hundreds of forms filled out, dozens of meetings conducted--and there's zero time to get it all done.

So why does every successful company use them so religiously?

For one thing, formal reviews are required to justify a range of human resource decisions, such as pay raises, promotions, demotions and terminations.

Reviews also create a platform for measurement, a vehicle for employee improvement and a means of linking key outcomes to performance.

But creating useful performance reviews and making sure they are used effectively throughout a company can be tricky.

Here are eight ways to make them less painful--and more effective for all concerned.

1 Clearly define why your company conducts formal performance reviews. Communicate to all employees, including your management team, why the evaluations are being conducted and the specific goals of the review system.

When managers know that information collected during their reviews is likely to affect decisions about employee development, planning, performance improvement and compensation, they will be motivated to execute their responsibilities competently. Without clearly defined goals, managers may simply go through the motions of conducting reviews and performance management.

2 Develop user-friendly procedures and job-related forms. Effective review systems require simple, easy-to-understand forms. Performance criteria, rating procedures and feedback should be expressed in terms that are focused and meaningful for managers and employees. It is essential that the forms assess the degree to which employees perform their job duties and achieve specific organizational goals.

3 Be sure employees and managers know how the process operates and understand their roles. An effective system cannot exist without the ongoing education of all key players in the review process, from the owner of the company to the lowest person on the totem pole.

4 Work with employees early in the process. At the beginning of the review period, managers need to work closely with employees to review their job descriptions and duties, set clearly defined goals, and communicate expectations of behaviors and results.

Important behaviors and activities that critically affect performance, and the review form itself, should be discussed at the beginning of the evaluation period.

5 Provide ongoing, informal performance feedback. Effective review systems do not consist solely of once-a-year, formal performance reviews. Failure to provide ongoing, informal feedback allows minor, easily correctable problems to grow into more serious ones.

Lack of regular coaching can lead to employees simply disengaging from meaningful work, looking for alternative employment and demonstrating decreased productivity. Lack of coaching also makes it difficult to conduct reviews of employee performance and can fray the bonds between managers and workers. Not surprisingly, employees may interpret the lack of feedback as a sign of a manager's or owner's disinterest in a worker's growth in the company.

6 Follow a set of procedures and guidelines. Your company will never achieve useful practices if the managers are not motivated to follow procedural guidelines and conduct competent written and face-to-face performance reviews.

Unmotivated managers can undo even the best performance review system because they most directly impact the overall quality of the review process and the motivation of employees to perform. Managers will be encouraged to conduct effective reviews when their supervisors implement appropriate reviews.

7 Be sure top management supports and demonstrates effective review practices. Support for appropriate reviews can be demonstrated through written and oral communications with managers and employees in memos, testimonials and company newsletters. Pool and spa company owners can show support by using the same practices when they appraise the managers.

8 Link performance ratings to rewards. Research consistently indicates that to maximize the effectiveness of a pay-for-performance program, company rewards must link greater rewards to superior job performance.

When employees feel that their rated performance is accurate and reflects their true contributions to your organization, their motivation to perform increases. On the other hand, when they feel that ratings are inaccurate or are a function of interoffice politics, they tend to perform only to minimum standards, are absent more often, engage in theft or simply quit.

Down to Business

By Dan Andrews

Dan Andrews, a former certified trainer with the American Management Association, has been a financial and operations management consultant in the pool and spa industry 15 years. He is the author of two training manuals, Managing Personnel in the 1990s and Store Operations in the 1990s for the 25,000-member National Retail Hardware Association. If you have questions about how to improve your company's profits, he can be reached at dandrews@andrews consultinginc.como or www.andrews consulting-inc.com.

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