I recently read a helpful post by Betty Liu (Founder/CEO at Radiate, Inc.) that discussed giving regular feedback to employees—and not just in annual reviews. That’s key for companies looking for transformational growth. One of her main points was about finding that perfect combination of being open, honest, and candid without tearing someone to shreds.
I think it’s a worthwhile read, and you can check it out here.
One thing that came to my mind as I read it, however, was that annual reviews aren’t enough for transformational growth. If you really want to help employees improve (and of course, transform your business in the process) you’ve got to have a better idea of what’s going on throughout the year—not just at the time of your annual reviews.
If there’s a performance issue in your workplace, you really can’t afford to let it go undetected and unresolved for 12 months. The pace of business today is simply too fast for that luxury. You need to uncover problems early and address them. Either you need to help an employee work toward improvement or you need to replace that employee.
By the way, shying away from confronting an underperforming employee doesn’t do him or her any good either. You may temporarily avoid hurting someone’s feelings, but ultimately you’re prolonging a situation that’s not good for them or your company.
So what will help you stay on top of performance? For one thing, it’s important to have shorter more regular meetings with employees that keep you and your managers up to speed on what’s really going on. Short, regular meetings that focus on specific deliverables will do more to highlight performance than long annual meetings. Plus, they afford the ability to make immediate changes before it’s too late.
It’s also important that you evaluate based on the right criteria. Here’s a helpful post that guides you through 5 Things to Look at When Evaluating Employees.
If you want to transform your business and scale it up, having the right people doing the right things in your company. That’s too important a process to only evaluate once a year.
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