Tips for great employee performance reviews

A lot of pressure is put on small business owners to keep their companies running, involving the management of a wide range of tasks.

Even with a limited number of employees, performance management reviews can take up a large amount of time that is better spent on other areas of the business.

Business development is dependent on excellent time management. This is especially important for smaller enterprises, where time, staff and sometimes funding is at a premium.

For these reasons, many larger companies are choosing to end the practice of standard performance reviews. These reviews involved strict evaluations, with employees often given a numbered rating, or placed on a grading curve.

Not only is this a time-consuming task, it reduces employees to numbered value, ignoring their strengths, weaknesses and other unquantifiable attributes. It's an impersonal process that can reduce employee engagement and negatively affect retention. 

This method operates in opposition of small businesses, which often rely on tight-knit staff and strong personal relationship to succeed.

Thankfully, there are alternatives. The performance reviews slowly gaining traction in big business around the world are the complete opposite to the old style of employee management. Because of this, they are prime for adoption by small companies as well.

The formality of standard performance management is slowly being abolished, with much more informal methods becoming the norm.

Rather than a yearly rating being given to employees, some businesses, such as Adobe, have chosen to schedule more frequent, but less formal, sessions. Here, instead of being assigned a number, staff have the opportunity to discuss goals, their place within the company and further options for training.

This puts HR managers into much more of a development role, where they can work closely with staff throughout their time at the company, rather than assigning them a grade once per year.

As always, there are people who can help. Don't hesitate to bring up similar issues with your business development consultant, as these issues directly influence the performance of your company.