Page 3 - The Leadership Line: December 2022

Review Timeline Writing Reviews

The best managers use performance reviews as a means of communicating with their
employees and strengthening their relationships. The goals for a performance review
should include:

» A review of feedback provided throughout the year
» Highlights of areas of excellence and opportunity
» Time for the employee to share their perspective on their performance
» Discussion of what an employee needs to be successful

Begin to gather both quantitative measures of employee performance, like SLA reports, final deliverables, and
deadline reports, as well as qualitative measures, which could include feedback from clients and customers or your
personal observation. Pull out those notes you took during the year and in your touch-base meetings, too.
If a particular performance problem was not addressed prior to the evaluation, it should not be factored into the
overall rating. In addition, unless particularly egregious, a single incident of a performance deficiency, especially
at the beginning or end of the evaluation period, should not be allowed to outweigh an otherwise satisfactory
performance.

Tips for Writing Reviews: A Summary
» Make objective statements. Instead of “Jane is frequently late,” provide actual dates or the
number of times (from your notes); for example, “Jane reported late to work without notification
on (actual dates) OR “Joe was late without notification four times during the third quarter.” This
will help the employee identify areas of improvement.
» Choose words that focus on performance, not personality!
» Use action words such as excels, exhibits, demonstrates, grasps, generates, manages, possesses,
communicates, monitors, directs, and achieves are great ways to translate an employee’s
performance onto paper.

If an individual has already been counseled or spoken to on multiple occasions
throughout the year, a written performance improvement plan which identifies the
continuing deficiencies, the timeframe for improvement, and expected outcomes
and consequences of failure to meet those outcomes should be developed and
implemented, in consultation with Human Resources.

5. Halo effect – Erroneously appraising an individual’s performance based on a perceived positive quality, feature,
or trait.
6. Horn effect – Misguidedly appraising the individual’s performance based on a perceived negative quality or
feature.
7. Leniency – Rating the employee higher or lower than they deserve.
8. Recency effect – Narrow focus on recent events rather than the entire performance period such as inadvertently
ignoring achievements from earlier in the performance evaluation period.
9. Similarity/“like me” – Favorable ratings given to employees who have similar values or interests to you.