Pay-for-Performance

Performance Check-ins

If performance is being evaluated, traditionally, the results of the evaluation are shared with the employee in the annual performance review.

The typical annual performance review makes all involved uncomfortable and falls short as an employee development tool. Managers do not like them due to the time they take up and the choices they may have to make can be difficult. Employees do not like them because they have reservations about how well their contributions are being assessed.

Another problem with annual reviews is that when goals are set at the beginning of the review period the circumstances on which they are based may change. And with performance being reviewed only once a year the opportunity to assess, mentor, and provide feedback more frequently is lost.

Performance check-ins offer a way to overcome these drawbacks to the annual performance review. Characteristics of a successful performance review using check-ins:

• Setting initial goals should involve both the employee and the supervisor. That is, with organization priorities in mind, goals are worked out with the supervisor accepting input from the employee.

• Goals are not immutable. Circumstances can change over the course of a year and goals need to change with them.

• Regular meetings, once a month or once a quarter are held with each employee to review progress, update goals if necessary, and provide the employee with mentoring if they need it. The supervisor has a system for maintaining information that comes out of the meetings.

• Informal “chats” can also be a way of keeping up with employee progress between regular meetings.

• The final review at the end of the year is not full of surprises since the review process has been incremental and the extent of goal achievement is already mostly known.

The regular meetings do not need to take up much time. Since they occur frequently and progress is being closely followed, the focus should be on overcoming any roadblocks to successful goal attainment. The final meeting is a formality with a review of the degree of goal attainment over the course of the assessment period.