Thanks for sharing your views! Have you ever had an incident where feedback from an appraisal has differed from the feedback given to you during the rest of the review period?

Simon

Asif

As a manager who has had to deliver bad performance news, I can’t resist a couple comments on my personal approach.

First – as a manager, if you’ve waited until the employee’s appraisal to share aspects of their performance that aren’t up to par, then as a manager I’M not doing MY job. If there is a negative aspect to an employee’s performance that warrants inclusion into their official file, then it is our responsibility to both the employee and our employer to address the specific issue now. One approach that helps soften the blow is to clearly define the under-performance along with clearly defined expectations of what acceptable performance looks like. Too often I hear of managers telling someone they aren’t doing a good job but can’t tell them why or how to improve.

Second – Sometimes the actual appraisal can be way to long and involved. I know sometimes HR imposes a certain process on us, but the best advice I got on this topic was years ago from one of my mentors. He said to take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. With your employee, fill in three things on the left hand side that you think the employee is doing a good job at and should be commended. On the right hand side, fill in three areas you would like to see the employee improve and what improvement would look like. I’ve always liked that approach and have used it with success in the past.

dec