It’s impossible to overstate the value of a properly motivated and engaged employee. Yes, productivity is a huge benefit, as is the quality of work they produce.

But there’s even more to it — if you know how to motivate employees properly, it will improve their quality of life, boost employee morale, enhance job satisfaction, and dramatically increase their retention.

Of course, like any workplace undertaking, truly motivating employees on your team can be easier said than done.

As a manager it’s up to you to balance the business needs with employee performance and the tasks your employees perform.

You need to get creative within the confines of a work setting so that your employees feel the impact of their work, receive proper stimulation and employee feedback, and ultimately feel they’re growing as part of your team. And making this a daily priority among your competing priorities is a challenge.

But it’s well worth it – motivated employees will boost the wellness of your company culture, team, and the business goals you’re pursuing.

What Drives Employee Motivation and Engagement?

Before you can motivate your employees, you need to understand what’s contributing to their engagement.

And we’ll get the obvious one out of the way — yes, financial incentives are a factor. A properly compensated person is far easier to motivate. But many managers underestimate the intrinsic factors that also contribute to employee engagement.

A survey conducted by TINYpulse of over 200,000 employees found the top drivers of motivation were:

Camaraderie and peer motivation (20%)
Intrinsic desire to do a good job (17%)
Feeling encouraged and recognized (13%)
Having a real impact (10%)
Growing professionally (8%)

As a manager, you can play a major role in shaping a workplace environment that encourages engaged employees.

By setting the tone and providing opportunities for workers to feel part of a team, you can amplify the intrinsic factors that contribute to highly motivated employees. Here, we’ll unpack the steps you need to take to get started.

8 Data-Backed Tips For How to Motivate Employees

1. Set clear expectations

Your employees need to know what’s expected of them to perform their job effectively.

As a manager, it’s your responsibility to offer clarity about what’s needed from your team. This includes well-defined roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations.

Taking the time to periodically review these with your employees will ensure everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them and what they need to do to meet those expectations, as well as make any course corrections necessary to hit their targets.

Another benefit of clear expectations is that they can also help reduce confusion and conflict within the workplace.

When everyone’s on the same page, there’s less room for miscommunication or misunderstandings. We know that camaraderie is a huge factor driving engagement, so promoting a positive work environment can ultimately lead to higher levels of employee motivation.

2. Provide regular feedback

Giving constructive feedback can be one of the more challenging tasks you will undertake as a manager. Everyone responds differently to constructive criticism, so your feedback needs to be delivered in such a way that your employee can openly receive the message, helping you achieve your desired impact.

Even though delivering it can be tough, feedback is essential for growth and development. It will help your employees understand what they are doing well and where they need to improve.

It’s important that you provide regular feedback to your team members – while it can be done through regular performance reviews, taking time to do it in less formal settings like a weekly 1-on-1 meeting can prevent things from piling up, and making adjustments as soon as they’re required. It’s also a great opportunity to celebrate wins and emphasize the good work your team has done.

When giving feedback, be sure to focus on specific behaviors and actions, rather than making general statements. Provide examples of what the employee did well and where they can improve. This will help to ensure that the feedback is constructive and actionable, rather than “feedback for the sake of feedback.”

The data makes it clear – employees want to feel like they are growing and developing in their roles. In fact, according to research done by Lorman Training, 74% of surveyed employees feel they aren’t reaching their full potential at work due to lack of development opportunities. Helping your team feel they’re reaching their full potential will be a major step towards motivation.

To meet this need, it’s important you’re providing training and development opportunities for your team. This can include both formal training programs and informal learning opportunities.

By investing in your employees’ development, you are showing them that you value their growth and are committed to helping them succeed. This can help to increase employee motivation and engagement, as they’ll feel more invested in their role and the organization as a whole when they see that you are investing in them.

4. Recognize and reward a job well done

Employee recognition is a huge factor and one of the easiest steps you can take to motivate your team. Employees want to feel appreciated and recognized for their hard work.

Recognizing and rewarding a job well done goes a long way to boosting employee motivation and engagement. It can be as simple as a verbal thank you or a written note of appreciation, done in a one-on-one setting, or at a smaller meeting in front of your immediate team.

For more significant achievements, consider offering rewards such as bonuses, extra time off, or larger public recognition.

By properly acknowledging your employees’ hard work and contributions, you are reinforcing positive behaviors and encouraging them to continue performing at a high level, all while increasing their job satisfaction.

5. Foster a positive work environment

It’s not just the kind of work that needs to be done, it’s where and how it’s done that affects the end result. Your work environment plays a major role in holistic employee motivation and engagement.

When a work environment is positive, and provides a fulfilling day-to-day experience, it boosts employee morale and fosters a sense of community within the workplace — remember, camaraderie is at the top of the heap in terms of employee engagement.

To achieve this positive work environment, it’s your job to be proactive. You can schedule dedicated events such as team-building activities, social events, and open communication channels.

It’s important to consult your team to see what they consider a worthwhile activity — no one likes “forced fun” and any event that feels like it takes away from valuable time can have the opposite effect you intend.

By consulting your employees and getting their input, you’ll be able to demonstrate your vested interest in what they think, developing those open communication channels while building a culture of camaraderie.

By creating a positive work environment, you’re also helping to reduce stress and burnout among your employees. This will ultimately lead to higher levels of employee motivation and engagement, as your team will feel supported and valued by you, and the organization they work for.

6. Encourage collaboration

Collaboration is perhaps the single most essential component of a successful team.

Encouraging collaboration can help to build stronger relationships among team members and develop a sense of unity within the workplace. Find opportunities to work on team projects, build cross-functional teams, and offer shared workspaces. Additionally, encouraging multiple perspectives on the same task will lead to a better, more thorough, and well-thought-out end product.

By encouraging collaboration, you’re also helping to build a sense of ownership among your employees. When employees feel that they are part of a team and that their contributions are valued, they’re far more likely to be motivated and engaged in their work.

7. Include employees in goal setting

Everyone wants a sense of agency in what they’re doing – it’s human nature. That means your employees want to feel that they have a say in the direction of the company. While you can’t give them a seat on the board, including employees in goal setting can help to achieve a sense of agency.

When you involve employees in the goal-setting process, you are not only creating a sense of ownership and accountability but also helping to align their personal goals with those of the organization.

One excellent technique to help employees with this process is by encouraging employees to create SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that are challenging yet attainable.

Setting SMART goals can differ significantly depending on the nature of your team (marketing teams and engineers will need tailored approaches), so be sure to tie SMART goals to the individual objectives of the employee’s role as well as tie back to the overall business goals.

By involving employees in the goal-setting process, you are also developing a sense of empowerment, which is a key factor impacting employee engagement on your team.

8. Lead by example

As a manager, you are a role model for your team, and that’s a big responsibility. Leading by example is essential for motivating and engaging your employees.

Leading by example is a great example of how managers can help low-performing employees. In fact, 86% of employees attain job satisfaction if they have a good relationship with their management team. Being a leader they can look up to will boost morale and have a positive impact on overall employee well-being.

You can achieve this by demonstrating positive behaviors such as being punctual, communicating effectively, and treating others with respect. You set the tone for the environment you value, and this is something your team will take note of.

When you lead by example, you are not only encouraging your team to emulate your behavior but also reinforcing your organization’s values and culture. This will create a cohesive team and a positive work environment, while also developing your own reputation as a manager who can earn the trust of your team, keep employees motivated, and ultimately get things done.

Benefits of Having a Motivated Workforce

A motivated and engaged employee is a happy employee. And while wellness is great on a humanitarian level, it is also extremely valuable to your organization. A motivated workforce has a slew of benefits for the overall success of an organization and makes your company a great place to work.

Increased productivity

People work harder when they are engaged in what they do. Motivated employees are more productive, as they have a deeper commitment to the work they do. This boosts overall productivity and efficiency, something all organizations strive for.

Higher retention

Anyone who’s worked in recruiting knows the value of retaining talented employees. The hiring process can be wildly expensive, and training a new employee is time-consuming.

That’s why motivation is so key –– motivated employees are more likely to stay with the organization for a significantly longer period. This helps to reduce turnover and associated costs, such as recruitment and training.

Greater creativity and teamwork

If you’ve achieved a culture of high employee engagement, your workforce is more likely to share ideas and collaborate with their colleagues. Building an environment that encourages creativity and innovation is extremely important for an organization looking to stay ahead of the curve.

Improve Your Employee Engagement With Omni

In a fast-paced and dynamic environment, rife with competitors looking to poach top talent, finding ways to keep employees engaged and motivated should be at the top of your priorities. Omni gives you the tools and resources you need to build a well-organized, engaged workforce.

Omni streamlines your employee management processes, automates time-consuming and repetitive tasks, and frees up your valuable time and energy so you can focus on what really matters — strategically engaging and nurturing your team.

With Omni, you can say goodbye to manual data entry, paperwork, and disorganized spreadsheets. Our digital HR hub helps you manage the entire end-to-end employee lifecycle in one, centralized location, making it easy to access and manage your employee data anytime, anywhere.

If you’re ready to improve your employee engagement and motivation, you need a tool that helps you focus on your people. And that’s exactly what Omni offers – it’s a smarter way of keeping employees motivated and managing your HR tasks.

Get in touch with us today and start reaping the benefits of a more highly motivated team.

Measurement is an important tool for management as it allows you to assess the effectiveness of your (and your team’s) work, showcase the value of that work, efficiently manage resources, and focus on improving performance. Setting key performance indicators for employees provides a framework to easily track, measure, and report on their performance.

Here, we’ll explore how to identify, set, and measure key performance indicators for employees.

Defining KPIs and Their Benefits

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a type of measure that is used to evaluate the performance of an organization against its strategic objectives. Key performance indicators for employees, much like performance review SMART goals, help every area of your business move forward at the strategic level by providing goals and targets for your team to work towards. They are also milestones to measure progress, and insights that help employees across an organization to make smarter decisions.

In sum, KPIs can help employees to stay focused, motivated, and engaged while providing clear direction for their professional growth and development.

KPIs and SMART goals are often used as interchangeable terms which can cause confusion and misguide managers. It’s important to understand the difference between the two to effectively implement them into your management efforts.

Types of KPIs

Key performance indicators for employees come in many forms. While some are used to measure monthly progress against a goal, others have a longer-term focus. Regardless of their differences, all KPIs have one thing in common: they’re tied to strategic goals. Here’s an overview of some of the most common types of KPIs.

Strategic: Think of these as “big-picture” key performance indicators for employees. Overall, strategic KPIs monitor organizational goals and can include things like return on investment, revenue, and market share. These are the KPIs that executives typically look to determine how the organization is doing at any given time.
Operational: These KPIs typically measure performance in a shorter time frame, and are focused on organizational processes and efficiencies such as customer response time, average monthly transportation costs or cost per acquisition.
Leading vs Lagging: Leading KPIs can help predict outcomes whereas lagging KPIs track what has already happened. Organizations use a mix of both to ensure they’re tracking what’s most important.

4 Steps to Setting KPIs for Employees

One of the most important steps in setting key performance indicators for employees is to ensure you’re only measuring what will help you reach your business goals. To help determine what KPIs are right for your employees, keep in mind the components that make up effective KPIs.

Setting key performance indicators for employees can be achieved by following these 4 steps:

Determine goals: Talk to your employees to understand and align on the goals they’d like to achieve, and discuss how you can use KPIs to measure their progress
Tie them to strategic objectives: Consider the objectives of the employees department as well as the company as a whole. Every key performance indicator should tie directly back to your overall business goals.
Write SMART KPIs: The most effective KPIs follow the SMART goal format. Make sure they’re Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound.
Plan to iterate: As your business and customers change, you may need to revise your key performance indicators. Perhaps certain ones are no longer relevant, or you need to adjust based on performance. Be sure you have a plan in place to evaluate and make changes to key performance indicators when necessary.

Omni Tip: Starting a KPI with a verb tells you what needs to be done. Assigning a value ensures your KPI is measurable, and a timeline will do wonders for staying timely on your progress.

Identifying the Right KPIs for Your Employees (+7 Examples)

Now that you know what makes a good KPI, it’s important to understand how to choose the right key performance indicators for employees. KPIs will vary employee to employee depending on their department, position, and overall goals.

First, let’s assess the steps to identifying the right key performance indicators for employees:

Define Business Goals: Start by defining the business goals you want to achieve. This will help you identify the KPIs that are most relevant and valuable for measuring progress towards those goals.
Determine Critical Success Factors: Identify the critical success factors that are necessary for achieving those goals. For example, if your goal is to increase revenue, a critical success factor might be to increase customer acquisition rates.
Brainstorm: Once you have identified critical success factors, brainstorm potential KPIs that could be used to measure progress towards those factors. Consider both quantitative and qualitative metrics.
Prioritize: Evaluate and prioritize the KPIs based on their relevance, importance, and ability to drive progress towards the critical success factors.
Communicate: Communicate the KPIs clearly to employees, providing guidance on how they will be measured and how they relate to business goals. Encourage employees to take ownership of their performance and track their progress towards achieving the KPIs.

By following these steps, you can identify the right KPIs for your employees, which can help drive performance, improve productivity, and achieve business objectives.

Now, let’s look at some KPIs as they apply to different areas of a business. Here are 7 examples of key performance indicators for employees that cover financials, marketing and sales, and HR.

Financial

Gross and net profit margin

Setting profit KPIs helps you keep your business on track financially, and allows you to course correct early on to save money and manage your financial goals. The key difference in measuring profit margins is between ‘gross’ and ‘net’ profits.

Gross profit margins calculate the percentage of revenue that remains after deducting only the cost of goods sold (COGS). It is calculated by subtracting COGS from total revenue and then dividing the result by total revenue.

Example KPI: Keep gross profit margins at 40% for the year.

Net profit margins calculate the percentage of revenue that remains as profit after deducting all expenses, including COGS, operating expenses, and taxes. It is calculated by dividing net income by total revenue.

Example KPI: Keep net profit margins at 20% for the year.

Inventory turnover

Inventory turnover measures how quickly your company sells and replaces its inventory during a specific period. A higher your inventory turnover ratio, the more efficient you are at managing inventory by selling your products quickly and replacing them with new inventory. Inventory turnover is calculated by dividing the cost of goods sold (COGS) by the average inventory value.

Example KPI: Maintain an inventory turnover ratio of 4 during the next production cycle.

Marketing and Sales

Lead conversion rate

Measuring lead conversion rates allows you to assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Let’s look at how to calculate your website lead conversion rate, the percentage of website visitors who become leads by filling out a form or contacting your company. It is calculated by dividing the number of leads generated by the number of website visitors and multiplying the result by 100.

Example KPI: Maintain a website lead conversion rate of 5% until the new website launch.

Customer lifetime value

Your average customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the average revenue you can expect to generate from a single customer over the course of your relationship. It is calculated by multiplying the average purchase value by the average purchase frequency rate and multiplying the result by the average customer lifespan. A high average CLV indicates you company have loyal customers who are likely to continue making purchases in the future.

For example, if the average purchase value is S$100, the average purchase frequency rate is twice per year, and the average customer lifespan is 5 years, the average CLV would be S$1,000.

Example KPI: Maintain an average CLV of S$1,000 each month.

Human Resources

Employee satisfaction
There are many ways to determine employee satisfaction. One easy indicator is by employee turnover rate, the rate at which employees leave your company. It is calculated by dividing the number of employees who leave by the total number of employees and multiplying the result by 100. A low employee turnover rate indicates that employees are satisfied with their work and are less likely to leave the organization.

Example KPI: Maintain an employee turnover rate of 10% or less each quarter.

Employee engagement

Employee engagement scores help HR teams measure the level at which your employees are engaged with their work and the overall company. Typically, this is measured through data gathered from employee surveys. Once this data is collected, the score is calculated by averaging the responses among participants. A high score indicates your employees are emotionally invested and likely to excel at their job responsibilities.

Example KPI: Achieve and maintain an employee engagement score of 3.5 out of 5 until the next employee performance review cycle.

Ready to take your performance management to new heights? ✨ Gain exclusive access to insider strategies and real-life examples for setting powerful KPIs that drive exceptional results. Don't miss out on this opportunity to transform your HR processes!

Tracking and Measuring Performance

KPI tracking, the monitoring of changes in KPI trends over a specific time period to understand how your business is performing, helps you keep track of the health and success of your business.

To track and measure key performance indicators for employees performance, capture the necessary data for each KPI and convert it into useful metrics, then follow up with those elements by tracking and monitoring them over time.

Effectively tracking and measuring the performance of KPIs also allows you to measure the overall progress of your teams, provides opportunities to make real-time adjustments to stay on track, and consistently analyzes trends.

Effectively Manage Performance with Omni

Setting key performance indicators for employees requires strategic input and consideration from managers, however the tracking and gathering of data can become yet another time-consuming administrative task. Omni helps you track, analyze and gain actionable insights from performance data through an automated and digitized platform. Easily and quickly gather the data you need so you can spend more time on the strategic planning necessary to drive business outcomes.

To learn more about how Omni can automate and improve your performance tracking practices, schedule a demo with our team today.

Love them or hate them, performance reviews are a fact of life for most employees. And while the process can at times feel daunting, the feedback received from performance reviews often help mold your skills and provide motivation and understanding of how you contribute to an organization’s overall goals and outcomes.

When we think of what performance reviews entail, we often overlook one of the most critical components to the process: the self evaluation. Self evaluations are a prime opportunity for you to demonstrate what an asset you are to your company and set goals to continue your career growth.

We’ll walk through our best practices for preparing and writing your evaluation, complete with self-evaluation for performance review examples to help you draw inspiration and best present your skills when it’s time for your next review.

4 Tips to Ace Your Self-Evaluation

Self-Evaluation Performance Review Examples

Be Specific (and Provide Examples)

Being specific adds clarity and situational relevance to your statements. Sharing greater detail about how you’ve reached your goals allows your manager to gain an understanding of your strategic approach, which accurately represents all of the hard work you’ve put into your achievements.

Here, we’ll share 2 self-evaluation for performance review examples and show you how you can improve your comments to be more specific.

Due to my interest and savvy with social media, I generated more MQLs through paid marketing channels.

While you may be savvy with social media, this example fails to convey the many skills and strategies you utilized to meet your goal. It also lacks a clear, measurable example of your accomplishments. Instead, you could share more details such as:

I leveraged keyword research, site traffic analysis, and tracked social media trends to develop targeted and timely content that generated 50 new MQLs through our paid marketing channels, and successfully hit my OKR.

Much like a SMART goal for performance reviews, this example provides specific, measurable examples that illustrate your thought process and strategic approach to achieving your goals.

Include Facts and Figures

A prime example of a good self performance review is one that provides plenty of supporting evidence to back up your claims. Metrics serve as a helpful reference point for managers to clearly understand how your performance impacts results (they also serve as a useful leveraging tool in negotiating things like salary or job title).

Here, we’ll share 2 self-evaluation for performance review examples and show you how you can improve your comments to include metrics.

I managed our social media accounts and drafted the copy for all posts.

This example simply states that you executed a task in your job description, but it fails to convey your impact, which illustrates your value. Instead, share specific examples and numbers such as:

I grew the company LinkedIn following from 250 to 400 followers in 3 months and increased post engagement by 8% through continued interaction, targeted posts, and repurposed content.

This example provides tangible results that clearly lay out how your work benefits the business as well as your measurable progress and achievements.

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Continuously Strive for Growth

Performance reviews and self-evaluations are a time to reflect on your strengths and accomplishments as well as your areas for improvement. It can feel uncomfortable to discuss your performance shortcomings, as you may be nervous to point out areas of your work that need improvement. However there are ways you can reframe these misses as opportunities to grow rather than failures. Use positive, solution-oriented language that looks to the future when evaluating areas of improvement.

Some phrases you can try are:

An area I’d like to focus on is …
This is what I’ve discovered thus far…
This is how I’d like to proceed in the future…
What I’ve learned from this is…

Track Your Accomplishments

You do a lot in the day-to-day of your role, and by the time self-evaluations come around, it can be difficult to recall the many accomplishments and tasks you’ve achieved throughout the year.

A strategic way to refresh your memory and always have a pool of specific examples for a good self performance review is to maintain a running list of your accomplishments throughout your time at your company. This can be as simple as keeping a Word doc, notes app, or a dedicated notebook that you regularly update, we recommend closing out your week by listing out your accomplishments to keep this list up to date.

21 Specific Self-Evaluation Performance Review Examples

Self-evaluation questions vary from company to company, and even sometimes from department to department, however these core themes often show up in all self-assessments. Being able to assess and articulate your strengths and weaknesses in each area will allow you to write a comprehensive self-evaluation to best reflect your value as an employee.

In each category we’ll share what questions you should ask yourself, as well as several examples of a good self performance review as it relates to each category.

Leadership

Can I effectively and efficiently run a team while giving clear guidance? What are my strengths and weaknesses in this area?

Here, we’ll share 6 self-evaluation for performance review examples illustrating both strengths and areas for improvement as it relates to leadership.

Strengths

I communicate clearly and effectively with my team so they have the tools and clarity they need to achieve their best outcomes. One way I achieve this is by setting aside 15 minutes before each meeting to review the key objectives and action items I’d like to focus on for that call.
I provide systems and structure for my teams to reference so they understand what is expected of them and who they can collaborate with on any given task. An example of how I’ve done this is by implementing a team board in Asana to map out and track our key objectives and tasks.
I create an open and honest work environment, and make my team feel safe to come to me with any concerns or questions they might have. I set a recurring “office hours” block on my calendar and communicated to my team that I am available to them to answer any questions or provide support should they need it.

Areas for Improvement

I am working on incorporating more positive feedback and celebrating my team’s achievements in our weekly meetings.
An area I’d like to focus on is improving my delegation skills across my team.
I often work late and send messages outside of working hours. What I’m learning from this is it puts pressure on my team and sets an expectation that we should work outside business hours. I’d like to begin scheduling my communications to be sent out during working hours to respect my team’s work/life balance.

Team Collaboration

How do I approach collaborating within my team as well as across other departments in the organization?

Here, we’ll share 6 self-evaluation for performance review examples illustrating both strengths and areas for improvement as it relates to team collaboration.

Strengths

I thrive in a collaborative environment because my colleagues’ ideas and drive motivate me and inspire creativity. I regularly ask for input and feedback from my colleagues with the help of surveys and incorporate their direction into my projects and work.
I am constantly workshopping new ways to share ideas across teams, and recently implemented a Miro board to gather team input on projects.
Last quarter I put a call out to our engineering team for guest posts for our company blog. I recognize that other departments’ expertise and input are valuable to our brand and our collaboration can boost our marketing efforts.

Areas for Improvement

I struggle to initiate collaborations with new team members because I am concerned that they will feel overwhelmed. I am learning to check in with these new employees and gauge their interest and bandwidth rather than assume they’re unable to collaborate.
I am learning that my enthusiasm at times can cause me to take up the majority of speaking time during team meetings, hindering team members from sharing their ideas. In the future, I’d like to come up with 2-3 ideas and allow others to speak before me.
I have a tendency to offer to be the final editor on projects before they are submitted, and have found it is a way for me to maintain control over a project. I am learning it’s important to allow others the opportunity to take the lead.

Creativity and Innovation

Am I able to think outside the box to develop new ways of doing things? What new methods or practices did I adopt or create? How did they contribute to my role?

Here, we’ll share 6 self-evaluation for performance review examples illustrating both strengths and areas for improvement as it relates to creativity and innovation.

Strengths

I consistently demonstrated a willingness to experiment with new ideas and take calculated risks in my work. By trying out new approaches and processes, I was able to identify opportunities for improvement and develop innovative solutions to drive efficiency and productivity. One example is when I proposed and implemented a new system for tracking project progress that enabled our team to quickly identify bottlenecks and make adjustments to our workflow.
I actively sought out opportunities to bring creativity and innovation to my work this year. For example, I suggested and implemented a new approach to data visualization that made our reports more engaging and accessible to our target audience.
I took an innovative approach to my work this year by experimenting with new technologies and tools. For example, I explored the use of softwares to automate routine tasks and improve the accuracy of customer outreach.

Areas for Improvement

I’d like to pursue more learning opportunities such as free courses and webinars to expand my knowledge on creating TikTok content for our social media presence.
An area I’d like to focus on is developing my creative thinking skills in order to come up with more innovative solutions to complex problems rather than rely on existing ideas. To improve in this area, I plan to spend more time brainstorming and experimenting with new ideas to solve problems.
I’ve found I struggle to effectively communicate my creative ideas and proposals to others. In the future I plan to practice presenting my ideas to different audiences and seek out opportunities to participate in collaborative brainstorming sessions to develop my communication and collaboration skills around creativity.

Achievements

Did I successfully achieve the goals my manager and I set for my role? How do I contribute to the overall success of the organization? What are my top achievements since my last performance review?

Here, we’ll share 6 self-evaluation for performance review examples illustrating both strengths and areas for improvement as it relates to achievements.

I successfully launched an onboarding program for new hires in Q1. To do this I researched best practices, and developed materials such as onboarding checklists and standardized our company welcome letter to create consistency and help ensure all bases were covered.
I have demonstrated strong initiative and ownership in my work, leading the successful completion of multiple projects on time and within budget. I’ve done so by setting SMART goals for myself at the beginning of each quarter to ensure I remain on track and focused.
I proactively identified and resolved technical issues that arose during our product launch, that helped mitigate potential risks and ensure a seamless launch. I did so by conducting regular audits and working closely with the UX team to remain up to date on user feedback.

Maximize Your Performance Review Process

Performance reviews don’t have to be a dreaded task, with the right framework and guidance, the exercise can become a useful tool in self-reflection and professional development. Allow these self-evaluation for performance review examples to guide you to a concise and complete evaluation during your next performance review. For more resources to improve your review cycle, download our free performance review questions template.

To learn how Omni can automate and digitize your performance review process, schedule a demo with our team.

Taking a thoughtful and measured approach to performance review goals for employees increases your businesses potential for success while benefiting your employees growth and engagement. In fact, research shows performance feedback increases company profitability and employee productivity as well as decreases employee turnover.

By implementing performance review SMART goals, managers are able to deliver actionable feedback to their direct reports and provide employees with a framework to understand how they contribute to the overall success of the business.

Here we’ll share 18 examples managers can use to implement performance review SMART goals to guide their teams.

What are SMART Goals and Why are They Important?

SMART goals, meaning specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, create a system to track and measure progress, which helps promote employee and organizational success. Performance review SMART goals provide employees with an understanding of the goal, its purpose, the way success will be measured, and the goal’s connection to broader company priorities.

Guide to Structuring Performance Review SMART Goals

Here is a general example of an initial goal we’ll use to walk you through the process of creating performance review SMART goals for employees:

I want to improve my performance.

This is a typical approach to a performance goal for employees however it is vague and hard to measure. The goal, as it stands, is likely unattainable, lacks specificity, and has no clear timeline, making it difficult to measure or achieve. With the right performance review questions, you can gain a deeper understanding of your employee’s goals and motivators, which will provide the information necessary to craft a SMART goal.

Now, let’s use the SMART goal framework to clarify and improve the goal.

Specific

Performance goals for employees should have clearly defined output expectations.

To help keep your goal specific, try answering these questions:

What do I want to accomplish?
Why is this goal important?
Who is involved?
Which resources or limits are involved?

Example: I want to improve my Excel skills because my role requires me to use Excel regularly.

Measurable

The performance goal should include specific criteria that measure the progress toward the goal.

A measurable goal should answer these questions:

How much?
How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?
How do I measure progress?

Example: By the time of my next performance review, I should be able to create spreadsheets using complex formulas within a couple of hours. I should also be able to easily and effectively communicate how to create spreadsheets in a way my colleagues can understand and learn from.

Achievable

The outcome of a performance goal should be under the employees’ control, meaning external factors should not play a role in whether a goal is considered successfully achieved or not.

If you can answer these questions, you have an achievable goal:

Do I have the resources and capabilities to achieve the goal?
- If not, what am I missing?
Have others done it successfully before?

Example: I can dedicate 2 hours a week to take an Excel course, and one hour a week to watching tutorials to learn new skills.

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Relevant

The performance goal should be relevant to the employees’ job responsibilities, lead to their professional development, and be relevant to the short- or long-term goals of the organization.

To determine if your goal is relevant, answer these questions:

Why am I setting this goal now?
Is it aligned with the overall business objectives?

Example: Working with Excel is 30% of my job responsibilities. As I progress at the company, I’ll be required to spend 50% of my time creating spreadsheets in Excel. My ability to proficiently use Excel will allow me to progress in my career.

Time-bound

The performance goal should have a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date.

Answer these questions to ensure you have a time-bound goal:

Does my goal have a deadline?
What should be achieved half-way through the process?

Example: In 6 months, I will complete a course and be proficient in Excel. I will be able to create a spreadsheet using complex formulas within a couple of hours, instead of the 4 hours it currently takes me.

18 Role-Specific Examples of Performance Review SMART Goals

For HR Teams

Employee engagement is an ever-present topic for HR teams. Here are 3 examples of SMART goals for improving employee engagement:

Starting next quarter, we will host a monthly catered lunch for employees on the first Wednesday of the month to promote a sense of community within the organization.
Create a mentorship program for new employees to join upon hire by next quarter.
Craft a benefits awareness campaign to educate employees on how to maximize their benefits, and present at the next company all-hands meeting.

For Marketing Teams

Marketing teams are constantly working to reach a wider audience. Here are 3 examples of SMART goals for increased brand awareness:

Improve organic reach to build brand awareness by converting our top 5 blog posts into video content by the end of the year.
Secure 2 guest posts in relevant publications by the end of Q2 by reaching out to 5 publications a week with content ideas.
Increase brand mentions by planning and hosting a contest on social media to align with our next product launch.

For Product Teams

Product teams often rely on customer feedback to improve the design and functionality of products. Here are 3 examples of SMART goals to improve customer feedback:

Organize a quarterly meeting to discuss product roadmap and create a feedback form by Q3 for users to share feedback on product features.
Hold a strategy meeting with sales to determine key questions to ask during sales calls to increase customer insight and implement by next month.
Implement a feedback form onto the company website by the end of next week, and download responses to review during weekly check in.

For Engineering Teams

Engineering teams help ensure the product or service of a company is running smoothly and efficiently. Here are 3 examples of SMART goals to improve UX:

Repair top 10 software bugs by the end of this quarter and run test programs after each partial completion to ensure success.
Schedule regular weekly site audits to scan for glitches and bugs.
Conduct 3 rounds of A/B testing before the next campaign launch to determine preferred user interface.

For Finance Teams

Having visibility and data over company spend is a key factor in maintaining a healthy company financial standing. Here are 3 examples of SMART goals for finance teams to improve spend management:

Implement a payment tracking system for the company and all employees by Q2 and host training sessions in the first 2 weeks of implementation. Run weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports to influence strategic decisions.
Run an expense audit at EOY and work collaboratively with HR to create an employee spend policy to implement at the end of Q1.
By year end, cut company overhead cost by 5% by automating administrative tasks to reduce entry level support staff.

For Sales Teams

Sales teams rely on informative collateral to effectively communicate the value of a product to their audience. Here are 3 examples of SMART goals to improve sales rates:

Increase win rate by 8% by the end of the year by working with the content team to produce short product focused videos that address customer pain points.
Improve MQL captures by implementing a lead form on the company website.
Implement a referral program and market it to your top 10% of customers in Q2.

Improve Your Performance Reviews With Omni

Performance review SMART goals are an effective tool to drive business success. However, they can be extremely time consuming for HR and managers to compile performance review forms and follow up with employees for submission.

With Omni’s customizable performance review feature managers can design a SMART goal template to apply to employee performance reviews, track employee submissions, and derive critical insights to drive business decisions all in one centralized platform.

To join the 83% of Omni customers who have unlocked new, actionable insights after using our performance management module, book a free demo with our team today.

The role of an HR within a company comes with multiple functions and responsibilities. While their duties are crucial to the success of a business, the tasks are tedious, repetitive, and hectic.

With HR software, it automates the manual tasks commonly seen in HR processes. The HR team can perform more effectively while minimizing errors. It will improve the overall end-to-end employee management starting from recruitment, onboarding, time off management, offboarding and more.

Let’s get to know more about it and the ways you can enhance your core HR functions.

What is core HR?

The primary function of a core HR is to provide employees within the organization with a varied range of activities that enable it to deliver the most efficient output in the favor of the organization. With a Human Resource Management System (HRMS), you capture employee data in a centralized database that gives you a single source of truth.

What are the advantages of HRMS?

An HRMS helps you automate various tasks that can actually reduce the time spent on manual data entries and eliminate chances of error. The added advantages include:

A centralized location for storing employees’ personal data information such as payroll, bank details, vaccination status, and more
Automate and streamline core HR processes within the organization
Save time by digitizing paperwork
Avoid errors or duplicate records
Provide employees with more control with an employee self-service feature
Offer privacy and security to both your company and employees
Gather valuable insights through data analytics

What are the functions of core HR?

One of the most critical functions of a core HR platform is to store important information. HR professionals can use it to complete various tasks, including talent management, attendance management, learning management, and more.

Some basic functions to include in the list are:

Recruitment and Selection	Identify roles, job descriptions, advertising, screening, and interviews Provide hassle-free onboarding Carry out initial orientation process
2. Training and Development	Address skills and weaknesses Provide the necessary tools Increase employee retention
3. Performance Management	Monitor progress, and productivity Develop managerial leadership and coaching skills Annual or bi-yearly appraisals Include one-on-one meetings Reward employees at work
4. Employee Relations	Prevent and resolve problems and disputes Assist in creating and enforcing policies Create and maintain employee relationships
5. Employment Law and Compliance	Stay up to date with law and order Legal framework knowledge and processes Adherence to laws to avoid legal complications Promote equality
6. Compensation, Benefits, and Administration	Basic salary and added benefits calculations To attract, retain and reward employees Related to job satisfaction and motivation in the workplace
7. Data Handling, Payroll, And HR Systems	Track work hours, leaves, and pay employees accordingly Tax withholding and salary disbursement Makes it easier to handle analytics
8. Time Off – Leave Management	Track employee’s time off Handle time off calculations accurately and show a clear breakdown of how entitlements are calculated Clear view of team’s time off and work schedule at a glance

How can HR software help improve your existing HR processes?

If you’re looking to invest in core HR software that can help you enhance the above-mentioned processes, we recommend looking for the following elements:

1. Enhance the current recruiting process

Start by having a recruitment plan before the actual candidate selection. Prepare a predefined set of steps. This way it’ll be way quicker to ask one question to the other. Begin by having your HR software linked to your website where you can post job openings.

Your job applicants can directly apply with the help of this portal. You can share this link on your social media platform as well. This way the applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you screen through the resumes. It will filter the basic details that are kept as filter questions. For example, it could be years of experience or relevant skills. Keep the platform easily accessible, such that candidates can easily navigate through the job application steps.

2. Introduce a streamlined onboarding process with zero paperwork

With an HRMS in place, you can automate your onboarding workflow with predefined task sequences. This means a faster and more seamless onboarding experience for your new hires, even before their first day at work, and better retention in the long term. This minimizes the need for HR to track everyone’s progress, both internally and externally, or have constant back-and-forth communication which runs the risks of lost documentation or missing out on important emails.

With an HRMS in place, automated reminders will be sent on HR’s behalf to the relevant parties to complete the tasks. This gives HR more valuable time to focus on people engagement instead of being tied down to tedious administrative tasks.

3. Time tracking and attendance management

Introduction of time tracking and attendance management software will provide you with the accuracy of employees’ working hours, and leave requests. This avoids any discrepancies that may occur such as employees applying for more time off than what they thought they have earned which leads to a decrease in morale and productivity. HR would not need to spend time investigating and reviewing it.

Managers can have a quick overview of the team’s calendar to know who’s in and out of the office and avoid any instance of understaffing that may impact the organization’s productivity.

4. Implement employee performance management tools

Replace traditional performance reviews with a 360 performance review approach, that involves individuals, managers, and peers for a more rounded evaluation. Doing so allows everyone to have a better overview of their strengths and weaknesses, and makes it less biased. According to research by HBR, 57% of the employees preferred corrective feedback; while only 43% preferred recognition.

This signifies that teams should continue to run their own internal performance appraisals on a more regular basis so that they can continuously work on improving and developing their people. Through this interaction, it increases employee engagement and strengthens bonds.

5. Scale your business needs and requirements

With an automated HRMS process, HR can reduce time spent on manual tasks and minimize errors. And, the time saved can be spent on people management. From an employee perspective, having a proper system in place means being able to request leaves easily, payroll is processed in a timely manner and you can have full transparency on how performance appraisals are conducted. It shows that the organization is invested in its people.

In addition, HR software needs to scale with the organization as it grows. This way the business can redesign its existing workflows or have the flexibility to add additional features or functions, and increase its employee records database. This avoids the issue of HR having to look for an alternative system, and restart the whole implementation process, or run into the issue of the need to integrate with other systems.

6. Employee record and data management

Have a centralized database that stores all employee information digitally, making it easy to manage and locate. This replaces the need for physical documentation that runs the risk of files being lost or not updated with the latest version. Instead, now everything is accessible securely online and in one place.

With an Employee Self Service (ESS) portal, you can get employees to upload their documents to the dashboard or update their contact details without having to inform HR to update their records on their behalf. This process will minimize the risks of incorrect inputs or manual data entries from HR’s end.

Apart from these, make sure the below points are considered when introducing a new HR software:

User-friendly interface
Easy-to-use
Provide implementation
Localized customer support
High-security standards
The ability to scale as your company grows
Sections addressing employee information
Adhere to local laws and compliance
Robust reporting capabilities

Conclusion

A company’s success is highly dependent on the efficiency of its HR department. Enhancing their capabilities with an HR solution is a great way to improve core HRMS without going over your company’s budget.

An HRMS like Omni HR can help your organization automate its HR process. Book a demo with Omni HR to experience an upgrade to your workforce management approach and help HR cut administrative workloads!

Communication is the key to a business’s success, be it with the stakeholders or the employees. Managers often have to deal with difficult conversations with employees, whether addressing poor performance or low motivation. We are here to discuss how managers can coach staff members toward a solution, approach them with empathy, and offer ongoing assistance.

According to a survey, 50% of employees in Hong Kong are afraid of speaking about their mental health and tend to avoid difficult conversations with their supervisors. Dealing with employees and starting a work-related difficult conversation is also essential. HR can help managers initiate difficult talks and promote a healthy company culture with profitable business practices.

It can be challenging to have a word whether you’re informing a customer that a project is delayed or presiding over a performance assessment that lacks enthusiasm. How do you get ready for a conversation like this? How do you find the appropriate words in a difficult situation?

We will discuss in detail how you can handle a difficult conversation at work regarding employee performance or other related issues. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Steps of Having a Difficult Conversation

Serious conversations with your employees can be confronting, but they help you train your workers more efficiently. If you approach your employees with mutual respect and care, difficult conversations often result in doing everyone a favor.

Employees in various industries face the consequences of avoiding conversations that escalate into bigger organizational troubles. Here is how you can initiate a tough conversation at work.

1. Build Trust

Work with your employees and engage in the actions of developing connections and trust daily. This will help you gain influence inside your company and foster mutual respect and understanding with your staff. It will be simpler to have difficult conversations because your coworkers won’t automatically presume bad intentions from you.

Emotional intelligence and projecting warmth and competence are powerful methods to increase trust. This shows that you have good intentions, and the ability to follow through can help you handle difficult team discussions. Once your employees trust you, they run toward you in case of a problem; they see you as a leader and look up to you to help them.

2. Decide a Setting to Have a Conversation

HR teams must take the initiative to choose appropriate settings for managers to discuss the particular difficulties employees face. This is achieved by holding online conferences where employees can chat about their mental health challenges or forming an employee resource group where staff can discuss issues that bother them.

3. Stay Confident

Managers can only engage and communicate with their employees when they clearly explain their thoughts so their employees can better understand. Fear does not only belong to the employees; managers may also fear initiating a conversation.

This is because managers know their employees and understand how they would react if you told them about their poor performance. However, some employees are good at handling these situations and react exceptionally well. Therefore, the manager needs to be prepared for any unwanted reactions.

4. Be Positive

If you approach your employees negatively and start with criticism deliberately, there are high chances your employees will get argumentative and defensive. Treat them positively and give them examples of situations that motivate them and encourage them to improve themselves.

As a manager, you must know you can positively conquer any situation. Your employees feel safe working under you, and you see them willing to achieve any milestone you assign them.

5. Prepare Your Conversation

After deciding the venue and time for the meeting, managers should gather all pertinent information and establish specific objectives to be ready for a challenging dialogue. Furthermore, a manager should be ready for any situation and create a strategy for dealing with them. Managers should be composed, prepared, and goal-focused during the conversation.

6. Discuss the Problem in Detail

It is easy to blame the other person for the problem caused, but it is better to find the truth so everyone can admit their mistakes, including the manager. This will help everyone to understand the situation and how it has affected the staff individually.

By doing so, you are enabling a safe environment for people at your workplace to express how they feel and think about the circumstance that has occurred and how it has affected them.

7. Be Understanding and Control Your Emotions

Strong emotions often surface up during a serious and challenging interaction; taking out your emotions on other people feels easier. However, it would help if you understand the situation and control your emotions so you can make wise decisions in everyone’s favour.

HR can help in this situation, listen to both parties without passing judgement, and provide a solution to facilitate the conversation.

8. Listen Actively

Consider that you are providing a performance assessment and providing helpful criticism. What response do you expect the other person will have? They might react immediately and defend themselves to maintain their positive image. It is also possible they keep listening to the criticism to rationalize the problem during the process.

We recommend you listen actively and carefully to the other party. Continuously speaking without listening to the other person may disappoint them, and they might also ignore what you say. Listening to your employees proves you can listen and understand their situation.

This way, they’ll trust you with their problems and come to you directly whenever they face a problem at work.

9. Get to the Point

The more specific you can be during challenging conversations, the better. The employees should know that speaking to the point can be more effective than beating about the bush and discussing irrelevant stuff. It is one of the responsibilities of a manager to ensure they’re making the meeting specific and not a drag.

Another essential factor you should consider is using recent examples and work performance while making decisions. Also, avoid bringing up old problems while giving an annual performance evaluation. Give an example of a circumstance that occurred during the review period, describe the results, and suggest how you would advise your employee to handle it going ahead.

10. Set Realistic Expectations

It would be best if HR defined the manager’s responsibilities for the welfare of the workforce. Managers should be well-trained to identify burnout and how to solve these issues with empathy. However, you cannot expect them to act as a therapist for employees. Similarly, give time to employees to take up the feedback and act accordingly. Make sure that everyone in the organization can communicate with each other and is aware of work requirements.

11. Create an Alternative Solution

You might enter the discussion with a particular objective in mind. However, come up with a strategy to proceed as a group to make the most of the conversation. You can make your conversation easier if you prepare solutions and propose them accordingly.

If you don’t think of solutions and keep meeting your employees with no effective outcomes, you may walk away from the uncomfortable and never-ending talk. However, coming to the meeting with a solution may have different results.

Bottom Line

If you want to avoid complex and uncomfortable conversations, it will worsen them over time. It is up to you to make your situation more manageable and talk it out with your employees so you can reach a possible solution and end the problem once and for all.

These discussions are practical, create mutual trust and honesty, and refrain from being judgmental toward your employees. You should actively listen to your staff members and communicate clearly.

Schedule a demo to find out more about Omni and learn how to integrate it at your workplace.

With remote and hybrid working environments gaining popularity, the need to rework your performance review process has become a growing priority for modern companies.

In response, 360° performance reviews have emerged as the way forward in a post COVID-19 work environment, and for good reason. With increased learning and development (L&D) opportunities and increased transparency among the many benefits of 360° performance reviews, the performance management approach is gaining popularity among HR teams and managers alike.

Here, we dive into the what, why, and how of 360° performance reviews to help you nurture engaged employees and drive business results.

What Are 360° Performance Reviews?

The 360° performance review is a comprehensive evaluation process that involves gathering feedback from multiple sources, including an employee’s supervisor, peers, direct reports, and sometimes even external stakeholders such as clients or customers.

Coming from the idea of a full-circle picture, 360° performance reviews provide a more complete picture of an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their overall impact on the organization.

360° performance reviews differ from the traditional performance review method in that it does not rely on a single manager’s observations about the performance of their direct reports. Instead, the manager also seeks feedback from the employee’s teammates and other external sources to gain a more complete, and holistic picture of their employee’s performance.

Benefits of 360° Performance Reviews

360° performance reviews equip managers with more accurate and in-depth insight into the drivers and challenges behind their direct report’s performance, which enables them to provide support more effectively where necessary.

Balanced feedback

Because the 360° performance review gathers feedback from multiple sources, it provides a well-rounded view of performance which captures a wider range of an employee’s strengths, as well as areas for improvement.

Minimized bias

360° performance reviews help minimize the possibility of performance appraisal bias by soliciting feedback from multiple sources with diverse perspectives. By gathering feedback from a range of individuals who have different relationships with the employee being reviewed, a 360° performance review provides a more objective and unbiased view of the employee’s strengths and areas for improvement. Additionally, the anonymity of feedback can help minimize the impact of interpersonal dynamics or politics that may otherwise influence the review process.

More L&D opportunities

One of the most important benefits that a 360° performance review can provide for individual employees is that it’s especially effective at identifying their opportunities for growth. With 360° performance reviews, employees receive a wider range of perspectives on their performance, skills, and behaviors. This feedback can help employees and their managers identify blind spots, highlight strengths and weaknesses, and gain a better understanding of how their actions impact others in the workplace.

360° performance review feedback can be used to create individualized L&D plans that address specific areas of improvement, and can help employees develop new skills, refine existing ones, and improve their overall performance.

Enhanced team performance

The 360° performance review process gives managers the feedback they need to be informed about the level of employee engagement within their teams. 360° performance reviews provide valuable insight into team dynamics, and equip managers with the tools they need to address pain points and roadblocks that may be preventing teams from performing at their highest ability.

Your How-To Guide to 360° Performance Reviews

The process

1. Define your purpose and scope
  Define what you want to achieve in your 360° performance review, you could be aiming to gauge overall performance, or identify L&D opportunities. Get clear on the goal of your review, and determine what performance review questions you’ll need to ask to reach your goal. Then decide who will be participating in the review, such as the employee’s manager, peers, direct reports, and external stakeholders.
2. Select your assessment tool
  Whether in-house or through a performance management system software, assessment tools help promote a standardized approach to collecting feedback from multiple sources. Choosing the right 360° performance review tool brings clarity, efficiency, and measurability to the process.
3. Provide training and orientation
  Ensure that all participants understand the purpose of the review, how to use the assessment tool, the necessary deadlines for reviewing, and how to provide constructive feedback. Utilize performance review email templates to communicate with employees leading up to the review cycle.
4. Collect and compile feedback
  Use your assessment tool to collect and compile all feedback into a comprehensive report. Ensure that the feedback received is objective and specific.
5. Analyze
  Group similar feedback and analyze the scores and information you’ve received about your employee. Use this information to determine strengths and weaknesses, and prepare for a review with your employee.
6. Develop an action plan
  Schedule a 1-on-1 meeting with your employee to discuss their 360° performance review. Provide the employee with a copy of their review prior to the meeting and encourage them to come with any questions and solutions. Work together to develop performance review SMART goals that address the areas for improvement identified in the feedback.
7. Monitor progress
  Schedule regular check-ins with your employee to monitor their progress over time and provide ongoing support to help them achieve their goals. During your follow-up meeting, review progress and make adjustments to the action plan if necessary.

Best practices

Ensure confidentiality
Confidentiality is crucial to ensuring a fair and objective 360° performance review process. Participants should be assured that their feedback will be kept confidential and not used for any other purpose than the review.

Communicate clearly
Communicate the purpose and process of the 360° performance review to all participants, including the employee being reviewed. Ensure that they understand the assessment tool, the criteria being evaluated, and the expectations for providing feedback.

Focus on development
Emphasize that the 360° performance review is a tool for development rather than punishment. Encourage the employee being evaluated to use the feedback to identify areas for improvement and create an action plan for their development, reframing their pain points as opportunities for growth.

Standardize
Develop clear guidelines and procedures for how your 360° performance reviews will be conducted, including how feedback is collected, how the report is compiled, and how feedback is presented to the employee being evaluated. This helps to ensure that the process is consistent, fair, and transparent, and helps to minimize the potential for bias, ensuring all employees are evaluated according to the same criteria.

Useful tools

Performance management tools
Performance management tools such as Omni can help to streamline the review process by automating feedback collection, compiling feedback into easy-to-follow reports and analytics, and generating engaging action plans for employee development.

Omni helps automate and streamline the 360° performance review process to create a standardized, informative, and constructive review cycle that motivates employees and produces actionable insights for managers and HR teams.

Templates
Consistency is one of the key drivers behind a bias-free 360° performance review cycle. And with so many competing priorities, from engaging multiple stakeholders to analyzing results, there’s no need for HR to reinvent the wheel when it comes to building 360° performance reviews. Tools like Omni’s Ultimate Performance Review Template provide easy-to-follow examples to help you create a framework to motivate and engage employees and their managers to assess their strengths and set achievable goals that contribute to a company’s success.

Coaching tools
Coaching tools, such as development plans or guides such as setting key performance indicators for employees, can be used to help managers effectively coach employees on their opportunities for growth by providing the necessary framework to form achievable goals that will improve employee performance.

Perfect Your 360° Performance Reviews With Omni

360° performance review feedback can be a powerful tool for HR teams looking to improve their employee performance management processes. Omni helps your team streamline their process and gain valuable insights into employee performance, strengths, and areas for improvement. Omni unlocks the power of automation so HR teams can build a comprehensive, standardized 360° performance review process that empowers teams and drives continuous improvement across your organization.

To learn more about how Omni can improve your 360° performance review process, book a demo with our team.

As a manager newly established in your role, one of the most important tasks you’re responsible for is the conducting of performance reviews for your direct reports.

That said, we’re sure it must feel like one of the trickiest things you’ve ever had to handle thus far, not least because it’ll involve a potentially awkward conversation with the people you work with.

And you may be worried about how you can carry out a performance review that’s fair to your direct reports, while still being effective at addressing the shortcomings in their work.

After all, isn’t it true that only 2 in 10 employees think that their companies review and manage their performance in a way that motivates them to do their best work, according to Gallup?

Still, it’s not that your direct reports don’t want feedback on their work. They just want to be sure that their assessments are fair and balanced.

Therefore, it’s critical that a new manager like yourself fully understand the factors that make for an effective performance review.

In this article, we’ll show you some of the pitfalls you should avoid as a new manager, in order to conduct effective performance reviews for your direct reports. But first, let’s look at how achieving this can be beneficial to your team and your organization.

The Benefits of Effective Performance Management

Minimizes Employee Turnover

Performance reviews can instil in your direct reports a sense of purpose, clear goals, and a plan for achieving these goals. Without these, they’re likely to feel a lack of career progress, which is a major cause of turnover.

Therefore, these performance reviews play a key role in keeping the motivation and engagement of your direct reports high, and employee turnover low.

Fosters A Culture Of Transparency And Trust

A strong company culture can only be formed upon a foundation of open communication and transparency. Performance reviews can contribute towards cultivating that culture if they’re performed regularly, and are designed to make praise, feedback and criticism a normal part of the work environment.

This would, in turn, encourage your direct reports to provide open feedback, strive towards progression in their careers, and greater collaboration with their colleagues.

Maintaining High Levels Of Morale

Giving your direct reports fair and constructive performance review can motivate them to improve, and retain a positive attitude towards their work. This can rub off on their colleagues, and contribute to an overall positive work environment overall.

Conversely, an unfair performance review can easily sour the mood of your direct reports. This can in turn set up a cascade effect, bringing down the morale of the entire team simply with their presence.

Encourages Employee And Business Development

With a well-crafted performance review, you can easily identify the individual strengths and weaknesses of your direct reports, seek out training opportunities accordingly, and build rapport with your team more easily.

Not only would this help to improve your direct reports’ performance and increase their engagement level, it could also help you build a highly engaged team, which have been shown to be 21% more profitable than their average counterparts.

Avoid These 4 Pitfalls When Carrying Out Performance Reviews

Now that we’ve seen how beneficial a fair and effective performance review can be to your organization, let’s look at some of the most common mistakes first-time managers like yourself tend to make when conducting performance reviews for the first time.

And if you’ve committed some of these mistakes, take heart in knowing that even more experienced managers do make the same mistakes from time to time.

1. Letting Your Biases Affect Performance Reviews

Unconscious biases is one of the most common mistakes that managers make when conducting performance reviews, even more seasoned ones.

Because of this, it’s important you remain aware of your own possible biases towards your direct reports. If you don’t take the necessary steps to mitigate them, they can compromise the objectivity and fairness of the performance reviews you conduct for them.

For example, you might unconsciously place higher value on the work done by direct reports who come into the office regularly, over those who maintain a work-from-home (WFH) arrangement. This is called proximity bias.

How Do You Avoid This?

To avoid allowing your bias to color your performance reviews of your direct reports, you should make an effort to understand the environment in which they’re doing their work, whether in the office or at home.

Make sure that you give your direct reports a way to provide their own feedback during the performance review process too, without any fear of retaliation. This can give you new insights into the reasons why there’s room for improvement in certain aspects of their work, and helps you provide useful feedback they can act on.

Getting information from other sources of data, such as requesting self-evaluations from your direct report, or 360-degree feedback from their colleagues, could offer more of these useful insights as well.

2. Conducting Performance Reviews Alone

As a first-time manager, you might assume that you have to handle the performance reviews of your direct reports by yourself.

But this is not the case; in fact, it’s the opposite. Your HR department plays a key role in ensuring that the performance review process is effective across the board in your organization.

Thus, they should have a stake in making sure your performance review cycle is successful as well.

How Do You Avoid This?

Talk to the HR department in your organization, and get them to give you help as you tackle your first performance review cycle.

This could come in the form of training and resources to provide you with guidance and support. They might even offer hands-on guidance, such as sitting in on your first few conversations with your direct reports during the performance review process.

Apart from supporting you, your HR department should also help ensure your direct reports have a clear understanding of the process as well. This can help minimize the doubts and stress they are likely to have about the whole process.

3. Focusing On Criticisms Over Constructive Feedback

It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of lecturing your direct reports about where they’ve fallen short, and forget that it’s supposed to be a two-way conversation where constructive feedback can be shared both ways.

This is especially important today, when WFH arrangements have become more common than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Your direct reports may be facing new complications with their WFH arrangements.

For example, they could be juggling work and caregiving responsibilities. Or the WFH arrangement may have introduced other factors which have left them feeling burned out or isolated.

Without giving your direct reports a chance to give you their own feedback, you might never learn about this.

How Do You Avoid This?

Exercise empathy when having the conversation with your direct reports, especially when it comes to addressing their concerns and expectations in turbulent times like these.

To do this, make sure your direct reports have the opportunity to drive the agenda, and ask as many questions as they need. It can be as simple as you asking “How can I help you?”, to give them the push they need to actively do so.

Consider how changed circumstances have impacted your direct reports, such as whether they’ve taken up new roles and responsibilities during this time. Has it introduced new difficulties into their role, and how has this affected their performance?

The performance review is an opportunity for both you and your direct reports to reset expectations around work hours, prioritisation of tasks, responsiveness during work hours, and the growth and learning rate of your direct reports.

By addressing their strengths and weaknesses objectively and empathetically, you can build up a rapport with your direct reports while still maintaining a fair and effective performance review process.

4. Failing To Back Up Your Appraisal With Solid Data And Objective Criteria

Above all, make sure any feedback you give your direct reports is backed up by solid data. This keeps your claims fully objective, and helps you align your direct reports’ feedback and goals with your organization’s objectives.

Although performance reviews are typically based on a predetermined set of goals, the post-pandemic period may have changed organizational priorities. This means that goals set at the beginning of the year may no longer be fully applicable.

Also, personal circumstances may have affected your direct reports’ ability to meet their performance expectations.

Still, it’s important that you retain a structured process where they’re assessed on objective criteria, to ensure a fair evaluation of their performance over the past year. You do need to take into account any changes to targets that might’ve happened between then and now, and acknowledge your direct reports’ efforts spent on projects and tasks that were adjusted because of this.

How Do You Avoid This?

Nevertheless, it’s important to rely on a set of strong and quantifiable indicators for your performance review process. This eliminates the possibility of bias, and helps to keep you focused on your direct reports’ objective progress towards pre-determined goals.

Work with your HR department to create clear indicators that are airtight against any manipulation by either yourself or your direct reports. Also, take the latter’s feedback into account, and adjust these indicators as necessary to account for the changes that have affected your team over the past year.

Using software tools such as Omni HR is a highly effective way of keeping track of your direct reports’ progress towards their objectives. This helps you make more informed decisions about the performance review process, and keep on top of your team’s performance and productivity levels.

To Conduct Fair And Effective Performance Reviews, Keep These Pitfalls In Mind

It’s nerve-wracking for a new manager like yourself to conduct your first round of performance reviews, we understand. But, it can be done.

And it’s important that they be done properly, for they benefit not just yourself and your organization, but also the career progression of your direct reports.

To do so, you just have to keep in mind what to avoid. Ensure that your personal biases don’t influence the process, don’t try to do it alone without support from your HR department, and resist the temptation to criticize without providing the opportunity for two-way constructive feedback.

Last but not least, ensure your performance reviews are based on a structured, yet flexible set of performance indicators to take changing conditions into account. Make use of software tools like Omni HR to keep track of these objectives, adjust them as necessary, and track your direct reports’ progress towards achieving them.

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The 80/20 Pareto’s principle explains that 80% of the results come from 20% of the employees in talent management. However, an organization should build robust systems that can make every employee a high performer. In every company, there is a section of employees who perform below average expectations due to various reasons. That could be personal or professional. A manager is responsible for finding it out and helping the employee in order to create efficient teams.

According to a McKinsey report, 86% of employees attain job satisfaction if they have a good relationship with the management. It is said to be a good relationship only if the managers look after employees’ well-being too. Managers should not just focus on the performance of the employees and fire them if they do not perform well. Employees should be seen as people, not just as resources that carry out the tasks in a company. Managers should be ready to guide them if they feel lost.

Here are a few ways how managers can help low-performing employees.

1. Identify the Problem

There are multiple underlying reasons for an employee’s low performance. If you are a manager, you should first check if they have been assigned the right projects. For instance, an employee might be very good at social media content creation but is not very good at other forms of content creation. In that case, a manager should know his/her employees well enough to give tasks according to their strengths.

If there is an employee who undergoes some personal issues, you should be empathetic and give them some time or support they need to help them recover. It does not imply that the employee should be idle at the office but just that you should understand and give them the nominal workload instead of increasing it as they are underperforming. Employees always do better if they feel that their company cares about them.

2. OKRs for Clear Job Expectations

If you are a manager, you should clearly communicate to the employees what is expected of them. The employees, who do not know their objectives, are working in vain as they are not aware of the direction they are headed. This is where Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) play a vital role. Objectives provide a clear view of the results expected from the employees. Key Results are the milestones that will help the employees to reach their objectives.

OKRs help employees cross-check whether they progress towards the right destination or not. If they do not, they can change their paths anytime. This also helps you to monitor the progress of your team members and provide guidance as and when needed. OKR is a concept that can have numerous use cases but should be implemented only if there is a need for it.

3. Ongoing Feedback

A survey conducted by Betterworks reveals that 66% of companies show year-round productivity enhancements as a result of implementing a continuous feedback system. Low-performing employees can improve their skills and work efficiency only if they learn where they go wrong and what they should do differently to bring results. You should have regular feedback sessions with the employees to discuss their performance. Ask your low-performing employees how they feel about their performance and learn their thoughts without forcing your opinions on them.

After listening to their words, start with positive feedback and then move to the areas for improvement. During these continuous feedback sessions, make the employees with low performance feel comfortable and speak about the challenges they face at work and the obstacles that hinder their performance.

Managers should review the progress of the employees periodically and give feedback immediately instead of waiting for the once-in-a-year performance appraisal process.

4. Open Mind and Growth Attitude

If you are a manager, being open-minded with a growth attitude is absolutely necessary to make low-performing employees into high-performers. If you already have a preconceived notion about the low-performing employees when you enter the feedback or appraisal sessions, you will never give them a chance to improve by imparting your knowledge to them. A manager should be open-minded to take fair decisions and possess a growth attitude to think of solutions and utilize every employee’s fullest potential.

5. Effective Training Programs

When you have continuous feedback sessions with low-performing employees, you know what they need the most at the moment to improve their performance. Based on those session notes, you can suggest training programs to them to improve their skills and perform better. Instead of overloading them with work till they resign or not giving them tasks to fire them (which happens in companies with no strong work ethics and culture), it is better to organize training programs that can help them. This will build loyalty and trust among the workforce.

6. Mental Well-Being

Depression and anxiety have become serious health problems in recent days. Mental well-being is very important to maintain physical strength. In a study, more than 42% of employees suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. This could be one of the reasons why your employees are not performing well. As a manager, you should convey the thoughts of your employees to the higher management and suggest that they arrange sessions with mental health experts for every employee in the organization. This will bring a massive productivity increase in your company as the employees would feel heard and the employees who really needed help would have received it from you.

7. Work Together

8. Dump Your Traditional Performance Review Process

Traditional performance review process will not help low-performing employees or any employee. You can never learn about your team members’ mindset, their difficulties, and the solutions they need as you will have a conversation with them only once a year. Even that conversation will never be deep as both of you will feel awkward discussing your thoughts and feelings after 12 months. In the end, nothing productive will come out of the entire performance review process. Therefore, dump your traditional performance review process and adopt the continuous performance review process.

9. Recognize and Reward Every Effort

If the low-performing employee has achieved a milestone that you had set for him, then make sure to recognize his effort and reward him. Some managers do not recognize the achievements of employees as they are terrified of the word ‘reward.’ Rewards need not be a hefty sum of money; it can be a recognition note, or a token of appreciation for recognizing their efforts. This gratification will motivate the low-performing employees to perform more efficiently. Every company should adopt strong rewards and recognition programs to appreciate every employee’s efforts.

10. Upskilling Opportunities

Treat low-performing employees just like how you treat high-performing employees. They should get equal opportunities like access to courses that can help to upskill. As a manager, you can suggest a course that would suit the employee’s skillset. Those skills might come in handy when your team needs them. Perhaps, this also could be a chance for them to explore their interests and direct their career in their field of interest. This might look like a lot of work but it is totally worth it as you retain your employees by building trust among everyone through your kind and determined core values.

To Wrap Up

A manager has the power to make low-performing employees into average or high-performing by implementing the right strategies. More than money, employees care about company culture, the field of work, the responsibilities they handle, etc. Identifying what is bothering your low-performing employee and resolving it makes you a strong leader. Hiring talents are difficult these days; therefore, adopt solutions that help you to overcome your challenges with talents and retain them.

Recognition is a top tier motivation among employees, and higher employee engagement can increase company profitability by as much as 22%. Amid the busy schedules and long to-do lists for HR teams, performance appraisals are a consistent opportunity for managers to recognize and engage their employees.

Performance appraisals are meant to provide an unbiased, objective view of an employee’s performance, and serve as a feedback loop to help improve performance. Even with the best of intentions, performance appraisal biases can creep up if reviewers are not aware of what these biases are and how to spot them.

Read on to learn more about common performance review biases and best practices to avoid them.

1. Recency Bias

Recency bias is the tendency to recall your most recent interaction with a person and focus on that over the other historical interactions you’ve had with them.

For example, you may have a good rapport with an employee where they meet their deadlines and contribute to team meetings, but they dropped the ball on their most recent project and missed their deadline. Recency bias would be to recall the most recent project performance without taking into account their history of generally meeting deadlines and contributing to the team, and using this to inform your performance appraisal.

To avoid this performance appraisal bias it’s essential to provide yourself with tools to take a holistic view of their performance. When preparing your appraisal, take a look back at their deliverables and projects for the year, and reflect on each interaction to regain a well rounded view.

You may also want to closely document your employees’ performance and development, and highlight their key wins. This can help mitigate future tendencies towards recency bias, and help you manage their performance fairly going forward.

2. Proximity Bias

In a world of increased remote and hybrid work environments, proximity bias is on the rise. The tendency to believe those you physically see and work with are working harder than employees that are off-site, proximity bias can greatly disadvantage and warp the perception of remote or hybrid employees’ contributions.

Despite having several years under our belts of remote and hybrid work, assessing employee performance with a lack of face-to-face interaction remains a challenge for many managers.

As such, you might unconsciously place more value on the work done by employees who have returned to the office, and conversely less value on work done by employees still on WFH arrangements; especially when you can’t see work being done with your own eyes.

To mitigate this, coaching and enabling yourself and your fellow managers on how to conduct performance reviews for employees in a remote or hybrid environment is highly recommended.

To reduce the likelihood of this performance appraisal bias, conduct more frequent reviews on a quarterly basis, instead of yearly or biannually. Make use of collaboration platforms like Slack or Zoom to have more interactions with your employees and maintain a regular 1-on-1 check in schedule to build rapport with your off-site employees.

3. Idiosyncratic Rater Bias

Idiosyncratic rater bias occurs when a reviewer places more weight on skills that they themselves are not skilled at, and lower weight on skills that they are good at. An example of this would be a manager who knows a lot about social media management but little about SEO. The employee may have room to grow in their SEO skills, but excel at their social media management skills. Idiosyncratic rater bias would cause their manager to rate their SEO skills as excellent, but their social media skills as average.

Idiosyncratic rater is a performance appraisal bias that skews performance data because it often tells us more about the reviewer than it does the employee being reviewed. To avoid this bias, work on creating a consistent rating scale and asking objective, measurable questions to assess an employee’s performance. As a reviewer, ask yourself to support your feedback with quantitative examples to help bring objectivity to your review. A great way to build this into your review system is to implement SMART goals for performance reviews which provide measurable and quantifiable results to assess an employee’s performance.

4. Gender Bias

Gender bias has been a prevalent issue in the workplace since the workplace came into existence. Where men and masculine-presenting individuals tend to be judged on their behaviors and accomplishments, women and feminine-presenting individuals are more likely to be judged by their managers based on their personalities and attitudes. Further, the same behaviors between men and women are perceived differently under gender bias. For example, a man speaking up about his opinion in a meeting is perceived as “leadership behavior” and “assertive” whereas a woman doing the same is considered “bossy” or “unagreeable”.

To minimize the effect of gender performance appraisal bias, make use of structured feedback and formalized criteria to assess your employees. This can prevent you from the creep of assessing them through gender-based personality attributes, and focus more on their behaviors and accomplishments. Whatsmore, educate your leadership teams on gender bias, and be sure to include the bias against transgender and non-binary employees. While the bias may look slightly different for these individuals, maintaining a vigilant education around the issue can help even the playing field.

Minimize the Effect of Biases During Performance Reviews

Biases affect employees and their managers year-round, but are most prevalent during performance review cycles.

To combat recency, proximity, idiosyncratic rater and gender bias as performance appraisal biases, take a more holistic view of your employees’ overall work history, check in regularly with your employees to see how they’re doing, utilize 360-degree feedback from their peers, and rely on structured feedback and formalized criteria to mitigate their effects. Like most biases, raising awareness and sharing educational materials help bring attention to our tendency for bias, thus reducing their frequency.

Improve Your Performance Review Cycles With Omni

Performance reviews are a busy time of year. Between scheduling, gathering data, screening for performance appraisal bias, and summarizing performance feedback, HR teams find themselves overwhelmed by paperwork and unsent reminders. With Omni, HR professionals and managers can digitize their performance review process to easily gather, analyze, and report data, send automatic reminders, and receive alerts when reviews have been completed.

Join the modern teams leveraging technology to improve their business processes. Schedule a demo with our team today.

What Drives Employee Motivation and Engagement?

8 Data-Backed Tips For How to Motivate Employees

1. Set clear expectations

2. Provide regular feedback

3. Offer training and development opportunities

4. Recognize and reward a job well done

5. Foster a positive work environment

6. Encourage collaboration

7. Include employees in goal setting

8. Lead by example

Benefits of Having a Motivated Workforce

Increased productivity

Higher retention

Greater creativity and teamwork

Improve Your Employee Engagement With Omni

Defining KPIs and Their Benefits

Types of KPIs

4 Steps to Setting KPIs for Employees

Identifying the Right KPIs for Your Employees (+7 Examples)

Financial

Marketing and Sales

Human Resources

Tracking and Measuring Performance

Effectively Manage Performance with Omni

4 Tips to Ace Your Self-Evaluation

Be Specific (and Provide Examples)

Include Facts and Figures

Continuously Strive for Growth

Track Your Accomplishments

21 Specific Self-Evaluation Performance Review Examples

Leadership

Strengths

Areas for Improvement

Team Collaboration

Strengths

Areas for Improvement

Creativity and Innovation

Strengths

Areas for Improvement

Achievements

Maximize Your Performance Review Process

What are SMART Goals and Why are They Important?

Guide to Structuring Performance Review SMART Goals

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-bound

18 Role-Specific Examples of Performance Review SMART Goals

For HR Teams

For Marketing Teams

For Product Teams

For Engineering Teams

For Finance Teams

For Sales Teams

Improve Your Performance Reviews With Omni

What is core HR?

What are the advantages of HRMS?

What are the functions of core HR?

How can HR software help improve your existing HR processes?

1. Enhance the current recruiting process

2. Introduce a streamlined onboarding process with zero paperwork

3. Time tracking and attendance management

4. Implement employee performance management tools

5. Scale your business needs and requirements

6. Employee record and data management

Conclusion

Steps of Having a Difficult Conversation

1. Build Trust

2. Decide a Setting to Have a Conversation

3. Stay Confident

4. Be Positive

5. Prepare Your Conversation

6. Discuss the Problem in Detail

7. Be Understanding and Control Your Emotions

8. Listen Actively

9. Get to the Point

10. Set Realistic Expectations

11. Create an Alternative Solution

Bottom Line