Image of baby chickens in a hen. Image by Edwin Remsberg
Periodic/Annual Review of Personnel
There are lots of reasons to offer periodic and/or annual reviews. People like to do a good job and want to do better. They like to understand the big picture and where they fit in. Some employees have innovative ideas for solving issues and want to share. As an employer, you need the opportunity to provide feedback, address concerns or listen to ideas.
When and how you conduct reviews need to be flexible. Whether these opportunities are periodic as they come up or more scheduled throughout the year may depend on your time but also the nature of your employees (older people may prefer a more traditional approach whereas younger employees may want more frequent check ins). It may also depend on if the employee is new to your enterprise as they may need more frequent time with you.
Considerations for preparing for periodic/annual reviews
✓ Keep Notes – For each employee, keep notes about what conversations you’ve had regarding need for improvement or times what praise was provided.
✓ Evaluate on Specific Performance Categories – It helps to have a set of qualities you can reflect upon and rate performance on a scale from exceeds expectations to meets expectations, to partially meets expectations to unsatisfactory. Example performance categories could include items such as quality of work, dedication/alignment with company goals, initiative/problem solving, safety, dependability/absenteeism, interpersonal relations/communication ability (written and orally), organization skills, faces issues, utilization of resources, judgement, growth and development/training, manages conflict, production,
teamwork/assists, and/or job specific performance categories.
✓ No Surprises – people tend to be nervous about reviews. As an employer, if you offer praise or address concerns as they come up, then at the time of a review there will be no surprises. This puts everyone at ease.
✓ Ask Questions During the Review – Use the questions to find out more about them, how they see their job responsibilities, what could be improved and what they value about the job.
✓ Consider where you will conduct the review meeting – be sure it is somewhere with privacy.
Be Prepared for the Annual Review – Review your notes and have an outline for the meeting. It could look something like:
✓ Check in by asking questions outlined above
✓ Review of performance categories – what’s going well and what’s not going well. Have specific examples or stories that illustrate these items. If things haven’t been going well and if there are no surprises, then they will know your concerns and hopefully are working on improvements. This is a time to reiterate your concerns and ask how they intend to improve or how improvement is going. Discuss what else is needed for improvement.
✓ Set some goals – Have some goals in mind that you’d like for employees to achieve but also ask employees what they’d like to accomplish. By sharing these goals, work out action steps to help both of you align actions toward satisfaction and improved work environments.
Action Steps/Questions to Consider
What performance qualities do I want to use? What skills are necessary for the job? Which ones align with the enterprises mission and vision?
What time of year will I conduct annual performance reviews?
What messaging do I share with employees about periodic and annual performance reviews? For example – do you share the idea of “no surprises” during the new employee orientation review or that you’d like to hear improvement ideas from them throughout the year?
What information about performance reviews do I need to share in the employee handbook, initial training for new employees and prior to annual review time?
What will your more formal performance review process look like? How often will this be held? What job requirements and/or qualities of performance will you review with your employees?
What are next steps?
References
Schaefer, T. (November 19, 2021) Easy guide for employee reviews- Keep your best employees engaged and reduce turnover with an annual performance review. Farm Progress. Found: https://www.farmprogress.com/commentary/easy-guide-for-employee-reviews
Spafford, K. (June 16, 2015). How to build an effective farm employee review system. Farm Progress. Found: https://www.farmprogress.com/planting/how-to-build-an-effective-farm employee-review-system
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This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2021‐70027‐34693, and is funded by the NE Risk Management Education Center.