Everyone groans when they are told they need to do yearly performance reviews. Why? While I’m sure you can state lots of reasons, I believe its because they aren’t done correctly. The first problem is that it is a yearly performance review. If I’m giving feedback just once a year to my employees, I’m doing something wrong.

Reviews are an opportunity to give people feedback on how well they are, or are not, doing their job. Giving feedback is key in keeping the communication flowing between a manager and an employee and keeping things on track. If we give feedback just once a year how can we possibly do a great job at remembering all the things that happened, especially early in the year?

When a review is a once a year drive-by, often no examples are shared with regard to why the manager is giving particular feedback. This annoys the employee and prevents a productive conversation. The better solution is to give your employees feedback continuously. This might sound time consuming, but it’s not.

Don’t wait for the end of the year to review someone’s performance.

Make it a continuous conversation throughout the year.

I keep a document I share with the employee that details what we both agree are his or her goals for the year. These include both business and professional development goals.

In weekly meetings with each employee, I check in with the person on their progress. We add the status of each goal directly to the document so we both know how things are going. By “we” I do mean both of us. It’s not just me writing this stuff up; the employee has a voice too. This doesn’t have to be done weekly. Do what makes sense. It can be bi-weekly or monthly. But don’t go beyond a month – that’s too long to go without discussing goals and status.

If an employee gets a kudo from a team member or from someone outside of the team, that feedback goes directly into the document. If there is negative feedback, that goes into the document too so that we can work on a plan for improvement.

When the annual review rolls around, you have all of the information in that document to complete the review. You can cut and paste, where appropriate, from the document into the formal annual review. When a summary of overall performance is required, you have the details in the document on progress throughout the year to review and then include in the yearly formal annual review.

Creating a meaningful conversation around progress towards goals

is a two way street.

A second problem with yearly performance reviews is that reviews are often considered a push activity – from the manager to the employee. The reality is that reviews are a two-way street. The employee’s participation is just as important as the manager’s. The employee has to be engaged or it won’t be successful. They are the ones doing the actual work and it is their career being impacted by the review.

Employees need to learn to ask for timely feedback and career development input. Getting feedback during a project helps the employee to course correct and potentially avoid issues. It can directly result in a more successful project which impacts their career in the long run. Career input while in the midst of projects motivates an employee, gains them skills they need, and keeps them on track and happy.

Performance reviews as meaningful conversations around professional growth and achieving goals spur your employees to do their best. So instead of focusing on a big time-consuming yearly performance review, spread your time out and invest smaller chunks of time throughout the year in your employees. You’ll save yourself headaches and have much happier employees.