How to run an employee review conversation that is worth the hour

An employee review conversation usually goes wrong in one of two ways. Either it turns into a monologue about the last twelve months, or it turns into small talk with a form filled in at the end. The feeling afterwards is the same in both cases: an hour gone, nothing decided.

The conversation is not hard because managers lack goodwill. It is hard because it carries four jobs at once: looking back, setting goals, talking about development, and talking about how the two of you work together. Those four need different questions, and they should not run into each other.

Prepare in thirty minutes, not in the meeting

Preparation decides how the hour goes. Thirty minutes a few days ahead is enough, and it is the difference between a conversation and an improvisation.

• Read the notes and agreements from the last conversation. Nothing damages trust faster than a manager who cannot remember their own promises.
• Collect three to five concrete situations from the period, with dates. Two that went well, two that did not.
• Check where the goals actually stand today, so the numbers are not disputed during the meeting.
• Write down the one thing that should be different after the conversation.
• Send the agenda and the questions at least three days in advance, so the other person can prepare too.
• Book sixty minutes in a room with a door and put your phone away. An hour squeezed into a thirty minute gap reads as a formality.

Ask the employee to prepare the same four areas. A conversation in which only the manager has thought about the content is an assessment, not a conversation.

A structure that fits one hour

Opening, five minutes

Say what the hour is for, in what order you want to go through it, and what happens with the result. If salary or promotion is not on the agenda today, say so at the start and not in minute fifty.

The period behind you, fifteen minutes

The employee speaks first. If you open with your own assessment, everything that follows is a reaction to it.

Goals for the next period, fifteen minutes

Three to five goals are plenty. From the sixth one on, nothing is a priority any more.

Development, fifteen minutes

What the person wants to be able to do in a year, and which step is realistic in the next quarter.

Working together, ten minutes

The part most managers skip. Ask for feedback on your own leadership, then stay quiet long enough for an answer to arrive.

Agreements, five minutes

Summarise out loud what you decided, if possible in the other person's words. Anything you cannot summarise in three sentences was not decided.

Questions for the four parts

Pick four or five per block, not the whole list. Ask open questions, then stop talking.

Questions about the period behind you

• Which result of the last months are you most satisfied with, and why that one?
• What turned out differently from the way you planned it?
• Which of your goals was harder than expected?
• What cost far more time than it should have?
• Where did you need a decision from me and not get one?

Questions about goals

• What should you be measured on over the next six months?
• How will we both see that the goal has been reached?
• What could stop you, and which part of that is in your own hands?
• Which of your current tasks could drop away if this is added?
• Is there anything in this goal that lies outside your influence?

Questions about development

• What do you want to be able to do in a year that you cannot do today?
• Which kind of work do you want more of, and which kind less?
• Who in the company would you like to learn something from?
• What is the smallest step we could start in the next quarter?
• Where would you like to go that we have never talked about?

Questions about working together

• What do I do that helps you, and what gets in your way?
• Do you get feedback often enough, and in a form that works for you?
• What do you regularly hear from me too late?
• What would you change about our meetings?
• What should I stop doing?

Mistakes that spoil the conversation

• Starting with your own assessment. The other person then defends themselves for the rest of the hour.
• Saving feedback up for the annual meeting. What someone hears for the first time after nine months arrives as an accusation.
• Judgements instead of observations. "You are unreliable" gets defended, "the report was three days late twice in March" gets discussed.
• Putting salary into the same hour. Once money is in the room, nobody talks openly about development.
• Speaking more than half the time yourself. Measure it once, the result surprises most people.
• Goals nobody writes down. An agreement that exists only in memory does not survive the next quarter.
• Giving everyone the same feedback, sanded down until it fits every case.

What to write down afterwards

Write the notes on the same day, while the wording is still fresh, and send them to the employee to correct. Notes that only the manager keeps are worthless in the next conversation.

• The agreed goals, each with a measure and a date for the check.
• The development wish, in the other person's words.
• The concrete support you promised, and by when.
• What you want to change about your own behaviour.
• Everything that stays open, with a named owner.
• The date of the next conversation.

A template for the hour

• Purpose: what this hour decides, and what it does not.
• Looking back: three situations that went well, two that did not.
• The employee's view: what they are proud of, what frustrated them.
• Goals: three to five, each with a measure and a check date.
• Development: one wish, one step for the next quarter.
• Working together: feedback in both directions.
• Agreements: who does what, by when.
• Next date.

Print it, or keep it in a shared document the employee can also open. The format matters far less than the fact that both of you look at the same page.

How Persohap holds the parts together

Most of the above works with a shared document. What software can add is the connection between two conversations.

In Persohap, company goals cascade through six levels, from the company purpose down to the individual review, so the goals on the table came from somewhere you can point at. Progress updates roll up automatically, which is why no status meeting and no status report sit between two conversations. The score has an automatic part and a human part: goal progress counts 30 percent, kudos 15 percent, and the remaining 55 percent is graded by the manager against measures each department publishes before the round starts. There is no forced curve and no quota, so a whole team may be at the top. After a review, Persohap suggests a learning path for weak measures, and the person decides.

See how the performance review works