Start Doing Employee MicroReviews (and How)
Think about the microcosm in which we live. We have microwaves, microphones, microbreweries, and even Micronesia; but, no Micro-Reviews. Why is that? Because we as managers have a tendency to put our employee reviews off until the end of the year, creating a pressure-cooker couple of weeks to cram them in at the beginning of the year.
This year, try doing microreviews.
What's a Microreview?
Microreviews are when you are performance-review conscious 52 weeks of the year. Performance reviews are built one event at a time all year long, not all at once at year’s end.
How does it work? Four main components comprise any performance review system. These are:
Review Criteria: Every company measures that which they want to have managed. This could be Innovation, Sales, Communication, Results, Vendor Relationships, etc. The basis of the yearly employee review lists one or more of these criterion.
Performance Rating: Some type of objective score. Could be 1-5, 1-10, Meets or Exceeds, etc.
Description or Supporting Example: For an employee review to withstand the scrutiny of management, it must include a clear description or example to back up the chosen rating.
Pro / Con: Some indication of whether the supporting example or description is considered a positive or negative towards the final review.
How to Start Doing Microreviews
Develop a system that captures these four ingredients each week. Could be a spreadsheet, folder system, or Outlook. It’s up to you. Whenever a performance-review worthy event takes place (i.e., a major project was completed, kudos from a customer, or some behavior that needs to be adjusted), capture it in your system along with the Criteria, Description and whether it was a Pro / Con. The Performance Rating will come at the end of the year once everything is compiled.
Microreviews are when you are performance-review conscious 52 weeks of the year. Performance reviews are built one event at a time all year long, not all at once at year’s end.
Here’s the trick. Write the description in as full of a sentence as possible. “Charles did a great job at finishing the Smith Project, and it came in under budget by 5% and two weeks early” is much better than “Charles has good PM skills.”
You don’t need to capture every little thing. “Charles showed up at work on time today” is a bit much. Keep it to the big stuff that matters. And, these are also the topics you will cover at your regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with your directs, so there are no surprises at the end of the year.
Once December comes around, take all of this performance review data, throw it into a Pivot Table and sort by Employee Name, Criteria, Pro / Con, and Description. Amazingly, you will have an employee review that nearly writes itself. Pick out the examples you want to use, come up with a final rating for each Criteria and you are done. Most importantly, the employees reviewed benefit from a comprehensive, solid, well-thought out annual review with no surprises.
The best news is that your reviews will hold up under the scrutiny of any microscope, or worse yet, micro-manager.
