If you think the year is flying by, you’re not alone. EOY performance reviews will be topping your to-do list soon. All the meetings, all the updates… all the planning to help your municipal office or public safety team succeed, can feel overwhelming. It’s a challenge, and doing it well is crucial. Effective year-end reviews keep you compliant, bolster trust with your community, and improve job performance for your team.
There’s good news: you can do this. You have plenty of time to get useful data and improve your annual performance reviews—if you start now. Take these steps in the next 2 weeks for smoother, more streamlined EOY reviews.
1. Check Your Process (and Your Progress)
Don’t start from scratch when doing end-of-year review prep. Make time to revisit the performance data you’re collecting and how you evaluate progress and success. This includes reviewing previous performance reports and optimizing review tools and systems. [Using up-to-date reporting keeps things objective while making progress and growth opportunities apparent.] A performance review inventory answers questions like:
- What metrics are we tracking across teams and departments?
- Is anything missing that we need to track/log?
- Is anything irrelevant or outdated?
- What items from this teammate’s previous check-in/review need attention at or before the EOY Review?
The answers give you a solid starting point. From there, you can develop an objective, constructive EOY review framework to facilitate measurable, sustainable success.
2. Keep Expectations Clear
Clarifying expectations is a solid goal throughout this process. Recent data shows many workplaces have the opposite problem, and it’s costing them.
- Gallup reports less than half (49%) of employees know what’s expected of them at work, particularly when using new tools or processes.
- The Health and Safety Index found that “Setting Clear Expectations” was their poorest benchmark. Ripple effects included inefficiency, stagnation, conflict, distrust, low morale, and high turnover.
Capable, otherwise-high-achieving people struggle when their work tasks are confusing, unclear, or outside the scope of their job. When things get clearer, quality of work/service improves.
Check your performance standards:
- Are job responsibilities—including tasks employees are expected to log and track—clearly worded?
- Are tasks correctly grouped and categorized?
- Are multiple tasks bundled into one when each should be evaluated separately?
- Are any essential tasks not being logged/tracked?
- Are any tracked tasks actually just busy work?
Note how roles and responsibilities are communicated in your reviews (and on your performance management tools). While some performance issues will require long-term professional development/coaching, many outcomes can be improved from the start by stating task expectations clearly.
3. Add and Subtract
After taking inventory of your process and simplifying expectations, log into your performance management software. Add what you need to log; take out what’s unnecessary. Make task/benchmark wording clear, concise, and accurate. And (of course) check in with your team. Show them what’s changing, and how those changes support improved performance.
4. Do What Works
You have options when evaluating employee performance. You don’t have to try everything; you don’t have to change everything. Use best practices as a road map, adapting them to department needs and capacity.
- Invest in a performance management system designed for your industry.
- Choose a performance rating system that’s logical and consistent.
- Talk with your team regularly. Don’t wait for quarterly, mid-year, or end-of year reviews.
Over time, you’ll learn what works best for your department, and each review process will go more smoothly than the last.
5. Don’t Do it (All) Yourself
Preparing for effective reviews that drive improved performance takes time, and multifaceted expertise. But you don’t have to tackle it alone. If you’re already dreading leading EOY reviews, TrackIT has your back. Our performance management experts have built easy-to-customize performance review tools you can use in the office or in the field, all you need is a browser.
Whether you’re new to TrackIT or trying to make the most of our latest updates, we’re here to help. Book a call with us to get your questions answered or request a demo. We’ll make sure you’re equipped to lead your team through performance review season with care and confidence.