{Article #209…since 1995} – Positive & Profitable Employee Reviews
Can employee reviews really be positive and profitable? You bet! How you and your company handle each employee review is a direct reflection of your leadership within your PM company.
Preparing for each review: Establish the frequency for your company employee reviews and be certain this is in your administrative guidelines and employee manual. Consider doing all reviews during two months of the year, for instance–November and May. Each of your managers should be given a blank copy of the review form required by your PM company and a list of their team members who are scheduled for a review.
Instruct your managers to prepare each review in a typed format, as this makes it easy to read and looks more professional when presented. Lastly, ask your managers to give you a copy of the final review notes, prior to it being formally presented. This gives you an opportunity to assess the quality of the work being done by your managers and a window for making any changes.
Tip From The Coach: In the same way you give a blank copy of the employee review form to your managers, give a blank copy of the review form to the person being reviewed. This will give your employees an opportunity to make notes about their performance, prior to each performance review. This step is critical because it allows each of your managers to “see” the gap between their point of view versus their employees’ point of view. This gap is exactly where the best coaching can be done to improve the performance of each person on your property management team.
Conducting each review: The review should start by having your manager explain how each person’s review is a special time for personal and professional growth and the tone for each review will be both positive and productive. Have your manager begin by reading out loud the first question, then read his/her comments about their employee. Next, their employee should read their comments out loud. After each person has read their response to the first question, then specific feedback should be given by your manager or supervisor, about how the comments are similar and a discussion about any comments that are different. This “gap” is the perfect place to build action items to be addressed between this review and the next one.
Tip From The Coach: This review format communicates mutual respect for each employee of your company, but it must go one step further. Since the feedback of each employee is important, and since you are requesting their feedback during each employee review, a salary increase must consider the comments from both your manager and your employee. This means a final decision about the size of each person’s salary increase should be given one or two days after the review is completed. If a salary increase is given at the close of each employee’s review, this says to your employee that their feedback was not important, as the salary increase had been pre-determined in advance.
Using the review for grooming and growth: So, the review is finished and the paperwork can now be placed in the employee’s file to gather dust for the next year, right? Not a chance! Have your manager end each employee review by recapping all the positive comments that were shared and have them summarize each action-step required for improvement/growth. These action steps should focus on the goals and objectives for the next period and must be in alignment with the goals of your PM company. Have your manager schedule a short meeting in 30 days, to review the progress being made for each action item, as this review will become an important part of each month’s conversation between your manager and his/her employee. Then continue to use this employee review monthly until the anniversary of the next formal review.
The Coach…and your LinkedIn group owner/moderator
Ernest Oriente
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