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Question:
I have never done annual reviews or appraisals with my staff, but I think I need to bite the bullet. Where do I start and how can I introduce them without making them sound threatening?

If you've never done them before, you will need to think carefully about why you are introducing performance reviews. If it's to help them develop as an employee and a person, then go for it. If however, you only want to use it as a disciplinary tool, then forget it.

The key points in a performance review are to:

• Discuss how they are going in the job
• Give and receive feedback from their manager
• Decide together what both need to do in order to optimise the effectiveness of the staff member's work
• Review goals set previously and set goals going forward
• Discuss their professional development needs
• Give them the opportunity for action to be taken if their performance is outstanding.

Don't just focus on the technical or physical work that they do. Include the intangibles such as their attitude, team spirit, general behaviour, customer service, punctuality and so on. In some respects, these are almost more important than the actual work.

You can have someone who is great at the administrative work they do, but miserable to deal with on a personal or day-to-day level and everyone walks on eggshells around them. A performance review is an opportunity to address these intangibles - but I would hope that you're not waiting 12 months to do so if any such negative behaviour should show up.

There are several websites that can give you some reasonable performance review forms. Look for those that ask the staff member to rate themselves as well as being rated by their manager.

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