Strictly Business: Effective employee reviews

If you’re fortunate enough to have employees, how do you know that you’re getting their full potential? At my company, we rely on periodic performance reviews. Employee reviews can be nerve-racking — while it’s always great to give, and receive, compliments on a job well done, it’s less pleasant to discuss weaknesses. Traditional review methods, or “competency assessments,” tend to create stress for both reviewer and reviewee. We handle the process differently. The sole purpose of our review is to help employees work closer to their potential. Anything I can do to promote that dominates the review process. I concentrate on how employees can move forward instead of what they’ve done wrong. First Among