Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

If there is one thing that most employees and managers alike dread, it's the thought of even going through a performance review.

In listening to a discussion about it recently, it made me think of similar things that I did in this area managing several businesses.

A recent survey shows that less than half of workers believed that their managers even took the review process seriously and even less than that thought they had any use to help them do their jobs better.

I found with my own experience and with consulting with others that this type of reviewing seems somewhat unnatural, forced and not very productive. Most employees believe that they are totally subjective and are more of an intimidating force than a constructive tool.

While this is true in the way it is currently performed and in the long periods in between them, it doesn't have to be that way. Most people that have started to do reviews on a weekly basis for a few minutes at a time, have found much more responsiveness and benefit in the process.

I don't know about you, but it was very hard for me to think over a whole year of an employees work performance and be able to come up with fresh input for them that was helpful, rather than recalling events that they may have done well with or poorly with but are no longer relevant to their present performance.

Also these types of reviews help to reinforce what is either done well or needs improvement on right as it's happening, and can be dealt with before it becomes a huge mountain that cannot be removed any longer. Also those that are doing well in the company can have it reinforced on the spot almost and be encouraged in those behaviors on a consistent basis.

And another side benefit of all of this is that both the reviewer and the recipient both have practice at doing it all the time, and so learn how to give and take much better to the betterment of the company.

I think that this is a critical test of your management skills and the importance you put upon the review process itself will show employees that you do care about how they perform in the company and about their personal and professional growth.

Think seriously about having reviews weekly and on the spot if there is something you see that needs to be encouraged or improved. Do it and I believe your employees and you will find that this is a great improvement over the current model most companies use of doing it once or twice a year.