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

Probably the biggest problem the HR departments or business owners have in performance reviews is putting too much emphasis on ratings and paperwork, rather than working on improving communication between employees and managers.

Performance feedback should be put into practice with only one purpose in mind: To establish with the employee simple and clear expectations of the behavior you want from them.

One of the keys in all of this is to make sure that there needs to be feedback throughout the year, not just an annual review. This will never work to encourage specific desired behaviors.

Having meetings once a month has helped a lot of companies to increase moral and drive what it is they want from their employees. They don't have to be long, in fact, probably shouldn't be or else they can have the opposite effect.

That and walking around and being accessible to employees is probably some of the best ways to head off problems that can get out of hand and losing good employees. One thing is for sure: An employee should never be surprised during a performance review. Communication lines should be so open that it is like continuing an ongoing conversation.

Employees can never do what is expected of them if there isn't the communication available to teach, encourage and remind them.