Post Employee Performance Review Action Items

Your organization finished its latest round of performance reviews. Congratulations! Your employees were likely happy to learn how they’re doing and are now looking forward to getting back to their usual routine.

But if you oversee the review process, there is still work to be done. You uncovered a lot of interesting insights by conducting reviews and now it’s time to put those learnings into effect so your employees continue to make strides and your organization becomes an even better place to work.

We don’t want anything to fall through the cracks so we put together this helpful list of post-review action items you can use to put a bow on this evaluation cycle.

Reset employee goals

An employee’s individual goals should be ever evolving. They should continue to take on new challenges that help their team progress and result in them growing as a professional.

Performance reviews are a great opportunity to assess the goals an employee has accomplished since their last evaluation and set new objectives for them to work toward. Make sure each employees’ goals are updated to replace the ones that were crossed off their lists. Check out our blog post on cascading goals across your organization.

Reward top performers

Hands down, the best part of performance reviews is rewarding top performers. The process of thoroughly evaluating employees on job performance and the other qualities your organization values resulted in your most successful employees standing out. Now it’s time to reward those go-getters so they continue to go above and beyond.

There are different ways to show appreciation for a job well done. It goes without saying that most great employees want a raise or promotion but that isn’t always feasible. However, you should have honest conversations with top performers about what you can offer to keep them happy and productive. Check out our blog post on identifying and rewarding top performers.  

Implement performance improvement plans

Unfortunately, performance reviews also reveal employees who are falling short of expectations. In these cases, placing the employee on a performance improvement plan (PIP) will help them get back on track.

Basically, a PIP outlines a multi-step goal an employee is expected to accomplish over the coming months. They meet with their manager and an HR representative after each step to discuss progress. The employee’s performance issues are considered resolved if they successfully meet the ultimate goal defined in the PIP.

Keep in mind, PIPs should only be used as a last-ditch effort for improving performance. You should first make sure an employee’s objectives are reasonable and clearly articulated to them before you take serious action.

Continue succession planning

Even if your organization’s management team is set, you should always have employees ready to step up in the event a senior-level role opens. Fortunately, performance reviews also pinpoint employees who are suited for leadership roles.

Post evaluation is an ideal time to continue succession planning. You can make sure employees tapped to take over leadership positions are still excelling in their current jobs. And you can expand your plan to list successors for other roles that weren’t previously included. Check out our blog post on succession planning with the 9 box grid in Trakstar.

Correct underlying issues

Every employee in your organization experiences unique challenges in the course of doing their jobs. Some come with the territory but others are unnecessary and should be corrected.

Performance reviews allow you to have candid conversations with employees and learn what issues need to be remedied. Whether someone is clashing with a colleague or simply needs additional resources to do their job, you can correct problems so they don’t drag down morale in the long term. Check out our blog post on common problems growing companies face.

Take stock of your culture

Your organization likely has a series of values employees are expected to follow and an overarching workplace culture you want everyone to experience. Creating a cultural philosophy is easy but making it a reality is a challenge.

Performance review time is an excellent opportunity to learn if both employees and the organization as a whole are living up to cultural expectations. Core values are often vague terms so learn if employees need additional context to understand how they can apply them to their work. Additionally, ask employees about their workplace experiences and figure out what else needs to be done to make your culture come to life.

Consider how performance reviews can be improved next time

The more you do performance reviews, the more you’ll see they’re never perfect. Sit down with your team after each review cycle to debrief and consider how you can do better next time. Like any major project, the more planning and refining you do, the better the process will be in future iterations.