Performance reviews are designed to both evaluate general performance and measure progress around specific goals. Both negative and positive aspects are incorporated in these reviews as they should serve as a point of reference to both look back in evaluation and ahead in anticipation. Pulling back from daily demands in order to assess and review employee performance allows managers to focus their attention on specific departments and clarify what is high priority to their company. Performance reviews also act as an opportunity to acknowledge working staff and identify professional development which will further support the staff members’ career growth. Reviews are seen as a powerful tool that can be tied to a company’s overall success; they serve to align staff with the organization’s expectations and priorities.
Positive aspects of performance reviews include three main objectives: profitability, improving the working relationship between employee and supervisor, and increasing employee satisfaction. Performance reviews allow the company and its employees to set mutual goals; the reviewer and employee function as equals. Review meetings are prepared as a way to tell the other worker what he or she could do to increase productivity. The key to employee productivity is participatory management and seeking genuine input from employees; workers should have the room to determine and voice their needs. Review meetings allow time to focus on skills that are the most important to an employee’s job as it is critical that the worker and reviewer agree on the relative importance of the position. Emphasizing an employee’s strengths are also an added benefit of performance reviews; if recognition of one’s accomplishments and strengths are made clear ...