The document provides guidance for conducting effective performance review meetings with employees. It recommends that the reviewer 1) clarify expectations and roles for the meeting, 2) describe and review the employee's main job tasks and responsibilities, and 3) elicit input from the employee. The reviewer should then 4) discuss and negotiate the employee's performance, 5) engage in problem-solving to improve performance, and 6) decide what to document from the meeting. Both parties should plan for follow-up.

1. Review Meetings
• Make sure the employee understands the purpose of the meeting and what
the information is to be used for.
• Communicate the message that you and the employee are on the same side
and you are focused on working with the employee and not doing something
to the employee.
• Share with the employee the responsibility of evaluating his or her
performance.
• Draw the employee into active discussion. In fact, the employee should be
doing most of the talking throughout the meeting.
• Comply with any requirements set forth by your company (e.g. completing
a set of forms provided) while trying to make the review process useful to you
and the employee.

2. By the end of review meetings
 Confirmed the major job responsibilities of the employee.
 Provided the employee with your observations and suggestions regarding
his or her performance.
 Received comments and suggestions from the employee as to how the two
of you can work together to improve performance.
 Identified barriers in the system that need to be overcome and agreed on
how that will be done.
 Completed any forms or other paperwork required of you by your
company.
 Documented any decisions and/or discussions and recommendations
about pay, promotion, or disciplinary action.

3. Performance Review meeting
1. Warm up and clarify expectations and roles for the meeting.
2. Describe and review the main job tasks and responsibilities.
3. Elicit input from the employee.
4. Discuss and negotiate.
5. Engage in performance improvement problem-solving.
6. Decide on what to record.
7. Finish and plan for follow-up.

4.  What do you expect from me during the meeting?
 What can I expect from you?
 Are you going to lecture, scold (caution) , or harm me?
 What’s the point of all this?
 How do the results affect my future or my pay?

5. Describe and Review the Main Job Tasks and
Responsibilities
BY THE END OF THIS STEP, YOU SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED THE FOLLOWING:-
• What the employee actually did during the review period.
• Relative importance of the major job responsibilities and job tasks—the most
important, the next important, and soon.
• How the person’s job tasks link up with or contribute to achieving the
company’s (or work unit’s) goals and objectives.
• Whether the job has changed over the past year and if job descriptions need
updating.

6. Reviews with Employees of Different Stripes
 Employee A performs poorly due to lack of experience but wants to learn.
 Employee B performs poorly and resists feedback and suggestions.
 Employee C performs poorly and just doesn’t care.
 Employee D excels (outclass) and is comfortable where he is.
 Employee E excels and is ambitious and eager for new challenges.

7. Minor Underperformance involves most of the following:
• Performance problems are a recent onset and not yet chronic.
• The impact of performance problems on the work unit is minor, but it
may worsen.
• The employee appears to be willing to address issues and work to
improve.
• The employee has succeeded in the job in the past or appears to have
the ability to improve.

8. • Identified areas where the employee needs improvement.
• Identified possible reasons for lower performance.
• Worked with the employee to identify solutions.
• Created an action plan to implement solutions and track results.
• Scheduled any formal, ongoing follow-ups and communication as
needed.
• Created a written record (documentation) of the discussion.

9. Major underperformance involves most of the following:
• The problems are chronic; they’ve existed for a long time.
• The problems have not been fixed despite your efforts to work with the
employee.
• The employee is unwilling to acknowledge/address performance
problems.
• The problems have a major impact on the work unit, the employee’s
coworkers, and productivity
• The problems need to be solved in the near or immediate future.
• The employee lacks the ability to improve and has no record of success.

10. • Begin (or completed) a process of progressive discipline to apply
consequences for poor performance.
• Protect yourself and the company from unwarranted claims of
discrimination or other illegal workplace practices.
• Minimize the negative effects of the employee’s poor performance on the
company or coworkers.

11. Progressive discipline principles
• Any disciplinary action you take must conform to the legal requirements in
your location, which includes local laws and contractual commitments.
• All disciplinary action must be documented in as much detail as possible.
• Documentation should include the nature of the performance problem (as
specifically as possible), previous attempts to work with the employee to
solve the problem, verification that the employee has been informed of
potential consequences, any actions taken, and any results, positive or
negative.

12. Progress discipline principles (cont..)
• Disciplinary action is based on the principle of “least possible force first.” If
necessary, more serious consequences and timelines can be imposed if less stringent
(severe) ones don’t bear fruit.
• Disciplinary action is appropriate only when you’re absolutely sure the
performance problems cannot be remedied by altering the environment, work
system, or your management behavior, so as not to penalize an employee for
things that are not under his or her control.
• The harsher the consequences you use and the more force you use, the less
likely you will be able to re-create a positive relationship in the future with an
employee. In other words, the more force, the less likely you can go back to
more cooperative methods.

13. Progressive discipline process
• Deciding on negative and positive consequences
• Communicating them to the employee
• Monitoring performance
• Applying the consequences
• Repeating the cycle as necessary, with more serious consequences

14. Elicit (Stimulate) Input from the Employee
• Are there any parts of your job that you feel
you could perform better in the next year?
• What kinds of difficulties did you face during the year?

15. Discuss and Negotiate
• Begin with the employee’s self-evaluations and offer up
your own perceptions linked to them, but keep your comments
short.
• Your task is not so much to provide a “final judgment,” but to help
the employee see his or her performance from another angle, so he
or she can “self-assess” more realistically.
• You can state your own perceptions, but it’s better to lead the
employee somewhat by referencing things you may have observed,
measured, or documented and to remind the employee of specific
instances that bear closer scrutiny (e.g., a particular customer
complaint, high absenteeism).

16. • Deal with one issue, job responsibility, or task at a time.
Share your perceptions, get feedback and counter-
perceptions from the employee, try to come to some
agreement, and then move to the next.
• Don’t assume the only areas of disagreement will occur
when you feel the employee has done badly and the
employee feels he or she has done well. The opposite can
occur.
• Some employees judge their job performances more
harshly than you will.
• Focus equally on what the employee has done well and
on areas where improvement is indicated. In fact, you
will have more success if at least 75% of the discussion
and negotiation focuses on what’s gone well.

17. Engage in Performance Improvement
Problem-Solving
• Identified any barriers to performance the
employee has faced during the review period.
• Developed strategies for removing them or
reducing their negative effects in the present and the
future.
• Defined any specific action steps required, whether
of you or of the employee, and committed to them.

18. Finish and Plan for Follow-Up
• Both you and the employee need to sign off on any
documentation of the performance review meeting.
• You summarize (recap) the results and the nature of the
discussions to make sure you and the employee have
similar perceptions of the meeting
• You and the employee agree on any follow-up steps,
including getting ready for the next round of
performance planning and actions needed by either or
both parties.