The quarterly performance review can be nerve-wracking for leaders and employees alike. Leaders fear the inability to drive change and improvement and the possibility of hurting someone. Employees fear being judged and looked down upon or receiving harsh criticism.
Learning how to amplify your quarterly performance review sessions is imperative to successful leadership. Rather than going in blind or clueless, study your process and use these 43 tips to develop a quarterly performance review that motivates your people.
Quarterly Performance Review Purpose
A quarterly performance review aims to examine individuals, their goals, skills, and performance to inspire development and improvement in their work. Without the review of self, workers can become stagnant and fail to aim for higher things. To develop leaders, as all leaders should be trying to do, it is essential to review performance regularly.
Quarterly Performance Review vs. Annual Performance Review
Once upon a time, the quarterly performance review was a rarity. In the past, annual performance reviews were far more common. Recent times have brought about quarterly reviews, as it has been proven that annual reviews changed very little for organizations and individuals.
The time between annual reviews is a problem for consistent improvement. It is also heavily attached to pay increases and bonuses, so employees tend to look at what their previous work was worth instead of how to improve their efforts in the coming year.
In my last job, where annual reviews were still present, I was a middle manager in sales. I met with my boss annually to look at my sales performance and where I’d ended up. Although we would set goals together that I was supposed to complete by the following annual review, I rarely thought about those goals until a month before the review. Spending a month focusing on goals meant for an entire year was impossible.
Have you had a similar experience?
Quarterly performance reviews provide more time for reflection and drive people to change. There is less time between meetings, which inspires people to take action. It also allows for feedback and corrections between reviews, as you will not forget something that will be reviewed in a couple of months.
What Should the Employee Do in a Quarterly Performance Review?
Employees should not be playing a passive role in their quarterly performance reviews. It will do them little good to sit back and listen without input. Instead, the employee must participate fully. Participation includes suggesting actions, asking questions, and offering feedback regarding leadership practices.
Quarterly Performance Review Benefits
There are many benefits to a quarterly performance review. The top 10 are as follows.
1. Improved Recall
How often do you remember something that you discussed a year ago? What about six months ago? While these might be more challenging, remembering what was said and decided upon a couple of months ago is far more manageable. You can improve your recall regarding reviews when they occur more frequently.
2. Speedy Correction
A quarterly review allows leaders to address mistakes and issues faster. Corrections can be made quarterly rather than annually. This prevents bad habits from forming and helps the employees know what they are supposed to do instead.
3. Continual Issue Check-Ins
Continuity can be vital in the face of problems. If an employee has an issue, quarterly reviews allow for more frequent check-ins. With the increased frequency comes the ability for the employee to focus on solving the problem.
4. Alignment
Do the employee’s goals align with the department’s goals? Do the department goals align with the organizational goals? Complete alignment can require regular evaluations. When things become misaligned, it is easier to fix them if they are addressed routinely.
5. Enhanced Goal Setting
Goals are difficult to reach when they are not regularly attended to. Think of New Year’s Resolutions. Many people purchase a gym membership, use it for a month or two, then continue paying for it, although they rarely (if ever) use it. Your goals can reach new levels if you address them more frequently.
6. Actionable Feedback
Feedback is good. Actionable feedback is vital. A leader can tell an employee that their sales pitch is lacking. That’s feedback. When the leader tells them that the sales pitch is lacking because they need to sound more upbeat – that’s actionable. In a quarterly performance review, actionable feedback allows the employee to take action quickly and try out the change for a few months before the following review.
7. Reduce Fixation on Compensation
Most people know that an annual review is when compensation will be discussed. If the employee performs well, a raise is in order. When the review becomes quarterly, there is less focus on compensation, as it might not always be something addressed. Instead of thinking, my annual review is coming up – I’ll be getting a raise, and the employee will likely focus on the goals that were met or where they came up short.
8. More Informal, Less Anxiety-Inducing
An annual review can seem like a big deal! It only happens once a year, after all! Fortunately, with a quarterly performance review, it becomes more the norm and less terrifying. It can become a routine meeting that doesn’t cause as much stress.
9. Practice for Leaders
Remember – leaders are not inherently perfect leaders by birth or a false sense of naturally given talent. It takes work and practice. By increasing the number of reviews in a year, the leader can gain more experience in providing feedback and communicating. The leader will improve with practice, just as the review intends.
10. New Employee Support
When you’re a new employee, it can be hard to be handed your job description and a “see you in a year!” By utilizing the quarterly performance review, new employees can be given the opportunity to learn how to meet organizational needs and expectations. It also gives them a chance to communicate with the leader more regularly.
When Should Quarterly Performance Reviews Be Scheduled?
While quarterly reviews might seem straightforward – March, June, September, and December – it doesn’t have to align with the calendar year. If someone is hired at the end of March, waiting three months for a review can be problematic. You can adjust the schedule to fit your needs. However, you must remain consistent in your review schedule.
Try to keep it regular down to the week. Consistency is essential in reaping all the benefits.
What Should Be Covered in a Quarterly Performance Review?
The quarterly performance review can be intimidating because you never know what needs to be included. Knowing what to cover in the review can be imperative to drawing out the necessary information and action plan for the individual and organization’s success.
1. Performance and Skills Evaluation
A review of the employee’s performance and skills are the most prominent component of a quarterly performance review. Nonetheless, don’t discount the importance of it based on its obviousness. What are the strengths and weaknesses related to the work at hand? How does the employee apply those skills to their job?
Reviewing this information will help the employee understand what is being done well and what could improve. It also allows the employee to communicate their skills to their leader. Doing so can result in the use of previously underutilized talents.
2. Goal Review and Changes
Sometimes, we don’t meet our goals. As a result, we learn what didn’t work. This gives leaders and their people a chance to make changes to the plans to meet goals before the following review.
Reviewing goals from the previous quarter reveals what is being accomplished and what needs work. This is not to be used to scold or discipline missed goals – it should be used as a trial-and-error map to success.
3. Corrective Action
An essential component of quarterly reviews is corrective action. It is important to note that negative commentary during reviews can inspire your people to start looking for another job. It’s true – corrective action can leave employees feeling put down. No one likes to feel that.
This is why you must learn how to give corrective action most positively. You might even comment on corrective actions that have occurred with the employee lately and how well they’ve improved.
4. Open Discussion Period
Don’t go into a review expecting to do all of the talking. Employees should have time to speak their minds. They might discuss something that bothers them about your leadership tactics or ask questions about their performance – let them. Do not get defensive or shut down the conversation. Allow the employee to lead this part of the conversation.
5. Pay
People always associate reviews with pay raises. This is especially true in annual reviews, but it is best to touch bay regarding pay during your meetings. Employees shouldn’t have to wait for a particular time of year to gain the raise they’ve worked so hard for. Consider a change in pay when preparing for a review, no matter the time of year.
How to Conduct a Quarterly Performance Review
It might seem overwhelming if you’ve never conducted a review. To do a review quarterly might seem like a lot of work. Fortunately, the process doesn’t have to be complicated. There are ten main steps you’ll want to take.
1. Prepare in Advance
You cannot show up to a review and hope to wing it. You also cannot revert to your college days and cram the night before. Preparation will take time, patience, and honest effort. The most valuable reviews require the leader to be committed to the process.
2. Offer Specific Feedback
Your preparation will come in handy when you’re offering feedback. The more specific, the better. People want to know precisely what actions to take to improve and what they did right – and that you noticed. That feedback is valuable to them and the organization.
3. Gather Feedback from Other Team Members
Feedback cannot only come from you or the leader conducting the review. It must come from other leaders, coworkers, and team members. Gaining a complete perspective and understanding of the employee’s work, attitude, and effort requires more than one person’s observance.
4. Take Notes
Don’t expect yourself to remember every word spoken in the review session. Of course, don’t write down every word. However, it is crucial to take notes so that you can refer to this session over the coming months. Those notes can also be revisited at the next quarterly review meeting.
5. Assign the Next Action Steps
Want to know the best part about reviews? Action, action, action! Knowing what needs to be done to get where they want is vital. Be sure to assign your employee action steps so that they can begin to reach their goals.
6. Include Self-Assessment
Always consider how an employee feels about themselves and their work. Sometimes workers are aware that they haven’t been at their best – there’s been a lot going on in their personal lives, or they are struggling with a co-worker, or something else could be happening. With a self-assessment, you can gather more information about the effort put forth.
7. Performance Rating
Using a performance rating can help define the areas of needed improvement. Most scales include these ratings: unacceptable, needs improvement, meets expectations, exceeds expectations, and outstanding performance. With this scale, the majority of the responses are positive, which can help to diminish negative thoughts about oneself as a result of the review.
8. Review Wins, Strengths, and Opportunities for Growth
Analyzing wins, strengths, and opportunities for growth can be an essential addition to any review. Using it in a quarterly performance review is imperative because it is easier to identify what might align with each category in the last three months. While a year can get fuzzy, most people have good remembrance of the previous quarter.
9. Focus on Improvement Zones
Improvement zones are great ways to encourage employees to work on specific performance areas. It helps because it aids in building people up instead of tearing them down. Everyone should be assigned improvement zones, not just those who have made mistakes. This way, improvement zones are not used as a weapon to harm someone.
10. Allow Questions and Concerns
Set aside plenty of time for your people to ask questions or raise concerns. You must be open to what is being asked or commented on. If someone brings it up, it carries a weight that should not be ignored. Be honest about the topics being discussed and keep calm in the face of any negative commentary.
How to Prepare for a Quarterly Performance Review
Preparation for a quarterly performance review will take time and actual effort. Start gathering data at least a week before the review. You’ll want to plan your review a few days before the meeting time so that you can look over it a few times. Ill-prepared leaders go into reviews that become pointless and change nothing. Preparation is vital to the success of the review.
What Should a Quarterly Performance Review Avoid?
Avoidance of a few things can be vital in the best performance meetings. Consider these three components:
1. Personal commentary or feedback
The big thing to avoid here is personal. Personal feedback needs to be avoided. This time is not for your personal thoughts to get in the way of a professional meeting.
2. Generalizations
Generalizations are not only unhelpful, but they’re also often wrong. Consider how a statement like this would go over in a review meeting: I know you don’t have much experience in this because you’re young. What about this one: All of our older employees are struggling with this software change.
Generalizations don’t allow people to make corrections when needed because they are expected to behave the same way as the others they’re grouped with. Don’t make generalizations.
3. Why Questions
Asking ‘why?’ is an excellent way to bring up defenses – which we don’t want to do. Why did you do that? Why did you miss this? Why did you react this way? See how these questions might put people off? Additionally, these kinds of inquiries won’t help much toward growth.
What are Common Mistakes in a Quarterly Performance Review?
Let’s be real: everyone makes mistakes. And mistakes in performance reviews are common. So, let’s break it down so you can mitigate any errors in your upcoming reviews.
1. Subjective Evaluations
Reviews should not include your subjective evaluations. Your personal tastes, feelings, or opinions are irrelevant to a quarterly performance review and must be left out. Focus on facts. Emotions should not influence your review of someone’s work performance.
2. Not Setting Goals
How should employees know where they are headed if no goals are set during their review? Without goals, people might believe it suitable to remain precisely where they are with the same habits. No goals = no growth. We don’t want that. Set goals.
3. Avoiding Flexibility in Goals
You likely made some notations during your preparation regarding potential goals. However, do not consider those potential goals as ‘set in stone.’ Making goals for someone else without their direct input would be a mistake. Be flexible in adjusting or altering goals completely. Listen to what the employee says about their desires and professional goals before committing to your ideas.
4. Skipping the Notes
Notes are vital! You might think that you have a good memory, but with everything that needs to be covered in a quarterly review, take notes. Refer back to your notes before you check in with employees – especially review the notes before the next quarterly review meeting.
Other Quarterly Performance Review Tips
Consider these tips:
1. Expectations Must Be Clear from the Beginning
Have you ever worked for someone that made it incredibly difficult to understand what is wanted? I have – it’s exhausting. So, be sure that your expectations are clear from day one. Make it known that any confusion should be cleared up immediately. If you fail to set clear expectations, your quarterly review sessions will be messier than they need to be.
2. Start Small
When you learn the value of quarterly performance review meetings, you may feel driven to immediately change every employee to a quarterly meeting. While that is good in theory, it could also be a lot – especially if you lead a large company.
Start small by aiming to switch one department to quarterly reviews first. If that’s too much to tackle, split the department into sections to determine the first quarterly review people. Don’t tackle too much at once – you will let the details fall through the cracks.
3. Use a Standard Review Form for All
Your process will be more straightforward if all employees are reviewed using the same form. Don’t try to personalize the process. One form for all.
4. Study Previous Reviews
You must know what came before to know the progress made. If you’re blind or ignorant of previous successes and failures, you’ll never be able to properly review someone’s work. Study the previous reviews to understand better where the employee was last quarter and where they were expected to be now.
5. Details are Crucial
It can be easy to step into a meeting and say, “keep doing what you’re doing!” Short and simple is easy to follow – right? Not in this case. The details in the review are necessary for continued success and growth.
Define exactly what the employee is doing right and what they need to keep doing. If there is nothing that they need to improve on, aim for development goals – provide details.
6. Always Use a One-On-One Meeting for Reviews
What’s being discussed in a quarterly review is not for all ears. Offer your people the respect they deserve by giving them privacy. Not many people want their feedback broadcast to the entire office. For everyone’s comfort, ensure the reviews and the space you use are designed for a private, one-on-one meeting.
7. Have a Two-Way Conversation
Reviews where the ‘boss’ talks and gives no time for responses are the least helpful. A review should be a conversation, not a lecture. Be sure to engage your employees during their review time. Help them to understand they can converse with you and learn from you.
Since communication is likely the most important leadership skill, this one should come easily!
8. Follow-Up Between Reviews
There is no reason for you to wait months before checking in on your people. Following up, even in just a few minutes bi-weekly, can be a game changer. Aim for ten minutes every month if you don’t have a few minutes bi-weekly. It doesn’t have to be formal, but it will help the employee see their progress.
9. Create a Habit of Offering Feedback
Feedback should not only happen during reviews. Sometimes, when feedback is only given during reviews, people are shocked to hear how they’ve been doing something wrong for months, and no one said anything. It can make them defensive and irritated and might even push them to look at job listings at other companies.
Regular feedback helps to desensitize the employee and the leader. It gives time for correction before the review process and can make the business run more smoothly.
10. Check Your Biases
No matter how much we deny it, we all have biases. Consider this situation: Employee 1 joined the team last quarter after leaving a major competitor. This employee learned everything he knows from the competitor.
Employee 2 got her feet wet in your organization. She learned everything she knows from you and your team. Is your bias for your company over the competitor going to cause your review to differ?
Be honest about why you include certain components in your review. Is it true, or is your bias showing? Check yourself.
11. Aim for Guidance
Guidance is always an essential part of the quarterly review. Ending a review without any sense of direction can result in a confused employee. Guide your people with clear-cut plans and openness to questions. Make it clear that you value developing your people.
Performance Review Phrases For Your Use
The following quarterly performance review examples can be a good starting point in creating your statements.
- Jen is respectful of coworkers and customers by arriving early for every shift.
- Cody is reliable in attendance and effort toward his work.
- Tom frequently and disrespectfully arrives late to the weekly meeting.
- April needs to improve in accepting constructive criticism.
- Jerry regularly seeks the positive in all situations.
- Tara is motivated and willing to do demanding tasks on time.
- Phil has demonstrated an unwillingness to handle customer complaints.
Your quarterly performance review process starts now. Get out there and make some changes, leaders!