Performance Management – Perfecting the Process

When you say performance management many people think it’s a performance review or an annual review, but that’s only a small part of it. An effective performance management program will include continuous feedback, regular one-on-one conversations, coaching, goal setting, clarification of expectations and job responsibilities and a career growth plan to optimize an individual’s performance. The annual review is just one small piece of it. To be effective, performance management will be done over the course of the year throughout an employee’s journey.
Having one on one employee meetings is an important part of performance management. Productive meetings will depend on creating a setting in which the employee feels comfortable to share and feels respected, heard and valued. Keep in mind the focus of the meeting is your employee’s needs, performance and engagement. Research has shown that one of the predictors of a 1:1’s success is the employee’s active participation in the meeting measured by how much they talk. Ideally, the employee would be talking 50%-90% of the time with the manager actively listening. Managers should be careful not to do more talking than the employee.
Frequency of 1:1 Employee Meetings: You meet with each team member once a week for 15-20 minutes. Research shows that many employees, regardless of job level, rate this approach the most desirable; it also correlates with the highest levels of engagement. Meeting every other week for 30 minutes is the second most recommended plan. A hybrid plan allows you to meet with some team members weekly and others every two weeks. You should spend basically the same amount of time with each employee over the course of the month, regardless of which plan you choose.

1:1 Cadence Considerations: The employees’ experience level. For more-junior employees and new employees weekly meetings are best. This frequency allows you to coach and support employee growth and development and build relationship. Manager tenure. Weekly meetings are preferred for establishing alignment and building relationships for managers who are new to the team. Team size. If your team is 10 or more it may be best to hold 1:1s every other week to ease the schedule demands of a larger team.

Remote or in person. If your team is remote, weekly meetings can help counter the lack of in person contact. Employee preference. Give your employees a voice in the decision.

For a great list of helpful sample questions for your 1:1 employee meetings, you can refer to my free eBook below.

Download my free eBook which includes a list of helpful sample questions for your 1:1 employee meetings and other performance management information

Download eBook

Download my free eBook which includes a list of helpful sample questions for your 1:1 employee meetings and other performance management information

Download eBook

Thank you for liking and subscribing to our podcast
on YouTube! It helps us grow our audience!

Schedule a Call
Small and medium-sized businesses may not have the time or expertise to implement the necessary people strategies for business success. The ideas above can be easily implemented by you to help improve the performance of your employees which leads to increased employee engagement and increasing the bottom line. We are here to help you with the people side of your business: employee engagement, retention programs, performance management, vision, and strategic plans, leadership development, selection & onboarding, compensations programs, organizational design, employee handbooks, core values, and all things HR-related.