The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I decided this would be a list of the good, the bad and the ugly, I hope it helps you as you begin to review your employees. These phrases for effective performance reviews can be slightly altered as needed for your employee appraisals.

 

Attendance and Punctuality

Positive

Jim has been a valued member of team by always being someone we can count on. Jim's attention to his attendance and punctuality has made our team function much better over the past year.

Tim is very reliable in his attendance and consistently shows up on time.

Janet begins each day refreshed and ready for any of the challenges she faces.

George always ensures his employees adhere to their lunch schedules and breaks.

Negative

Todd is continually late for work and should work on this over the next few months to improve in this area.

Heather fails to show up to work on time and keep a normal work schedule

Timothy leads meetings which frequently run beyond their allotted time. Over the next year, Timothy should ensure that his meetings start and end on time.

Jane consistently runs late from her breaks and needs to ensure the breaks are only for the allotted time.

Communication

Positive

One of Sally's most important skills is her ability to effective communicate complex topics. Over the past year, this ability has been very useful for the company and has helped alleviate several problems which arose.

Keith always asks for immediate feedback to ensure he is on task and performing his work correctly.

One of Frank's strengths his ability to provide candor and effectively communicate change with his employees.

Hilda's project teams always commend the way she communicates and encourages communication.

The feedback Jim provides his coworkers has been essential in how the team improved over the past year.

Negative

Communication is one of the areas Jack should work on this year. Effectively communicating involves more than just providing information when demanded, but proactively providing information to the team as issues arise. Additionally, jack should work on the tone of his communication. Communicating effectively means communicating in a style and tone which the listener finds easy to accept and understand.

Terry continually attempts to withhold important information form team members.

Jim should work on his ability to take feedback and criticism from coworkers. Too often, Jim feels the need to "lash out" when presented with constructive criticism.

Janet needs to improve on how she communicates bad news to her management team. She has a tendency to withhold the information for fear of how it will make her look which is causing problems on how the management team runs the business.

Cooperation

Positive

One of the positives from this past year has been how Shirley has cooperated through the difficult company merger. Shirley has demonstrated a willingness to work with the transition teams and provided an excellent example of how cooperation can yield results.

Heather always creates a positive and inclusive work environment.

One of the more effective things about Jennifer's management style is here ability to build consensus. This has helped cut down on the animosity between the team members over the past year and improved productivity significantly.

Jerry creates an atmosphere where people can share their thoughts – good and bad – and not fear retribution or intimidation.

Negative

Kevin should work to improve his cooperation. Over the past year, there have been several instances where Kevin has refused to cooperate despite the timing pressures facing his coworkers, which has caused a considerable loss in productivity for the team.

There have been multiple instances of shouting matches between Harry and his coworkers over the past year. Harry should improve his interpersonal skills over the next year.

Jim has a tendency to make other people feel intimidated when they ask for his assistance.

Creativity and Innovation

Positive

Doug shows how innovation and creativity can significantly improve a company's performance. Doug's willingness to take chances was shown in the ad campaign he pitched which on the face looked like it would bomb, but proved to be a smash hit.

Shannon took many steps to improve processes for the team over the past year. These steps were innovative and resulted in a 30 % productivity gain on the team.

Kevin has a knack for changing directions when presented with new information.

A great attribute of John is his ability to skillfully move around obstacles as they present themselves.

Gina found a creative workaround to the customer billing issues which has improved revenues by 22%.

Negative

Over the past year Todd has been a very consistent employee. Throughout this time, Todd has performed his work as instructed, but did not take any opportunities to think about new ways he could be working. Improving process and procedures could be a significant benefit to the company, but Todd needs to work on his creativity and how to think about the steps he takes in his work and how he can reduce the time it takes.

Time creates a stifling environment which is not conducive to creativity.

Lilly is not willing to take chances and step out.

Walter is reluctant to explore new ideas, processes, or alternatives.

The sales team has an effective telephone script which is shown to work. Jim consistently tries to "reinvent the wheel" and not work within the system which is designed for success.

Wording of annual reviews should be frank and honest; this is a partial list of the matrix used by some companies. Others may include:

Customer Service, Goal and Objective setting, Initiative, Job Knowledge, Leadership and Listening Skills.

Remember annual reviews are a year long process, and should never be a surprise. An employees' self review should be close to their manager's review of their performance.