Employee reviews can be a powerful tool for engaging and motivating your team. Here are three rules to help supercharge your employee reviews.

By David Schreiner

Employee reviews can be fraught with tension on both sides of the table. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

At your place of business, are reviews a rote exercise met with dread from both parties? Or is it an inspirational opportunity for you as a leader to meaningfully engage with the people who matter most to you – people who play a key role in achieving organizational goals?

Here are three ways to supercharge your employee reviews.

Rule 1: No surprises

Regular one-to-one meetings throughout the year are a best practice that allows the leader and the employee to ensure priorities and actions are aligned. If something comes up for the first time during the employee review, especially something negative, that’s on the manager.

These one-to-one meetings should have an agenda that includes:

• A catch-up on personal items the employee chooses to share (think kids sports or a new job for their partner)
• Personal development
• A review of key performance indicators
• A discussion of obstacles to success the leader might be able to mitigate
• Dreaming for the next period

These one-to-ones can be accomplished in 30 minutes or less. If the scope of control for the leader doesn’t allow time for these conferences due to the number of direct reports, I suggest you look at your organizational chart.

Rule 2: What’s the one thing?

I love to ask colleagues this question as a component of our annual review: What’s the one thing you could learn, change, or develop to make everything else easier?

My experience is that much like the resolution of a customer service complaint, the ask is much easier to deliver than you might expect. This question often leads to a discussion of a task the employee performs that does not allow them to operate at the top of their license. Could this person be freed up to thrive if you as the leader took that task off their hands and assigned it to someone at a lower level of the workplace?

Think about how you would feel if you could give away something you do not enjoy doing, but someone has to do that job. By listening to your employee during the review and following through, removing an obstacle that’s hindering their growth, that employee might deliver a new and exciting performance.

Are there tools your employees need to increase their performance? Software, technology, and devices in the marketplace might lead to greater productivity and enjoyment of the work. Microsoft Copilot has revolutionized the way I communicate. Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work.

Leaders should ask themselves, What is the core role of this individual, and what could be added to their toolbelt? The key here is not to offer suggestions but to ask for their thoughts. As discussed above, the cost might have a positive return on investment.

Rule 3: Dream

This is my favorite part of the annual employee review. Ask your colleagues to imagine themselves in their lives one year from now. The past year has exceeded everyone’s and, most importantly, their own expectations.

They met and exceeded every key performance indicator. Leadership recognized them as making a meaningful contribution towards the company’s success. And their professional satisfaction and feeling of success exceeded their wildest expectations.

Here is the critical component to this challenge: encourage them to describe that moment one year from now in vivid detail.

• What happened?
• How did it feel?
• Who was instrumental in making them so successful?
• How did their family and friends react to their success?
• How did this level of astonishing success change their life?

I want them to feel it, breathe it, soak in it. To thrive as human beings, we have to dream. We must imagine a state that makes us feel fulfilled on multiple levels.

In conclusion, employee reviews can be a powerful tool for engaging and motivating your team. By following the three rules of no surprises, focusing on the one thing that can make everything else easier, and dreaming about the future, you can supercharge your employee reviews and help your team members achieve their full potential. Take the time to invest in your team and see the results in increased productivity, satisfaction, and success … for you and them!

Beckers – May 2024

Even when the going gets tough, Dixon, Ill.-based Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital CEO David Schreiner, PhD, and CFO Austin B. Frazier Jr. have successfully collaborated to evolve and develop strategies, with a little bit of laughter, to strengthen their working relationship.

“I think that for these two people to be on the same team and aligned is highly important for organizations,” Dr. Schreiner told Becker’s. 

KSB Hospital recently shared plans to merge with Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare by the end of the fourth quarter, a move that would strengthen and grow the services that the hospital provides to the community. 

“I think that gives us a chance from a culture perspective to continue what we think is a pretty vibrant culture here at KSB with an affiliate partner,” Dr. Schreiner said.

A culture that both Dr. Schreiner and Mr. Frazier continuously work hard to improve. 

While some CEOs employ a top-down approach to management, a shift in leadership to open communication and dedication to building trust with employees will mitigate challenges and diversions faced in the changing healthcare atmosphere. 

“Dave is my mentor but also is a friend,” Mr. Frazier told Becker’s. “When I personally have a challenge or issue, I can bring those things to him and we can talk about it in an open conversation as opposed to it being a dictatorship to a certain degree.”

It’s this type of empathy and communication that Dr. Schreiner would love to see expand across the entire CEO role. 

“We can always be better in executive communication,” Dr. Schreiner said. “The way that we interact with the people that matter the most to us, how we listen, how we express gratitude, how we do things that make them know that we care about them.”

The CFO role has also evolved, and is no longer thought of as behind the scenes, crunching numbers in an office all day, but instead a more visible and strategic position, working to educate colleagues on the financial and strategic happenings across the organization.

“CFO as a teacher is really important,” Dr. Schreiner said on what he looks for in a CFO. “The CFO has that ability to see things happening outside of our organization and within the industry, and he or she can bring those best practices back to our place, and we need that desperately.”

Moving forward, Mr. Frazier would like to see CFOs become more generalists instead of specialists.

“I think a lot of the CFOs come with that accounting background,” Mr. Frazier said. “They’re CPAs to a tee but they don’t have those other additional duties as assigned skill sets. Becoming more generalist in all topics that include revenue as well as strategy are going to be front and center to help complement the CEO.”

As both the world of healthcare and the CEO and CFO relationship continues to evolve, Mr. Frazier and Dr. Schreiner agree that even in the most difficult of times, laughter is the best medicine.

“We laugh either at each other, at my golf swing,” Mr. Frazier said. “We laugh a lot. I think that that helps to resonate and disarm the conversations, when especially some challenging moments that go through budgeting, processing, forecasting. Those are not fun topics to do, so if you can add some humor and color into that. It goes a long way.”