Annual appraisal interview: 5 tips to make it a practical and useful exchange

The annual appraisal interview period is the ideal opportunity to take stock of employees' skills and discuss objectives for the coming year. As a manager or leader, it is important to organize it well, in order to obtain convincing results.

From the planning stage to the adoption of the newly defined objectives, we offer you some steps to follow to make this exchange as practical as it is useful.

Schedule the meeting and inform the employee

In order for the annual performance review to be as constructive as possible,it is important for everyone to prepare for it in advance. Employees must be informed in advance. To do so, you can plan your interviews with an annual interview management software. Start by defining the date, place and time of the interview before providing the framework for the interview.

Indicate the date, place and time of the interview

The date, time and place of the meeting should be provided to employees in advance. As the name suggests, the annual performance review is a form of evaluation - and therefore confidential - and is addressed to the employee. In fact, the place chosen must guarantee the confidentiality of the exchange. You can, for example, book a coworking office, as a physical meeting is to be preferred.

Moreover, the date and time depend on your schedule and, in some cases, on the employee's.

Provide the interview outline that will be used during the interview

The interview form is the main thread of the annual appraisal interview. As a manager, you must complete it, sign it and have it signed by the employee. In addition to being a support for a successful interview, it allows you to keep a record of the action plan envisaged. Indeed, the interview form must be adapted to the situation and needs of your company.

In order to ensure that it is designed successfully, it is recommended that the main conclusions of the previous meeting be included in the first few lines.

Prepare the interview well in advance

The annual appraisal interview is governed by very specific principles, which is why it is important to prepare it in advance. The information requested from employees must have a direct and necessary link with the evaluation of their professional skills.

To avoid going outside this framework, you can proceed as follows.

Review the past year

Learning from the past is essential to projecting oneself into the future: this is the essence of this professional exchange. It is therefore time to take stock of the past year by comparing the objectives that were set with the results obtained. If the employee is a new recruit, he or she can consider the assessment of his or her predecessor.

In the interest of the company, these results must be qualified in the most impartial way possible.

Setting goals for the coming year

The best way to effectively set goals for the coming year is to use the results of the previous year's evaluations. This will allow you to address old limitations and hopefully make better progress. In addition, you should make sure that you set achievable goals, in line with the SMART ideal. They must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and temporal, according to your resources and your capacity to achieve them.

Discussing your evolutionary desires for the coming year

The evolution of a company depends on its members, from the lowest level to the highest. As an employer, you should always discuss your employee's wishes for the coming year. This not only allows you to know what your plans are for the company, but also to situate the responsibilities.

Build an exchange with the employee during the interview

One of the keys to a successful annual appraisal interview is to allow the employee to express himself. Indeed, the interview must take the form of a real exchange. Employees should be able to share their general view of the company. Allow them time to:

• Communicate their expectations,
• Formulate wishes or recommendations,
• Propose action plans in their area,
• Identify internal dysfunctions...

Proceeding in this way allows you to envisage, all together, a bright future for your company by improving its missions. Of course, the exchanges should only concern everything related to professional life.

Reporting back after the meeting

At the end of the meeting, you can send a written report to the employees. Please note that they do not have to sign it. Indeed, this is not mandatory, unless the collective agreement applicable in the company provides for it. Keep in mind, however, that the report contains all the information related to the roadmap for the coming year. Making it available to your employees could allow them to have in front of them the missions that are assigned to them in order to evolve in a good dynamic at work.

Implementing measures after the interview

In order to make the annual performance review as practical as it is useful, you need to think about the actions to be implemented thanks to the data collected. This is the time to set up individual and collective actions, and then to move on to the practical stage. The aim remains the same: to follow and, above all, to support your employees in their respective missions in order to achieve the new objectives.

Setting individual actions

In your position as an employer or manager, you have to set individual actions after the successful annual meeting with your employees. In addition to their personal resolutions, your word of mouth is essential and especially expected. For example, you can help the employee achieve goals by providing them with the necessary means. Don't forget the promises made during the meeting.

Furthermore, do not hesitate to congratulate him/her on his/her attitude at work. This action is important to get the employee to work in synergy with his peers to boost collective actions.

Setting up collective actions

Collective actions are carried out within a group and are just as important as individual actions. In fact, they complement each other. To set them, refer to the information resulting from the exchanges and make an overall analysis.

As a manager of a company with several entities, for example, you can set actions for each entity or group. If, in the meantime, delays in certain departments have contributed to the failure of an objective, the action to be defined may be to require regular reporting from the entity in question.