This article serves as information for both managers and employees to be able to conduct employee appraisals correctly. However, it is probably a bit more relevant for the former, as the greater part of the responsibility for leading, conducting and evaluating employee appraisals lies with them.
After all parties have prepared well for an employee appraisal, the moment of truth comes at some point and the interview takes place. (You can find out what this preparation can look like for managers and employees in our separate blog posts)
However, the success of the conversation depends not only on the content, but also on the correct communication between the participants. In this blog post, we will show you what you should pay particular attention to here and also in the follow-up of such a conversation.
Interviewing Techniques – Conducting Appraisal Interviews Correctly
For good communication with other people, it is helpful to learn and master some conversation techniques or skills. In the first step, you should make sure that your counterpart can understand you acoustically at all. In concrete terms, this means:
- Create a good atmosphere (The conversation should take place in a quiet place and start in a relaxed or casual way, for example with a simple introductory question about the emotional state)
- Stick to the rules of conversation! This refers to respectful communication with each other by letting the other person finish speaking and not interrupting him. In addition, you should try not to hold long monologues, but also give your conversation partner equal space for comments, reactions or the presentation of your own concerns.
- Don’t talk too loudly, but also not too quietly (pay attention to the room acoustics)
- Pronounce words clearly and do not mumble (clear pronunciation can be practiced at any time in all situations)
- Pay attention to the correct speaking pace. Fast enough not to seem soporific, but also slow enough that your counterpart can follow you.
In the next step, when the conversation really picks up speed in terms of content, you should know and use the following conversation techniques:
Active Listening:
This is about actually listening to the other person with concentration and processing and understanding what is being said. Listening actively and attentively is essential for good communication, because it reduces the likelihood that those involved will talk past each other. It thus creates the opportunity to respond to each other and to better understand each other’s concerns. So make sure to focus your full attention on the conversation. This conversation technique is the most important and usually the prerequisite for all subsequent
In this technique, you reproduce what your interlocutor says in your own words (the prerequisite for this is, of course, active listening). This ensures that everything has been understood correctly and that there are no misunderstandings, as ambiguities can be clarified immediately at this point. In addition, this gives you a moment to think about an answer to what has been said and your conversation partner notices that you are actually listening to him. The use of this technique is also a sign of appreciation.
Analyze:
Some people have a talent for misleading, manipulating, or distracting others from the actual content of the conversation. Even if this is not intended, such situations can certainly occur. Do not let this influence you and do not insinuate anything that is not true in order to avoid later misunderstandings or the spread of untruths. Therefore, try to analyze what has been said. Keep the actual topic in focus, what was really said about it and what was not.
Mirror:
People like symmetry and harmony. Because these give us a feeling of well-being. With the mirror technique, you can make this well. This means that if your counterpart speaks in a very low and calm voice, it makes sense to adapt to it and not shout hysterically. The same applies to body language. However, make sure that you have a reasonable framework in which you feel comfortable. You should not completely disguise yourself and simply imitate everything your counterpart does, because this is noticeable and looks very unnatural.
Summarize:
An appraisal interview lasts about 30-60 minutes or longer, depending on how much there is to discuss. In this long time, many topics are often discussed and the brain gets a large amount of information to process. As a result, it can happen that at the end of the conversation you don’t really know exactly what was discussed. Therefore, it makes sense to summarize the most important results of the conversation together and also to record them in writing. Here you can also check again whether all points that have been prepared in advance by the interview guide/evaluation sheet have really been discussed or whether there are additional points that are important and have been forgotten up to this point. Take the opportunity here to address everything that has remained unclear, because ideally none of the participants should leave the conversation with question marks in their heads.
At the final conclusion, the further procedure can be discussed. This means that you should clarify what the next steps are and when, if necessary, you will meet again for a conversation to evaluate progress, etc. or to discuss further measures. This is important so that every participant leaves the conversation with a task or a concrete goal and immediately knows what needs to be done and what can be actively worked on.
Follow-up of Employee Appraisals
Now it’s done and hopefully you have successfully conducted the interview. But what now?
In order for you to benefit from the conversation in the long term, it is important to record all results in a structured and careful way afterwards. If you have already taken notes during the conversation, look through them again and arrange, structure or comment on them again if necessary so that they are still understandable for you after some time. This is best done shortly after the conversation, when all the content is still fresh in your memory. For example, after or during the interview, you can create an overview of strengths, wishes and set goals for the future for each employee.
For this purpose, the evaluation form/guideline can be used (if available) and you can supplement or expand the content with what has been discussed. This gives you the opportunity to orient yourself again and again in the future and not to forget anything important. You should then keep this documentation easily accessible so that you can regularly review progress and recall what you have discussed. It is no use documenting everything nicely if no one ever looks at it again afterwards and makes sure that what has been captured is carried out in practice.
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