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The beginning of the year means it’s time for annual performance reviews in many marketing departments. If your department is among them, you can jumpstart the process by keeping these four keys to performance reviews in mind:

  1. What do you want the employee to take away from the review? Answer this question in one sentence or less, and you’ll have your focus for the entire review process. Before you begin performance reviews, sit down to consider each employee’s work over the last year, so you can produce an answer tailored to each person’s performance, behavior, and ability to improve.
  2. Two views are better than one. Regardless of how carefully you create your lists of observations or how well you back them up with evidence, the risk of being the only person to present a view of the employee is that you may be written off as “just one person.” Instead, help the employee prepare for the review by asking him or her to conduct a self-review in advance. Then, compare your review results with the employee’s. You’ll learn how self-aware each person is, and the points of overlap or difference will offer natural starting points for discussion.
  3. Focus on the actions, not the person. It’s natural for human beings to take a defensive emotional stance if they feel personally attacked or slighted – even if this is not the speaker’s intent. To defuse this tendency and give specific, measurable feedback on which to evaluate the employee’s future performance, focus on particular actions or behaviors the employee needs to improve and the measurable steps he or she can take to improve them. For example, saying “you can be abrasive” may put an employee on the defensive, but “you are rude to customers on the phone” names a specific behavior and allows you to give specific feedback on how to be more courteous during a call.
  4. Consider the whole picture. Perhaps you have an employee who did well for eleven months, but who blew a major project just two weeks before the end of the year. Or another employee’s work has been dropping in quality because he or she has been filling in while managers scramble to hire another qualified individual. Before targeting any particular lapse, look at the entire picture. This will broaden your perspective and help you give more effective, useful advice.

At SMR Group Ltd, our recruiters specialize in helping sales and marketing departments in the biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries find the right people for the job. Contact us today to learn more.


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