Hi, I’m Claire from Delaget. Performance management is ongoing and includes training, coaching, and one-on-one meetings, all aimed at sustaining or improving your team’s performance. This all comes together in the form of a performance appraisal. Unfortunately in the restaurant industry, employee reviews often focus on money with little or no time reflecting on actual performance. Here are 8 tips on maximizing the delivery of your performance appraisal package, and improving your team’s results:

1. Capture the full time-period

Be sure to provide an accurate assessment on the entire time-period. Don’t rely on your memory alone – keep performance notes throughout the review cycle as a reminder of important contributions and gaps that you’ll want to include in the assessment. Make a habit of dropping a note in the employee’s file or logging comments in your online system throughout the year.

2. Use your data

Let your employees know how their individual performance and behavior contributed to the restaurant’s success. What they do matters, and by tying their performance to actual metrics makes it real. If you have an employee productivity tool like Delaget Detect or Delaget Coach, use it to identify a few key takeaways you can highlight during the review.

3. Collect insight from your team

Include your entire management team on employee reviews, which allows you to gather more insight on the employee’s performance. It also reinforces to the employee that they work for the entire management team and not just the store leader.

4. Avoid surprise ratings and comments

Ratings and comments should be a culmination of all the coaching, feedback, and discussions that have taken place during the past year or six months. Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings, mid-term performance updates, and self-appraisals done in advance can help avoid surprises – especially negative ones.

5. Be honest, even if it means a tough conversation

You owe it to yourself and your employees to be honest. Always tell them like it is. This is especially true when dealing with an underperformer. Restaurant managers often shy away from tough conversations and try to avoid confrontation. The key to success is to prepare your managers for delivering performance reviews. Role-playing is a great way to develop these skills.

6. Don’t forget about the performance part of the performance appraisal

When you make performance reviews just about money, you’re depriving employees and your business from an opportunity to do better, and it’s a disservice to you both. Be sure to take 5 to 10 minutes to provide constructive feedback and set goals for the next review cycle.

7. Make the review discussion important

Schedule an agreed-upon time to conduct the review conversations, verses squeezing them in when you have time. Off-site, on neutral turf is a good idea when possible. Take the time to explain the review, ratings, and your comments, then agree on goals. When it comes to compensation, explain how much they’ve earned, and when they can expect to see it on their paycheck.

8. Show your appreciation

Remember to thank employees for their performance and their contributions to your team’s success.

There is so much on the line for your business, and you can’t do it alone. You’ll be more successful with a highly-trained, well-tenured staff. Performance management is the foundation for advancing your team’s skills, and developing your next leaders.

In addition to reviews, you can improve your team’s performance on a daily basis with employee productivity tools like Delaget Detect. Delaget Guard grades employee performance based on company goals, and identifies employees who are struggling, so your managers can immediately provide the needed training, encouragement, or disciplinary actions.