When and how often should I conduct performance reviews?

There are no federal laws dictating periodic performance reviews. Though, some states have industry-specific guidelines for performance reviews, such as teachers in Illinois.

If your state’s labor laws don’t dictate performance reviews, it’s advisable to implement a clear company policy to ensure that your review process is applied equally to all of your employees.

Set a Schedule for Formal Reviews

Conducting annual performance reviews near the end of the year is a relatively common practice. However, if your schedule allows and you have the management resources to do so, it may be more effective to implement bi-annual or quarterly reviews. Frequent reviews can help keep employees focused on improving their performance, as well as allowing for more opportunities to recognize hard-working employees’ efforts.

Allow for Additional Situational Reviews

Some employees need to be reviewed more often than others, for example recently hired employees, those who’ve been repeatedly warned against a specific behavior, or those put on a probationary period.

For example, your performance review policy could require new hires to be reviewed after their first 3 months, and again after their first 6. You could also require employees to be reviewed after they receive a given number of warnings, or at the end of a probationary period. Just be sure your performance review policy is applied equally to all of your employees.

Conclusion

A best practice is to hold formal performance reviews for all employees at least once per year. Be sure to treat employees equally in regards to the regularity of their scheduled reviews.

Helpful Links:

Legal Guidelines for Conducting Employee Performance Reviews – ASAECenter.org

How do we handle performance reviews for employees that change supervisors? – zenefits.com

Reinventing Performance Management – hbr.org