Performance reviews are an important part of our development at work. As professionals we want to know what we can do to take the next step in our career, and as an employer, it’s likely that you’ll relish the chance to meet with your staff and talk through how they’re doing, addressing any issues or highlighting any particular achievements.
But many are beginning to ask the question: should workers be assessed solely on their own personal performance, or their performance as part of their team? Though we all have our own workload to contend with, the majority of us will operate as part of a wider group of colleagues and many successes wouldn’t be achieved without this collectiveness. Below we will discuss the best way to assess the performance of your workforce.
Personal assessments
Assessing an employee as an individual often requires you to measure them up against their job description. You should address whether they are able to manage their workload and whether they get on well with their daily tasks, but also whether they have taken on additional responsibilities. Setting your staff individual goals or targets is a great way to monitor their progress throughout the year and set a blueprint for future success.
Team assessments
When assessing team performance it’s better to look at support and output as a whole. Again, setting targets, this time team targets, is a great way to measure the output and success of your teams. You also need to take note of whether they are working well together and supporting one another in order to achieve their goals. There is also an element of individual assessment here as you can look at how each employee contributes to the team effort on a more personal level.
So should you focus on individual or team performance?
The answer is, you should consider both individual and team performance if you want to accurately measure the success of your workforce. As previously stated, you can measure the team effort as a whole, but delve deeper into what each member brings to the team.
It’s important to look at both for a number of reasons. Assessing people individually means you can address any problems they may be having, as well as celebrating anything they are particularly good at. Not only this, but you can help them to develop their own career by talking through the next steps. Everyone needs to focus on their own goals every now and then, and paying close attention to individuals will help to retain dedicated members of staff.
On the other hand, focussing on the output of the team is a great way to get your staff working together for an end goal, plus this helps you to measure their success. Good colleagues are great at supporting each other and pushing each other to take it up a notch. Assessing team efforts is a great way to boost morale, perhaps even injecting healthy competition, into the workplace.
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The problem with only assessing people as a team is that unfortunately in some situations you may find that not everyone could be pulling their weight. Taking these people to one side and having a closer look at what they’re doing individually can help you to address any issues.
In conclusion, by focusing on both personal and team performance you can build a great company culture, where employees work closely together. What’s more employees will feel appreciated and supported by being given targets and next steps to help them boost their career.
