How to improve performance reviews with skills data

The performance review is one of the main methods companies use to evaluate the skills of their employees. Although most employees consider the annual assessment to be useful and beneficial, 48% of them still dread this moment.

This statistic shows how important it is for HR to support their people in this process. To make the performance review a tool for employee engagement, you need to understand the motivations, ambitions and challenges of everyone at your organization. 

In this article, you will find a review of the process of setting up annual performance reviews and advice on how to adopt a skills-based approach to assessments — and what that means for your HR tech stack.

How to set up a performance review

Annual reviews are an excellent opportunity for employees to consider their career development. But before embarking on the process, it is important to understand how to prepare for it as HR.

Step 1: Preparation — Define your objectives and evaluation criteria

It all starts with formulating realistic and achievable objectives for your people. Then, it is necessary to define concrete, measurable evaluation criteria that are adapted to each department or role. The goal is to ensure productive and constructive discussions. 

Once that framework is completed, it’s time to involve your people.

Step 2: Preparation — Share your objectives and evaluation criteria

Make sure that employees and managers clearly understand the objectives and the evaluation grid of the interview. A successful interview starts with clear communication. You should take the time to explain to your team members how and why they will be evaluated and give them sufficient time in advance to reflect on their progress.

Step 3: Scheduling — Determine the right period

Selecting the right time of year to conduct your interviews is essential. Choose a time that is conducive to reflection for your employees. If possible, conduct these interviews over a common period shared by everyone at the company. This is a way to engage the company's employees in their future and that of your company. Most performance reviews are conducted before or immediately after a slowdown in workload: vacation periods, drops in activity, public holidays...December and January are particularly popular times of year for the annual reviews.

Step 4: Scheduling — Set up individual meetings with employees

Make sure that the form and content of your meetings are in line with your objectives. This means that you will have to send the interview outline or agenda in advance (with built-in spaces for answers) and you will want to think carefully about the space in which you will conduct your interviews. If they are physical meetings, choose a quiet and confidential place where your employees will be comfortable speaking candidly. For video conferencing, provide appointment slots to allow for choice and adapt to any needs.

Step 5:  Workforce planning –  Empower and involve your employees 

Providing actionable feedback during the performance review is very important. You must make it a point to recognize the progress made and identify areas for growth or potential skill gaps. Your role is to position yourself as a facilitator and help your people chart their own course for progress. To do this, be honest, direct and factual. All feedback should be documented and accompanied by a personalized action plan.

Step 6: Workforce planning — Refine your development plans

Performance review discussions are a valuable way to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your team and allow you to capitalize on this information to set up training and development plans to bridge present and future skill gaps, or simply support your employees in achieving their professional goals.

How to use skills to supercharge your performance reviews

A well-conducted performance review is a tool for gathering valuable information on the skills and competencies of your employees. It is therefore necessary to place this data at the center of your approach. 

Before, during and after the assessment, 365Talents supports your people, managers and HR in this effort👇

Before the interview

With 365Talents, employees are the drivers of their professional development and they have the power to self-declare skills data as well as their career path ambitions. The platform allows them to self-declare (and their managers and peers to validate!) the expertise levels of each skill and note the interest in or need for training.

How to apply it to the performance review?

This wealth of information is then processed by our AI-powered solution to help HR align your employee’s development with their ambitions and needs. 365Talents helps you visualize the present or potential skill gaps to determine the objectives and evaluation grid needed for your interviews.

During the interview 

Refer back to your prepared materials and the actionable insights 365Talents has provided on your employee’s skills and career path to help them chart their course for progress while making note – whether in your assessment tool or internally-created form – of new skills or details to you wish to add to the platform.

After the interview

As mentioned, during the interview, you will likely use a best-in-breed assessment tool, or perhaps rely on templates or documents you have created internally to record what you discuss. 365Talents makes it easy to add this information to your existing centralized library of skills data, integrating with most external assessment software and offering easy import should you opt for internal templates.

Once the interviews have been completed, our artificial intelligence helps you to identify the strengths and areas for improvement. These trends will allow you to identify priority needs for both your employees and your business. You can also use this skills analysis to suggest personalized training. Once again, your managers are your best allies to really support each employee in their development. The goal is motivate your people and help them achieve their ambitions while fostering engagement with your future HR initiatives.

Why integrate your assessment and talent experience tools?

For optimal talent management, you don't necessarily need an all-in-one HR and operational platform – seamless integration capabilities are your best friend! Your talent management tool doesn't need to include an annual assessment module because integration with an assessment tool is more than enough when you combine two best-in-breed solutions that complement and speak to each other.

Consolidating and sharing your skills data across your HR tech stack will offer better visibility on your employees’ skills and allow you to better engage and empower your teams and managers. With a common language, library and visualization of skills data, managers will know which strengths and weaknesses to spend time on during annual interviews.

3 benefits of integrating 365Talents with your assessment tools

365Talents connects every piece of professional assessment information for each of your employees to your talent experience platform. That benefits you in 3 ways: 

1. Your skills framework is centralized, unified and shared across your solutions to better manage, track and develop your employees' soft and hard skills.

2. Your employees can better know themselves and manage their career development with a user-friendly and engaging experience that draws from more skills data for better recommendations and smart suggestions. 

3. Your talent experience benefits from the more transparent and cross-functional sharing of information.

What makes 365Talents an employee-first choice?

We believe that engaging employees in the professional and skill development process is a crucial step for a successful talent management strategy. 365Talents’s matching explanation feature shows why the opportunity was suggested to the employee, based on their level of expertise and declared skills. Our AI learns continuously to agiley develop your people’s employability and improve your company's competitiveness against the market. This is the basis for a sustainable skills-based approach that focuses on your employees' needs, interests and ambitions. 

The performance review is an underused tool for engagement. Capitalizing on the motivations, career goals and challenges communicated during these discussions can allow you to better support your employees. This data is essential to not only evaluate their performance, but encourage them and align your HR initiatives with the real personal and business needs of your people. 

Want to learn more about how to leverage and integrate skills-first talent management with your assessment platform and process? Get in touch with 365Talents today.