Let’s face it: annual performance review is often seen as an unpleasant session, both for managers and employees. Managers don’t enjoy having awkward conversation with their employees and criticising their works. Meanwhile, employees don’t like being trapped in a session under close scrutiny.

Not only creating an uncomfortable atmosphere in the room, there are times when the true functions of a performance review cannot be conceived well. Only few employees actually take note of the feedbacks they receive, make improvements, and demonstrate meaningful progress afterwards. What about the others? Some employees might think that performance review is no more than just an annual done for the formality sake. This type of employee tends to belittle performance review as they face it and just let it pass without making any difference.

While some people say that performance review is ineffective because it often fails to point out the real problems in employee’s performance and productivity, some others still believe that such review is crucial to help business leaders measure the workforce’s work quality. The trick is to implement the right performance review strategy that can encourage your employees to improve themselves. Here are three ways you can conduct meaningful performance review:

See also: 7 Important Questions to Evaluate Your Performance at Work

Focus on both progress and pitfalls

As an employer, you want a performance review to be an effective medium to evaluate and improve employee’s performance in the future. However, some employees might see it differently because they are afraid of being judged and blamed for their past errors and failures.

To eliminate this kind of thinking, it is your job to give them proper understanding regarding to the true intentions of a performance review. You can do this by paying equal attention to both progress and pitfalls faced by employees. Instead of focusing only on their mistakes and make them feel intimidated, you should appreciate their hard work and achievements as well.

In this case, language is the key to implement impactful performance review. Changing the negative words into the positive ones will make the criticisms easily received without ignoring the true meaning.

For example, saying “I think we need to work and improve this area” sounds much better than “You have failed to deliver expected performance in this area.”

Conduct regular review

Some people say that performance review is inaccurate because it is only conducted once a year that makes it difficult to review year-long employee’s performance records all at once. Not to mention, employee’s performance tends to vary over time, as there will be ups and downs in their career. This could mean that when they are reviewed during the good times, they will get good assessment as well. On the contrary, if they happen to face challenges and cannot manage them well, they could get negative feedbacks in return.

Owing to this reason, performance review should be conducted in regular and continuous basis. Instead of waiting for the end of the year to talk about it with employees, you can arrange regular private meeting with them every four or six months so the discussion will run more smoothly. When performance review is conducted the right way, it could motivate them to achieve growth and contribute more to the organisation.

Support and facilitate personal growth

Every business leader would want their employees to be what the company needed. However, a good employer knows that it should be more than that. While it is crucial to make sure that employees are making contribution to the organisation, in return the company needs to pay attention to employee’s needs too. Be it career development, personal growth, or financial compensation, you should support and facilitate them to achieve both personal and professional development.

During a performance review, you can check if they have received the support they need to improve their skills and knowledge, while asking their insights about what area the company should improve. This strategy will not only motivate your employees to work harder, but also increase employee retention and reduce voluntary turnover.

Next read: Promoting Wellbeing: Tips to Manage Employees’ Mental Health in the Workplace