A well-prepared annual appraisal interview, on both the manager's and the employee's side, is the guarantee of a useful appraisal interview, but it's not enough. Your posture, the messages you use on the day and the rigor with which you follow up on the interview are just as important. 

It's important to conduct an annual performance review on the day of the interview, because it's a managerial act that will save you time for the rest of the year:

• If it's carried out properly, the annual appraisal interview is like a contract that you renew with your employees every 6/12 months.
• The techniques you use during this annual meeting will be useful and valid for all other moments of engagement with your teams: 360 interviews, 1-to-1 exchanges, feedback sessions.... 

As a reminder, as a manager, you may have different objectives behind this annual appraisal interview:

• Taking stock of the past year
• Identify your employee's development aspirations
• Set objectives for the coming year
• Clarify your expectations as a manager
• Provide constructive feedback
• Identify training needs

In this article, we share with you 3 managerial tips to apply before, during and after that will help you to conduct your employees' annual appraisal interviews effectively, and make them a real management tool.
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1 - Before the annual appraisal interview: sharing the appraisal interview outline

To ensure a structured, useful and actionable discussion, it's important to prepare the interview well, by defining the framework you're going to follow during your discussion with the employee, i.e.: what points do you want to cover?

To this end, we recommend that you draw up an annual appraisal interview grid with the various categories of topics you wish to cover during the appraisal interview: past achievements during the past year (both successes and failures), areas for improvement, key skills, training wishes... These are topics that you and your employee will need to think about before the annual appraisal interview to ensure that it is a success. To do this, share the interview grid with your employee when you formally invite him/her by e-mail to his/her end-of-year interview. It's a kind of self-assessment that will enable your employee to take stock of the past year. This annual interview guide will be your basis for discussion on the big day.

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In the same e-mail, don't hesitate to specify how the interview will be conducted, to help your colleague plan for the exchange.

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2 - During the annual performance review: adopt the right posture, especially from a distance

Whether you conduct your annual performance review face-to-face or remotely, your managerial posture, i.e. the verbal and non-verbal language you use with your employees, plays a decisive role in their ability to receive the right messages as defined in your vision of success.

There are at least 3 practices you can easily adopt that will have a direct impact on the smooth running of your annual meeting.

First of all, it's important to ask your employee questions. This will enable you to create an exchange during the year-end interview, and avoid the top-down approach of sharing your list of feedback and points for improvement with your employee. We recommend using open-ended questions to get the employee talking as much as possible during the annual review.

Then, rephrase as much as possible the ideas and actions your colleague shares with you. There's nothing worse than an appraisal interview where the manager only half listens to what the member of his team tells him, and comes out of the interview with approximate ideas and actions. One way of rephrasing what a team member shares with you during the annual appraisal interview is to say: "So, if I understand correctly..., is that it?". From a distance, you can also share the interview guide document on which you take notes, so that both parties can agree unambiguously on the findings and actions to be taken.

Depending on the context of the annual appraisal (encouragement, refocusing...), your posture will obviously need to be adapted (directive, collaborative...) to make the appraisal a success?

Last but not least, you need to clearly set out the stages of the annual appraisal interview and, above all, the actions you will be taking in the future to help the employee progress. 

Concerning the actions to be taken following the annual appraisal interview, it is important to verbalize 3 points: 

• The agenda: how much time do you give yourself to implement the action defined together during the annual meeting. An example might be: "We'll give ourselves three months to work on the subject".

• The vision of success: you'll be a happy manager and employee at the end of the period defined together if...? In a way, this is the moral contract that you sign together, manager and employee, during the annual performance review. An example of wording might be: "the objective is that, at the end of these three months, you should be as comfortable during team meetings and copil meetings as you are during our individual meetings". 
• Follow-up methods and frequency: here you need to define the frequency and the various stages you will set together to help your colleague progress. An example of wording might be: "I suggest that we systematically spend half of our 1:1 preparing your presentations, and that 2 days before the Copils we do a rehearsal. I'll let you plan this in your diary and give me the information I need beforehand to prepare myself properly. During the rehearsals, I'll play a critical role to help you train, but I don't want this to damage our relationship. We'll have an update after each Copil and a mid-term review in 6 weeks' time."
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3 - After the annual review: formalize the actions taken and monitor them on an ongoing basis

Now that you've had your annual appraisal interview and are well prepared and have adopted the right managerial postures, you should emerge with a clear action and development plan for your employee.

To ensure that this development plan doesn't end up on the shelf, it's important to follow up on the annual performance review. It's vital to formalize your respective discussions and commitments in the form of an interview report. Be careful, however, not to take your colleague too much by the hand. The success of a development plan is the joint responsibility of the manager (who must do his or her utmost to help, guide and advise the employee throughout the development process) and the employee (who must be a source of ideas on how to achieve his or her objectives).

To formalize the actions taken at this annual review, send an e-mail to your employee within 7 days, setting out the actions to be taken, and making the employee aware of his or her responsibilities: choose a coach, ask for an internal introduction, offer help in preparing the REX... It's up to the employee to think about how to carry out the development actions and achieve the objectives you set together at the annual review. As a manager, however, don't forget that your role will be to help and support him in this process, to put him in a position to succeed.

But the follow-up to the end-of-year performance review is more than just sending out a summary e-mail. The actions taken during the annual review are like a moral contract that manager and employee sign together for the months ahead. So remember to include a review of this action and development plan in the agenda for your one-to-one meetings with your colleague. Also use your feedback diary to document your observations of your employee's skills, willingness, posture on the key topics seen together during their annual appraisal interview, and give them fairly direct feedback on this.
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Conclusion

Conducting annual performance reviews is a powerful management tool that can save managers time throughout the year. By preparing well for the interview, you maximize your chances of making it a success. Knowing how to conduct a good end-of-year interview is a key skill for managers, and one that can be learned!

Adapt your appraisal techniques and posture to suit your employees, adopt active listening, ask the right questions, have a good interview outline, send an appraisal grid to invite your employee to prepare well for the interview, use reformulation as much as possible... in short, there are many techniques and good practices to adopt to make your end-of-year interviews a success. Adopt them this year, and you'll soon see the benefits in terms of your staff's performance.