Anders Engquist is a researcher in psychology and one of Sweden's leading experts on communication with several books on employee appraisals. He states that a common purpose of employee appraisals is - To follow up and check on tasks and results - To give and receive praise and criticism - To cater to the individual's further development and measures for this - To get to know each other and learn from each other.

Engquist believes it is very important for the employee to have the chance to prepare for the conversation. This reduces nervousness and helps employees understand why it is important. Therefore, communicate a clear agenda and send out any question templates well in advance. Perhaps you can use the above purpose as the basis for your agenda?

A common mistake in employee appraisals is that the manager does most of the talking. Due to nervousness or poor preparation, the manager makes the conversation an opportunity to inform about things or to unburden themselves. Before the conversation, it might be useful to remind yourself of the three levels of listening:

Hearing - You listen to respond.

Listening - You listen to understand the message.

Understanding - You listen with empathy to understand the person.
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Another risk is that employees do not dare to tell everything they think about the workplace and how the tasks are because the employee appraisal often forms the basis for an upcoming salary discussion. When an employee has this in mind during the appraisal, it can lead to the employee trying to be the good employee instead of really telling if there are any problems. This is, in itself, a strong reason to conduct an anonymous employee survey. A common mistake is also that leaders go around sighing that it is so bothersome with employee appraisals and that it takes a lot of time. This sends out signals that the conversation is not important but a forced must.

As previously described, the perhaps most important purpose of employee appraisals is to really listen to your employees. At the same time, there is often an expectation to receive feedback, so that one can develop and take the next step. Giving feedback is an art form that often requires practice.

For the conversation to be structured, it is usually good to start from a template of questions that you ask all employees. The documentation of the conversations then becomes equivalent and you can compare year by year. In the question template below, we have tried to distill the best from similar templates from the largest Swedish unions. Furthermore, we have included a question that connects to Flourish, where you and your employee jointly look at some selected data points. The advantage is that the employee understands what you see in Flourish, which strengthens the sense of anonymity but also makes the conversation even more concrete as you look at measurable facts.

Template for Employee Appraisal:
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1. Work Content - Work situation in the past year

a. What has been the most difficult during the past year?

b. What do you want to improve?

c. What do you consider yourself to be really good at (and want to do more of)?

Notes:

2. Workplace Development - The organization's goals, etc.

a. How do you perceive the goals of the organization?

b. What do you want to see changed in the organization?

c. How do you perceive the goals of the work environment efforts?

Notes:

3. Work Climate & Work Environment - Collaboration, colleagues, etc.

Log in to Flourish and click on Metrics.
Choose three data points that you go through with the employee. Ask if they have ideas on what you as a team can do to improve these areas?

Notes:

4. Wishes for the Future - Personal development, etc.

a. What are your long-term goals? What is required to reach them?

b. What support do you need from me as a manager?

Notes: