The Caitlin Mitchell Show
After nearly a decade in business, it's time for me to share what I've learned about building a business focused on service leadership to help you on your journey as a business owner. My goal is for you to walk away from each episode with one thing - one sentence, one thought, one perspective shift, one new idea - that has an impact on you, your business, or your life.
The Caitlin Mitchell Show
The Exact Process I Use for My Annual Performance Reviews | Ep 13
April is the month when we hold our Annual Performance Reviews at EB Academics, where we take a look at our staff's progress, aligning with our financial cycle and providing a springboard for future development. We're not just assessing, but actively contributing to the success of our team.
This episode unpacks the collaborative and continuous dialogue integral to our review process, detailing the blend of self-assessment, core values, and the structured feedback that underpins our team’s success. Tune in and find out how we document these insights, forging a path for ongoing improvement and setting intentions that resonate throughout the year.
This episode covers how tailored coaching can elevate each team member's unique strengths. Whether it's boosting confidence, improving punctuality, or stepping out of comfort zones, our performance review process is designed to support continuous growth and peak performance.
Throughout this episode, I share the strategies in play—rooted in our core values like integrity and teamwork—that ensure reviews are more than just a checkbox exercise. You'll learn about the power of a simple one-to-five scale and the ways in which we hold each other accountable, all while fostering an environment of positivity. So, ready to reimagine your review process? Let's get started.
Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitlindmitchell/
Welcome back to another episode, everybody. A couple of weeks ago, I recorded an episode all about an actionable tweak to make two-year performance reviews so that they have a meaningful impact on your team. That was episode 11. And if you haven't had a chance to listen to that one, you'll wanna take a listen after this one, because that is a very specific strategy that I use when implementing performance reviews with my team. But today's episode I'm going to be talking about exactly how I structure our performance reviews at EB Academics, and I'm going to walk you through everything that's included in the performance review, how we set it up, all of that stuff, so that you can go ahead and create your own. And if you want to grab my template, you can also send me a direct message on Instagram. Caitlin D Mitchell and I'm happy to just share what our performance review looks like for you so that you can make it your own. All right, let's go ahead and get started. Okay, so, as we dive into today's episode, I do want to preface this by saying the performance reviews that I do with my team once a year are not the only times that I have conversations with my team about their performance. The only times that I have conversations with my team about their performance. We are constantly in communication about how they're doing, about goals, that they have, kpis, things along those lines, and I recorded an episode all about that. That's episode 10. If you want to go back and listen to the best and simplest way to implement KPIs in your business, that's going to be really helpful for just keeping a constant, open communication with your team on how they are doing in their role in the business so that when they get to the performance review, whenever you do them once a year, it's not like a out of left field. Oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening in conversation. They pretty much know what to expect when you go into your performance review because you are constantly talking to them about how they're doing. So, with that being said, I will say that I love performance reviews happening once a year, because it really is a great time to sit down for a longer period of time with every single one of your team members and really emphasize their role in not just providing feedback to you about how they're doing, but also about providing feedback for the company and for your leadership and how you're doing in a much more intentional, robust setting in terms of time that we get to dedicate to this conversation. So when we are looking at performance reviews, we're not just looking at how they performed, we're also looking at how do they want to perform in the future. You know how can we use a performance review to foster their development, their growth and things along those lines.
Speaker 1:Now I have a very specific framework and structure that I use for my performance reviews at EB academics and I like to utilize this because for me, it makes sure that I'm being consistent, that I am being fair and how I am kind of measuring everybody's quote unquote success, how we're determining that based on this performance review, and that I have just an effective evaluative process in order to be able to provide that feedback on a consistent basis to them. So what I wanna do do is I want to walk you through the actual structure of my performance review and what that looks like. So I meet with my team in April. I choose April for a few reasons it's not as busy at the company that time of the year. It also means that I have closed out, obviously, all of my books from the year prior, so I have an idea of exactly how the business did how it grew year over year things along those lines. Because during performance reviews, that's when I choose to give any raises, if we are able to give out raises based on how the company performs.
Speaker 1:Now bonuses, that's a different story. That's done at the end of the year at my company and I'm happy to have a conversation about that later with you guys too and how I structure that. But the performance review is typically when I'm gonna be talking about any sort of raise that's coming down the pipeline for this team member or these team members, et cetera. So I have them in April. You can have them whenever you want. April just works for my team and that's just what we continue to do. But I would just make it consistent throughout your years. So pick a time of the year when you have your books closed from the year prior and you know that you're not going to be super busy, because I will say it is a lot of your time that you are setting aside on your calendar to meet with every team member for at least 30 to 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Now, if you have a big team, you absolutely can do performance reviews, like your heads of departments do performance reviews with their team that works underneath them, but you might want to be a part of the majority of your performance reviews if your team's on the smaller side. Now we have 16 employees and I do all of the performance reviews for every single team member. So the purpose of the review and the way in which I structured the review is really to be used as a dialogue in order to help every single team member, and myself as their leader, to better understand the expectations, the requirements of the position, but also to recognize their contributions to the company, and so this really is like an interactive process. You and your team member are both working together to set goals to help them better understand the workflows, that you understand their workflow and things along those lines, and it's really meant to help strengthen areas that they need to improve and to highlight and recognize the areas where your team member excelled. So it's a both and so for our performance review.
Speaker 1:We essentially created like a rubric. So we have a scale of one to five and I'll walk you through what that means in just a second and then we have a variety of performance criteria that we are kind of rating actually, they are rating themselves on a scale of one to five, and then our core values are included as well. So the one to five is one is improvement is essential. So like this is where your employee is not meeting the minimum standard requirements, like, hopefully there are very few ones across the board at this point because you've been meeting with your team at least on a monthly basis, but this is like this team member is not applying themselves to perform as expected. It ain't good. That's the one.
Speaker 1:Two is a growth opportunity. So here this employee is inconsistently or only partially achieving their job expectations or their predetermined goals. So some areas require further development to consistently contribute to end results. So this is where it's like okay, we got some growth to do in this area together and I'm here to help you. Right, that's my goal.
Speaker 1:Three is meets expectations. So this is like status quo. They're doing things according to their position. Their performance is predictable. It's complete blah, blah, blah, just kind of going through the motions. They're meeting expectations. Well then, four is exceeds expectations.
Speaker 1:So your team member meets and at times exceeds expectations for this particular position. They take initiative, they go above and beyond. This is the type of person where I'm like your coach says jump, you say how high, and that this employee also is contributing to the company, like in a significant capacity that has a lot of value that they're bringing to the business. And then five is excellent. So this is like the cream of the crop, this is your A-plus player. They are always doing an incredible job, going above and beyond. They directly impact the company in a variety of ways. Not only are goals met, but they are surpassed to just an incredible level that you walk away and you're like wow, I cannot believe I'm so blessed to have this person on my team.
Speaker 1:That's kind of how we're rating on a scale of one to five and that is outlined for them on our performance review. So when they go to review themselves which I outline in that episode that I was talking to you about, episode 11, they know right what each number means, how we're looking at every single performance criteria on the scale of one to five. So when I send the performance reviews out, I'm having my team rate themselves on 10 different things and these are things that are important to me, these are things that are important to our business. You can determine what the performance criteria are for your business and again, like I said, I'm happy to share this with you guys if you want to send me a direct message on Instagram so you can see what ours looks like. But the 10 things that I have them rate themselves on then we have conversations around are the following.
Speaker 1:So number one is knowledge of the job. So like, literally, the knowledge, the technical competencies required to perform their job responsibilities. So if they're a curriculum writer, like, do they understand curriculum? Do they understand curriculum writing, et cetera. Two is the quality of their work. Three is the quantity of their work. Four is an effective use of their time. Five is dependability and accountability. Six is communication skills. Seven is interpersonal relations. So this is like they are a team player. They have integrity, adaptability, they consciously communicate with other team members, right, those interpersonal we just like being around them type person, right? Eight is initiative. Nine is attendance and punctuality. So like we got to be on time. That is hugely important to me. We are giving prompt notice of requested vacation days and whatever things along those lines. And then 10 is results. So results meaning like they understand the department goals, they put appropriate attention on the things that drive revenue or reduce costs to support the company's bottom line, or, if their results are in marketing, that it's directly related to sales or something along those lines. So results for the business. And so those are the 10 things that I ask my team to go.
Speaker 1:Rate themselves on a scale of one to five and then, when we sit down to have this conversation for their performance review, let's say we're looking at knowledge of the job and this particular employee rates themselves a three. Well, this now gives me the opportunity to find out why. What are they feeling about their contributions and understanding and knowledge of the job around this particular performance criteria that I need to have a better understanding of? Do they maybe just lack confidence in this area, or am I in agreement with them? Like, for example, if we're talking about attendance and punctuality and I have somebody who is always late to every single meeting and they rate themselves a two great, they have awareness, and I can say like, yes, this is a problem and I actually do need you to be on time, otherwise we're going to have a problem right. Or if they are late all the time but they rate themselves a five in attendance and punctuality, that tells me, holy cow, they have no awareness that they are even having this problem right. So now I'm being given the opportunity to address this issue with them, but it's great in that it's in this structured conversation where that's the goal. The goal is to walk away from this with areas of improvement that I get to work on right, that I get to be a better version of myself.
Speaker 1:Well then, the last part of the performance review, in addition to those 10 things that I ask my team to rate themselves on that scale of one to five, are our values. So I want to make sure that my team members are regularly demonstrating our company values. Are they operating the way in which, foundationally, I want everybody to operate at the team? So for us, that's wow factor growth-minded, getting stuff done, integrity and honesty, positivity and being a team player. And so, again, we have this conversation with every single team member of. If they rate themselves a three in positivity, well, what's going on? How can we work on that? Why do they feel like they aren't super positive? Like are these certain beliefs that they maybe even have about themselves or about the world? That, to me, allows me to have this great coachable moment with them, to help them be more positive and to have a different perspective and to see challenges in a different way, or whatever it might be. So I love including the core values in there. It's hugely important to what we do at EB and I hope it is for you and your business as well.
Speaker 1:So that's the first part of, like the performance criteria, the scale of one to five having conversations about that. They rate themselves first. They come to the table. We talk about every single one of them and then I go back through after the performance review has ended and if there are any that, like I disagree with that, I want to change or put my notes on. I'll go put that on this section of the performance review criteria so that we have my notes from the conversation to look back on, and I put all of these into my employee files so I have them year over year saved for them. Now the last part of the performance review is twofold. So there's one section on the last page of the performance review that is all about performance intentions, and so for this part for my team, I ask them to set goals for the year that, when accomplished, will help them and the company be a better place for our clients and for our coworkers. So even though we're doing this in April, we're gonna revisit again the next April, and I'm gonna have these in mind when I'm talking to my staff on our one-to-one monthly meetings.
Speaker 1:Like, for example, this particular employees that I'm looking at right in front of me. One of her performance intentions was mindset growth, meaning she wanted to have more confidence and more initiative in a team setting. Right, she's a little bit more shy, she doesn't feel like she can speak up as much she wants to and has great ideas, but really struggles with that confidence, right? So I now know this about her, that this is one area that she really wants to grow. And so for me, as the boss, as her leader, right, my role is to coach her into that, is to coach her up to confidence, is to coach her into being comfortable taking that initiative in the team setting, maybe to push her outside of her comfort zone. Right, because that's my job here, that's why I am even here at the business, that's my contribution to the team, right? And so I now know, with this particular staff member, I'm going to constantly be checking in with her in terms of mindset growth, in terms of confidence, and maybe asking her opinion more often than I wouldn't, right? Or if someone else, is that they want to be on time. Well, I'm going to hold them accountable to that, because that's what they said is their performance intention for the next year. So for that section of the performance review, there are two little boxes that I include, where I want them to set two goals and if they have more we can have more but really two big goals that they really want to work on this next year that they feel is going to help them be a better asset to the company and just a better place, a better person to the entire team, for our clients, everybody involved. So I love that section because they fill that out and then I leave feedback on it.
Speaker 1:We have a conversation around it. Why is this an area that you want to work on? What is coming up for you when you say that you want to have more confidence? You know what's underneath that. How can we have a conversation to help support you and being you know the version of you that you really want to be and show up as. So Then what I have them do is they add all of the ratings from each category that was listed above and then they get like an overall rating. So like it's an overall rating out of five. It's really not like this huge deal, but just something to keep track of over time and ideally, like we want our teams to grow, you know, in all of these areas. So if I'm looking at a lot of threes or a lot of fours, well, hopefully within the next year we can help them be a four or a five, or am I pushing them even more outside of their comfort zone into an even bigger role and now maybe they go back to kind of like the learner level in the knowledge of the job right, or in the whatever it might be communication skills with this particular department that they're new in? Do you get what I'm saying? So it's like we're always stretching everybody. We're always stretching and pushing everybody outside of their boundaries because that's what we do, that's what we're here to do.
Speaker 1:And then the last part of the performance review that I include are any comments that I have, so any notes that I want to include, strengths or weaknesses, that I just want to denote and write down areas for improvement, things along those lines. And then I have one little box that just has employee comments Is there anything else that they want to add? Whatever it might be, that's important. And then, after the performance review ends, I'll put all my notes together, I'll send it to my staff member so I get their signature and the date, and then also my signature and the date as well, so we have, like this, true documentation that goes into their file that they then we save and have it over time. The other thing that I will say is after I have this conversation, that's when I talk about raises. The reasoning behind the raises and things along those lines and the way in which I approach that conversation is I wanna think about raises from a variety of different angles and this could be a separate episode, but hopefully this is helpful for you when thinking about performance reviews with your team is I want to look at how the business is doing.
Speaker 1:Right, how did the business do the previous year? I want to look at our profit margins. I want to look at their contributions. I also want to look at cost of living increases. Right, I can't not increase my staff salaries for five years. You know that's like that's crazy, that's not feasible, that's not sustainable for people. I just think about my first year teaching. Oh my God, my first year teaching I made $33,000 and then they froze our salaries for two years thousand dollars and then they froze our salaries for two years. So with a master's degree and three years of teaching experience, I was still only making I think it was thirty five thousand dollars because I moved up the scale based on my education Right, because they froze our salaries on a year over year basis and I don't ever want to put my team in that situation. You know, just think about inflation happened in the last couple of years. Like eggs are expensive, bacon costs a lot Like.
Speaker 1:There are just things that are like realities for our teams that we really have to take into consideration when we are thinking about how are we going to be able to incorporate raises for our teams. One of the things that I was able to implement last year for our staff was a 401k plan and the way in which we structured our 401k plan was a matchup to a specific percentage and et cetera, and that plan accounted for if they took 100% advantage of it. That plan accounted for a 7% raise that we're now helping them put money aside for the future, for their retirement right. So there are other ways in which to look at how can you support your team financially in a way that makes sense for the business and in a way that makes sense and is really fair to them, based on how they are contributing to the business and to the company, because if they can't see themselves growing within the business, they're gonna find somewhere else to go grow within as well. So that's the basic structure of our performance review. It's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1:Like I said, feel free to send me a message on Instagram. Caitlin D Mitchell, and I'm happy to send you a link to ours so you can kind of take a look at it, but the way in which I want to encourage you to view it is it's not like this robotic, you know tight. Whatever performance review, it has to fit in this square and is all buttoned up. For me, it's more of a fluid conversation that is allowing me to see what. Where's my staff? Where do they think that they are? What holes are they not seeing? What gaps do they see that I don't see? And how can I support them in their journey to just be the best that they can possibly? I don't see, and how can I support them in their journey to just be the best that they can possibly be in this role, and so I love just utilizing it as a conversation piece, as a way to grow and to evolve. So if there's anything that you take away from this, I really hope that you just take away one.
Speaker 1:You want to do it once a year, same time every year. It is intentional. It takes you time yes. It takes you dedication yes to your team. It's going to be a huge chunk of your calendar to be able to meet with all of your team, and one of my favorite lines is you grow the team and the team grows the company. Like this is your job as CEO. This is why you are here. This is why you get paid to do. What you do is to help others be the best versions of themselves, and that happens with feedback like this.
Speaker 1:So we're picking the same time every single year to do this with our staff. We're thinking about raises. We're having them first rate themselves and then go back and listen to episode 11 all about that, and then two you're using this more as a conversation piece as opposed to like here's what you're good at and here's what you're not good at. No, this is a discussion where we're working together to help them become the best version of themselves, ultimately impacting the company, so that the company can do remarkable things going forward in the future. So let me know if this was helpful over on Instagram. Caitlin D Mitchell. And again, if you want that download of what our performance review looks like, feel free to reach out and ask. And if this was helpful for you, please share with another business owner that you think could benefit. All right, you guys. We'll see you next week on the podcast.
