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How often do you conduct interpersonal skills performance review? If the answer is ‘never’ or ‘maybe once a year’, this may cost you a lot!
According to Gallup, business losses due to disengaged employees are valued at $7.8 trillion. In other words, if companies don't create conditions for people to be productive and effective, everyone will lose.
Respectively, the interpersonal skills performance review is a potential remedy for disengagement. It allows businesses to communicate with employees to know their strengths and needs.
Let's dive deeper into the phenomenon of interpersonal skills, find out how to evaluate them, and explore eight key practices for making these reviews stand out with performance review questions that make a difference.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
What are the most desirable interpersonal skills in the workplace?
What does it mean to have strong interpersonal skills? What are the best interpersonal skills? Businesses often ask these questions to understand how they boost job performance, establish good relationships in teams, and get happy team members.
In short, interpersonal skills include social skills, people skills, and social intelligence aspects of a certain individual. These help boost one's own job performance, establish positive interactions, and allow people to express their personality.
From a company's perspective, employees' interpersonal skills are important contributors to their performance. On the other hand, they show how managers can start cultivating good relationships with fellow team members.
It’s safe to say that focusing on interpersonal skills is a win-win solution.
What are strong interpersonal skills for a workplace? There are several to consider:
- Teamwork
- Responsibility
- Reliability
- Empathy
- Verbal and non-verbal communication
When conducting an interpersonal skills performance review, focus on these skills and offer real-time feedback emphasizing their improvement.
How do you evaluate interpersonal skills?
To evaluate interpersonal skills, you must choose a proper approach and develop good performance review questions. A 360-degree approach focused on interpersonal skills performance review is worth considering.
This review method gives a better picture of an employee's interpersonal skills. You get feedback from managers, supervisors, and peers. It allows the construction of a clear picture of an employee under review. Using a 360-degree feedback example is a great starting point for an interpersonal skills performance review.
When it comes to measuring interpersonal skills, consider the following interpersonal skills performance review phrases:
- Does an employee know how to be an active listener?
- Does an employee communicate ideas concisely?
- Is an employee proficient in verbal and non-verbal communication?
- Is an employee a team player?
- Can this person get into a discussion comfortably?
- Can this person improve their verbal and non-verbal communication when necessary?
- Has an employee ever shown a bad attitude toward others?
- Has an employee ever expressed a strong personality?
- Is it worth relying on this person in a team project?
- Is this person responsible for their words and actions?
These questions are a great starting point for measuring interpersonal skills to build good relationships within a team.
Eight best practices for interpersonal skills performance review
At this point, we know the best interpersonal skills and how to measure them effectively. It is time to explore eight best practices for interpersonal skills performance review. You can use these practices and any given performance review template and performance review examples.
1. Involve multiple participants
The first practice in performance review interpersonal skills is to involve as many people as possible. For example, a 360-degree method grants an all-out perspective driven by multiple sources. To get various interpersonal skills performance review comments, ensure the employee's interpersonal skills are assessed by managers, peers, and supervisors.
The rule of thumb dictates — the more people you include in the reviewing process, the more accurate data and insightful feedback you can offer.
2. Communicate a lot
It is hard to underestimate the power of communication. Performance review communication and interpersonal skills stand toe-to-toe. Communication adds a great deal of value to any given performance review.
Use interpersonal skills performance review phrases directly linked to the aspect of communication. Make sure to communicate all the steps for the review, feedback, and reporting to boost employee engagement.
3. Prepare a conversation environment
You must prepare in advance when conducting an interpersonal skills performance review. Make a space where people will feel comfortable undergoing a reviewing process. In addition, choose interpersonal skills examples for performance review beforehand. When the results of the review are sent to the team and managers, they have a space for conversing with one another.
4. Combine various processes and approaches
Keep in mind that an interpersonal skills performance review is something that you can do in different ways and with multiple instruments. Choosing the right communication and interpersonal skills performance review phrases is just one of them. In terms of review methods, experiment with one-on-one meetings, heat maps for group evaluation, and Employer Net Promoter Score (eNPS). Shuffling among performance review phrases for interpersonal skills and review methods is a great way to find the ideal approach.
5. Select the suitable assessment template
The following practice is about choosing the right interpersonal skills performance review template. Remember that each given situation and case is unique. It means you need to evaluate the context of the review, determine what you are looking for in terms of interpersonal skills, and select the template fitting the requirements.
6. Discover what competitors use
Another crucial practice in an interpersonal skills performance review is to look at competitors. Investigate what other companies do to evaluate interpersonal skills. Determine what they deem as good interpersonal skills. Explore how a management team perceives the insights you get from competitor analysis. There is a high chance your company exists in a hard-paced environment. It means looking at competition is not a sign of weakness but a necessary step.
7. Positive feedback and positive attitude
Giving feedback is an integral part of interpersonal skills performance reviews. Even if you have found some employee flaws in the review, always stick to a positive attitude and find a way to grant positive feedback along with negative ones. Here are some examples of positive feedback phrases.
8. Constructive feedback
Finally, your feedback should be positive and also constructive. To understand what that means, consider the following phrases:
- I suggest you make this decision because it will help you achieve this result.
- Before making this decision, try contacting your supervisor first to get a win-win solution.
- While the review shows you struggle with verbal communication, try to emphasize your key strength - responsibility.
These are examples of constructive feedback in the interpersonal skills performance review. Now, let's find out what not to do in the process above.
Mistakes to watch out for with interpersonal skills performance review
In a nutshell, try to watch out for these seven mistakes in an interpersonal skills performance review:
- Sticking to annual performance reviews only
- Using one criterion for different interpersonal skills
- Choosing numerical scales only
- Doing manual interpersonal skills performance reviews
- Not informing participants of the review process in advance
- Not getting managers and supervisors on board
- Not being clear, positive, and constructive with feedback
Avoid these mistakes, and you will likely do well with communication and interpersonal skills performance review.
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