What do you do when an employee disagrees with something you've written on their performance review? Here are five tips to help you prepare for potential disagreements during performance reviews and how to deal with them effectively.
1. Prepare. Before heading into the review, re-read what you've written to identify any areas where disagreements are likely to pop up in the course of the performance review discussion. Then give some thought to how you'll respond if the employee doesn't agree with your comments or assessment. Being prepared will mean you're much less likely to be caught off guard.
2. Start with your best. If you have several performance reviews to deliver, start with the easy ones. Begin with your best performer and move toward the more difficult reviews where disagreements are most likely to arise. This way, you'll build your skills and become more comfortable with the process and the discussions before you get to the tough ones.
3. Start with the positive. During the discussion, start with the higher ratings and move toward the lower ones, as the latter will likely require more detailed discussion. Be prepared with additional examples beyond what you've written on the review document. And refer back to informal conversations you may have had with the individual over the course of the year. If you haven't had regular, ongoing informal performance review discussions with the individual throughout the year, then it's more likely that disagreements will surface in the annual review conversation. Performance management is not an annual event - it's an ongoing process that involves two-way communication throughout the year where you and your employees can discuss how things are going and make any corrections needed along the way.
4. Listen. If a disagreement does crop up during the performance review discussion, the first step is to figure out the source of the disagreement. Is it an issue of fact (you wrote that the employee received a quality rating of 82 but the employee says that his score was 89)? Or it is an issue of judgment (you wrote that the employee's attention to detail is unsatisfactory, but the employee feels that his skills are outstanding)? If the disagreement is related to facts, then it's pretty simple to correct - go back and check the facts and make any necessary corrections. If it's a matter of judgment, ask the employee to provide specifics to support his view of his performance. Then determine whether the additional information is enough to change your mind and revise the rating that you assigned on the review. Use open-ended questions to allow the employee to clarify both the facts and feelings about an issue. For example, "tell me more about..." or "what else can you share with me about that..." It may be that the employee, after talking through what you've written, will see your point of view.
5. Gain understanding. Your goal in a performance review is not to gain agreement, but to gain understanding. If the employee agrees with you, that's great. But if your evaluation of the employee is an honest assessment of the fact that the employee is making a minimal contribution to the department and organization overall, and that his performance is mediocre at best, then you probably are not going to get agreement from the employee. But that's ok - what you want is for him to understand why you evaluated his performance the way you did, even if his opinion is different.
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