Completing formal performance appraisals in not usually an exercise that doctors or managers find enjoyable, but it is a critical factor in employment success.  When done correctly it gives you an opportunity to positively affect the future of your employees.  The most important factor in having a successful review is to be prepared and have the process planned out in advance.

First, have a meeting with the manager and employee where the manager explains the appraisal process.  The process should involve goals.   The manager and employee discuss and agree on what both of them would like to see achieved over the next year.

You need to make sure you have documented critical incidents and significant behavior that are out of the ordinary.  These are usually extreme (good or bad) behavior that needs to be documented.  This will increase the accuracy of the appraisal.  It will also be supporting evidence.  Most importantly it will help improve communication during the review.  It is less likely to have a disagreement when you have documentation of the behavior.

When you are writing the appraisal you want to make sure you are adding comments and notes to support what rating you are giving or what box you are checking.  Be sure when you completing the appraisal you do not connect the employee to others performance or goals.  Be aware that we tend to give more weight to behavior we have seen recently and lose sight of the entire rating period.  You do not want to generalize based on one aspect of performance this can cause the “halo” or “devil” effect.  Finally, you do not want to have negative or positive leniency.  This happens when an employee is rated too hard or too easy.  Good performers will get tired of trying to perform well no matter what they do they are rated low.  With positive leniency the employee may expect more than is deserved and want raises, promotions and other gains.

How to talk about your employees’ performance:  In order to have an effective performance review you need to make sure there are no surprises.  This means you should have communicated with them regularly about how they are doing and what you expect of them.  The actual appraisal meeting should be a way to summarize and encourage the employee to improve and grow.  It can also solidify the relationship between manager and employee.

Helpful Phrases for Performance Reviews: Here are just a few suggestions that may help you in a dental office as you are writing reviews.

Attendance

• Great attendance record
• Consistently arrives to work early
• Has rarely missed work due to illness these misses have supporting documentation
• Attendance satisfactory
• Takes longer breaks than appropriate
• Has missed work without notice ____ times this year.
• Not dependable

Communication Skills

• Thoughtful and responsive to other team members
• Speaks persuasively and convincingly
• Speaks articulately and concisely
• Answers questions directly
• Uncomfortable responding to questions
• Makes grammatical mistakes
• Often misunderstands what others are saying
• Does not know how to ask questions that will guide work

Patient Relations

• Has developed an incredibly loyal patient base
• Always delivers on promises
• It’s no wonder we have as many happy patients as we do
• Always patient, competent and professional with patients
• Graceful and tactful under pressure from patients
• Sometimes get sarcastic
• On several occasions has lost temper with patients
• Frequently impolite
• Condescends to patients
• Creates an unprofessional/ unhealthy impression to patients

Dedication to Job/ Work

• Extremely dedicated and committed
• Follows doctors instructions precisely
• Questions unclear instructions
• Assumes personal responsibility
• Always shows a “can do” attitude
• Doesn’t adhere to office/ team goals
• Rarely manifests real dedication
• Work is slow and inaccurate
• Leaves office without fulfilling end of the day expectations

 Interpersonal Skills

• Effective interacting with people no matter the status
• Relates to everyone well regardless of their background
• Assertive but doesn’t offend
• Sense of humor appropriate
• Quick to lose patience
• Often makes insensitive criticisms of others
• Has not benefited from coaching
• Consistently passive-aggressive

Productivity

• High productivity, high quality
• Wastes no time on small talk; she/ he is all work
• Produced _________ in treatment with an acceptance rate of ____%
• Has helped other improve productivity.
• Meets production goals while keeping quality high
• Distracted by trivial, unessential issues
• Production has been below standards for ____ of 12 months
• Work needs to be checked by others

Quality of Work

• Patients regularly send compliments about their work
• Takes special cautions to follow OSHA and HIPPA standards
• Leads group in reducing incidents
• Focuses on continuously improving quality
• Seeks training to learn how to improve and grow
• Does not pay enough attention to quality of work
• On_________ occasions patients complained about the quality of work
• Quality is not a priority.

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