Trakstar Academy - Competencies, Goals, & Narrative Response Questions

If you've worked in HR, you've probably seen a lot of reviews and appraisal forms. You've likely inherited some forms that have been used for years and are tasked with updating them and getting them ready for Perform - or maybe you're ready to create some brand new forms for the organizations! It's essential when you're creating or editing your review forms to make them usable, simple, and effective.

Getting your review forms right is critical to the success of performance management within your organization. If you get it right, employees and managers will embrace the process!

So what makes some forms work better than others? What are the things you need to consider when creating a form and what should be avoided? What makes some forms work well? What are the things to consider when creating a form? What elements should be avoided? Read on to learn more!

The Case for Competencies

Should you use competencies on your review forms? We think so. What can competencies help you do?

Competencies communicate shared expectations for all employees.
Competencies are fair. All employees are measured with the same stick.
Competencies provide an excellent way to gather quantifiable data across the organization

Here are our top tips for incorporating these essential elements into your forms.

Less is more. Employees are interested in a high-level performance perspective: it’s respectful and helpful. The fewer things being rated, the more receptive they’ll be to the feedback given and the more they’ll be able to focus and improve.

Consider job-specific competencies. Job-specific competencies are additional competencies selected further to define the responsibilities of a particular job description. Helpful for some but not necessary for all.

Pick broad competencies. Many interactions in our workday fall under broad umbrella competencies. That catch a lot of work behaviors under-neath them. You’ll need fewer of them - which echos back to Less is More!

Pick unique competencies. Try to select competencies that do not cross one another. Get the most mileage with individual competency selections.

Match leveled descriptions to organizational expectations and behaviors. Leveled descriptions help everyone when rating. With descriptive, specific, leveled descriptions, it’s easier to apply a standard across an organization somewhat. Raters will rely less on “gut feeling” and more on matching the leveled description to an individual’s performance.

Get input when selecting competencies. Pass around a list of competencies and have others mark the ones they feel best reflect your organization's values. Gather the responses, and narrow down the list to a core few.

Adjust the weights of the competencies. If some elements are more critical than others, let the numbers reflect your values.

The Case for Goals

If competencies create consistency across an organization, goals have the opposite effect. Goals honor the unique contributions, projects, and efforts of each individual. Goals allow managers and employees to stretch themselves to accomplish new things — beyond the basics.

A Goals section can be structured in various ways. Use your culture, workforce knowledge, and input from others to decide how to create a goals section on your review form. Here are some common ways goals sections are built:

Open-ended goals

Some goals sections have space to add as many or as few goals as desired. This works well when projects (and project size) vary significantly between employees and when the quantity of goals is unknown. Whether the employee is engaged in a single, long-term project or many smaller projects, an open-ended goals section can flex to accommodate the difference. In an open-ended goals section, decide if the manager, employee, or both can add a goal to the list.

Fixed quantity goals

Some organizations require that specific goals be set for each employee. For example, perhaps two or three goals are required. This works well when an organization wants to ensure that everyone is working towards something besides the basics of the position. The upside: everyone has a consistent quantity of goals.

Mandatory goals

It may be necessary that everyone works towards mandatory goals. It's possible to create a goals section that pushes organizational goals to individuals while simultaneously allowing each individual to document their unique part in contributing to the mandatory goal with SMART details.

The Case for Narrative Response Questions

Great questions engage our employees in meaningful performance conversations. Adding narrative elements to your review forms allows employees and managers a forum for responses in addition to the fixed form elements. Questions allow free-form responses, and such responses require reflection and careful thought. Questions honor managers and employees by asking for their thoughts on different performance elements and allowing everyone to be seen and heard.

Questions can vary and be tailored to your organization. They can ask the employee to reflect on their performance, they can be used to gather feedback on the organization, and they can be used to find patterns of emotion and morale in an organization.