Tips for Creating a Competency-Based Performance Review

If you're not yet familiar with the concept of competencies and how they're used in the professional environment, we recommend reading our previous article, "What Are Competencies For?" In it, we explore the meaning of competencies and how they influence employee performance and development.

🟣 Now, let's move forward and provide valuable tips for creating a competency-based performance review. With this approach, you can gain more precise insights into your employees' skills and behaviors, promoting an efficient and productive work environment.

 Let's explore the process of creation and discover how to implement this review effectively together.

Optimal Use of Competencies

We believe that competencies serve an extremely useful role in two contexts:

🟣 First, competencies can be used to assess employees' cultural fit. In this sense, the company's culture is translated into observable competencies that can be assessed by peers, subordinates, and superiors. This allows for a more precise analysis of compatibility between the employee and the organizational culture.

🟣 Additionally, competencies serve as guides for employee development. Through them, employees can exchange development feedback with their peers, subordinates, and superiors. These competency-based feedbacks provide practical and constructive insights on how to enhance performance within the organization and teams.

Simplifying Competency Review: Less is More

Let's reflect together on this question:

🟣 How many questions should my review have?

It's quite common to hear various complaints from employees during the performance review process. In general, people naturally don't like filling out forms; they see it as a "waste of time." However, there's an aggravating factor that generates a lot of dissatisfaction and demotivation in the process: extensive review forms with an excessive number of competencies to review.

Don't be fooled; excessive complexity in your model doesn't necessarily guarantee high quality. In fact, in most cases, the opposite occurs. When a form is extensive, people already want it to end before they even start answering. At a certain point, they might begin assigning scores without much judgment or criteria, especially when assessors have many people to review.

 Remember: less is more. 

Now you might be wondering, "But I have several equally important competencies, I can't leave any out. What should I do?" Well, we have a suggestion for dealing with this situation. How about grouping related competencies?

Example of Competency-Based Review with Grouped Competencies

 Topic 1: Creating Incredible Solutions

Competencies: Innovation | Creativity | Proactiveness

🟣 Question 1: Can you identify problems/opportunities and propose unconventional, different, and proactive solutions?

🟣 Question 2: Can you put concrete improvements into practice using creativity and innovation?

 Topic 2: Efficient Work

Competencies: Agility | Decision-Making | Quality | Time Management

🟣 Question 1: Do you deliver tasks with quality?

🟣 Question 2: Do you have a sense of urgency and take action to make things happen?

 Topic 3: Teamwork

Competencies: Collaboration | Communication | Relationship

🟣 Question 1: Do you contribute to developing a team-working culture that reconciles your individual initiative with group achievements?

🟣 Question 2: Do you listen attentively, express yourself assertively, and share information objectively?

Comments and Scales: Combining Effectively in Performance Review

👉 On the path to effective performance review, it's essential to keep in mind that the main goal is not only to measure people's performance but also to promote continuous employee development. Many companies dedicate considerable time to calculate and measure performance but don't always act effectively based on the results obtained. In this context, it's more important to invest in concise review models and emphasize the importance of reviewer comments.

Moreover, it's crucial for employees to understand the reasons behind their scores, as well as the actions and changes needed to achieve even better performance. Instead of focusing solely on numerical scores, you can replace them with a concept scale, where each range represents a level of performance, such as "below expectations," "meets expectations," and so on.

Lastly, the feedback stage, with well-structured comments, plays a fundamental role in the life of the reviewer, making it easier to plan feedback and reducing the burdensome task of creating them from scratch. Additionally, it's the ideal time to start creating the Individual Development Plan (IDP).

 Discover the best scale options for your review in the article "Which grades and labels are most frequent in the Qulture.Rocks reviews?" We share the scales (rating scale labels) most commonly used in reviews.

At Qulture.Rocks, we offer flexibility in using different labels for the rating scale, making options clearer for reviewers. The choice of the scale is a determining factor for a good review.

If you have more questions or suggestions, #ChatWithUs 🤘🚀