After the Performance Review

Having closed the meeting, take the time to capture your thoughts and your employee’s reactions, and document them. Again, the HR team may have a formal place to capture this information, and it will be incredibly important to follow their guidelines when doing so. At a minimum, your follow-up should include:

• The date/time of the meeting
• The attendees (in some cases, your boss or an HR rep may be in the meeting with you, particularly for more-negative reviews)
• The written review itself
• Key points and phrases the employee used
• Any points of disagreement

Go back through your written notes, reorganizing and capturing them in this writeup. Keep a copy of this, then send it to wherever or whomever HR dictates. If new goals or development targets came up during the conversation, make sure you’ve got them handy for when you start working with your employee to figure out the next cycle’s goals and expectations.