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Everybody hates performance reviews. That’s a given. But there are ways to move them out of the “dreaded chore” category into the file titled “engagement tools.”

Performance reviews are often badly done and serve to de-motivate employees — or worse, give them a weapon to sue the company.

What’s wrong with this process? Here are the three most common mistakes managers make that limit the value of employee assessments:

1. Process vs. progress

Too often, the process of employee reviews becomes more important than the actual result. What do employees want out of their reviews? Aside from a raise, the main thing employees want to know is what career path they’re on — what they have to look forward to in terms of job growth and development.

Too many reviews omit a discussion of what advancement opportunities may be available in the near future, and what the employee needs to do to make it happen.

2. What will tomorrow’s expectations be?

Too often, reviews for well-performing employees congratulate them on what they’ve accomplished and let the story end there. For example:

An employee meets a predetermined goal of boosting production by 10%. Her manager writes in her review: “Your production was lifted by 10% and you’ve met your goal.”

While that’s true, wording it that way makes it sound like she’s reached the end of the line. Instead, the manager should say: “You lifted production by 10%, which is a great accomplishment. You should continue the progress and try to reach 15% — or even higher — next year.”

That congratulates the employee on a job well done, while reinforcing the fact that there’s always room to move forward.

3. Nix the money talk

Intertwining salary issues with performance discussions is truly taboo. Raises should always be the last thing the manager talks about — and in a separate meeting.

If pay comes up before the review is fully completed, it’s more likely employees will start arguing about the assessment instead of taking responsibility for their work. When the review is completed first, employees are more receptive to the manager’s critique.

Help for managers

To help your managers get better at reviews, here are some do’s and don’ts, courtesy of leading employment lawyer Jathan Janove of Ogletree Deakins, who spoke at the Labor & Employment Law Advanced Practices (LEAP) symposium in Las Vegas.

Don’ts

Don’t store up feedback. Don’t use a review as a gunnysack for storing up negative feedback over a period of a whole year and then dump it all on an employee’s head at review time. Feedback, both negative and positive, needs to be given throughout the year.

If you must bring up a new issue, apologize for not bringing it up sooner.

Don’t dispense report cards. People don’t want to go back to the school benches and be graded. If you give them five Bs and a D, all they’ll focus on is the D. Just tell them in plain language how they’re doing.

Don’t say things that could be subject to negative interpretation later. Avoid phrases like “you might try a little harder since you tend to be a little lazy” or “I’m cutting you some slack since you’re approaching retirement.” These only spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

Don’t use a review for discipline. Keep progressive discipline out of the performance review process. If you mix ’em up, plaintiffs’ lawyers will say your management process, not the employee, needs improvement.

Do’s

Do keep the end in mind. Focus on where the person is now, what the expectations are and how you can move the person up the line. Focus only on WIGs (wildly important goals) and PIGs (pretty important goals), not petty stuff.

Do give direct feedback. Managers must use the D-I-S formula with their employees — providing Direct, Immediate and Specific coaching throughout the year. That way, the annual review becomes a summary with no surprises.

Do make everyone go through the review process. If you want to build trust among employees around the review process, there can be no opt-outs — everyone gets reviewed, even HR and the C-suite.

Successful CEOs read as many reviews as they can — not to see how their employees are doing, but how their managers are doing.

Do make it a two-way street. Providing feedback should create the opportunity for two-way communication. Managers should be trained to ask the same amount of questions as statements they make.

Sample queries: “This is what I see; now what do you see?” or “How can I help you succeed?”

Do focus on the future. If managers stay focused on what should happen in the future, the employee can feel more fulfilled in his job. Plus, looking forward tends to minimize employee defensiveness about any past mistakes.

People are much less likely to be argumentative this way.

One final thought from Janove: For successful performance reviews, the front windshield is a much more useful tool than the rearview mirror.

This is an update to the original article, which ran on 4/27/13.

The same-sex marriage argument has finally been settled in the U.S — at least from a legal standpoint. Every state is now required to allow and acknowledge same-sex marriages. This has significant implications for employers. Here’s a breakdown of what they are. 

As complicated and as sensitive of an issue as this is, the fallout from the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges is actually quite simple: Same-sex married couples will — in most cases — need to be treated exactly the same as opposite-sex married couples (one exception may be in self-insured health plans; it’s still unclear how the ruling will apply to these plans).

The good thing about this ruling — at least from an employer standpoint: It streamlines the benefits administration process significantly. In a nutshell, if a benefit is offered to employees’ opposite-sex spouses, it should also be offered to employees’ same-sex spouses.

In instances were federal and state law doesn’t specifically carve out protections for same-sex spouses (again, like in self-insured plans), employers would run the risk of violating anti-discrimination laws if they end up treating same-sex spouses differently than opposite-sex spouses.

As a result, the best — and certainly the safest — move is to treat everyone equally.

State, federal law aligned … but it may take time

Helping to streamline benefits administration, the ruling helps align state laws with federal law.

Example: Since the Supreme Court shot down the Defense of Marriage Act’s definition of “spouse” as only including a member of the opposite sex, same-sex spouses have been recognized for federal tax purposes and protected under federal benefits laws — like the FMLA. But some state insurance departments, state taxing authorities and state domestic relations courts weren’t required to recognize same-sex marriage.

That has now changed — or at least it will once every state gets on board with this ruling.

In some states, like Texas, governing authorities have said they’ll wait for guidance on how to handle same-sex marriages before fulling aligning themselves with the High Court’s decision.

This may mean several months may pass before couples are allowed to marry in states that up until now haven’t recognized same-sex marriage.

This also means that while employers certainly can start adding same-sex spouses to their benefits plans, they may want to hold off on eliminating domestic partner benefits (should they wish to do so) until their states fully align with the ruling and same-sex spouses have ample time to get married. How long this will take may vary from state to state.

Domestic partner benefits obsolete?

For those employers that do wish to continue offering domestic partner benefits even after their states have started recognizing same-sex marriage, here’s a word of warning to you: You may have to offer domestic partner benefits to opposite-sex couples as well — or risk facing discrimination charges.

Up until now, domestic partner benefits were a way to extend the same benefits reserved for employees’ spouses to those partners of employees who couldn’t get married. But now that same-sex couples can get married the same as opposite-sex couples, it may now be viewed as discriminatory to only offer domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples.

Note: Some states require insured plans to offer domestic partner benefits.

The reasoning behind the ruling

The case was brought before the Supreme Court by 14 same-sex couples in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, who sued state officials because of their states’ bans on same-sex marriage or officials’ refusal to recognize same-sex marriages that were legally performed in other states. The charging parties said their equal protection and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution had been violated.

Federal district courts agreed with the plaintiffs, but the Sixth Circuit reversed their rulings.

As a result, the Supreme Court agreed to settle two questions:

• Does the Constitution require all states to perform same-sex marriages?
• Does the Constitution require states to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states?

In a 5-to-4 decision, the High Court ruled the answer is “yes” to both questions.

The majority said marriage is a “fundamental right,” and the Constitution’s equal protection and due process clauses protect individuals from being deprived of that right.

Cite: Obergefell v. Hodges

OK, so you’re probably not going to run into this exact situation in your workplace. This case is still a good reminder of the perils of violating the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.  

We can’t sum up the background of the case any better than federal district court judge Amy Totenberg:

Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services operates warehouses [in Atlanta] for the storage of products sold at a variety of grocery stores.

So one could imagine Atlas’s frustration when a mystery employee began habitually defecating in one of its warehouses.

To solve the mystery of the devious defecator, Atlas requested some of its employees, including Jack Lowe and Dennis Reynolds, to submit to a check swab. The cheek cell samples were then sent to a lab where a technician compared the cheek cell DNA to DNA from the offending fecal matter. Lowe and Dennis were not a match.

The two sued under GINA, which generally prohibits employers from requesting genetic information from employees.

The upshot: A federal jury recently awarded Lowe and Reynolds $2.2 milliom for pain, suffering and mental anguish. Judge Totenberg had ruled in May that the company’s actions. had violated GINA.

Reuters reported that the company said it was likely to file an appeal.

By the way, the devious defecator has never been identified.

As the go-to person for all things HR, you naturally want to be helpful when people ask for something. Often the answer must be “No.”  

But you know from experience that being diplomatic when you say “No” always works better.

Here are three ways you can do just that:

1) Let the person know that you hear him

First acknowledge the request: “I realize that this is important” or “Ordinarily, I’d be able to help you with that right now.”

Customer service pros will tell you that the biggest key to defusing an angry/frustrated customer is letting the customer rant about the problem and saying, “I can see how frustrated that would make anyone.”

Same basic principle goes for listening to a problem that you can’t deal with right away.

2) Explain the situation

Nothing wrong with explaining why your answer must be “No.”

Just keep it brief (you shouldn’t apologize for being busy): â€œI’m working on a project right now” or “I can’t take time away from X, Y and Z.”

3) Turn the ‘No’ around

Make it positive by giving the person an alternative.

For example: “This resource may help you,”?or “Have you asked this person about it?”

Some folks would rather run to known problem-solvers – like yourself! – than spend time figuring out how to fix problems themselves.

Ideas worth sharing with your staffers

You’ve probably dealt with managers bypassing you and going directly to one of your staffers for help. This can intimidate some employees, and make them feel like they have no choice but comply.

Remind your staffers:?Don’t just drop an important task because someone’s got a problem (unless of course it’s an emergency).

They’re allowed to say “No.” Just refer them to points 1, 2 and 3 above.

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