Performance platform Effy reports there are five major areas that should always be addressed when conducting an annual review: communication, collaboration, leadership, time management, and adaptability.
Management Role
There are lots of different approaches to conducting reviews, and many human resources executives don’t believe that once every 12 months is enough. A growing school of thought is that employees need to be evaluated at least twice a year—once for performance and another for salary.
Williams Group, an optometric consulting group based in Lincoln, NE, is not a proponent of year-end-only reviews. As Bess Ogden, the group’s director of operations and education consulting, says, “If feedback only happens once a year, it’s not feedback—it’s a postmortem.”
Regardless, stresses Ogden, “Separate pay from performance talks. Compensation discussions should follow budget planning, not emotional reviews.”
Tie other things into an employee review, too. For example, consider assigning three goals linked to training and education for each individual to meet over the next 12 months. In this, as in all areas being reviewed, be very specific.
Employee Perspective
Here are points to ponder year-round as well as to address in a review.
Setting Goals for 2026
It’s all about being SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
As defined by consultant George Doran in 1981, here’s how you can be “SMART” in your planning:
• Specific: Be clear about what you’re hoping to accomplish.
• Measurable: Be sure your goals can be quantified.
• Achievable: Be realistic by making sure they’re not too easy or too difficult.
• Relevant: Make sure personal goals parallel the goals set for the business as a whole.
• Time bound: Set realistic dates for meeting those goals.
Do you…
- think your opinion matters?
- know what is expected of you?
- have everything you need?
- feel you have the support to do your best?
- believe management cares about you as a person?
- find there is someone encouraging your development?
- believe there are new opportunities available to you within the company?
If you answered “no” to some of these questions, be sure to address them during reviews and properly track and document potential improvement in problem areas throughout the year.
Major Issues
Former Sterling franchisee and author Gary Kaschak, ABOC, who is based in Berlin, NJ, says a number of issues should be addressed during an optical staff performance review, other than product sales. They should include:
- Knowledge
- Initiative
- Organization
- Customer service
- Tardiness
- Camaraderie
- Future development
Whatever you include, don’t just file away your notes. Follow-up is critical. Though that’s especially important for younger team members, Kaschak stresses that it doesn’t have to be labor intensive. His suggestion? “Since they’ve grown up with YouTube, Snapchat, and livestreaming, the product-centric, consumer-friendly videos used in the waiting room are perfect training tools for them.”
The point is to take action and follow up on an ongoing basis. According to human resources experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this is an ongoing process throughout the year in which “the manager and employee regularly discuss progress towards performance and development goals.”