The foundation of high-performing teams

By Emma Peterson.

Successful organizations don't wait for HR performance reviews to discuss expectations. They build continuous feedback and development into every stage of the employee experience.

Most of us have likely been called into a supervisor or HR representative’s office for a performance review. It can be one of the most intimidating calls you get at work. But healthy performance reviews and management aren’t about getting people in trouble. They’re about helping everyone succeed. To learn about how to implement proper performance management, Karen Edwards invited Terri Davidscon of Tremco WTI onto an episode of Roofing Road Trips® podcast.

For Terri, building a healthy performance management environment is all about setting clear expectations. She explained, “Expectations and feedback are key. Whenever I have a manager come in and tell me they have an issue with an employee, my first question is, ‘Did you set expectation and provide them feedback?’” Terri’s reasoning for this questioning is that without clear expectations and constructive criticism, no one is going to succeed or be happy. The employee will flounder, the manager will be frustrated and the business will struggle.

So, how do you build expectations and feedback into your business culture and avoid this issue? It starts from the first onboarding call for a new employee. Terri shared:

We start talking about it from the first onboard call. We talk to them about how people here work up from field techs to management, we really set up the expectation that there’s a door open, there’s career paths here if they work hard. We don’t go over every policy, but we cover general expectations so they know how to succeed here.

Then, if or when an issue or mistake occurs, everyone knows what to do. As Terri put it, “When leaders share expectations and resources with their employees, those employees know they’re protected. And they know what to do when something goes wrong instead of getting in trouble for something they might not have even known was an issue.” And in that way, by setting expectations and providing healthy feedback/reviews, you not only are protecting your business, you’re also protecting your people and setting everyone up for success.

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording to learn more about establishing building a healthy human resources department in your company.