As a standard business practice, most farms conduct annual performance reviews with employees.
While they’re important, there’s also a big problem with annual reviews, according to Dr. Bob Milligan, author of LearningEdge Monthly: almost no one likes them very much.
“When we head into our annual review, a lot of people view it similarly to the way we feel when we go to our annual physical,” explained Milligan. “We’re afraid the doctor is going to tell us everything that is wrong with us, and tag us with a long list of things we need to do better.”
Instead of an annual review, Milligan suggests approaching the yearly touchpoint as a “stay meeting.” In other words, it’s a time to intentionally discuss and collaborate with the employee on what they are doing well, and how to best embrace opportunities for them to grow. “Essentially, we want to make them excited about staying with the business and growing professionally, which will be mutually rewarding to the employee and the employer,” said Milligan.
Milligan provides a stay meeting outline to help guide the meeting leader. He suggests the employer/manager pose the following two questions to employees as prep work in advance of the meeting:
- Make a list of your greatest successes in the past year.
- Think about changes/improvements/additions you would like in your job responsibilities over the next several years.
Emphasizing the employee’s future with the business conveys the anticipation of a long-term relationship. “The stay meeting looks forward, not backward,” said Milligan. “It focuses on continuous improvement, rather than on what the employee did wrong last year.”
Milligan said the farm owner/supervisor needs to embrace the responsibility of holding a stay meeting with an atmosphere of collaborative, open discussion. This will be key to the meeting’s success. He further discusses the stay meeting concept in this helpful, 10-minute YouTube video.
You can view the current issue of LearingEdge Monthly here, and subscribe to the newsletter here.
