Making the Case for One-on-Ones

By Melissa Steadman, CVPM

Can you remember a time where you had an annual performance review scheduled and how that made you feel? Were you anxious or maybe you expected completely different feedback than what you received? Did you feel like your concerns were heard during that meeting? Did you trust your manager at the time?

Reviews can cause many negative feelings in employees. Maybe they received negative feedback and had no idea they were doing something wrong. Maybe they don’t even remember offending another staff member earlier in the year or the mistake you are bringing up. They also could have been expecting a raise and then were disappointed when they did not receive one. There are so many scenarios that can be avoided by changing the way you hold these meetings and considering getting rid of them all together.

Quarterly one-on-one meetings with employees have been so effective for building positive relationships at my practice. I no longer hold typical annual reviews and our culture has really been reaping the benefits. Every quarter, the practice owner and I meet with every employee individually for 15-20 minutes. I have different themes and questions for each meeting designed to get employees comfortable with giving and receiving feedback. If there are any issues or mistakes to be addressed, that is done separately at the time they occur.

To quote Tara, one of our technicians: “I prefer the one-on-one meets because it reduces my anxiety and gives me room to grow as the year goes on. It helps me to have check-ins to make sure I’m on the right track as opposed to getting a year end round up of where I fell short. It also helps me get accustomed to sharing information with management and gives me the privacy to do so without feeling like I’m always popping in with an issue. Overall seems to be better with team health versus an annual review.”

Changing your policies and procedures is always a big task. I know how daunting that can be. Being uncomfortable as a leader is how we all grow in our own skills. When you put your relationship first with your employees and run an organization based on trust rather than fear, everything else will fall into place. I’d highly recommend taking a hard look at how effective your reviews have been in the past and maybe consider something more modern in 2023! Feel free to reach out to me at any time if I can help you set this up or discuss it in more detail. You can reach me via email at mstedman@ brandywinevalleyvet.com.