New Hire Performance Reviews: How to Drive Business Results and Engagement

You've sifted through hundreds of resumes, interviewed dozens of candidates, and finally found the person you're looking for. 

What now? 

Knowing if you made a successful hire is something you can only tell a few months into their employment. That is where evaluating new-hire performance comes in. 

Evaluating employees doesn't just tell you if you've made the right call. It reveals what new hires do best and what they need help with. In the long run, this gives your company a highly-skilled employee who gives you a much higher ROI than when they started. 

In this article, you'll learn:

• What you should be measuring in your new hire evaluations.
• Tools you need to do this. 
• When you should run performance assessments. 
• Tips to get the most out of your new hire performance evaluations. 

📏 What do you measure in a new-hire evaluation?

There are a few key things that you will want to measure in a new-hire evaluation. 

You'll want to:

• Look at how well individual employees have performed the tasks and responsibilities outlined in their job descriptions.
• Evaluate their attendance and punctuality. 
• Assess their interactions with other employees and customers and whether they are helping your organizational goals.
• Include feedback from the new hire's colleagues and supervisors.

These tell you whether your new hire is performing at par. 

Tip #1: Company culture is also essential. Don't underestimate the importance of matching your organization's value to your new hire's priorities in your review. 

Focusing on cultural fit is especially important in fields like customer service. 

How else will your new hire represent you or resolve disputes on your behalf?

Tip #2: Your 90-day review should answer some strategic questions: 

• Did we make the right hire? 
• Have there been any red flags? 
• Or any (positively) surprising achievements?
• Is the employee progressing at the expected pace? [Focus: performance]
• Does this person have the skills to succeed? [Focus: performance]
• Does this person fit in on the team? [Focus: culture fit]
• Is this person addressing the problem you hired them to solve? [Focus: living up to role expectations]
• Did the onboarding process enable the employee to succeed? [Focus: improving internal processes]

For new hires, performance reviews can be especially beneficial as they help to set expectations and identify training needs. 

Tip #3: Frequent performance conversations can help employees continuously develop their skills and knowledge by promoting a culture of learning and growth.

⚙️ 3 Tools for measuring new employee performance

It is crucial to have a repeatable system to monitor employee job performance. Here are a few tools that can help with that.

Performance reviews

Performance reviews help identify areas where the employee may need more training and those where they excel. Plus, they establish expectations for future performance. 

By setting clear goals and sharing feedback, a performance review for your new hire can help them understand what you expect from them and how they can improve. 

Self-evaluations

For some employees, self-evaluations are a dreaded task. In contrast, others find self-evaluation a helpful way to reflect on the past year and set goals for the future. 

Regardless, there are some clear benefits to taking the time to complete one. 

Self-evaluations force your employees to step back and examine their accomplishments and challenges from starting employment. 

Tip #1: Self-reflection can be a helpful exercise in identifying areas where they need improvement and setting goals for the future. 

Tip #2: You can also view this exercise as a way to improve communication skills. Employees have to learn to articulate their thoughts and experiences effectively.

🚨 Are you in need of a self-evaluation template for your employees? We have you covered.

360 Reviews

A 360 review is a type of performance review that solicits input from the employee's colleagues, subordinates, and superiors. 

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Multiple insights offer a well-rounded view of your new hire's strengths and weaknesses.

Tip #1: In most cases, a new hire's peers will better understand their peer's learning curve and work ethics than a manager. 

For example, are they trying to find solutions to their issues, or do they go straight to their peers to ask for minor things? 

If a peer asks for follow-ups, do they provide timely information? Or do they need additional reminders? 

Tip #2: Managers also need performance evaluations. 360 reviews offer an excellent framework for managers to learn from their new hires. They can learn to cater better to different employee needs and communication styles. 

🕖 When should you conduct a new employee performance review?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. 

The timing of your performance review will depend on several factors, including the company's policy, the employee's job duties, and your managerial style.

Some companies may have a formal policy that dictates when performance reviews should be conducted, e.g., 60 days after the start date. 

We recommend doing 30, 60, and 90-day performance check-ins to spot problems early on and systemically monitor progress. 

Tip: This approach will integrate seamlessly with the 30-60-90 onboarding framework.

💡 Learn how to create an effective 30-60-90 day plan to boost new employee productivity.

30-day review

The 30-day review allows you to assess whether your employee: 

• Is having a positive onboarding experience, equipping them with the knowledge they need to become fully productive.
• Has started settling in. 
• Fully understood the expectations for their role. 
• Is clear on how their tasks contribute to the company's overall strategic goals.
• Is making progress towards any immediate goals or objectives.

Tip: Use the 30-day performance review to provide feedback on any areas the employee may need to improve or clarify questions.

60-day review

At this point, the employee will have had more time to settle into their role and become familiar with your company's processes and procedures. During the 60-day review, focus on: 

• The new hire's progress towards any longer-term goals or objectives.
• The first measures of their overall performance in their role.
• Whether the employee has encountered any specific challenges or obstacles and their answer to them. 
• If challenges persist, adjust their onboarding plan to include additional support.

90-day review

By the 90-day mark, the employee should understand their role and be well into their work. 

The 90-day review is a perfect opportunity to look at:

• the employee's overall performance;  
• their contributions to the team and the company; 
• opportunities for growth or development, which can include creating a development plan; 
• setting new goals for the employee to work towards.

➡️ Learn how to give your new hires the right start with new employee feedback.

💡 9 Tips for productive and efficient 90-day new hire reviews

It is typical that day 90 marks the end of the probation period. This means that your company needs to decide whether or not the employee was a successful hire and if they have the potential to grow and successfully contribute to their team and overall organization.

Evaluate based on clear and objective goals

It is vital to evaluate new hires based on clear and objective goals. Without them, your review may be biased or inaccurate. 

To set clear goals:

1. Create a list of specific tasks or objectives for employees to complete during their first 90 days.
2. Include deadlines and detailed explanations of your performance expectations.
3. Review their progress against these goals at the end of the 90 days.

Tip: Obviously, you must set goals at the beginning of the onboarding phase. So if your onboarding does not have a goal-setting element, it's time to return to the drawing board. 

Document the process 

Documentation is key to ensuring the review is productive and efficient. Your new hires need to know: 

• The performance evaluation criteria you will use (e.g., specific OKRs).
• Who will be giving feedback (e.g., only the manager or the manager and peers); 
• The timeline for the review (Are there multiple steps involved in the process? e.g., writing a self-review before meeting for the 90-day review). 

Tip: Documenting your review process will ensure everyone is on the same page and help hold everyone accountable for their role. It can also serve as a reference for future reviews, especially if the new hire is in a probationary period.

Two-way conversation

Performance reviews should not be a one-way street. Instead, you should encourage your new recruits to give feedback.

So, make the performance review a two-way conversation. 

Being open to hearing the employee's perspective allows you to gain valuable insights into their work, motivations, goals, and areas they would like to improve.

On the other hand, employees can use the review as an opportunity to share their ideas for improving their workplace. 

Tip #1: When both parties come to the table with an open mind, a performance review can be a precious tool for developing a solid manager-employee relationship. 

Here are some examples of questions that can help start the conversation. 

Questions to determine if anything impeded total productivity: 

• What could you have accomplished if you had more time? 
• What obstacles did you encounter that got in the way of your work?
• Do we have an effective onboarding program that teaches new hires everything they need?

Questions about role clarity and expectations: 

• Do you understand your role and responsibilities? 
• Are there any areas where you need more direction or clarification? 
• Have all of your goals and objectives been clearly defined?

Tip #2: You can include these questions in an onboarding survey. 

Tip #3: Send the survey before the 90-day review, and discuss the results during the meeting.

➡️ For more questions, you can check our complimentary resource with 39 best questions for your onboarding survey and best practices.

Constructive approach 

A constructive approach means looking for ways to help employees improve and grow rather than just finding fault. 

Tip: Your objective should be to motivate and engage your new hires. 

Building trust and respect between you and the employee is also essential. Show that you're willing to work with them to help them improve and that you value their contribution.

➡️ Discover more tips and best practices on making the constructive approach work for you and your new hire.

Follow-up 

Finally, make sure to follow up after the review. 

Consider what resources the new hire needs to be successful and provide them. 

Tip #1: Set new goals and have an action plan to guide them. 

Tip #2: The action plan can take the form of a growth plan. 

Tip #3: Regular feedback and follow-up are essential to keeping new hires on track.

➡️ Enable new hire performance with Zavvy

While you're setting up evaluations to gauge how you feel about your new hire, they're looking around your workplace and making their own impressions. 

Your onboarding program is the difference between a stellar impression and a disappointing one. 

With our onboarding software, you can create an exceptional onboarding experience that is:

• Repeatable: You don't have to start from scratch or improvise whenever you hire. Build a journey on our platform, automate the following steps, and set triggers that do the rest for you. 
• Monitored: Quickly examine how far your new hires have come. If you notice a lack of progress, you can work on re-engaging your employee instantly.
• Enabling new hire success: Our onboarding tool gives new hires all the information they need to understand their role, responsibilities, and company processes. It also allows them to complete training and assessments.
• Seamlessly integrating feedback cycles: Our integrated feedback solution allows managers to provide detailed, objective evaluations of new hires' performance, including progress against specific goals, a final assessment of productivity, and areas of improvement, to track progress over time. Plus, you can easily automate employee feedback with our 360 feedback feature. 

Get a free demo now!