“Every employee can affect your company’s brand”- Tony Hseih, Former CEO, Zappos

TL:DR

Employee NPS is a key component for your organization if you wish to create a culture which engages, motivates and inspires employees and encourages them to recommend it to their friends. Here are a few quick points that you should not forget:

• It helps organizations gauge the level of engagement and experience for employees by segmenting employees into promoters, passives and detractors (discussed later)
• eNPS is important as it helps in employee retention as well as facilitate fast and effective hiring by ensuring a winning employer brand
• It is best to conduct eNPS surveys on a regular basis to gauge trends over cycles and address fluctuations in real time
• To improve your eNPS, you must focus on understanding each segment of employees and taking appropriate action
• You must acknowledge that passives have a great potential of changing your eNPS and you should focus your efforts on bringing them up the score spectrum
• Finally, you must use eNPS as a means to boost employee morale and track level and reasons for disengagement

Now let’s get into the nitty-gritties of employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and how you can use them effectively.

What is employee Net Promoter Score?

eNPS is or employee NPS is a measure of employee loyalty and how they feel about your organization. It is a scoring mechanism that employees can use to share their satisfaction/ dissatisfaction with the company culture, which in turn helps leaders to gauge the impact it will have on the organization. 

The advent of eNPS came as a result of realizing that employees have an equal impact on an organization as the customers

‍For instance, if any employee leaves a bad review or reports a bad experience about your organization, it might act as a deterrent for other high performing candidates from applying to your organization.

In a nutshell, eNPS is one of the top tools you can use to gauge how satisfied your employees are with your company culture and measure whether or not your employee engagement and other efforts are actually bearing fruits. 

How to calculate eNPS?

You can calculate the eNPS for your organization by subtracting the percentage of promoters from the percentage of detractors. Let’s quickly understand what this means. 

You will start by asking your employees to rate their experience on a rating scale of 0-10. You can have questions like ‘How likely are you to recommend the organization to your peers or friends, on a scale of 0-10’. We will talk more about potential questions in subsequent sections. Depending on their experience, your employees will share their rating. Based on the rating, you can segment your employees into three categories:

• Promoters: With a rating of 9-10; they are highly loyal, motivated and inspired and show full commitment to the organization
• Passives: With a rating of 7-8; they are generally neutral, while they are happy with the experience, their level of loyalty and commitment may not be as high as the promoters
• Detractors: With a rating of 0-6; they are generally dissatisfied, lack loyalty, inspiration and motivation and may not recommend the organization to others

eNPS= %of promoters - %of detractors

For instance, if your organization has a total of 100 employees and 61 are promoters, 18 are detractors and 21 are passives, then your eNPS= 61%-18% = 43

The higher the eNPS, the more advocates you have. This suggests you will have an ecosystem of high percentage of employees that are loyal, inspired, motivated and committed. 

Why does eNPS matter?

For growing organizations like yours there are several reasons why eNPS matters to create a sustainable workplace. Such as —

1. Get a picture of your employer branding

Research shows that the majority of candidates read six reviews before forming an opinion about a company and 70% of people look to reviews before they make career decisions

With employee NPS, you will know how likely your employees are to recommend your organization to others outside. This ensures employer branding which determines the quality of talent you will be able to attract. 

By ensuring a good Net Promoter Score from employees, you will be able to manage the reviews effectively. 

2, Identify your advocates in a simple and quick manner

Employee NPS is very easy to execute, fast and cost-effective. At the same time, it gives you a clear picture of who are the advocates for your organization vs those who are disengaged and are unlikely to make recommendations. This information has two-fold benefits:

• You can create personalized plans to engage the different employee segments based on results
• You can leverage the reasons your promoters or advocates list for high level of loyalty and focus on enhancing the same

3. Reduce employee turnover

It is very rare that an employee will one day decide to leave your organization out of nowhere. Often, the decision to quit starts in advance and can be attributed to several factors including disengagement and dissatisfaction. eNPS, conducted regularly, can help you anticipate potential turnover in advance, when the employee rates low on the eNPS survey. You can use this data to fine tune your engagement plan and identify and address specific challenges. 

🚀 Predict and prevent turnover with employee experience surveys by SuperBeings. Learn more 

4. Hire faster

As stated above, eNPS directly impacts the quality of the talent you attract. Similarly, it also impacts how fast you are able to close an open position. If you have a high eNPS, you will receive a higher inflow of applications because your organization will be branded as a preferred place to work. This higher number of applications will translate to faster interviews and closures. Invariably, this will prevent the loss of work hours between transitions. 

5. Gauge employee trends over time

Finally, eNPS can help you track employee loyalty and engagement over time. If individual and overall employee NPS increases, it reflects that your interventions are moving the needle. However, if the score drops, you may need to relook at your practices and understand the root cause. 

Employee NPS cycles

As mentioned before, employee NPS is generally measured with eNPS surveys. Therefore, like any other feedback cycle, your eNPS surveys should also follow a structured and cyclical approach. Here are to create an effective eNPS survey process —

1. Ensure anonymity

Make your eNPS ratings confidential and anonymous. Do not force your employees to give names along with ratings or do not disclose ratings of one to another even if you know who it is from. One of the easiest ways is to use a platform that doesn’t capture respondent data, except the rating. Anonymity will help build employee trust and ensure honesty in the rating received

2. Keep it short

Refrain from adding too many questions in your eNPS rating. A maximum of 2-3 questions is more than enough. While most organizations use 1 central or core question, you can supplement it with another one to augment impact. For instance, one question can be about probability to recommend, while the other could be on motivation, inspiration.

3. Make it frequent

Having an eNPS rating at regular intervals is important. Ideally, as a growing organization, you should have a monthly cadence. However, if that seems overwhelming, you can start with a quarterly rating, and gradually increase the frequency. 

4. Use a 10 point rating scale or open ended questions

While a 2 or 5 point rating scale can also capture data, a 10 point scale and open ended questions enable employees to be more specific about their answer by giving them more options to choose from. The deeper your eNPS survey insights are, the more accurate actions you can take to improve your score.

5. Follow up

Just because responding to an eNPS question requires one click, you cannot assume that you’ll receive 100% participation. You must follow up a couple of times. Using employee survey tools to increase survey participation rate can be useful here. For example, SuperBeings sends reminders and follow up nudges at preset intervals via existing chat tools (Slack, Teams, Gchat etc) directly in the flow of work to maximize response rate. 

6. Encourage authentic answers

Finally, you must encourage your employees to be honest in their rating. Anonymity will help you achieve this. Additionally, explain to your employees that the answers will not have an impact on their appraisal and their negative rating will not land them in a backlash. 

eNPS survey questions

As a best practice, you can start your employee NPS survey with a core question and then you could follow it up with a few open ended questions. Your first question must follow a rating pattern to get your employee Net Promoter Score. Some of the questions can be:

• How likely are you to recommend your organization as a workplace to your friends/ peers?
• On a scale of 0-10, how inspired do you feel to work at this organization?
• What is the primary reason for the score you gave?
• What can the organization do better to get a higher score?
• What is one reason that is preventing you from recommending the organization to your friends?
• What is one reason why you enjoy working here?

Here are a few best practices you can use while preparing your follow up questions:

• Don’t be too vague with your questions
• Try to keep your questions open ended to get support for your core questions
• Try to get specific answers with 1 or 2 instances

What is a good employee NPS score?

While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact score which can be considered good, there are a few ways to measure how well your performance has been on eNPS. 

If you look closely, by formula, your score can range from -100 to +100, depending on the ratio of your promoters and detractors. Generally, any positive score, that is, a score above 0 is considered to be a good starting point. This indicates that there are more promoters in your organization than detractors. This translates to the fact that more employees are likely to recommend your organization than those who will not. 

However, only a positive score is not the end of the story. While a positive score represents retention and recommendation, the higher the score, the greater will be propensity and impact.

Use eNPS benchmarks

Furthermore, you must also align your eNPS with other organizations in your industry. For instance, while 60 might be a great score, if all organizations in your industry have an eNPS of 70+, then you may need to relook at your numbers. 

Here, studying industry benchmarks can help. However, eNPS is not a data point that is publicly available that you can consume. 

At the same time, your own eNPS can also be a benchmark for you over time with an aim to increase every time. The idea is to track your own company’s fluctuation, positive or negative, to identify the reasons or interventions behind the same. 

Unlock top engagement survey question templates and advanced employee analytics. See SuperBeings in Action

How to improve employee NPS?

eNPS surveys can disillusion even the most people friendly organizations. It is not rare to have a survey score below expectations. But improving eNPS is easier than you think:

1. Capture eNPS regularly

You must have heard that what gets measured, gets improved. The same is true for eNPS. When you capture employee NPS on a regular basis, you can track fluctuations and gauge whether or not the needle is moving. You can get a real time picture of whether the promoters or the detractors are increasing. Furthermore, the fluctuations can help you identify how specific interventions or regular organizational activities impact eNPS. 

2. Share the results

No matter what the results say, share it with your team members. Even if you have a negative score, share it with the team to facilitate collaborative thinking on what is going wrong. This will help you create an image that you are truly listening to your employees and are taking action. After sharing results, follow up and communicate the next action steps so your employees know that their voices are being heard and impact is being created. 

3. Understand the rationale

To improve eNPS, you need to understand the rationale or the reason behind each rating. Here, you should ask follow up questions to your employees on what contributed to this particular rating. On one hand, it will help you understand the motivation or the inspiration for promoters as well as you will be able to identify what is stopping detractors from recommending the organization to others. 

Put simply, the factors mentioned by promoters can be augmented and focused on, while those from detractors must be addressed or resolved 

4. Take action 

Once you share the results and engage in collective brainstorming, you must take action. 

• Example 1: If the major reason behind low eNPS is lack of work-life balance, your focus should be on addressing the same, by facilitating workplace boundaries. 
• Example 2: If lack of career growth is stopping your employees from recommending the companies to others, investing in mentorship, learning and development, career coaching, etc. can be extremely helpful.

5. Communicate with all segments

If you think that you only need to focus on detractors to improve your eNPS, you are mistaken. While you definitely need to pay attention to them, the other two segments, i.e. promoters and passives must not be left attended. 

• When it comes to detractors, your focus should be on their pain points, how it translates to a poor experience and what you can do to reverse the same. 
• For promoters, while you may think they are happy, engaged and don’t require any intervention, you must not lose attention on them and focus on keeping their rating high. Furthermore, when you communicate with them, you will be able to get insights for long term strategies. 
• For passives, focus on understanding what would make their experience within the organization and the role even better and more meaningful.

6. Improve continuously

When it comes to improving your eNPS, there is no stopping point. Just because you improve your eNPS by 20 points, doesn’t mean you have reached the pinnacle, even if you are above the industry average. 

• While in the first few years of your employees’ lifecycle, you will focus on retention and loyalty by ensuring a positive score,
• In the later years, your focus should be on making the employees feel inspired, motivated and committed to unleashing high levels of innovation and productivity. 

7. Follow up with more comprehensive feedback

Employee Net Promoter Score must be a part of a more comprehensive employee feedback framework. The idea is to get more qualitative feedback and insights to compliment the score. You can use open-ended survey comments for this purpose. Such feedback will help you understand where the score came from and how you can take steps to move in the right direction. 

8. Understand the passives

Finally, to improve your eNPS, you need to focus on the passives. Based on the formula, you might think that passives have no role to play in eNPS. However, you must understand that they are just one point away from falling in the detractor or the promoter category. Here, your focus should be on moving them up the spectrum. Getting qualitative inputs from them is very important as they have some level of commitment and positive regard towards the organization already. 

How to use employee NPS for better engagement

With eNPS, you can turn employee feedback into a growth strategy both as a business and as an employer. Here’s how:

1. Boosts morale

First, employee NPS boosts the morale of employees who believe that their voice has value and is being heard. It makes employees feel included in the process of building the right culture. Employees who participate in eNPS come with a sense of pride as being a contributor to building the overall experience in the organization. It also comes with a sense of respect when an organization asks the employees for their perception.

2. Understand level of disengagement

Low or negative eNPS is a clear indicator of the level of disengagement. It shares an inverse relationship.

Lower the eNPS, higher will be the disengagement

Obviously, only when employees feel disengaged at work, will they not recommend it to others in their network. This can act as initial information for your organization to create strategic plans to reverse the trend. Furthermore, fluctuations in eNPS can be useful when it comes to sudden disengagement which may not be very apparent, but can lead to mass turnover. 

3. Gauge factors contributing to engagement

A deep dive into the qualitative aspects of eNPS can help you understand the factors contributing to engagement or disengagement. For instance, if a promoter claims that they gave a high score because of the focus on wellness, it becomes clear that wellness programs can augment engagement. Similarly, if the reason for a detractor is high workload, effective distribution can help improve engagement levels. 

Increase employee NPS with SuperBeings

Creating, communicating and analyzing employee surveys can be intimidating and time taking. To conduct eNPS in a comprehensive and hassle free manner, you can partner with SuperBeings. Here’s what you get with our employee engagement survey feature —

• Built-in survey templates: Reduce the time to create survey questionnaires by using science backed, best practices pre-built survey templates. You can customize them as you need.
• Choose the most suitable rating scale: You get full flexibility to customize each question by choosing from a wide array of rating scale options — 2, 5, 7 or 10 point scale, multiple choice and open-ended.
• Filter options for better comparison: For each question you can filter the responses at manager, department or org level and compare them on a single dashboard. Also, you get deeper insights into each question on the Insights tab
• Use comments for qualitative feedback: Understand the sentiments behind each response by looking into open-ended comments left by participants

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with our engagement survey tool. At SuperBeings, we are constantly trying to improve the engagement processes and make it easier for the people leaders. 

Need a helping hand? Talk to our product expert. 💡

10 second summary

• OKRs are an effective goal setting practice to build an effective  performance management system
• A performance management system should focus on uncovering strengths as well as weaknesses
• Written feedback constitutes an important part of performance management, which the leaders must guide the managers to undertake
• An effective goal management system should focus on clearly communicating the top priorities
• Having a contribution-driven rating scale over expectation-driven rating scale is important
• It is important to de-link compensation and review conversations

Continuing our focus on performance management, we recently had a discussion with the Chargebee team to learn what performance management practices they followed to build a $3Bn SaaS unicorn. In our 3rd episode of The Talent Talks, we were thrilled to be joined by Rajaraman Santhanam, Co-Founder & COO and Lavanya Gopinath, Director, Ops, Chargebee. 

For those of you who aren’t aware of Chargebee’s name, it’s a financial services company that rose to unicorn status in record time. With 1300 employees and despite having a steady emphasis on high performance, Chargebee is known for its employee-centric people management practices. 

Let’s get into the details of how Chargebee creates a high performance culture all year round and see what we can adopt to scale faster.

Performance management system at Chargebee

What was the context when you designed your performance management system?

When we started in 2011, there were not a lot of startups and the biggest source of revenue was from Europe. Sitting in Chennai, India, the only way to acquire knowledge about selling to customers in Europe was by talking to people and learning. Thus, learning continuously and building a network to learn from became important, which overtime evolved into a culture of continuous learning. After 4-5 years, we decided to build the core values or tenets for Chargeebee, by gathering a lot of team members together and brainstorming on what values do they identify with Chargbee. Four core values came to the forefront, Curiosity, Customer Centricity, Empathy and Bias for Action. 

Four core values at Chargebee — Curiosity, Customer Centricity, Empathy and Bias for Action

Eventually, these have become the basis for how we operate across all verticals, including our  performance management system. 

What are the constituents of the performance management system at Chargebee?

With performance being at the center of the performance management system, we look at it from a team and an individual perspective. 

Components of team performance management system

• Adopted the OKR framework about 2 years ago, which became the big rock for team performance within the performance management system
• Each team has specific KPIs which add to their performance management

Components of individual performance management system

• Created our own evolution of the OKR framework, which we call Individual OKRs or IOKRs, which is still evolving
• IOKRs also bring in learning and development into setting goals at the individual level. 

Process of our performance management system

• Annual performance rating, review conversations and a rating cycle 
• Quarterly review conversations aligned to the quarterly goal setting cycle 
• Bi-weekly one-on-one conversations, also focusing on review and feedback 

Thus, formal performance review as a part of our performance management system is annual in nature, but is supported organically by continuous interventions. 

Also Read: How to successfully run weekly, quarterly and annual OKR reviews

Philosophy of the performance management 

• Focus on uncovering strengths to value team members for what they bring to the table and delegate work accordingly
• Focus on weaknesses to understand the gaps and facilitate hiring for the skills gap
• Strengths and weaknesses are uncovered by review and self reflection from team members on areas of non-clarity, knowledge sharing, etc. 

Recognition for performance at Chargebee

• Focus on a culture of recognizing each other. Rolled out a program called Rewards by Bonusly which allows team members to celebrate those who help them become successful or achieve an accomplishment, i.e. celebrating help by others
• Decentralized recognition efforts with flexibility for teams to decide which are the best and the right practices for effective recognition that they are most convinced about
• Supported by other efforts like spot bonuses in the form of cash, eSOPs, etc.

Chargebee has decentralized recognition efforts with flexibility for teams to decide which are the best and the right practices for effective recognition that they are most convinced about

Also Read: How manager can help employees write a great self assessment

How can organizations drive a strengths based performance management culture?

We started by creating a culture of written feedback to identify strengths. Our focus towards strengths based performance management involves:

• Giving feedback in writing, be it bi-weekly, quarterly or annually which becomes a frame of reference and the next feedback comes on top of that which enables everyone to reflect on their progress every now and then
• Capturing 360 degree feedback in writing to identify behavioral patterns and to highlight strengths and areas of improvement
• Adopting the right communication frameworks to share the feedback so others are able to receive it openly
• Encouraging our team members to share feedback directly
• Being specific in feedback that others can relate to and absorb and form action items 
• Getting in the habit of sharing feedback 1-o-1 and in real time

To become a part of such conversations and learn from the top HR leaders directly, sign up for The Talent Tribe, the best online community for HR and talent management professionals

Goal management with OKRs at Chargebee

What is the context behind the goal management system chosen by Chargebee? 

We adopted the OKR framework as our goal management system about two years back. Our goal management system is based on the philosophy that we need to:

• Focus on fewer things, but go deep into the focus items
• Clearly communicate the top priorities for the organization
• Reinforce the top priorities among team members

For instance, last year we acquired a few companies and our goal for this year is to unleash the multi-product motion by learning as much as possible about those companies to increase revenue from direct selling, cross selling and upselling. For Chargebee, the goal management system is essentially about clearly communicating the goals. 

How did you introduce and roll out OKRs at Chargebee?

Before adopting OKRs, teams used to set their own goals, which were not visible on a single dashboard and leaders used share goals, which was often conversational. However, in the growth phase, making the goals visible became really important to enable people to align and prioritize. Thus, we built the habit of setting goals quarterly and making them visible for everyone. This led to what we called the ‘Quarterly Commits’ and the idea was to keep them focused and visible to everybody. 

In the growth phase, making the goals visible became really important to enable people to align and prioritize. Thus, we built the habit of setting goals quarterly and making them visible for everyone

We put these Quarterly Commits on sheets, which facilitated visibility, gentle nudges, checking other’s commits, getting an understanding of what others are doing and how one can add value to prioritize one's own commits.  This set the stage for OKRs because they were simple, focused on big rocks with measurable outcomes. We started it as a pilot project for a few teams for a quarter and then finally rolled it out for the entire organization. 

How do you apply OKRs for goal setting and performance management system?

Today, the OKRs exist at three levels and focus on setting and reviewing.

Setting OKRs

• Between october-november, there are a lot of conversations at the executive levels, focused on questions to craft the company OKRs. This is an annual exercise which is reviewed every quarter to ensure relevance. They are made visible to everyone by mid-december.
• This gives the directional impetus to create quarterly priorities and OKRs at the functional level. The focus is also on alignment between functions to facilitate cross collaborations. Thus, there is a sharing of functional OKRs at a quarterly level. 

Reviewing OKRs

• Organizational level reviews to gauge OKR progress happens on a monthly basis.
• Within teams, it might be even more rigorous, which has been left for the teams to decide, depending upon what their key results are. Sometimes it makes sense to do it on a weekly basis, sometimes bi-weekly and sometimes monthly. 

Furthermore, on a quarterly basis, the CEO goes and shares progress, thoughts on where we are, as well as what we need to correct and what can be done better with an open presentation with the entire organization. Using a specific OKR tool provided a hierarchical view to help us understand what maps to what. 

On a quarterly basis, the CEO goes and shares progress, thoughts on where we are, as well as what we need to correct and what can be done better with an open presentation with the entire organization

How do organizational and team goals translate to individual goals at Chargebee?

It's a collaborative process. This also happens at the quarterly level. 

• Once the team OKRs are set, the manager is able to give some level of visibility into the priority for the team. This enables the individuals to set their own development goals and their specific contribution goals to a team OKR. 
• There is a specific conversation on the goal setting itself which works in tandem with the quarterly review and expectation setting cycle. 
• There are inputs from the manager, but there is also an input from the individual which are captured in the IOKRs.
• Focus is on asking a lot of questions in order to take a key result and make it really quantifiable to augment clarity. 
• We emphasize on the importance of building the habit. While creating a goal setting system is not an easy task, we focus on building perseverance to adhere to it and breaking out of the inertia to build this as a habit and organization. 
• We have evolved into the place where people have started thinking about clearly articulated outcomes as OKRs.  
• To avoid the confusion of KPIs or KRAs, we decided to evolve with IOKRs. 

Without building a habit and knowledge about the OKRs, any efforts towards OKRs will not work out really well. Thus, it is important to invest time in the beginning to bring the knowledge level of OKRs up and build the habit for the first 2-3 quarters to break the inertia, post which stabilization and perseverance begins

Thus, OKRs start from the CEO and stop at the team level, while IOKRs are for all team members, individually. Building a habit and knowledge about the OKRs are extremely important and without handling these two, any efforts towards OKRs will not work out really well. Thus, it is important to invest time in the beginning to bring the knowledge level of OKRs up and build the habit for the first 2-3 quarters, post which stabilization begins. 

Performance review and assessment at Chargebee

What is the frequency of performance assessment for the performance management system?

• At an organizational level, performance assessment as a part of the performance management system is a quarterly practice to capture performance reviews and notes into the HRMS system
• Some teams capture notes monthly which feed into the quarterly conversation, to make the process simpler
• The annual level conversation partly focuses on the performance that went by, but also is an opportunity to frame the opportunities for an individual in the upcoming year, along with goals 
• The annual performance assessment is a two-part conversation where we also share the rating of how the individual has contributed to the organization 

Also Read: How often should you conduct a performance review

How did you decide on the right rating scale?

We looked at the three-point scale, the five-point scale and questioned if we needed a point scale. Furthermore, there were questions whether ratings mattered at all. Then, we decided to apply them to our context and see what would be meaningful. 

We transitioned performance rating from an understanding of meeting expectations to reflecting the contributions of an individual, vis-à-vis reflecting the expectations of the manager or the team. 

That was the pivot, a contribution based rating:

• It is a four-point scale
• The two middle options are solid contributors who are really good at their job in the middle and strong contributors who probably take it up a notch and go beyond the contributions of that role. You can see their contributions visibly in other parts of the organization and other teams
• The outlier on one end of the spectrum are the exceptional contributors 
• The other end of the spectrum has limited contributors who are newer and are trying to get their feet wet and trying to figure out how they can grow into a solid contributor 
• The frame is to show people where they are now and maybe where they can feel help in order to perhaps contribute better

Where is this rating scale used? 

Most rating scales focus on performance of the past, however, as a part of our performance management system, we believe that any appraisal or promotion is for what they will do in the future. Thus, our performance rating scale seeks to capture the philosophy of focusing on the future. 

For instance, if someone has a bad performance in a quarter and if you're still excited about that person because they have continuously performed well, and believe that they are a strong contributor, you need to give them a rating that reflects that. Our rating scale brings this change into the conversation between the manager and the team member. For us, every performance review is a hiring decision. 

For us, every performance review is a hiring decision

We also request the manager and team member to mutually align on the rating for the performance management system. We expect there is no ambiguity on the rating and the areas of improvement as part of the performance review. 

Finally, the contributor rating plays an important role in awarding the compensation revision. The onus of this performance review for performance management system is put on the individuals instead of the managers so that the individuals take ownership of blocking a time, writing it down and ensuring that their manager also writes it down and then owns its own outcome for that. 

Also read: 100+ self review comments and phrases for performance assessment

How do you de-link compensation and ratings for team members?

Compensation is a function of the market as well. Thus, if someone who is a solid contributor has some issues with compensation, we review it on a case to case basis. Furthermore, these two conversations, compensation and recency, happen at least with a gap of thirty days, to ensure there is no recency bias. The compensation is driven by a strong recommendation from the HR around the range and each team also has a budget which they can allocate as they see fit. 

What principles should organizations follow while designing their performance management system? 

Try and understand what sort of an organization you want to build i.e. what are you really looking for in your people or what is that thing that needs to be in your DNA

At Chargebee, the hunger to learn and grow is something that you can see is what we look for, and that is probably an identifiable trait that you can notice. 

• Write down the traits you are looking for 
• Keep your performance management system simple
• Articulate the why and share it with the team
• Keep iterating as you scale

Is there a bell curve which you follow?

No, there is not really a bell curve that we follow at Chargebee, yet. We personally don't believe in the bell curve but we need to see as we scale through our own journey and how it evolves in the next one or two years. 

How do you train managers to deliver feedback effectively?

• Showing managers how to write feedback is an important exercise that organizations have to go through from the top
• Adopting the coaching methodology and then demand from managers to do it for their 1-o-1 team members 
• Running and a lot of office hours leading up to the final date of the closing the performance review conversation, having the managers come to the HR team to walk them through some of the samples written down and how they could use the framework
• Rolling out a proper manager program focused only on effectively giving written feedback

Wrapping up

To conclude, it is clear that effective goal setting with OKRs, performance review and written feedback collectively contribute to a robust performance management program. It is important to have a clear vision in mind when designing a performance management system, both on what you seek to achieve and the DNA of the organization you're trying to build. Finally, it is important to keep iterating on the go, to adapt to new realities and dynamic priorities

Suggested Reading

150+ useful performance review phrases for managers

8 best performance management software in 2022

How to strategically align compensation and performance management

Stay updated with talent and performance management best practices. Register for The Talent Tribe today

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Reviews can be overwhelming for those giving it as well as those receiving it. 

As a manager, you need to ensure that the performance review phrases and comments you use create the delicate balance between providing critical feedback covering areas of improvement and ensuring a positive attitude to motivate the employees

To make the entire process effective, we have compiled a list of 150+ performance review phrases and captions that you can use with a list of phrases to avoid and best practices for providing reviews on areas of improvement. 

How to use performance review phrases 

Before we jump onto the review phrase examples that you could use, let’s discuss how you should use them to ensure maximum efficacy.

• Don’t use generic phrases or buzzwords for all performance reviews
• Make the reviews personalized for each employee
• Add context or quantify the review phrases with information and data points relevant to the employee
• Use performance phrases that are context specific 
• Leverage performance review phrases to identify key behaviors for each segment of performance appraisal

Read: Top 10 performance review tips for managers that actually work

Which performance review phrases should you avoid 

While the intent of employee review phrases is to provide appropriate feedback to the employees, there are certain practices and comments that you should avoid. Often, using such phrases will dilute the impact of your conversation. To ensure high levels of effectiveness, you should avoid:

1. Being vague

Steer away from using cliched review phrases which don’t have any substance or communicate impact like ‘Mr. A is an excellent communicator’

This is a generic statement. You should rather use phrases that add value to the statement like ‘Mr. A doesn’t shy away from asking questions in case he has doubts about the conversation.’

2. Comparing two colleagues

You need to ensure that your performance review phrases do not hint on any level of comparison between two employees.

Avoid statements like, ‘Ms. P was able to close 10 deals in 6 months, however, you closed only 6.’

3. Being absolute

On whichever side of the spectrum your performance review falls, ensure that your phrases are not absolute. Put simply, you should stay away from comments that include the terms Always/Never. Even if you want to show incidence of more than one time, use terms like seldom/frequently. 

For instance, avoid phrases like, ‘Mr. Q never speaks up during meetings.’

4. Humiliating or downgrading the employees

The intent of using performance review phrases is to ensure that you are able to communicate your feedback in the most meaningful manner

Using statements that humiliate or look down upon the employees defeats the purpose. Ensure that your statements have a constructive tone to them.

It is best to negate statements like, ‘Ms. L is the worst person on the team, she can never get anything right.’

5. Being uncertain

Finally, be very firm and sure of the performance review phrases you use. 

Terms like maybe, I am not sure, etc. will downplay the impact because the employee will get a sense of your uncertainty and may not take the feedback very seriously

Avoid using phrases like ‘I think Mr. G has been outperforming his targets for the last 3 months.’

How to provide reviews on areas of improvements

Not all instances where you will use performance review phrases will be completely positive in nature. Rather, there will be multiple instances when you will have to talk about the areas of improvement for your employees if you really want to see them grow. However, delivering reviews on the latter can be overwhelming. Fortunately, the following tips can help you be well prepared for it.

1. Be specific

Don’t throw random generic statements when you want to speak of areas of improvement. It may seem a good way to avoid confrontation, but you will end up not yielding any impact. 

For instance, instead of saying, ‘You did not perform well’, use statements like ‘Your performance in the last project was not upto the mark due to several missed deadlines’

2. Be regular

Next, if you are providing review or feedback for areas of improvement, try to make it as soon as possible, once you identify the challenge. The sooner you share the review, the more relevant it will be. 

For instance, saying, ‘Mr. X did not meet sales targets in the first quarter’ when you are sitting in the last quarter will not yield much impact. 

3. Try to not get personal

Finally, ensure that the performance review phrases you use do not come across as a personal attack on your employees. They should focus on the behavior or attribute you wish to talk about and not the person specifically. 

For instance, instead of commentating ‘You are not serious about your work’ use statements like ‘Your performance in the last quarter indicates a lack of taking ownership’

150+ useful performance review phrases 

Let’s quickly walk through the top 150+ performance review phrases that you can use for performance management and feedback for your employees. We have categorized them under specific performance aspects to make them easier to comprehend. 

1) Quality Of Work Performance Review Phrases

You can use these phrases to describe your assessment of whether or not the quality of work has been as per company standards. 

Generally, quality of work is intrinsically linked to high levels of motivation, commitment and productivity

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

1. Has an exceptional attention to detail
2. Consistently follows up and prevents work from falling through cracks
3. Work is well researched and articulated
4. Double checks the work before submitting
5. Maintains a proper plan to ensure nothing is missed

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

6. More focus is needed to ensure greater accuracy
7. Has been inconsistent in the quality of work delivered
8. Needs to put more effort into producing reports that are error free
9. Doesn’t follow an established process of completion and checking of work

2) Job Knowledge Performance Review Phrases

Every role or job comes with a set of expectations and responsibilities. If an employee is foggy on this understanding, chances are high that he or she will be unable to deliver as per expectations.

Clear job knowledge will help employees set clear expectations of themselves and ensure effective performance  

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

10. Has been able to translate strategy into results
11. Is able to address organizational challenges with technical knowledge
12. Was able to yield 10% higher sales by leveraging new techniques
13. Keen to upskill in the domain of operation
14. Understands the changing job requirements and is willing to adapt

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

15. Is not able to meet changing market expectations
16. Has not been willing to take on opportunities to learn new skills required
17. Unable to provide technical solutions to the problems at hand
18. Is unsure of the skills required for the job

3) Attention To Detail Performance Review Phrases

Attention to detail is a subset of quality of work and is critical for most roles.

Employees that have high levels of attention to detail are often more proactive and deliver error free work

On the other hand, a lack of the same leads to a high number of inaccuracies.

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

19. Displays high levels of patience
20. Is highly organized and ensures clarification at every stage
21. Produces work that requires minimal iterations
22. Maintains a checklist to ensure everything is delivered on time
23. Undertakes multiple rounds of proofreading before delivery

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

24. Delivers unreliable or incomplete output frequently
25. Tries to focus on multiple projects at once
26. Tends to overlook requirements in an attempt to complete work on time
27. Doesn’t spend adequate time on details

4) Dependability Performance Review Phrases

As a performance component, dependability refers to the degree to which you can rely upon your employees to deliver quality work consistently and put in extra effort if the need arises 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

28. Displays high level of performance every day
29. Has shown time and again that he/she can be counted on during uncertain times
30. Doesn’t shy away from commitment to handle multiple projects
31. Doesn’t complain if the need arises to put in extra hours at times
32. Ensures high quality of work consistently

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

33. Is seen struggling with keeping up with deadlines
34. Rarely delivers what is agreed upon
35. Tends to shift ownership to others 
36. Takes leave of absence without prior intimation regularly

5) Initiative Performance Review Phrases

Initiative is an attribute that is exhibited by only a few employees who take ownership of getting things done without being asked to. 

Initiative is generally found among employees that feel a sense of affinity towards the vision and values of the organization and seek to make an impact

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

37. Proactively sets goals and OKRs for oneself
38. Participates in activities that goes beyond KRA
39. Often tries to engage in areas to deliver more value
40. Constantly takes ownership of new projects and assignments
41. Is willing to go out of the way to help others

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

42. Requires constant reminders and supervision
43. Resists taking on new responsibilities and participating in activities
44. Unwilling to set goals and add value to projects
45. Barely completes the work allotted to him/her

Read: How often should you conduct performance reviews

6) Teamwork and Collaboration Performance Review Phrases 

When you are working in an organization, you seldom work in silos. You often have to collaborate, co-create and collectively work with your team members towards a shared goal. An employee can be a great individual contributor but may not excel in teamwork. However, high levels of teamwork and collaboration lead to greater engagement, commitment and a positive culture. 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

46. Was active in seeking inputs from all team members during the last project
47. Has shown proficiency in delegating tasks and following up
48. Has been actively participating in all brainstorming sessions
49. Facilitates unity in the team by promoting open communication 
50. Has built a rapport with everyone in the team

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

51. Has a poor record of showing up for team meetings
52. Does not willingly share ideas or feedback with others in the team
53. Rarely encourages colleagues and is less than willing to seek feedback
54. Is unable to delegate work in an effective manner

7) Productivity Performance Review Phrases

Productivity refers to the output an employee is able to deliver, both in terms of quality and quantity. Employees that show high levels of productivity are an asset to the organization. Providing regular performance feedback on productivity can enhance the same by making employees aware about the gaps. 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

55. Constantly delivers on or before time
56. Has been instrumental in meeting targets in the last quarter
57. Ensures minimal distractions to deliver volumes of high quality work
58. Focuses on using tools and techniques to work in a smart way
59. Achieved sales target 5 days ahead of time for the last month

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

60. Has been asking for extensions on deadlines
61. Unable to focus attention on work for a long time, leading to below average delivery
62. Lacks organizational skills leading to little progress in productivity
63. Has shown reluctance to work on new projects

8) Attendance Performance Review Phrases

While it is true that employees must be given adequate time off, taking leave of absence very frequently and without prior notice can impact an organization in more than one way.

‍Attendance is not limited to showing up at work, but also permeates to meetings, sessions and learning initiatives. It is an overt display of commitment and engagement and low levels can be an indication of potential attrition

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

64. Consistently shows up for meetings on time
65. Doesn’t take unnecessary breaks during work hours
66. Informs about time off well in advance
67. Ensures things are managed well with Out Of Office (OOO) automatic emails when not available
68. Doesn’t make others wait for a pre-scheduled meeting

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

69. Shows up late or is a no show during workshops
70. Does not take initiative to respond to meeting invites
71. Spends excessive time on non-productive things during work hours
72. Extends meetings unnecessarily

9) Communication Performance Review Phrases

Poor communication among employees can lead to misunderstanding, high stress, poor company morale and much more. On the flip side, streamlined communication results in greater engagement and a better experience. Constant feedback on communication can help prevent instances of miscommunication and clarity at all levels.

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

73. Is able to communicate his/her ideas in a concise yet informative manner
74. Consistently asks questions in case there is any confusion
75. Ensures the every point he/she makes is relevant and well articulated
76. Doesn’t shy away from starting a conversation, especially on a difficult topic
77. Is not afraid of saying “let me get back to you”, when he/she is not sure of the answer

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

78. Has been observed using language that is not welcome by others
79. Is unwilling to listen to others/ take feedback
80. Avoids meaningful conversations
81. Is often verbose and written communication is not clear

10) Integrity Performance Review Phrases

Employees with high levels of integrity often align with strong moral values and believe in ethical business practices. 

Guiding integrity through performance review statements can help build an attractive and reputable employer brand for the organization

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

82. Ensures that commitment is adhered to
83. Makes an effort to do what is right
84. Does not take the easy way out
85. Maintains a high level of discipline, confidentiality and ethics at work
86. Follows business principles diligently

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

87. Indulges in office gossip
88. Doesn’t give in 100% if left unsupervised
89. Tries to pin blame on others and makes comments in the process
90. Is found breaking rules on more than one occasion 

11) Leadership Performance Review Phrases

Leadership as a quality is integral for your employees if you seek to build a healthy succession pipeline

Reviews on leadership capabilities can help budding leaders build the right skills, competencies and attitudes to take up new roles and positions without any challenge. 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

91. Successfully led the last team project and recorded 15% increase in sales
92. Provides meaningful feedback to peers and colleagues with clear actions
93. Deals with people with empathy and compassion
94. Encourages team members to unlock full potential
95. Helps others when they are stuck in work 

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

96. Rarely shows appreciation or acknowledges others
97. Doesn’t set a positive and authentic example for others
98. Creates a culture of shifting accountability and fear
99. Lacks the willingness and skills to delegate work

Read: Top 7 tips to improve leadership effectiveness 

12) Problem Solving Performance Review Phrases

Problem solving is one of the most critical skills for the 21st century. Employees no longer have to just undertake repetitive tasks, but have to indulge in critical thinking to address real world challenges. 

Creating a culture of problem solving can help you ensure resilience and business continuity even during uncertainty and ambiguity

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

100. Proactively suggests new and innovative solutions to problems
101. Always comes with a few solutions to the management when a challenge arises
102. Views problems as opportunities 
103. Helped address a customer complaint leading to 10% increase in customer stickiness
104. Is good at preempting and evaluating challenges

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

105. Rarely comes up with ideas or suggestions during brainstorming sessions
106. Sticks to the processes and practices and shies away from experimentation
107. Fails to comprehensively understand the problem
108. Is hesitant to change the conventional flow of processes and work

13) Adaptability Performance Review Phrases

Surrounded by uncertain market conditions, employees need to display high levels of adaptability. Be it picking up new skills, or pivoting priorities as the need arises, adaptability is highly critical today. Consistent feedback on adaptability can help employees gauge the importance of this quality and focus on developing the same. 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

109. Is willing to adjust priorities, deadlines based on changed realities
110. Thinks on the feet and quickly responds to a new challenge
111. Believes change can lead to better outcomes
112. Upskilled himself/herself in 3 months to deliver the last project successfully
113. Makes conscious effort to remain agile

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

114. Is reluctant to move out of the comfort zone
115. Feels overwhelmed when asked to adjust priorities and take on new work
116. Unable to maintain calm and composure when uncertainty strikes
117. Rarely attends sessions on change management

14) Flexibility Performance Review Phrases

Close to adaptability lies the quality of flexibility to describe employees who are not rigid and set in their own ways. They are open to new ideas and are willing to accommodate in case the need arises.

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

118. Has a positive attitude when there is a need to accommodate or change
119. Shows proactiveness in case of urgent changes 
120. Is willing to embrace change
121. Adjusts well with new responsibilities and duties
122. Is willing to adjust when others request

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

123. Doesn’t move away from what he/she believes is right
124. Is not willing to view things from others’ point of view
125. Rarely helps others if there will be no impact on him/her
126. Unwilling to work according to schedules of others

15) Adherence To Policy Performance Review Phrases

While it is important to innovate and think out of the box, a certain level of adherence and compliance to policies and practices is integral for a thriving culture. For instance, certain HR policies, POSH policy, etc. need to be adhered to, to ensure the maintenance of a professional decorum and create a safe workspace for everyone. 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

127. Respects and follows all policies set by the company
128. Ensures that any instance of poor compliance is reported immediately
129. Is vocal about commitment to policies
130. Has deep knowledge about the content and intent of each policy
131. Makes an effort to engage in different committees, initiatives to further the policy impact

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

132. Is unaware about the policies that exist in the organization
133. Doesn’t make an effort to attend workshops/sessions organized on key policies
134. Doesn’t actively make an effort to adhere to policies
135. Dismisses colleagues when they quote policies to him/her

16) Achievements Performance Review Phrases

Though not exactly a performance parameter, it is very important to get in line performance review phrases that talk about achievements of the employees. While positive phrases can reinforce the achievements, areas of improvement can help reach the desired levels. 

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

136. Ended the last quarter with 20% more sales than the previous one
137. Saved $1 Million for the company by leveraging automation tools
138. Outperformed other teams by exceeding the target by 15%
139. Increased customer stickiness by 15% by reducing complaint resolution time to 24 hours
140. Increased organic traffic on the website by 35% leveraging the right SEO techniques

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

141. Missed meeting the target for last month by 5%
142. Unable to meet deadlines because of lack of organization
143. Finds it difficult to deliver error free work consistently
144. Needs to focus on better social media engagement to increase organic traffic

17) Professionalism Performance Review Phrases

Despite the rise of a casual work culture, especially with the advent of remote work, there is a need to maintain a level of professionalism to ensure the right culture. Performance review phrases on professionalism can help employees understand what is desirable and how it ultimately impacts productivity, performance, retention and engagement at large.

Phrases to indicate performance is acceptable or exceeds expectation

145. Has high levels of integrity and work ethic
146. Ensure communication in a professional way without using abbreviations, emojis, etc.
147. Doesn’t get worked up and shows it to others even under pressure
148. Dresses according to the need of the workplace
149. Converses in a polite yet convincing manner

Phrases that indicate need for improvement

150. Has a hard time keeping personal life away from work
151. Sometimes talks to colleagues in a manner that is considered offensive
152. Doesn’t maintain workplace hygiene
153. Is often dressed in casual clothes which don’t gel well with the nature of the setting

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