For credit union employees, here are a few things to consider:

• If you have sales goals, are you meeting them?
• Are you taking advantage of all the available training opportunities? If not, why?
• Do you have set goals for yourself? If not, write some down.

For credit union leaders, here are a few things to consider:

• Are you developing your employees – i.e., are there available opportunities for training, volunteering, employee enrichment programs, etc.?
• Are your marketing efforts effectively reaching new members?
• Have you seen an increase or decrease in membership?
• Is your asset size growing or decreasing?
• What are you doing to compete with other credit unions and banks?
• Are you developing or modernizing your website and mobile apps to effectively reach your membership base?

And finally, for managers, if you have annual appraisals or reviews due, are you scheduling them on time? I recently had my annual review – it also happened to fall halfway through the year and near my birthday – and one thing I appreciated was that my manager scheduled it on time. Because my annual review is also a time when the possibility of an increase is determined, her timeliness signaled the respect she had for me as an employee. This made me feel valued, which in turn made me want to work harder for my organization. Happy employees yield better results.

Delaying an annual review by weeks or months forces an employee to miss out on valuable feedback and money that could benefit them in the short-term and long-term.

It's important to mention that Dr. Paul White, a psychologist, author, speaker and consultant who specializes in coaching in the workplace, says if you're trying to help people improve or change an employee's behavior, immediate feedback with specifics is far more effective than waiting until an annual review.

“Research is showing that the annual review is a waste of time in terms of showing good results because people are trying to pack too much into it and people do best with immediate feedback,” he said.

He added that if someone does something good, he wants to tell them now and not in three months, and this is especially true for younger workers because they particularly desire more immediate feedback.

So, although immediate feedback is useful in terms of changing behavior, an annual review can still serve an important purpose. As was the case with me, they're often an ideal platform for determining pay increases, long-term and short-term goals, and for receiving valuable feedback.

Here are a few things to keep in mind for managers when completing annual/performance reviews:

• People will most often remember the negative feedback, so be thoughtful in how you deliver constructive criticism.

• A review is really a summary of past performance. To make it a more effective use of time, set an action plan for the future. This way, employees have a sense of what they need to do in order to meet your expectations.

• Allow an opportunity for feedback from your employee. What are their goals for the future? Do they have any feedback on your performance?

• End by expressing support and appreciation of your employee.

Do you have any tips on conducting performance reviews? What have you found to be most helpful? Let me know in an email, and perhaps I'll include it in a future column!

Tahira Hayes is a Correspondent-at-Large for CU Times. She can be contacted at [email protected].