How CharlieHR helps managers run fairer performance reviews in small businesses
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In a small business, you’re used to trusting your gut instinct when it comes to making decisions. While this approach helps you innovate, it can also introduce bias and unfairness — especially when it comes to hiring, professional development, and promotions.
It’s normal to gel with some people more than others, but your performance review process should be fair and objective. Nobody should feel like they’re passed over or left out. You need a clear process that sets out how you run reviews, when they happen, and what they involve.
As your team grows, it’s no longer realistic to handle all the performance reviews by yourself manually. What you need is a simple system that allows you to run fair reviews consistently, and we’re here to show you exactly how to do this with Charlie.
Why you need an official process for performance reviews in a small business
Performance reviews should be intentional, strategic, and fair, with decisions being made based on concrete facts and considered research. But in a small business, they’re often rushed through to meet a deadline or run without any real process or framework.
Without a clear performance review process, you run into issues like:
- Different review styles between managers
- Some employees being treated more favourably than others
- Difficulty engaging people in the feedback process
- Lack of guidance on what a performance review should include
- Different levels of support being offered to team members
- Lack of feedback from other team members
- Reviews happening at random intervals
- Review cycles being missed completely
These are all factors that hold you back from your potential, and can contribute towards you losing some of your most talented employees.
Many people join a small business because they want the space and flexibility to discover their talents and grow into their career. But without a clear process, you risk losing these individuals to companies that can support them better.
A simple 6-step framework for performance reviews for small businesses
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Regular performance reviews – performance reviews shouldn’t be an afterthought. Introduce reviews at regular intervals to identify strengths and challenges, support employees, and encourage growth and development.
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Clear process that everyone follows – as your business grows, consistency is harder to find. Introduce a simple process that everyone can follow, so that both managers and team members know what to expect and when.
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Open communication – even a well-intentioned process can fall flat if there’s a lack of communication and transparency. Everyone should feel encouraged to give honest feedback freely, so you can handle issues proactively and celebrate achievements regularly.
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Accountability for managers – Team managers are the best people to run performance reviews, so create a system that empowers them to do this and with plenty of accountability built in.
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Opportunities for consistent feedback – feedback shouldn’t be limited to your quarterly or yearly performance reviews. Instead, look for ways to naturally create opportunities for feedback within your regular working week.
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Career progression framework – Talented employees want to grow and develop in their role, and shape it to match their expertise and goals. Over time, develop a career progression framework that allows employees to work towards their future in a strategic way.
Sophie Hanman, Customer Happiness Manager at London Nootropics
“It’s so important not to miss milestones in an employee’s journey – just a few words of acknowledgement can make a massive difference for someone to feel valued and recognised.”
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If you use Charlie, introducing this simple framework is easy. With Charlie, you can:
- Consolidate all your reviews in one place
- Promote accountability with invite emails and notifications
- Involve everyone in the process
- Make performance reviews an official and required part of your year
- Oversee the review process as a super admin
- Make it easier to give and receive feedback
Charlie allows you to run your performance reviews on a regular schedule, with the right questions to prompt feedback that helps you support employees to work at their best.
Riannon Palmer, Founder & CEO at Lem-uhn
“It helped a lot and was a great tool for us to put together a performance review system that made sense.”
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How to use Charlie to run fairer performance reviews
There are lots of HR platforms and performance review platforms out there, but we think Charlie offers something special for small businesses. Here’s how you can use Charlie to make your reviews more fair, objective, and impactful.
Let people see their feedback first
In a standard performance review, an individual only gets to hear their feedback during the meeting itself, which can frame the review meeting in a negative light. We decided this wasn’t fair, so with Charlie everyone gets to see their feedback before the meeting.
🏆 Why this is fairer and more objective:
Allows people time to process the feedback, especially if it’s challenging
Reduces anxiety and worry ahead of the review meeting
Gives people time to come up with ideas or an action plan
Makes it easier for team members to raise manager feedback
Everyone starts the discussion on an equal ground
Allows for a more productive discussion
Promotes open communication
Adopt a coaching mindset
The performance review process doesn’t end when everyone’s feedback is revealed. With Charlie, people are then prompted to take action and book a discussion meeting within a certain timeframe — promoting action, accountability, and collaboration. The manager’s role isn’t just that of a reviewer, but as a coach.
🏆 Why this is fairer and more objective:
Feedback gets actioned, not forgotten about
People feel included in their own performance reviews
Decisions aren’t made in silos
Promotes a collaborative approach, typical of a flat vs. hierarchical structure
Team members feel more supported
Promotes trust and transparency
Supports a culture of continuous feedback and open communication
Support your managers to run effective and supportive reviews with clear, simple steps and useful guidance. Start with our guide on how to run performance reviews.
Schedule your reviews at the same time every year
It’s easy to miss a reminder to schedule a performance review if you’re busy. Use Charlie to schedule reviews at set times throughout the year to make the process feel automatic and relieve pressure on your managers.
🏆 Why this is fairer and more objective:
Ensures fairness and consistency
Makes review cycles an expected part of your company culture
Allows everyone time to prepare fully
Makes the process feel less scary or overwhelming
Separates performance reviews from the expectations of a salary increase
Shifts the focus from performance management to continuous development
Sets expectations for managers and team members
Increases completion rates and habit formation
James Chessum, Founder at Red5 people
“Having performance reviews within the software is brilliant. It’s great to be able to come back to past check-ins, but it also takes away the fear of irregular 1 to 1’s as it just becomes part of our routine.”
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Ask the right questions
The questions you ask determine the outcome of a review and the impact it has on an employee’s career development, so it’s essential to get them right. We’ve included expert-researched templates and questions within Charlie, or you can create your own templates.
🏆 Why this is fairer and more objective:
Reduces bias with templates created by HR experts
Improves consistency and fairness by asking everyone the same set of questions
Removes opportunities for unintentional bias in question selection
Allows you to identify trends across the company
Gives the whole process more structure
Get everyone’s point of view with 360-degree reviews
360-degree reviews make the entire process more holistic and meaningful, but they can be time-consuming to arrange.
Instead of creating forms and sending emails, let Charlie take care of the admin for you. All you need to do is select the peer feedback option, add your questions, and decide who to send the invite to.
🏆 Why this is fairer and more objective:
Gives you a better perspective on someone’s day-to-day work
Avoids unconscious bias by adding viewpoints from more than one person
Allows you to gather even more information and feedback
Helps you identify areas of improvement or achievements that might have been missed
Empowers everyone to get involved with your feedback culture
Promotes strategic decision-making
Involving others in the review process adds fresh insights and more context, allowing you to make more strategic decisions. We highly recommend including it within your review process. Get started and see what it looks like with our free 360-degree feedback template.
Run better performance reviews with Charlie
Every member of your team deserves the same high-quality experience when it comes to performance reviews. With Charlie, you can improve consistency, remove bias, and create a culture where team members feel supported. Ready to change the way you run performance reviews for the better?
Sign up for a demo and our sales team will give you a tour of the platform and all the ways Charlie can support you with not just performance reviews but other core HR functions too. After the demo, explore the software with a no-commitment free trial, then sign up in moments when you’re ready to get started.
See how you can do better performance today
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Written by:
Jenny Tattum
Jenny is a Senior Product Manager at CharlieHR. She has years of experience with product planning and development, and user research too – she put together this guide by collecting data and information on competitors so we could improve our product and tailor it to small business owners.
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FAQs for running fairer reviews with Charlie
Have a question about how Charlie can support your performance review process? Here are the questions we get asked the most, along with our answers.
Yes! We’ve made the process as simple as possible, so it’s ideal for beginners or leaders that are embarking on the review process for the first time. You can get started in minutes, with no experience needed.
Absolutely! While our HR experts have created template questions for you, you’re always free to customise them or add your own.
You can set goals within Charlie, which means you don’t need to invest in another app to track progress. Explore our guide on how to set goals in Charlie to learn more about goals, sub-goals, and company goals.
The best way to ensure team members provide fair and consistent reviews is to offer guidance on how to give feedback, have a clear process and structure, and be transparent about expectations. See our guide on how to conduct performance reviews for more advice.
Yes! Charlie can be used for more than just performance reviews, with features to support onboarding, time-off management, employee engagement, and more. There’s also a growing library of integrations, allowing you to integrate Charlie with other tools you already use.
You can go back and view previous performance reviews, and compare progress between then and now. Charlie’s goals system allows you to set, view, and update goals. You can also use Charlie to schedule 1:1s. For more ideas, see our guide on continuous performance management.
Charlie is a perfect fit for a hybrid or remote team. You can manage the entire process online, or decide to meet up in person for your discussion.
You can check in on everyone’s progress from your dashboard, allowing you to identify roadblocks or make sure that reviews have been completed. Managers and employees also receive notifications and reminders, which promotes accountability.
You don’t need a complete framework or policy to get started with reviews. Use Charlie’s built-in templates and process to start now, then use your experience to shape your process going forward. You can also get help from our team of expert HR advisors, who can advise on your process and help you build an employee handbook.
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