One of the challenges in writing employee performance reviews is coming up with just the right words to describe each employee. Though you may have a few superstars and a few duds to deal with (and usually can come up with the right phrases for each), what kind of phrases are right for the other 80%? We’ve built on our first post about employee performance reviews with this post of some sample comments, phrases, and ideas you can use to review your retail store employees. As with our first post, we’ve categorized our sample comments and provided them by positive and negative comments:
Attendance and Punctuality
Positive
Tammy is a stickler for arriving on time for her schedule and working the defined schedule.
John is always on time, takes the right amount of time for breaks, and returns with a cheerful attitude that his fellow coworkers appreciate.
Negative
Bill doesn’t understand the importance of working the defined schedule. He is frequently a few minutes later for his shift which causes inconveniences for his fellow coworkers.
Tedd arrives on time and leaves on time, but often does not accept any overtime or coverage of his fellow employees. This puts the management team of the store in a bind as they must rely on a few employees who will work over if necessary.
Creativity & Problem Solving
Positive
Bob can look at any problematic situation and craft an excellent solution. His ability to look beyond the symptoms and see the actual underlying problem is crucial to our team’s success.
Jim’s creativity has helped our department outsell other teams through excellent displays and product placement. Jim’s understanding of how the customer moves through our area and the ability to place sale items in the right place is quite valuable to meeting our sales numbers.
Negative
Todd is a “surface level” troubleshooter. He understands the very minimum of problem solving and causes his team members to pick up the slack when he fails to adequately look at a problem.
In a time of economic difficulties for the store, we expected more out of Tim. Tim did not adequately take the assignment to be creative in his area and we expect more of someone in his position. Over the next six months, Tim should improve his ability to assess situations and provide excellent answers.
Technical skills is required for the technical sales position Ben is in. Unfortunately, he has not grasped the training nor has he shown the desire to improve in this area.
Customer Service
Positive
One of the things we most appreciate from Terry is his ability to make every customer feel special. In a low margin industry such as ours, Terry makes the difference with our customers with his personable attitude and focus on their needs.
Ken’s focus on the needs of our customers is an excellent example for his fellow employees.
The success of our store is directly related to how our customers feel when shopping here. Lenny looks at each customer walking through the door as an important client and does everything he can to ensure an excellent shopping experience.
Negative
Jack frequently addresses customers in ways which are not desirable. His mixed attitude with customers is something he should address over the next year.
Bobby meets the needs of the customer, but does not show the proper attitude or demonstrates what we expect from employees of our store. For example, Bobby does not do a good job looking at the customer in the eyes and frequently looks down or away. Bobby needs to focus on the non-verbal communication skills which demonstrate a lack of interest when someone is speaking to him.
Management & Supervision
Positive
Managing in the retail environment is difficult, but Kyle is a shining example of how to manage employees. He consistently receives high marks from his employees and runs a tight shift at the store.
Jack has little turnover in his team and has shown a knack for training employees in a friendly and easy to absorb manner.
Bill has performed well this year in his first as a supervisor. Though there are some things he needs to work on, overall, the performance of his team met goals and he should be proud of what he has accomplished.
Negative
Harry often overlooks problem employees and is more interested in being their friend than adequately managing them towards success.
Tom does not run a tight ship at this store. His area is not always the cleanest and his employees appear disinterested at times.
Sales Skills
Positive
Jim has an innate ability to sell to our clients. His attention to detail, understanding of what the customer desires, and ability to meet the desire with the right product makes him one of our most successful sales people.
We believe the sales skills can be learned by anyone, but Harry has shown us that some people just have a natural ability to sell. Harry is very good at finding the right product for people, his upsell skills are excellent, and his margins are excellent compared to his peers.
Negative
Jane is not proficient at up selling. When provided an opportunity with a client for an obvious upsell situation, Jane does not understand how to execute smoothly or to successfully increase the average revenue per customer.
Deb needs to learn how to quickly build relationships and a rapport with people. Though her sales skills are adequate, we believe they could improve dramatically by learning how to best approach the client.