The guide
Guide to performance reviews and employee appraisal
How do you prepare a useful annual review, set measurable goals, run 360 feedback in an SME and link appraisal to pay? This guide brings together good practice adapted to the Swiss context.
How do you prepare an annual performance review?
A good annual review is prepared on both sides, at least two weeks ahead. The employee completes their self-assessment: achievements, difficulties, goals met or not, wishes for development. The manager gathers dated facts rather than impressions: projects delivered, feedback from clients or colleagues, progress observed.
The review itself follows a simple structure: review of the past year, assessment of skills, goals for the coming year, development and training, then the employee’s comments. Numezis prepares this framework: it opens the cycle, chases latecomers, gathers the year’s material and offers the manager a summary based on facts. The conversation can then focus on the future rather than on reconstructing the past.
How do you set measurable goals?
A useful goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. “Improve quality” is not; “deliver the construction drawings for the Pully school within the 320-hour budget by the end of June” is. Three to five goals a year are enough, with a weighting that reflects their importance.
The classic trap is forgetting goals between two reviews. In Numezis, each goal has its measure, its deadline and progress updated throughout the year, by the employee or automatically when the measure comes from a project or an indicator. A goal that stalls is flagged to the manager, who can adjust it or offer help. At the review, the assessment already exists; what remains is to interpret it together.
Does an SME need 360 feedback?
360 feedback adds the perspective of colleagues, direct reports and sometimes internal clients to the manager’s view. In an SME, it is particularly useful for cross-functional roles, such as a project manager or a head of administration, whose work is mostly visible to others.
Three conditions make it reliable: enough respondents to guarantee anonymity, short questions focused on observable behaviour, and feedback presented with care. Numezis only shows results from three answers upwards, aggregates them by theme and lets the manager review free-text comments. For a team of 30 people, targeted 360 feedback on key roles often brings more than a company-wide scheme.
Can appraisal be linked to pay?
Yes, but with method. Many Swiss SMEs separate the development review from the salary discussion, so that employees can talk freely about their difficulties. Others hold them together and link part of the bonus to goal achievement. In both cases, the rule must be known in advance and applied in the same way to everyone.
If a bonus is planned, CO 322d distinguishes a gratuity, paid at the employer’s discretion, from a part of salary that is owed once the conditions are met. Numezis tracks the budget for raises and bonuses decided, checks that it stays within budget and applies each decision to payroll on its effective date after approval, with a link to the review that justifies it.
How does appraisal feed the work certificate?
The full work certificate under CO 330a assesses the quality of the employee’s work and conduct. It must be truthful and benevolent. When it is written years after the fact, or by a recently arrived manager, it often rests on vague memories and leads to disputes.
Successive appraisals, kept in the personnel file, offer a solid basis: dated assessments, goals achieved, skills developed. When the employee asks for a certificate, interim or final, the Numezis agent prepares it from this history, in French, German, Italian or English. The manager proofreads and signs. The certificate thus reflects the whole period of employment, not just the last few months.