Has your management team considered new ways to motivate employees during performance reviews?  A recent article on best practices for employee performance reviews contains suggestions for delivering more rewarding employee reviews.

With a forward-looking approach to reviews, managers make a positive impact on employees. Rather than dwelling on an employee’s past mistakes during the entire review, meaningful reviews reward past successes and focus on how employees make the most of opportunities going forward. 

Mystery shop results need to be included as part of the employee review.  From our experience, here are ways to tie mystery shopping goals into the review:

1. Employee Recognition & On the Spot Rewards:  Employees desire and appreciate recognition for meeting individual and team goals.  While mystery shops provide management with a gauge of how well employees meet company standards for service and sales skills, they also provide ideal opportunities to recognize individual employees.  Do you have employees who consistently perform well on telephone mystery shopping and onsite mystery shopping?  Use the annual review to recognize and reward these employees.  Better yet, if your company doesn’t already offer on the spot rewards for perfect mystery shops, ask employees if this type of immediate recognition, with awards certificates, appeals to them.   When you inquire about opinions, it shows that you value their input as high performers.
2. Employee incentives:  What type of incentives do you offer employees, and where do mystery shopping incentives fit?  The performance review is an ideal time to discuss company incentives for excellent performance.  If the employee is struggling, a reminder of company rewards may motivate them.  High-performing employees remain motivated with the right incentives in place.  Gaining feedback on your company’s current program is helpful for rejuvenating incentives that may need a boost.
3. Standards:  Reviews provide a forum for discussion on how well employees meet company standards, including mystery shopping standards.  Share the employee’s mystery shopping performance and compare it to region, district and company overall results.  Mystery shopping standards are at the heart of company expectations for sales and service. Employees need to know how well they perform, and what they can do to improve if they don’t measure up. Ask employees questions about your business processes and how they help or hinder customer service. This may be a good time to revisit the standards being tested on the mystery shop, to ensure they align with current requirements.