Annual Performance Reviews Don’t Work

[Photo credit: Walsh]

What if you were on a diet but only were allowed to weigh yourself once a year? How likely would you be to stick with it?

If your answer was, “Not a chance,” why is it okay to have once-a-year performance reviews? Does anyone actually think that one uncomfortable hour once a year is any substitute for effective leadership? Seriously? Why waste the time?

If you really want your performance management system to work it has to have two essentials:

It has to be a system
It needs to provide continuous feedback

If you’re doing anything else, it’s just a game to make the lawyers and rule makers happy. Bad HR is about blindly going where everyone has gone before.

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Frank Roche
Filed Under Performance

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Ron Ulrici 2 months ago 1 point
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The best manager I ever knew used to take at least 10 minutes a week with his direct reports and tell them what they did great that week and items that could have been done better. He provided a little coaching, gave them a copy of his simple little form and filed one. His people were always motivated and there was no surprises at all on their annual review.

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Chris Young 2 months ago 1 point
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Great analogy Frank!

I shared your post with my readers in my weekly 'Fab Five' blog picks of the past week which can be found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_ret...

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Frank 2 months ago 1 point
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Hi Chris...thanks so much...I continue to very much enjoy your work...thanks for the nod, I really appreciate it.

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Lex Fortis 2 months ago 1 point
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As usual, KnowHR is ahead of the curve. Today's WSJ includes an article called "Get Rid of the Performance Review," front page on this morning's electronic edition: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122426318874844.... To Frank's point, the author recommends performance "previews,' saying:

It doesn't happen only annually; it takes place each time either the boss or the subordinate has the feeling that they aren't working well together.

Nice work, iFractal.

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Frank 2 months ago 1 point
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Thank you, sir. We've felt strongly about this for some time...powerful stuff, letting go of long-held beliefs.

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kapeters02 2 months ago 1 point
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Performance reviews have the ability to be so much more than a check mark on the report cards given to leadership. A constant review of an employees performance, as well as surveys on how the organization is meeting employee needs is NECESSARY! Organizations that only measure an employees performance on an annual basis are not interested in growing their internal talent. Successful organizations have a vested interest in their employees professional and personal development. In today's global economy, competitive advantages are no longer driven top down, but rather stem from the knowledge and skills of an organizations workforce. The sole use of the annual performance review helps no one. Neither the business nor the employee wins when performance is addressed on an annual basis.

Bolinske Consulting & Recruiting
www.bolinskeconsulting.com

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Wally Bock 2 months ago 1 point
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Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2008/10/22/...

Wally Bock

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Frank 2 months ago 1 point
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Thanks, Wally. I really appreciate that. This is a topic we'll all be talking about more now that the economy is under pressure.

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Gopal Shenoy 2 months ago 1 point
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As a manager and an employee, I don't see performance reviews as the only way a manager needs to evaluate and communicate to the employee. After reading the WSJ article, it seemed to me, the writer assumes that the daily/weekly communication between managers and employees does not happen. Yes, I have worked in one of such jobs and it was awful. But such organizations have bigger problems than performance reviews.

I personally see performance reviews as the final documentation on what has happened over the year. I love to sometimes review my past performance reviews as ways to remember where I have been, what I have accomplished, what improvements have I made over the years. Just saying performance reviews don't work is too generic a statement. After all performance reviews are just a tool like anything else. If you implement a tool within a lousy process, it is going to fail. But then don't blame the tool.

I have had weekly one on one meetings with my team members (and also with my manager), so that I can help them succeed, pat them on their back for a job well done so that these performances would be repeated and then give them guidance on how to do certain things better so that mistakes are not repeated. None of this says that a performance reviews are not needed - it is a great documentation of what transpired during the whole year.

If there are surprises at performance review time or if this is the only time a manager talks to his employee about his/her performance, then coach the managers on how to become managers or find other good managers to lead your teams. Don't fault the performance review process for this.

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