Rethinking Performance Reviews

There have been many critics about performance assessment and a lot of recommendations on how to do them, if at all, but few of them have completely overhauled their program like Deloitte did.

 

Like many organizations they had a typical yearly review structure where employees were evaluated in a 360 degree style, strengths were noticed, weaknesses were discussed and evaluations were performed by groups of managers and executives. The idea is the same; determine who are the high performers, who is overachieving, who is underachieving, who is ready for more, who is on the cutting block and who deserves what in terms of compensation. When they looked at the amount of time it was taking to perform their reviews the number was staggering: millions!

 

In an effort to change their program, Deloitte sat down and discussed what they wanted to know, what decision they wanted to make and what was the best way to achieve it. In the end, they came up with a series of questions to ask of the manager regarding each employee. But, the change is in the type of questions. Instead of asking for specific performance in regards to the employee, the questions were meant for the manager to evaluate their own feeling about the employees. One of the questions was ‘would you want this person to run your next project?’. This changes the focus to qualify how a manager feels about a particular employee’s ability to perform at their current, or a higher level. While managers are inconsistent with grading employees based on traits, they are very consistent in their own evaluations. So, in light of that, the emphasis is to get them to make judgements based on task specific criteria.

 

Since this is a new method, for both Deloitte and others, we will have to see how this plays out. Will it be more effective in employee engagement and performance? Are managers able to make good, objective decisions about a person’s ability to perform without getting personal. Do the managers have the skills required to communicate their answers to the employees and give them accurate, actionable steps to improve? Performance reviews in general are conducted in a manner that is not beneficial. Employees meet once a year to discuss performance, instead of frequently to assess progress and get feedback. They may feel that they are not getting an accurate reflection of the work they did 9 months ago when the review is now.

 

Time will tell if this new model works, but the questions are a step in the right direction. The main thing is to communicate frequently and clearly with the staff regarding their performance. This timely feedback is the most beneficial in order to make forward progress. The inclusion of mentoring and coaching for employees who are struggling with a specific area will also help to ensure they get the training they need to improve. Set goals, monitor progress and provide timely feedback. Not providing the preceding will make any performance evaluation pointless. 

 

https://hbr.org/topic/assessing-performance