Dive Brief:
- The annual performance review is probably the most dreaded activity in the workplace, one that has long been satirized in television sitcoms, in Dilbert cartoons and in YouTube videos, according to an article at the National Business Review.
- Author Rosanna Nadeau writes that surveys, originally created by the Federal government in the 1950s, began to lose their allure almost 20 years ago.
- In 1997, she writes, SHRM found a mere 5% of employers rated themselves “very satisfied” with the review process. A 2009 Reuters survey determined that four out of five U.S. employees were dissatisfied with performance reviews. And lately, several high profile employers have dumped traditional performance reviews.
Dive Insight:
Nadeau, principal/consultant, at Prism Perspectives Group LLC, writes that experience and research shows that some of the foundational components of performance review we use today are flawed.
For example, people all have different goals, perspectives, agendas and political alliances, as well as personal needs and biases, making most feedback subjective, incomplete and, therefore, inaccurate. Also, employees need to receive feedback promptly and given time to make associated changes, which is not something that happens with annual performance reviews.
Nadeau writes that employers must question whether the company’s performance review process effectively driving employee engagement and performance? And, is it designed to avoid pitfalls in objectivity that are inherent in traditional performance review processes? Most of all, she says, a performance review process needs to be tailored to fit the company’s unique business strategy, desired culture and organizational needs, she writes.