Outdated ideas about what a performance review should be like may be getting in the way of managers providing useful feedback to employees.
A 2024 Gallup survey found that only two percent of chief human resource officers at Fortune 500 companies thought their performance management system was working, and many managers are struggling to conduct effective performance reviews in a hybrid work environment.
According to data from Zippia.com, 60 percent of all employees, and 72 percent of employees under the age of 30, want feedback on a daily or weekly basis.
Three ways to improve feedback are to:
- "Create a culture of asking for feedback, woven into daily work";
- "Focus on outcomes, not surveillance"; and
- "Build flexibility into systems."
Giving and receiving unsolicited feedback is stressful, but a recent study found having employees ask for feedback could reduce the stress response for both the giver and the receiver by 50 percent.
And, closely surveilling employees "almost always backfires because it threatens an employee's autonomy." Research shows that employees who feel autonomous have higher productivity and better mood. David Rock and Laura Cassiday "This 3-step approach to performance reviews uses neuroscience to make them less awful" www.fastcompany.com (Aug. 01, 2024).
Commentary
A flexible approach to management can be useful. The first step is to ask an employee how and how often they prefer to receive performance reminders.
Always document your performance reviews and any interim critiques or congratulations.
Make sure, however, if you have a poor performing employee, to check in with that person often. Make a written performance improvement plan and closely monitor it. Stress the improvements made weekly, but do not let up on the areas that still need to change and improve.
It is not a legal requirement to have an "annual" performance review, and they may not be that helpful. Managers should, instead, be ongoingly managing their employees' performances.
Many managers like to de-couple performance discussions from compensation discussions. If you want to establish an annual compensation review date, make sure you stick to the date you choose. And, if you have to change it, make sure employees are notified as much in advance as possible.