I recently read an article about the case against performance reviews. And I think the critique is pretty accurate.
Yet, as employees or managers, you should be yearning for performance reviews…but here is the caveat, you should be looking for performance reviews that help you know where performance is in accordance with the goals of the organization and the performance review shouldn’t be a one time thing that happens each year.
Here is what I would advise:
* Stop doing performance reviews annually. Do them much more often at entrance or exit points of projects, when the feedback is useful.
* Don’t add as much formality to the process.
* Formal reviews, if necessary, should be simplified and done twice a year.
* Set clear goals for teams and employees.
* No more numbered ratings systems. Instead 3 silos: underperformed, met expectations, exceeded expectations.
This type of system might still make people bristle if they are getting a bad review, but it will stop a lot of the needless and pointless “grade inflation” type reviews that do little to establish performance objectives and previous performance and does everything to help encourage stagnant organizations.