Not Just the Score …
“…and what did you score yourself for Communication?”
“Let me see…oh yeah, I gave myself a four for that.”
“No, no, I don’t think you’re at that level just yet, I gave you a two-point-five.”
“But I …”
“And how did you rate yourself for Teamwork?”
“Actually, I gave myself a five for that, as I always try to help my colleagues in ev…”
“A five? No, no, again that’s a bit ambitious, I think. Five means perfect. Nobody’s
perfect. I gave you three-point-five for that.”
“But, but, I always…”
“And what did you score yourself for Customer Focus ... bearing in mind what I
just said?”
“Well, I had that at five too, but you’ll probably say it’s a three or something …”
And on and on the ‘appraisal’ went, the employee in question later explained to me. She also said that she had become increasingly disillusioned with the review as the session advanced to the point that, by the end, she had entirely tuned out. The focus was purely on scoring each heading and getting through the session as quickly as possible, with little constructive feedback or discussion taking place about her actual performance; and certainly, no guidance was given as to how to improve in future. In essence, she was told how she had performed, and also told what improvements were expected of her during the next twelve months. Not an experience she was overly interested in repeating.
1. Why Performance Reviews Fail
Sadly, this is not an unusual outcome of appraisals in my experience. Now, don’t get me wrong, not all performance reviews go astray for the same reason as above, but they do go astray, in that they don’t deliver on the main goal to recognise employee achievements and to help them sustain and improve performance in the future, for their benefit and that of the business. There are many studies that confirm that appraisals are not delivering what they might. One such example, a poll undertaken of 2,677 people (1,800 employees, 645 HR managers, and 232 CEOs) in the US, indicated that 98% of respondents found annual performance reviews unnecessary[i]. In the UK, a study of over 1,000 employees[ii] highlighted that:
Over a third of UK workers believe appraisals are a waste of time and do not contribute towards their personal career development at all.
Almost 55% of men and 63% of women admitted that they are not completely honest when evaluating themselves and others.
There are widespread concerns today about the impact of annual appraisals in many organisations with the result being that the trend is moving away from an over-reliance on the formal, once-a-year appraisal to include more regular job chats. We’ll return to this issue later in the article. For now, if the various reasons why annual appraisals fail, or underdeliver, were summarised, the list would include:
How They are Viewed
Often you hear the annual event described as an ‘appraisal interview’ when in fact they should be seen as an ‘appraisal discussion’. This is not a simple change in terminology or playing with words; interviews largely symbolise one person extracting information from another, whereas discussions are two-way exchanges of information, which is supposed to be what appraisals are.
Many managers, and indeed employees, see annual appraisals as one of those annoying tasks they need to get out of the way – a box to be ticked. They place little value on them, partially because they see few results arising from such reviews; in other words, nothing substantial changes for either the manager or the employee, so each year they put less and less effort into the process.
Often, appraisal outcomes are tied to ‘salary reviews’ which is probably unwise if you think about it. Do you really believe that any employee will be honest about his or her performance (particularly areas for improvement) if they know that the outcome of that meeting will influence whether they get a pay rise or not? My advice is always to keep appraisals and salary reviews separate; for example, hold the appraisal in mid-year, and the salary review at the end of the year. Then, depending on the level of improvement seen from the appraisal to the salary review, this will determine the decision taken on pay increases.
How They are Managed
In many cases, and hardly surprising given the above points, both managers and employees under-prepare for the appraisal discussion, so they are naturally ineffective. They are set up to fail.
Sometimes the performance management system takes over too and the focus is on scoring each appraisal heading, managing the paperwork around the process, or completing unwieldy online reports and the like. The system should always be a secondary concern.
Often, appraisals fail simply because the manager involved lacks the skill necessary to effectively facilitate such intensive and potentially stressful communication events.
2. Performance Reviews Can Make a Difference
Let’s quickly return to the point made earlier about appraisals versus job chats. You’ll hear a lot of talk in business media these days about well-known companies doing away with appraisals, but that is somewhat inaccurate. What many companies are doing is shifting away from an over-reliance on the once-a-year appraisal and supplementing the performance management system with more regular (often quarterly) Job Chats which are less formal reviews but still vital. So, employees might have a quarterly job chat AND an annual appraisal.
Despite all the potential pitfalls, appraisals and/or job chats – when managed effectively that is – provide a great opportunity for a structured review of an individual’s progress, performance and results; in that sense, they are a critical part of your efforts to drive business improvement and, for instance, there’s no point in talking about having a company-wide approach to goal setting and continuous improvement if there isn’t an effective performance management system to support it. In addition, what is often overlooked about appraisals/job chats is that they are supposed to form part of your wider employee engagement efforts and unless they leave each employee feeling better about themselves as a result (even if they have had to recognise their areas for improvement) then they have failed. And, yes, managing appraisals/job chats does require time and effort, but it’s worth that investment because getting these performance reviews right can bring many benefits.
Benefits for the Business
Effective Appraisals/Job Chats can:
Help to create an atmosphere of openness and trust within the organisation;
Assist in developing closer working relationships between managers and employees;
Highlight training and development needs (individually and collectively) as well as helping to identify organisational blockages which might otherwise go unnoticed; and
Recognise achievement, and as a result, help to increase motivation which in turn can lead to greater productivity.
Benefits for Managers
Effective Appraisals/Job Chats can:
Help to develop teamwork by removing the ‘Them and Us’ barriers between managers and employees;
Provide managers with an opportunity to really listen to their people and to learn from those encounters;
Help to give direction to each employee and by extension to the team as a whole;
Contribute to generating respect between managers and employees; and
Highlight work-related problems in specific areas/departments.
Benefits for Your Employees
Effective Appraisals/Job Chats can:
Enable employees to receive considered feedback on their performance in a structured setting;
Allow them to discuss their immediate and longer-term future with their manager so that they can see a career path for themselves;
Assist with problem-solving, in the sense that an employee can raise any concerns they might have which helps their manager to address and solve those issues; and
Identify their contribution to the company, leading to the preparation of a development plan for them.
To realise the above benefits clearly takes time and effort, but managers who treat appraisals and job chats seriously generally see a lot of rewards as a result.
3. Getting the Most from your Performance Management Reviews
Whether it’s for a job chat or an appraisal, to help you increase your effectiveness as an ‘appraiser’, you first need to prepare for the interaction, and this is usually where the process starts to go astray as frazzled managers rush the preparation phase. Of course, what needs to be readied will depend upon the precise performance management system adopted and whether it’s an online model or manual system. Ultimately, both you and the employee must review his or her performance against the defined criteria so that when you both turn up for the session you have something of value to discuss; yet you both still need to be prepared to review the performance in an open-minded way.
When it comes to hosting the appraisal discussion or a job chat, naturally you need it to be structured, and this can be guided by whatever performance review headings or job chat questions you use. The principal aim of any review is to allow discussion to take place on an employee’s performance in a relaxed environment – at a job chat this will be relatively brief and more focused, whereas the appraisal allows for more in-depth discussion. You will no doubt have your own opinion of their performance, and they will have theirs, but the objective is to get agreement on how they can improve with your assistance and support.
Critical things to avoid include when reviewing performance:
Focusing too much on scoring: This particularly relates to appraisals because job chats are not usually rated. Discuss their performance against each of the relevant criteria in detail and afterwards agree a score for each item. The score or rating is really a secondary concern, what matters most is identifying strengths and areas for improvement.
Telling the employee how they have done: In any performance review, it’s much better to let them tell you first how they feel they have performed in a particular area; at least that way you know whether he or she has a realistic assessment of their own performance (in comparison to yours that is) before you commit yourself.
Arguing over their performance: If you find that you are arguing with an individual about every aspect of his or her performance evaluation, then clearly there are bigger issues at play which need to be resolved before a meaningful review can take place.
Adopting a squirrel approach: Where there is only a once-a-year appraisal, this means that you save up all your negative feedback for an employee and give them a lengthy dressing down at the annual appraisal. That’s going to achieve little because an employee is not likely to take too kindly to receiving negative feedback about issues that may have happened months previously. Feedback should always be ongoing for employees, and regular job chats allow you to raise relevant performance issues as close to the event as possible.
Ignoring the positives: It’s vital that all performance reviews cover both the good and the bad, and too much of an emphasis on problem areas will only demotivate the individual.
Making it just about them: Remember, a true appraisal and/or job chat allows the employee to raise issues with you that may be of concern to them, and that might even include aspects of your management style. In your past reviews have you asked employees their views on how they see you as their boss? If not, why not? What were/are you afraid of? Not allowing them to do so undermines the performance management process and most employees see that for what it is.
Dwelling too much on the Past: In reviewing the past, it’s important not to focus on it too much. Appraisals and job chats should look to the future and involve agreeing individual performance goals, targets, and milestones appropriate to the role. In addition, it is necessary to identify their development needs and define how those gaps will be addressed in the next period.
All performance reviews differ depending upon the nature of the employee involved, their length of service and so on, but when any review is over both parties should leave feeling upbeat, with an agreed scoring of performance (where relevant), a plan for the future that you both ‘buy-into’, and an improved working relationship as a result. How often does that happen at present? Of course, the required administration tasks need to be completed afterwards, but the critical point in following up on an appraisal/job chat is that something concrete happens as a result, i.e., both parties must live up to commitments.
Finally, consider a last point here. As indicated above, during the performance management process, you too are under review by your employees and if you lack commitment to it or do not fully prepare yourself for the discussions then they will notice. Yes, it’s understandable that given the severe time pressures you are probably under these days, you might, intentionally or otherwise, devote less attention to appraisals and/or job chats than merited. But if you do so, your people will read a lot from that which in turn will come back to haunt you somewhere along the line. You will have scored a significant ‘own goal’ if you allow that to happen.
And that particular score will matter.
Thank you for reading.
If you’re interested in the topic of leadership, I have expanded on this and related topics in my book, 'The Essential Manager’. Click on the image to the left to purchase the book on Amazon, or if you'd like a signed copy, you can purchase one directly on this site via our products page.