Ah, the joys of the annual performance review. In a recent blog post, Mark Allen of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management argues in favor of a better way.
Allen, a practitioner faculty member of organizational theory and management at Graziadio, devoted a recent post to examining employee performance reviews, which while they may bring some rewards also come with the high price of stress.
He argues that both employers and their staff could benefit more from a focus on performance improvement rather than assessment of past events during reviews. “In order for [the process] to truly be about developing and enhancing performance, we need to view [it] as forward-looking, instead of [an examination of] the past,” Allen asserts.
He notes that the vast majority of employees who participate in relevant surveys dislike performance reviews. This could have to do with the fact it is difficult, in an hour-long review, to accurately sum up actual performance that has taken place over the course of a year, he offers. In particular, the subtleties of small improvements often go largely unnoticed.
Accurate talks about job performance that focus on development require a “tweak in mindset”, Allen argues, a change from an all-too-common oversimplified critique made up of rating scales that resemble a report card from high school.
“I believe employees genuinely want to improve their performance,” Allen writes. “Instead of looking back at the previous year… and then ending with the establishment of a perfunctory check-the-box development plan for the next 12 months…we can truly focus on looking forward to ways in which to improve performance (which should involve building upon your strengths). [Reviews should be a] ‘continuous process,’ not a once a year event.”