I recently read an article by Alec Bashinsky (Head of People & Performance, Deloitte, Australia) regarding Deloitte banning performance reviews. My first thought is that this is a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water until I read further that they are actually not banning performance reviews, they are in fact replacing yearly structured reviews with “…a more informal, continuous appraisal and performance feedback”. Which then made me realise that this wholesale change to their review process was due to one simple fact; they were only conducting an annual review when they should have been conducting structured monthly, quarterly and annual reviews in support of regular informal feedback.
Let me explain why you still need structured reviews to support informal feedback.
- Structured annual reviews do not deliver increases in employee engagement and performance if this is all that happens each year
- Most managers will not have meaningful conversations with their direct reports if there is not a structure and they are not held accountable. They will have daily “conversations” but these are normally very superficial and rarely delve into the core of an issue
- Employees want to have continuous feedback, they want to know that their “wins” are recognised and they want to learn from their mistakes
- “What gets measured, gets done”
At Peoplogica we recommend the following process:
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Conduct Daily Informal Discussions
- conduct informal discussions on an ongoing basis to ensure that there are no surprises when conducting Monthly One-On-Ones and KPO Reviews -
Conduct Monthly One-On-Ones
- maximum of 15 minute review between employee and manager covering only four key areas (employee wins, employee fails, delivering role expectations & quality of leadership, coaching and direction -
Conduct Regular KPO Reviews
- conduct a review every month/quarter/half (depending on role) on the employees measurable KPOs -
Conduct Annual KPO & Performance Review
- this structured annual review should contain no surprises but should document performance and achievements over the preceding 12 months
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Annual Reviews are not dead, in fact they are a very important part of performance management process, but they do need to have structure and be integrated with ongoing regular informal appraisals and discussions.