Ditch the performance evaluations and focus on these five concepts
Complaints about performance evaluations are nothing new. Employees think the process is demeaning. Managers and supervisors find them burdensome and ineffective. Lawyers tell us the forms work against us in court. So, we throw up our hands and declare we’re done with them. But before long, we return to the same ritual.
Most of the companies declaring revolution have no idea what to do in place of the status quo. They adopt some sort of hybrid approach. They conduct live experiments — on real people in real organizations. There are clear and obvious design flaws. And as a result, most of these trial programs fail.
Talking with direct reports about how they’re doing is already implied. It’s called being a boss. Training managers and employees in the fundamentals of routine tactical communication is wonderful. Yet it hardly takes the place of an annual strategic summary discussion. Sure, daily coaching interactions are important to promoting behavioral change. But ask yourself: Is an increase here sufficient to eliminate the need for something more?
Be More Strategic
When we get a glimpse of highprofile “revolutionary” replacement systems for performance evaluations, it becomes clear companies have hedged their bets with some sort of hybrid approach. They blur rating categories but still have them. They eliminate grades but cling to numbers. They abandon numbers but substitute descriptions. They shorten evaluation sessions but still have them. Some attempt to keep grades confidential. And we’re right back where we started.
Here’s a better solution: Abandon performance evaluations. Instead, focus on these five concepts:
1. Coach, don’t judge. It’s not the annual cycle that’s the problem. It’s the whole grading paradigm. Grades end a conversation. Coaching starts one.
2. Keep it simple. Engage in a series of engaging and powerful conversations using something that offers structure, process, and a time budget.
3. Think “HR lite.” Stewardship of daily, weekly — or even monthly — conversations about performance and potential is not going to happen in the real world. People have jobs to do. Less is more.
4. Maintain a strategic focus. Daily and weekly conversations are more tactical than strategic. Making ongoing adjustments is not the same as providing thematic counseling or career guidance.
5. Follow the money. You don’t need to kill a forest to justify the difference between a 2% and 3.5% annual pay bump. Most of the adjustment to base pay comes from company budget and an individual’s compa-ratio (current pay vs. market for that position).
I challenge companies to break the performance evaluation habit once and for all.