Just about everyone I know hates them, and with good reason. Performance Reviews are the most misunderstood and misused tool in a manager’s tool bag.

In the companies I’ve consulted with, their use runs the gamut from “no, we don’t use them,” to ten days of intense analyzing and negotiating for pay boosts every six months. Whew!!
 
The negative:
If an unfavorable review is handled poorly, a feeling of unfairness can easily create bad feelings in the workplace. If the review is really botched, it could even result in a lawsuit.

Also, a manager may have an incomplete, dishonest, or biased view (intentional or unintentional) about a particular employees’ work. On the other hand, a “halo” effect may cause a manager to rate a worker high just because the two of them get along well.

Do it better:
Some organizations have done well by injecting multiple voices into the review process.
One place I know of has the person’s immediate supervisor write up a review, but the employee gets to choose five coworkers to also review the employee’s performance. What makes this great is the employee gets to choose!

The employee also gets to complete an review on him or herself.

Then, all the input gets factored into the final “score.” The value of each type of input breaks down as follows: 
   Supervisor: 50%
   Peers:   40%
   You:   10%

Using this method, the supervisor can’t bomb you out just because she doesn’t like the way you wear your hair or because he doesn’t like the way you laugh.

I really like the peer reviews. They not only reduce bias and favoritism, but with employees knowing their coworkers have input into their evaluations, they will work harder to get along with them.

 (more on this topic later)

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Filed in Work, Business, Opinion, Training, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Team Building