The Dreaded Annual Performance Review
It's the most wonderful time of the year! 🎶 Ehem. You know, the time when we get to have genuine and deeply insightful conversations between managers and direct reports about what went well and where we can grow next year.
Oh. Is that not how the annual performance cycle feels to you?
Well you're not alone. Plenty has been written and researched in terms of the ineffectiveness (and literal harmfulness) of year-end performance conversations. Even the Society of HR Managers gives them a failing grade.
Here are three of the primary issues with annual performance conversations and some options to mitigate them.
There is no reason to wait until the end of the year to assess performance.
Performance feedback should be timely, constructive, and consistent, occurring throughout the year. This serves two important purposes:
Firstly, it allows the individual to proactively close any true performance gaps or ask for assistance where needed, leading to better overall performance for the business. It is much more effective to addressing mishaps in a timely manner while memories are still fresh.
Secondly, it allows gaps in perception to be rectified early and accurately. There's nothing worse than realizing your performance rating was already decided and submitted based on faulty information or recollection from your line manager - info which could have been corrected if caught in time. There should be no surprises on either end by the end of the fourth quarter. Surprises indicate a failure of leadership. Full stop.
If your manager is not holding regular performance conversations, or they are regular but ineffective, you can proactively ask for feedback with questions like, “What would you need to see for an exceptional rating this year?” “What rating am I currently on track for? What do you see that could impact that?"
Combining positive and negative feedback is ineffective.
We know that most human brains will disproportionately weight negative feedback over positive feedback, and yet both are critically important. You can call negative feedback “constructive.” You can call it “opportunities.” You can sandwich it between compliments or positive feedback, but all you're doing is wasting the positive feedback. It will often go unheard or be dismissed as a disingenuous and patronizing delivery mechanism to make the negative feedback more palatable. Layer on top the stress of salary, bonus and promotion discussions, and you are narrowing the chances of a productive conversation even further.
Instead, separate these conversations with an air-gap. Set aside time to talk about successes and how to further leverage strengths for the team. Designate a separate conversation to discuss areas for improvement or potential growth, even if they are only separated by a coffee break. When providing critical feedback, paint a picture of what good would look like and how it relates to the organization's goals. Discuss how the employees strengths can be used in order to close any gaps. Ask for two way feedback.
(If this isn't how your manager currently does it, you can always request that the feedback be split and not sandwiched. If you need some backup, you can share this decade-old article from HBR.)
And for the love of all things good, I am begging you to ELIMINATE ALL “BUTS” FROM YOUR FEEDBACK. Especially if that “but” is following some positive feedback. If you must deliver opposing feedback in series, just use the word “and.” These things exist in tandem. They are both equally true. One does not negate the other.
Remember friends: Just. Use. And.
Annual performance reviews amplify the impacts of bias.
Most processes require that employees write up their own performance appraisals. In a society that often discourages women from celebrating their individual successes and expects them to think and act communally, this can not only be difficult, it can be a dangerous double-bind. Studies have also shown that women tend to receive more vague, less actionable feedback and are deprived of truly constructive feedback for fear of hurt feelings or offense. This leaves them unable to close either a true performance gap or rectify an inaccurate perception.
The bias impact in annual reviews is not just along gender lines, but racial lines as well.
Holding conversations once a year also allows unchecked biases to fester for longer, becoming embedded over time. If you are having regular conversations that build on trust and two-way communication, you are more likely to surface and rectify misperceptions in a timely manner.
Reviewing your performance appraisal system for potential bias is critical. Rather than broad, open-ended questions, there should be clear, objective metrics tied to job function. For qualitative performance measures, evidence should be required. Performance reviews should be compared and screened for bias in both language and content. If you anonymize an annual performance review and can still tell surmise the race or gender of the recipient, then that's a big red flag. 🚩
Lastly, managers need to be trained on what constitutes quality feedback and where biases typically arise. Their ability to provide continual and accurate performance feedback should be part of their own performance review.
The Good News: There is support out there.
If all of this feels daunting, as either a manager or a direct report, just remember that there is support out there.
At Two Piers, we coach clients at various stages of their leadership journey, including on how to handle ineffective or inaccurate feedback from their manager.
We also help developing leaders hone their feedback and performance management skills to ensure they’re supporting their team’s growth and their organization’s performance in the most effective way possible.
Lastly, if your organization is in need of a performance management baseline assessment or improvement program, we can help with that too. The price of getting performance appraisals wrong impacts not just the organization’s morale, but also it’s fundamental delivery of its mission, and there are so many easy, low cost improvements that can be made.
If you want to pick our brains about annual performance reviews, you can schedule a free discovery call here.