Performance Appraisal – A Better Way

I wrote previously about the waste of the annual performance appraisal. Perhaps you’ve just gone through yours or you’re about to. As I wrote at the time, “With employees and managers hating the process of annual performance appraisals, isn’t it about time we ditched them in favour of a continuous assessment approach and an ongoing focus on goals – for both the employee and organization?” A reasonable criticism is – but how would that process work? And wouldn’t it suffer from the same problems?

My friend, Linda Sullivan, recommended a book for me to read recently – John Doerr’s “Measure What Matters”. It’s about a process called OKRs (Objectives, Key Results) and Part 2 of the book is about moving away from annual appraisals to continuous performance management. Worth a read if you want to see another way. As Doerr says “individuals cannot be reduced to numbers”. Something we all know really. Some ideas that I think could be revolutionary in work places that focus on the annual performance appraisal and goal-setting:

    • Objectives should have a short cycle time – maybe only 3 months
    • Objectives shouldn’t be between just the employee and manager. They should be shared broadly. This makes it clear what the priorities are – if your request isn’t within my priorities, don’t be surprised if I put it off for now. And if I’m struggling to meet objectives, please help me!
    • Don’t stick to objectives just because they were agreed at the start. Things change. Objectives sometimes need to change too.
    • Don’t link achieving of objectives directly to remuneration. This encourages “sand-bagging” and meeting objectives at all costs.
    • Regular employee meetings should focus on learning, coaching, understanding barriers and development.

For next year, could you persuade your management and HR department to get rid of the hated annual performance appraisals and goal setting?

Want to learn more about using KPIs correctly? Drop me a line! Or take a look at the training opportunities.

Happy New Year!

Text: © 2022 Dorricott MPI Ltd. All rights reserved.

Picture: Marco Verch  (CC BY 2.0)