Guess what percentage of office workers have cried after their performance review. Ten percent? Fifteen percent? No, a full 22%. And … you’re gonna love this … that number breaks down to 18% of women and 25% of men!
Almost two-thirds of employees and managers believe that performance reviews are an outdated way of managing performance. More than half of employees believe performance reviews have no impact on their performance and are a needless HR requirement. And an overwhelmingly majority (80%) want real-time feedback, not bundled feedback months later.
Did you know that managers spend, on average, well over a day preparing for each employee’s performance review?
All this comes from a recent study of 1500 office workers conducted by Adobe. *
The study may be new but the spirit of the findings is not. Colleague Gary Markle, author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review, has been making the case for close to 20 years that the downsides of performance reviews far outweigh the upsides.
Do you suspect the same might be true in your organization? If so, then go back and take a hard look at your performance review process. Is it effective in improving performance? Are the evaluation methods valid? Do managers and employees believe in the process? Do they like the process?
If from an impartial review of your current process you conclude that it’s time to bury it, great. But you’re going to need an alternative. Not managing performance is not the answer. Fortunately, there is a better alternative. The Performance Excellence Process. And that’s the topic of next week’s blog.
Your thoughts?
Michael
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Other related articles:
- How mixed messages undermine your leadership
- 3 truths about how people process change
- Attracting Talent: It’s time to get dramatic
