Dump the Performance Review Process

Dump the Performance Review Process

How many of you love your annual employee review process? I didn't think so. Some of you are saying, "Mike, we've got it covered. Years ago, we changed that to a quarterly review process so we can give our folks more frequent feedback." So what you've done is you've taken a horrible bureaucratic process everyone hates with forms that are meaningless, and you now do that four times a year. I get the goal, but there's a better way.

I understand that for some of you, you review salaries on an annual basis. There's nothing wrong with having an annual salary adjustment and a conversation that goes along with it. But too often the review of overall performance goes along with that salary discussion, and it blows the whole potential of having an open, honest conversation - that team member is going to be defensive because they know the fact that they scored a four instead of a five, or three instead of a four, can impact their raise. So they're not hearing any of your great constructed feedback. What they're doing is pushing back because they want a higher raise. There's a better way.

Quarterly goal setting is the first step in that better way. Not a bureaucratic process, not one where you need loads of paperwork, and checklists, and for weeks people are saying, "Oh my God, I'm behind in my quarterly reviews." Quarterly goal setting process where as a leader, you're sitting with each individual of your team and working together to figure out what's most important over the next 90 days. Where do they need to improve their performance? Where do they need to improve processes within their accountability? Where do they need to raise the bar on some of the goals they've been setting? Reviewing that every quarter, looking back at the last quarter, planning the next quarter, very similar to what you do with your team, but doing this with individuals as well. So it starts with quarterly goal setting, not a big bureaucratic process.

You then have weekly team accountability sessions, not as individuals, but as a team. Each team member ought to understand everybody else's goals and priorities and how they're doing.

So you've got your quarterly goal setting, you've got weekly team accountability sessions, and then you should have a monthly individual check-in session, an individual accountability session, to check in how they're doing on those 90-day priorities. Don't wait until the end of 90 days to give them feedback. Give them feedback informally every day when it's appropriate, but more formally, monthly have an individual check. How are they trending toward their 90-day goals, their 90-day priorities?

Then, hold a biweekly coaching session. The coaching session is not about you as a leader, it's not about what you want. The difference between the accountability session and the coaching session is the coaching session is about them. What do they need? What challenges are they having? Where do they need to go in their career? Where do they need to go in their leadership style or in their analytical skills? The agenda is theirs.

So dump the annual performance review process, or even the quarterly review process that's a bureaucratic nightmare. Quarterly goal setting, weekly team accountability, monthly individual accountability, biweekly coaching - I know that sounds like more meetings, but it doesn't come with the bureaucracy. They're shorter, more focused meetings. You're not spending weeks preparing for those sessions. You're spending minutes preparing for those sessions.

Get rid of the annual planning, put a better process in place.