Nearly everyone dreads year-end performance reviews. First,
they coincide un-festively with the holiday season, when bad news is no fun to
give or to receive. And as more employees are being asked to do
self-assessments, there’s an added stress for workers. What documentation do
they need to prove their worth at work? How do they navigate the process of
rating themselves?
It helps to view the performance assessment as a chance to
build a healthier, happier relationship for both employee and employer, HR experts
say. Instead of making a performance review an annual dressing-down, use it to
identify areas where the employee is most passionate and competent, and figure
out how to tailor his or her tasks to those areas.
“A litany of performance failures and faults only serves to
disengage and frustrate employees,” advised Brian Kropp, executive director at
the Corporate Executive Board’s (CEB’s) HR practice. “Managers must effectively
balance positive and negative feedback.”
Supervisors shouldn’t avoid offering criticism when it’s
warranted, Kropp noted, but the tone of the session should be “forward-looking,
not backward-looking.”
Rather than focusing on what happened in the last 12 months,
the conversation should start with, “Based on the last 12 months, here’s what
we see for you for the next 12 months,” Kropp said. This approach can make the
process more useful for employees, Kropp said, noting that CEB’s research shows
that fewer than half of workers find performance reviews to be useful.
Performance reviews can be a chance to determine where a
worker would be happiest and most productive, said Michael Molina, chief human
resources officer at San Diego-based executive coaching firm Vistage. “We try
to focus on the things the employee loves doing, and what they are good at,”
Molina said. “That’s what we, as organizations, should be encouraging. In the
past, there used to be this focus on, ‘what do you need to work on versus
discussing the things you really do well,’ ” he said.
Rona Borre, president and CEO of Chicago-based IT staffing
and recruiting firm Instant Alliance, said she prefers giving feedback
year-round to avoid the stress and potential drama of a December performance
review. But if there’s a formal year-end sit-down, the conversation should have
a look-ahead tone, she agreed. Managers should be evaluating “what motivates
that person? What are their goals, and what are the firm’s goals? They should
really have an outline as to what 2015 will be like,” she said.
Employees are increasingly being asked to write
self-assessments before sitting down for a formal review, said Ravin
Jesuthasan, global head of talent management at Towers Watson. The process
helps bridge whatever “disconnect” there might be between employees’ and their
managers’ perspectives of their performance. And since many self-assessments
are done using an online program, workers can regularly examine their preset
goals and their success in achieving them, Jesuthasan said. A recent report by
Towers Watson found that 61 percent of companies studied had workers monitor
their own progress online.
Managers get mixed reactions from employees in the way they
handle performance reviews, according to the Towers Watson study. Half of
respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “my manager gives me good
suggestions on how I can improve my performance.” Fewer than half of employees agreed
with the statements that the organization does a good job explaining the
performance and management process (48 percent); there is a clear relationship
between performance and pay (45 percent); and high-performing employees are
rewarded for their work (48 percent). One-third of respondents said unclear or
conflicting job expectations caused stress at work.
And what if the employee is doing well but the company
can’t afford to pay an expected bonus, or will be paying far less than expected?
Such news is best delivered with as detailed an explanation as possible about
why the end-of-year cash—which workers often count on to subsidize holiday
costs—isn’t coming, experts said. Jesuthasan urged managers to maintain the
right parity, so that higher-performing employees are given a bigger piece of
the reduced “bonus” pie, and to find other ways to reward employees. Some
workers might like to attend a training conference at Harvard Business School,
for example, or be offered a similar opportunity within the company.
But don’t abandon the struggling workers, either, the
Towers Watson report suggested. Just 31 percent of workers agreed that managers
at their companies help poor performers improve.
Susan
Milligan is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.