Do It Often
Provide performance feedback often. Haven’t you heard that before? By now, it should be a management mantra. That’s why I’m always surprised when I read articles about performance reviews which imply that feedback is a once-a-year event.
Employees say narrative-based performance reviews are the fairest because numerical feedback doesn’t tell them how to improve. The HR Dive article, based on a study by the Cornell School of Industrial Relations, discussed different formats of performance feedback (as in annual performance review): numerical only, narrative only, or a combination of the two.
The study found “that the narrative-only condition was the best in terms of fairness perceptions” and “employees said they aren’t sure how to improve with only numerical feedback with no context.” Should this come as a surprise?
It also went on to find that employees viewed numerical rankings paired with narrative feedback as less fair than narrative-only reviews, perceiving the numerical rankings as highlighting their weakness. The researchers, however, saw a downside to “solely narrative-based performance reviews” if organizations are trying to do things like administer bonuses or promotions.
This brought to mind the musings of a former colleague. He was critical of the annual performance review format because it tried to accomplish (and tie) too many diverse management decisions in one event or instrument: performance management, employee development, and salary administration. He was a big proponent of separating these events through 1) frequent feedback—a novel idea at the time; and 2) separate and distinct development conversations. As he stressed, if you try to give feedback and talk about development when you’re doling out raises, all the employee is interested in hearing is “How much is my raise going to be?”
We echo many of these sentiments in the latest edition of The Big Book of HR. We wrote about the importance of frequent feedback and fueling future performance. Tips for frequent feedback include:
Having casual ongoing check-ins
Focusing on short and easy-going dialogue
Explaining what can be done better
Sharing ideas for employee growth and development
Listening to the employee and their thoughts on their own performance
One thing that we stress is that performance feedback answers an employee’s fundamental question, “How am I doing?” Feedback is not only a developmental tool, but a powerful motivator and retention tool as well.
There is no on-size-fits all when it comes to performance management. Organizations have to decide what works best for them, and there are many new models that have evolved in recent years. We examined the common elements of developing objectives, performance assessment, documentation and data, and performance improvement.
Managers, however, must realize that performance management is not an annual event. At its very core is providing qualitative feedback—early and often.