While some companies no longer conduct annual performance reviews, many that continue to do so still view this time of year as best to sit down with employees. However, according to our experts, not only are they still necessary, but they’ll be more effective if you don’t wait until the end of the year to take a look back.
Ken Bode
Regional Manager
Integrity Staffing Solutions, Swedesboro
“Yes, performance reviews are still necessary, but they are evolving at many companies. Once-a-year feedback is now being replaced with more engaging, ongoing feedback and techniques. This allows employees to change their trajectory and helps them to meet long-term goals. It also offers an opportunity to recognize achievement as it happens and reinforce work done well. More frequent reviews can be used to motivate and develop talent—a result leaders welcome. The traditional annual review often leaves employees feeling like their goals were unattainable. By conducting more frequent feedback sessions and discussions, there are no surprises at the end of the year for appraisal time. Stop thinking of reviews as an annual checklist and start conducting weekly or monthly one-on-one meetings. At the end of the year, you can still meet to finalize achievements for the year with each employee.”
Lisa Warech
Director of Human Resources
The Protocall Group, Cherry Hill
“I strongly believe that these reviews are very much a necessity. Without them, employees would not know how their performance is measuring up from year to year. Employee reviews don’t have to include a raise. There was a period of time during the poor economic years that our company had to freeze raises, yet we still gave reviews since we felt strongly that employees needed to be recognized for their accomplishments. It is important to point out that reviews are only as effective as the manager is in communicating the information, whether the information delivered is positive or negative. Reviews should never be viewed as negative, unless the delivery of the feedback is handled incorrectly. Measuring an employees’ performance and delivering the results to them in an employee review provides an employee with a roadmap of how they need to perform to succeed within the organization.”
Published (and copyrighted) in South Jersey Biz, Volume 3, Issue 12 (December, 2013).
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