Culbert, author of Get Rid of the Performance Review!, is a consultant and professor at UCLA.
To achieve the best results for the organization, Culbert recommends that all managers and supervisors:
- Help subordinates see that the boss understands their perspective. Too many managers, helped along by rigid performance review processes, frame situations on the basis of their own perspectives and interests.
- Show subordinates that change is important for the organization. Too many employees are in the dark about how their jobs connect with corporate goals.
- Be willing to make exceptions to the rules. Culbert says managers must do so because people are so different. Making exceptions reinforces the idea that the manager really can see situations through employees’ eyes.
- Show subordinates how their making a behavior change can make a difference for their own future.
- Consider subordinates’ entire lives, knowing that doing well in their lives is more important to them than doing well at work. Many employees are also caregivers or have other big responsibilities outside the workplace.
- In giving feedback, be specific and avoid generalizations.
- Don’t compare employees with one another. Each team member is an individual with a different role.
- Precede your statements and opinions with phrases like, “I feel that,” or “It seems to me that.” This avoids win-lose, right-wrong attitudes.
- Add feedback about subordinates that doesn’t have anything to do with their work or the organization, but shows what you know about them as people. Don’t write down this feedback or include it in their personnel files, and share it only with them, one on-one.
What are performance previews? Culbert accuses the typical performance review of idealizing a set of qualities that the perfect employee will have and putting them on a checklist. Instead, he urges managers and subordinates to develop empathy with one another so that each knows why the other does things a particular way.
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In their first preview together, a manager and subordinate get to know each other by taking turns asking such questions as, "What do you like to get you’re your supervision to helps you operate effectively?" and "What do you like to get from a subordinate that allows you to provide the level of oversight you need?" Both are encouraged to give examples to illustrate their answers, and neither should comment on the other’s answers.
The periodic preview asks:
- What are we doing that’s valuable so that we should continue it?
- What are we not doing that we should start doing?
- What are we doing that’s not useful and should be stopped?
The manager repeatedly asks the subordinate:
- What am I doing that’s helpful and supportive?
- What am I doing that’s impeding your effectiveness?
- What do you need that I am not providing?
Only when there’s mutual trust can the team achieve what’s best for the organization, says Culbert.
Performance Reviews and Pay
The performance review is simply the place where the boss comes up with a story to justify the predetermined pay, says Culbert. If the raise is less than expected, the boss says either "We can work to get it higher in the future, and here’s what you have to do" or "I think you walk on water but I got pushback from HR, so next year we’ll try again."
The "Law of Compensation," Culbert relates, is immutable: a performance review will always support the recommended pay action.
Keeping management and employees satisfied with compensation is not an easy task, and it’s just that much harder in a smaller department.
If a giant retail conglomerate like Wal-Mart, with all of its resources to ensure legal compliance, can be accused of wage & hour law violations, what exposure do small employers face, especially when they lack that kind of legal expertise?
Small employers can run afoul of the Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the compensation-oriented portions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, such as those pertaining to overtime pay and job classification exemption designations.
In your efforts to do more with less, you still must take extra care to ensure you steer clear of costly wage & hour violations that could sink your organization. And because you’re a small employer, it’s likely that at least some of your employees are wearing multiple hats and performing a mix of duties, so you need to make sure their compensation is both fair and competitive.
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Whether it’s a performance preview or something else, it’s always smart for supervisors to discuss performance with employees throughout the year, rather than just once a year. The supervisors aren’t always crazy about it, but it gives employees constant, clear direction and feedback. And it can also provide valuable documentation in case of litigation.
Please proofread your articles. There are so many spelling and grammatical errors that I wonder if anyone looks at these articles before posting them to your site and to an email list. The following question in your most recent post doesn’t make sense, “What do you like to get you’re your supervision to helps you operate effectively?”.
Even the instructions above contain an error,
“Note: Your name will on any comments posted.” I think you are missing the word “not.”
and what appraiser ripeled. I found the brief response about an internship to stick out to me at this point in time, considering I am currently doing an internship. Everyone tells me it’s such a great experience and a great place to gain knowledge/contacts, however I enjoyed the style idea of don’t sweat it . Appraiser made it significant to don’t sweat the small stuff, since it truly is all about the experience.In response to the actual blog, having a father who is a manager of a corporation I have grown up around the manager/employee lifestyle from a different perspective of most. To me, I hate filling out those evals of fellow group members, because if they were a important part of a company, chances are they’d be fired if they were performing as poorly as they get graded by theirs peers. Chances are group members are usually nicer than he/she should be, and give a high evaluation of others. I do believe having open communication is a important aspect to a successful company, nevertheless those whom lack pulling their own weight tend to fall, while those who should be there strive.Overall, I found your blog to be unique incomparison to what others had to say. I appreciate all your helpful advice!