By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady
Today, readers talk back. Many agreed with my comments on the virtues of more frequent performance appraisals, although three readers don’t think every 6 months is often enough. Here is a sampling of your responses:
Managers Realize the Value
“My organization has been doing formal 6-month performance appraisals for many years with great success. Sure, it is time consuming, but managers realize the value (and time savings) of tackling issues earlier rather than later.”
What Gets Measured Gets Done
“All employees deserve 6-month formal reviews because, as they say, what gets measured gets done, and too many managers avoid telling employees they need to make improvements until the annual review.”
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12-Month Manager Needs Some Coaching
“I cannot even imagine waiting 12 months for a review, especially for new staff. It is the ‘job’ of managers to see that the staff gets what they need to do their jobs at the best level possible. Waiting a year to give them feedback is leaving them out to dry. However, the ‘review’ process need not be long and drawn out. It can take as little as 15 minutes—if the manager has been ‘managing’ all along. If a manager gives feedback to the staff only every 12 months, the manager needs some coaching.”
Always Recommend Two Times Per Year
“I always recommend doing performance reviews two times per year. Each should be an opportunity to share the contributions the employee has made that have made a difference in the company during the 6-month time period and, very important, how they have made a difference. Then, both sides can look for areas to improve.”
Enter Positive and Negative Comments Throughout the Year
“Our organization currently uses formal 90-day, 6-month, and annual performance appraisals the first year of employment only, and we have done this for several years. We follow the same pattern for those who have been promoted from within. We also ask all managers to keep an activity log. They enter both positive and negative comments throughout the year, noting the reason for an entry, when it was discussed, and what the results were.”
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Resonated Well
“Your article resonated very well with my colleagues. Two performance reviews in a year provides invaluable ongoing feedback and it can help:
–Improve employee engagement (letting them know that their performance is important to the performance of the company),
–Assist in better tracking employee objectives throughout the year, and ideally
–Aid in development planning.”
Hit Close to Home
“Your E-pinion today hit close to home for me. For the past several months I have been pitching this idea to our management team. After battling much resistance and several form revisions, we recently decided to move forward with a 6-month retention interview. Will this improve performance? I would think so. Will this lead to decreased turnover? That’s hard to say.”
6 Months Not Often Enough
Three readers suggested that every 6 months is not enough—they advocated more frequent reviews.
“I personally have set up a bimonthly review with my manager, which is not very formal—just a conversation around my performance against my goals. The meeting does not require any prep from either me or my manager and allows for that check point where we both can provide feedback to each other and make improvements as necessary before it is too late.”
“We use a model we called ‘Continuous Performance Review,’ which is basically quarterly meetings that involve goal-setting sessions with the employee and follow-up evaluations on goal progress. At the end of the cycle, there are no surprises on the evaluation and the employees feel good about the investment of time and interest made by their supervisors.”
“We encourage monthly one-on-ones. They take about 10-15 minutes and managers report that they make the made the bi-annual reviews much easier. And they frequent discussions support the organization’s culture of honesty and respect.”
Thank you, readers, for taking the time to respond. You can still add your thoughts by using the Share Your Comments button below.
Something missing in much of the discussion on evaluations needs to be addressed.
1. How many people are working for the manager?
If the ratio is 1 manager to 50 subordinates, the evaluation process & frequency itself will different with 1 manager to 5 subordinates.
2. What is the work environment?
If the workplace is administrative and the manager has personnel within ‘sight’ and within easy communication reach (verbal, daily interaction) the type of evaluation / frequency will be different than if the subordinates are working at remote or satellite sites.
With so little information as to the situation, it’s hard to see what is right and what is wrong. Personnel that have managers that do not communicate to them effectively will most likely desire more frequent formal feedback because the informal and more frequent ‘rudder orders’ are missing.
I would like to offer something that may help with a manager determining the frequency & type of performance evaluation required for their areas of responsibility. It requires thought and feedback from the subordinates and it could possibly require implementing leadership & management tools to accomplish it. I’ve lived by this simple statement for a long time and it’s worked well for me managing as few as 9 people and as many as 350. “If the employee is surprised at what they hear and read on a formal evaluation, you’re not doing your job managing and leading them.”
Simple words, deep meaning, good guidance to get your arms around the frequency and type of evaluations that you perform for your employees. Provide the input, feedback and performance guidance that YOU expect of YOUR supervisors and you’ll go far.
Geoff
Remember that kids’ game where you blindfolded someone, turned them around several times and then “helped” them find something by yelling “you’re hot” or “you’re cold”? What a fun game that would have been had you only yelled once a year, or every six months!
I once had the experience of handling and resolving everyone of an It departments trouble reports for six months. The reason I had this much time is I completed my part of a six month project in six weeks. Annual review time I was given the lowest rating possible by a manger who sat 3 cubicles away from me and managed 13 people. His reason for the rating was that my software was “no good” because I was always working on trouble reports. When I told him that none of the reports related to software I had written, he checked and changed the review. I returned to my desk and called a headhunter.
If the fool had spent 5 minutes a month talking to each of his reports, he might have known what was going on. If you don’t like talking with your people, please, go home and start an internet business.