Chiming in on Performance Appraisals

I've been told and have read numerous accounts of prospective employers seeking out a candidates weblog to determine their personality, character and communication ability. I hope that never happens to me, but it could. This might be one of those posts that could get me into trouble but I feel the need to chime in.

I was reading a great post on Talking Story about abolishing the Annual Performance Review. There are many reasons I agree with this movement and hope more people push their companies to stop using them against their employees.

Depending on the type of work you do, performance may be easy to measure. If you work on an assembly line and you put together widgets, and your quota is 100 widgets a day, then you can measure how many you build in a day and measure performance. But what if your job performance is subjective? If you're a writer your deliverables may be the total number of stories, the total number of words, deadlines and so on. But in the end, is actual delivery the best way to measure performance? I say no, and here's why.

I believe quality goes hand in hand with performance. You can't just throw 100 widgets in the box and ship them. They need to be checked for completeness and meeting design criteria. Anything less is a failure of the product and the person building it. The same can be said for a writer. Just because I make a deadline or produce 5 stories with eight hundred to a thousnad words each a week doesn't mean they have any value to the reader. How do you measure those things?

I know I have strayed off the performance review thought, but it's all tied together. The one thing most companies miss with performance reviews is the coaching or mentoring that should come with them. If for instance you and an employee agree on a set of tasks that they will be measured against, you, as a manager, need to make sure they have all the tools and skills necessary to accomplish the tasks. Please don't use the lame excuse that "they should be motivated enough to learn the skills on their own." It won't happen. Why? Because most people need help reaching the next level. They don't want goals or tasks that are menial. They want something challenging. If you are letting your employees get away with menial tasks then that's your fault as well.

The reason I would say the annual performance review should be abolished is because it's counter productive. Whether you like it or not people need to be praised. They need slaps on the back in front of their peers. They need to know you appreciate their efforts. They also need to know in private when they aren't reaching their potential. Having charge over other brings a responsibility to improve their abilities, not just point out flaws. Work with them, help them be the best they can. If you can't, then managing people isn't your cup of tea and you should hand it off to someone else.

Please read this article and the other links that are on that page. Join the movement.

Filed in: job | management