How to Eliminate Performance Reviews
Traditional performance reviews are like the Easter Bunny. They don’t really deliver. I wish a Fairy would sprinkle fairy dust over every organization and eliminate this fraudulent waste of time, energy, and resources.
Distraction:
Traditional performance reviews distract HR and management from more useful tasks like real human development and culture building.
“Quality expert W. Edwards Deming blasted away: It (A traditional performance review) nourishes short-term performance, annihilates long-term planning, builds fear, demolishes teamwork, and nourishes rivalry and politics.” (In, “Scaling Up Excellence,” by Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao.)
Effective performance management
makes people enthusiastic to perform.
Elimination:
Adobe – 11,000 employees – eliminated annual performance reviews in 2012. Donna Morris, S.V.P., said,
“I actually wish we had abolished the annual review, and all that came along with it, much sooner.”
In the process of eliminating performance reviews they saved 80,000 hours of manager’s time.
Check-in:
Morris said, “Adobe now uses Check-in conversations that center on ongoing feedback. We don’t have labels, a formal tool, or prescriptive time of year … – we just ask people to have conversations.”
Three components:
Bob Sutton explained three components to a Check-in conversation at Adobe:
- What are you doing well?
- Where can you improve?
- What are your career goals and how can we align them with organizational goals.
To be fair, Bob doesn’t advocate for eliminating all performance reviews. He brings them up in the broader context of “Scaling Up Excellence.”
Excellence includes eliminating unproductive practices.
Bob on performance reviews, in his own words (1:15) on 2/14/14:
Replace annual appraisals with conversations that are:
- Common not rare. The infrequency of performance reviews injects fear and discomfort into an essential management practice.
- Forward-facing not backward.
- Energizing not demoralizing.
- Connecting rather than disconnecting.
Managing performance shouldn’t be like breaking the silence in an elevator.
Image source
How could performance be managed and enhanced if traditional performance reviews were eliminated?
Our organisation still has annual and six-monthly ‘development reviews’. I have just been given responsibility for undertaking these for our team (something I’m not really comfortable with), but I agree with this article, it needs to be more regular and I plan to have a monthly (if not more frequent) face to face with each of the team members to ensure these less-frequent, but more formal reviews aren’t counter-productive in the way this article describes.
Thanks for the posts; they continue to be most enlightening.
Thanks dylanvoid. I don’t blame you for being uncomfortable.
As you suggest, frequency may eliminate some of the discomfort we have with performance reviews. But, all participants must see them as useful, even encouraging.
Here’s an article about the process at Adobe: http://bit.ly/1f4ThNg
And, the broader conversation is about Scaling Up Excellence.
Best wishes
Thanks Dan. Appreciate the advice.
While I really like this approach, as managers we still are required to relatively rank staff performance over the previous year. So, the conversations must be partially backward looking. How does Adobe or other companies handle this or do they have a different annual reward determination?
Hi Sam,
I’ll be posting more of my conversation with Bob about ranking.
In the Adobe situation, they did away with stacked ranking as well. I’m seeing more companies who are rejecting the practice.
Raises and bonus-pools are put in the managers control, not HR’s. (Beyond the over-all amount)
The broader conversation is about Scaling Up Excellence.
Thanks Dan. I really appreciate your posts. Always helpful!!
Well…GREAT to see Deming!!!! What a ROCKSTAR!
How about this for elimination??????
Old world——get a job(just over broke) they pay you just enough to keep you from quitting and you work just hard enough not to get fired! Then 40 years later 95% of folks are dead or dead broke!!! Sounding like something to RUN to????? Add 80% of the folks engaged in this mess are actually DISENGAGED and what you see is what you get.
What about this?
New World—-you package your knowledge and sell it on the internet! Have your knowledge work for you. You have a unique skill set and know what others do not. Or package and sell other people’s knowledge and still make life changing amounts of money for yourself.
It is not as technically overwhelming as it used to be. Most everything just point and click now. No writing code anymore, just point and click. Almost everything automated.
The only difference between the old world and the new world is the folks in the new world got sick and tired of being sick and tired. They actually researched the results of the 40, 40, plan and saw 95% of the time it does not work out very well.
They DECIDED to take action on three simple steps. Others let the ANTS tell them they could never do anything like that! Bullhockey, if these others folks are doing it so can you!!!!
1. Create
2. Package
3. Release
As far as traditional performance reviews go. Rubbish. We ALL know in the REAL world NO ONE listens to them. The person getting reviewed just acts like they are listening as best they can and the person reviewing knows it. Everybody just does it to give themselves permission they are doing what they are supposed to.
Truth, will set you free, but will first piss you off.
Get real, get honest, get busy! 3 Billion new folks coming to the intraweb in the next 5 years. You have something inside you, something GREAT, WORTH SHARING, just decide it is time to GET YOUR GIFT OUT THERE and the journey of a thousand steps starts with the FIRST ONE!
Study the results of the 40, 40, plan work 40 years, paid 40k and then retire on half of what you cannot live on now.
Wake up! Come on 95% what makes you think you are in the 5%?
Or just keep doing the same thing and expecting the results to be different for you because you are special. You ARE SPECIAL it is just not going to be expressed in a job!!!!!!!!!
Just saying!
I Concur
SP
EA
Thanks Scott. One of your more spectacular rants.
Thank you!!
All the numbers are accurate too!!!
Hope the ones ready to hear and see read every word!
A completely different life awaits them if they decide and take action.
Have a great weekend!
SP
EA
Live with passion or die slowly bored to death!!!
Dear Dan,
Traditional performance appraisal creates fear. It is true in most of the organizations. It is evaluated by someone who is not expert in the field where employees has performed. There is fundamental problem in the way performance appraisal is conducted. I think the best could be to have performance appraisal by team leader, supervisor or manager who is leading and have expertise in the area rather than appraised by someone sitting in remote head office.If this is done, it is likely to be effective and workable.
The person who is responsible for evaluation should have enough experience in the actual areas.
Perhaps the major issue is about including people in the process. Many times in traditional evaluation, only top management is involved and it provide chance to deviate the process. So, it might be better if actual stakeholders are included. And even more important to provide training before apprising any employee. And if this is done, many space and difference can be overcome.
Thanks Ajay. You reminded me of something I wanted to write but didn’t.
I’d like to see performance reviews go up the chain as well as down. But one of the real problems, as you indicate, is fear.
I can’t think of a single performance review that I had that ever got me jazzed up about increasing my performance.
You should come out more strongly against Performance Appraisal, Dan. Who WANTS to be appraised, please raise your hand! in THEORY, these performance management approaches sure read well and they include all sorts of alignment mechanisms and links to personal growth and development and, heck, even 360 degree feedback so you can “anonymously appraise” the Boss.
Right.
Easter Bunny AND Tooth Fairy. Might as well be the drug-dealing White Rabbit if we play on keeping these hallucinations going.
But these systems are also tied tightly to extrinsic motivation, and we know how well companies manage their winners and losers, right?
Where we are headed is pretty predictable. High;y paid senior executives with no accountability to anyone, even the legal system, and unpaid and uncompensated minimum wage workers.
(Did you see the article about the commuter airline pilots who are paid between $15,000 and $25,000 a year to wear the fancy uniforms and take your life into their hands? Heck, many of them also have second jobs so you can imagine how that pin is about to hit the balloon.)
Yeah. It seems like a few things are continuing along the same pathways. And while there may be 100 Best Companies to work for, there are many millions of the other ones…
We kinda forget that people actually WANT to do a good job and actually WANT the skills and training and NEED good performance feedback systems (and not appraisal).
We continue to expect things to change while we continually do the same things the same way. Duh.
.
Hi Dan
Nail on head! So ridiculous so many people / orgs go through this when all parties evidently dread it. We ( a friend and I) made a spoof video a while back, role playing the worst appraisal we could, based on bitter experience. In a short time it had received something like 27,000 hits!!!!! Folks just said “that’s it – that’s my appraisal” – bearing in mind we were being as incompetent and dysfunctional as possible (or broadcastable) that’s a worry! We’ll show you it if you fancy? (we’ve turned it into a little business so am not putting link here)
Good for you Spencer!!
Google Alex Jeffery’s and Brendon Bruchard if you have not heard of them.
Make that little business a MONSTER!!!
SP Get leads, make offer, convert leads round and found to the bank you go!!
If you make videos you know about fiverr? Can get some folks to make them for there.
EA
Bravo Dan! I’ve been saying for ages that performance reviews actually reduce performance. Companies would benefit more from engagement, inspiration and creating more autonomy. 🙂
Hi Dan, This is a superb post and long overdue. Annual performance appraisals and stacked rankings are inherently flawed, ridiculously expensive,and erode human dignity. I have argued against such things in the past to no avail. Continual open and honest feedback is far more effective and welcome. I have been angered and frustrated by the persistence of this archaic practice. But then it dawned on me. Social media reduces the isolation and fear that are part and parcel of the process. The market will sort this out. Top talent will be drawn to companies that know how to value their employees and provide feedback in a productive manner. The older, traditional, slower-moving companies that retain this vestige of the industrial revolution will be unable to compete. They will soon go away with the other bad dinosaurs.
Hey, Dan! Been a while since I’ve posted in here, but not really because I’ve not kept up with issues. This subject struck a nerve as I’ve also posted similar meanderings about performance reviews on my blog as well. I’ve dealt with this subject (and a few related ones) in some detail, based on my own experiences. The bottom line… I can see some need for something more formal between manager and employee primarily because of one singular reason… not all managers/supervisors can manage properly in providing clear and concise feedback to their subordinates on a routine basis. A formal review process at least tries to even out that shortcoming. Gauging from some of the comments to your post, disposing of formal performance reviews would be great… in a perfect world. We have a sincere problem in this country when it comes to making managers and supervisors out of people. There’s a tendency to promote from the ranks of those who have done well in production, deliver great customer service, or being able to meet deadlines. Just doing that doesn’t assure in the least that these people can manage other people properly (which supports my ongoing argument that “management” should be a career profession on its own.. but that’s for another post altogether).
For reference for readers who wish to indulge in more opinion on this subject… the following are links to the posts on my own site regarding performance reviews and a couple other related tidbits.
Note… unfortunately these are not “300 words or less”. Dan is much better at that than I am. 🙂
“Those Pesky Performance Reviews ARE Necessary”
http://dougsboomerrants.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/the-business-boomer-6a-those-pesky-performance-reviews-are-necessary/
“Performance Reviews: 10 Reasons Why They Are Necessary”
http://dougsboomerrants.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/the-business-boomer-6b-performance-reviews-10-reasons-why-they-are-necessary/
“Performance Reviews: 10 Reasons How NOT To Give A Review”
http://dougsboomerrants.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-business-boomer-6c-performance-reviews-10-reasons-how-not-to-give-a-review/
“Who The Heck Invented The Probationary Period?”
http://dougsboomerrants.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/who-the-heck-invented-the-probationary-period/
“Suspension Of Pay: Unprofessional Spanking”
http://dougsboomerrants.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/the-business-boomer-9-suspension-of-pay-unprofessional-spanking/
Great post for stimulating discussion, Dan! Of course, all your posts do that. 🙂
I missed something, Adobe eliminated 80,000 hours of manages time by eliminating annual reviews, they replaced then with conversations which were done more frequently… am I to understand these took 0 manager hours?
There is wisdom in keeping short accounts, in other words dealing with things in near term rather than at an annual event that may be very remote.
There are legal implications to keeping an employee record, especially when an employee is on probation or dismissed. There must therefore be conversation records.
Thanks Ken. Here’s what the SVP at adobe wrote: We’re seeing more genuine conversations happening at the company; we’re saving 80,000 hours of our managers’ time by removing an archaic process; and our attrition is down year over year. As with any change, things take time to truly become second nature, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the progress.
http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/07/forget-reviews-lets-look-forward.html
Thank you, Dan
Great to see the references here to Deming’s admonitions against appraisals. His student, Peter Scholtes spread the message, and the book “Abolishing Performance Appraisals” by Coens & Jenkins nails it with research & data. For those who say it can’t be done in government, look back to the story of the Deming-trained admiral at the Navy base in Vallejo. 30,000 under his command with five unions. He couldn’t eliminate appraisals by law. So he “made them as meaningless as possible.” Everyone got a de facto satisfactory. To rate up or down took a rigorous supervisor report, reviewed by a joint union-management committee. In a year grievances dropped dramatically. Satisfaction and productivity rose up even more dramatically. Eliminate harmful appraisals.
I think we all agree “documentation” is important–usually for later, just in case something happens especially in this litigious society we live and work in today. It’s unfortunate but part of leadership is to practice defensive management–or in the nomenclature of the streets to “cover our ass.”
And just to take the other side of performance reviews, I believe there’s rather insightful and concrete benefit to both staff member and leader when a review is put in writing. It takes talent, thought and effort to critique one’s positive performance–and then offer what might be considered “peak” performance.
For the staff member, it is a vote of esteem, confidence, and encouragement to know the leader is so aware and engaged that he or she can critique so diligently. And for the leader, it is powerful introspective exercise to realize what one knows or does not know
about each and every member of the staff’s performance personally.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
I respect you and like you Rick but when you are wrong you are wrong. Just my opinion not like in reality!!! Lol
It is NOT part of Leadership to practice defensive management.
You are one of the smartest guys here based in what I have read from you.
That defensive nonsense does not fit the true definetion of Leadership. Has Followers.
You are aware the blood flows one direction in the body. Lights are either on or off. Leaders are either Leading or not. Trying to cover their ass is not leading. Come on man you are one of the sharp guys here. Don’t muddy the water….it confuses folks not as smart as you.
The other part off, nobody pays any attention to these reviews. Saying anything positive just throwing dirt into water…only makes mud. The person getting reviewed just goes into autopilot saying what they think the other person wants to hear.
The other person is doing it just cause it is expected of them and they want to cover their ass.
We are never going to make this Leadership crisis better till the sharp people are all singing the same tune.
Just my heartfelt opinion
If I didn’t really admire you I would not waste my breath but you got potential!!!!
SP
EA
Thank you, EffectivessnessActivator, for your insights well taken and for the opportunity to make myself more clear.
You say, “Two wrongs do not make a right.” You’re referring to the wrong of performance reviews and to the wrong of defensive management. Perhaps I should have elaborated and said there is nothing as concrete and lasting in the mind of a staff member as “the written word”—especially for peak performers (I’d bet that most readers of Leadership Freak KEEP this blog. Or a newspaper article written about someone, for example). And, perhaps I should have made the distinction between the words “defend” vs. “defensive.” We can defend ourselves and our opinions, but we must take care not be “defensive” in believing they contain the whole truth, or the only truth. For if argue for our limitations–sure enough …they’re ours!
You rightly and accurately cite how “the blood flows in one direction in the body.” This is true…except in the case of an anomaly…where and when there is something not well anatomically or physiologically (structurally or functionally in the case of an organization). This is what critique (not criticism) is expressly all about.
Ultimately you say “…nobody pays any attention to these reviews. Saying anything positive is just throwing dirt into water…only makes mud. The person getting reviewed just goes into autopilot saying what they think the other person wants to hear…” The only thing I can about this scenario is this leader and organization needs dialysis or autopsy.
I had just finished writing my reviews in my current company and after reading this have now confirmed my decisions to not write performance assessments around past behavior but around the vision to where I see us heading in the next year.. I didnt want my team to fear their actions from the past year, but learn from our opportunites and failures. Well said.
AWESOME!!!
________________________________
The one place where I have found formal performance reviews work well was when I was in the Navy – carefully calibrated and as fair as possible. Yes they took time, but they were key to making sure that the members of your team were positioned for promotion or otherwise.
What the Navy did differently was that, as line managers, not only were we were trained in performance management from the start (12 months basic training referring to it on a regular basis and two weeks dedicated course), we were also responsible not just for ‘on the job performance’ but also our teams welfare. We were assessed on our abilities to be a good ‘divisional officer’ and it was part of the deal between you and your team – you were fair to them and worked with them to develop their career in line with their aspirations and capabilities. You were also with them nearly all the time, something that rarely happens in the modern matrix organisation.
In 10 years as a civilian there are frequent nods as to how to do it well, but no deep training and very rarely the honesty that says your just not going to get promoted, however hard you try.
The Navy wasn’t perfect – 360/upward feedback was almost unheard of – but it was the best I’ve come across.
Nicely said.
I’m all for getting rid of it.
Dan, appreciate the post on eliminating formal performance reviews. I wish our company would kick them to curb also.,they are for leaders that do not take time in invest in people. I do find them very valuable with new hires, we do a performance review every 4 weeks for the first three months of employment.
Performance reviews are a joke. They are like going up to the parole board at jail when you are serving a life sentence, and getting your hopes up for being released, but in my case, a pay raise… not gonna happen. Everyone is making up reasons to not give pay raises in this poor economy.
I could not agree with you more. They are a complete waste of time, and are misused more often than not.
They are political, and very rarely, fair
Dan
Great to see someone coming out against the performance management process. I have always said that no one wants their performance managed, we all just want unconditional love. Equally no one wants to do a bad job and we will all happily take feedback if done in the right way.
To get to the point where you can eliminate the review you must create a real coaching culture and a genuine desire amongst all of your people to have grown up conversations. I can’t see this working in a command and control environment.
As for Reward elements simply give good market data and a budget to the manager and they will figure it out. This is the approach I have always advocated.
This is the beauty of blogging – it offers an outlet to say what we wouldn’t dare tell to our managers. Very well written- performance reviews are a complete waste of time for both managers and employees. It’s just a formality that completely demoralizes employees and never really accomplishes anything.
Feedback is the breakfast of champions! I agree that annual performance reviews are a complete waste of time. I support a system where the reporting infrastructure becomes an autonomous performance review.
Electronic games are a perfect example of ongoing performance feedback and is likely one of the reasons people can play them for hours at a time. The results (and the rewards) are immediate.
Anyone can look at the score at any time to see how you’re progressing. I couldn’t imagine having to wait until the game was over to see how well (or poorly) I played.
Though performance reviews were considered mandatory at some places I once worked for, I migrated to a quarterly review that coincided with our quarterly business reviews with shareholders.
Great post as always Dan.
I don’t want to repeat everything said. It is all great. I think the real challenge is to separate the check in from a compensation discussion. Then you are safe to give feedback in both directions. How the worker (independent or not) is doing and how the employer is doing. Feedback must safely go both directions.
I work for a small software company and am endeavoring to keep the classic performance review from ever gaining a foothold. I have what’s called the ‘Wheels on the bus’ conversation. 🙂 What has worked well for me is, in addition to the regular (weekly, every other week – ish) conversations, to have a quarterly-ish one that goes like this (and they all know the questions ahead of time):
1. Are you on the right bus?
2. Are you in the right seat on the bus?
3. Do you have enough (or more!) time to sit in that seat on the bus? (we have a good number of part-time employees)
4. Are you enjoying the view?
This structure facilitates very easy conversations about passion and skills and enthusiasm and whether or not it’s working out for them or the company.
Thanks for the post – it’s good to see what we’ve discovered at the small level also works at the larger level!