Why we should focus on performance achievement rather than performance appraisal?

Actus™ CEO Lucinda Carney was invited to speak at a conference on the subject of performance appraisal earlier this month, a topic you may have noticed has been at the centre of HR maelstrom recently. The big firms like Microsoft, Deloitte, and Adobe have announced that they are ditching their performance appraisal processes. Now, the fact that the rejection of the performance appraisal is actually a dose of the ‘emperor’s new clothes’ doesn’t detract from the fact that the annual appraisal, commonly known as the performance review, is fatally flawed.

The annual performance appraisal is widely hated; in some places so much so that having no appraisal at all has been found to be more effective! Why is that? Well, we believe that that the clue is in the term ‘review’: waiting until the end of the year to give someone feedback on their performance to date is akin to the golf coach waiting until the 18th hole to tell you what you did wrong on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd tee.

All too often appraisals are backward focused, based on a point in time that is long gone; your performance for the year is judged on a decision you were never given the chance to learn from, or centred around feedback that seem no longer seems relevant or helpful for improving performance today. Further, evidence shows that receiving timely feedback and having regular goal setting sessions are both far more effective methods for delivering high performance than the once a year technique. Take a look at our research review linked below to read about the other proven drivers of high performance.

Businesses also struggle with following up on decisions made during appraisals. All too often, nothing results from the conversations had that take place. You may agree development needs or career goals with your manager and document them in the paperwork, but no one ever extracts this data to do something with it. You could be forgiven for wondering what the point is.