Appraising The Yearly Appraisal

As we enter the New Year, the annual performance appraisal/review may still be fresh in the minds of many, whether as the subject of a review or as a manager conducting them.

Annual performance appraisals are often used by employers, not just to evaluate the performance of their employees from the previous year, but to award bonuses, pay increases and promotions and to also set targets for improvement where employees may be underperforming.

However, the days of the annual appraisal may be numbered. Amongst other criticism of the practice, an article published in the Financial Times in November 2019 suggests that these types of reviews do a disservice to companies, citing a survey which suggests that 95% of employees are dissatisfied with their employers’ appraisal process. The article suggests that younger generations, in particular, expect more regular feedback to make more frequent adjustments to their work.

But what should the annual appraisal be replaced with? What new system should employers use to determine performance and provide a fair process for rewarding employees?

Although I don’t think there is a straightforward solution to this, I think that employers could do more to ensure that their annual appraisals are as effective as they can be. Here are some tips on improving performance at performance reviews.

1) Discuss performance regularly with team members. If there is an open dialogue then the results of an annual appraisal are less likely to be surprising or come as a shock to employees. The review should then hopefully accurately summarise the employee’s performance across the year;

2) Be transparent with how performance is measured;

3) Share any notes with employees prior to their reviews to ensure the review is as productive as possible. Just as with any other type of meeting, both sides will be in the best position where they have a general idea of what will be discussed about the meeting and have had time to prepare for it;

4) Be clear when defining next steps. Identify employees’ strengths and areas where they might be able to improve, along with a plan for how to address these; and finally… 5) The performance review doesn’t stop at the meeting, so follow up after the review! Put the next meeting you will have with the employee in the diary so that you don’t forget to action the points addressed. By doing this, you’re also demonstrating that you intend on addressing any issues raised at the reviews and they aren’t just a box ticking exercise.