Performance Reviews are awful. Here are some ideas to improve them. (Plus a Template!)

Ruler on yellow background with text overlay, Overhaul Performance Review Season, With This Template, by Rikki Goldenberg, Executive Leadership Coach, Career Coach

This post was originally shared in my semi-frequent Learn Something New(sletter). To never miss info like this, join the party! 🥳

It’s that moment in the year when performance reviews suddenly emerge from the abyss like the loch ness monster.

Whether you’re a manager of a team of 12 (oh goodness) or handling 10 peer reviews, this time of year is exhausting.

Maybe you’re the lucky few that only have to do annual reviews. But that means come November you’re going to be rushing out the door for the holidays while scrambling to finish up the reviews that are already late, and suddenly someone just found budget for a final project and can you also finish that?


What is a Performance Review:

Simply put, it’s a specific period of time where employees are reviewed on their performance. Sounds super simple, right? But, in practice, there’s a lot more to it.

When to review: Some organizations choose to review annually, biannually, quarterly - sometimes they do reviews all at the same time, sometimes it’s based on when the employee started.

How to review: Some systems are super robust with lots of components, forms and tools. Other companies choose to do it ad hoc. They may use some google sheets, or a word doc that’s filled out. It might be 3 pages - or it could be 17! It’s a massive range.

Who is involved: Some organizations leverage peer reviews or more “360” versions. Some only take in personal feedback. Some choose to focus on metrics or KPIs as the voice of truth.

What is received: Some organizations deliver ratings that are tied to bonuses or promotions. Others skip a formal rating, and opt for general red/green/yellow vibes - (i.e. stop doing this thing - red, do this thing now - green, keep doing this - yellow) Some companies choose to anonymize the information - others don’t bother. Some don’t even share the materials or feedback.

Why do this? I’m not making a great case, but, organizations need some way to recognize their employees. At the heart, I believe the goal of performance reviews is to help employees succeed, and celebrate their hard work. In practice, it can often turn into getting a lot of surprise negative feedback, missed opportunities and tiny raises. It’s not perfect. And it likely won’t ever be perfect for every individual at an organization.


Performance Reviews are terrible:

It’s incredibly difficult to enjoy performance reviews. And there’s so many reasons why. Here are just a handful of stats to ensure you know you’re not alone in hating performance reviews:

  • It takes an average of 210 hours for a manager to work on performance management activities - that’s FIVE WEEKS of work. FIVE WEEKS. (SHRM)

  • 9/10 managers aren’t a fan of their company’s review process - you’re not alone! (SHRM)

  • Half of employees are surprised by the rating they receive - and of those surprises…87% are a bad surprise - no wonder stomachs will cramp leading up to them! (Inside HR)


But Performance Reviews can have a great impact!

This might make you want to throw in the towel, and say screw it - we’re going to skip this. However, there’s major benefit to have an opportunity to collect feedback on performance, share it, and recognize people - as well as make plans to recognize them more!

The trick is to change the way you think about collecting and delivering feedback. So read on to learn about some other ways you can improve performance reviews.


Here are some ways to improve Performance Reviews:

  1. Review people more often. Maybe use your 1-on-1 as an opportunity to share feedback! A whopping 76% of employees want at least monthly performance reviews and feedback. (TruQu) So why not find ways to insert more consistent feedback into the daily existence.

  2. Make it lighter. Most employees spend about 40 hours per year in performance review-related activities. (Gartner) That’s a week of work that’s exhausting. Some ways to make it easier? Fold feedback into 1-on-1s already. Or, use a simple document that does both planning and reflection (in the same template!)

  3. Include the right people. 1/3 of companies leverage peer reviews - and if those peer reviews that are selected by the employee themself - it shortens how long it takes to get reviews done! (Lattice) Saving time and getting good info! Bonus tip to beef up #2 - I’ve worked place that instead of having each employee fill out a long survey, they had a 15-minute chat with the employee’s manager. The manager would call each peer reviewer, ask some questions about what’s going well, and what could be improved and then compile the answers. It drastically reduces the time and effort for the peer reviewers, and helps ensure the manager truly has read and understood the collective feedback.

  4. Try continuous feedback. Instead of waiting until the review cycle (see #1!) increase feedback in general within the organization. And it’ll help the company too: companies adopting continuous performance feedback significantly outperformed competition at a 24% higher rate. (Betterworks)

  5. Connect the dots. If you want to do a point system or rating guidelines, go for it. But, make sure those points or ratings are tied to something. “Employees with compensation tied to performance perceived their compensation to be more fair.” (Lattice) If your organization doesn’t have ladders or clear guidance about what it takes to be promoted and or compensated fairly - it puts undue pressure on the manager to navigate disgruntled teams. Creating more structure at the onset will reduce friction on delivery.

  6. Focus on strengths. If you or someone on your team is surprised by negative feedback - things aren’t going well in general. A performance review shouldn’t have ANY surprises. If it does, it’s a reflection on your company’s ability to collect and disperse feedback effectively. One way to combat this is use performance review time as a chance to focus on what’s going well, and what could be even better. Employees who receive feedback on their strengths turn over 14.9% less than those who don’t. (Gallup) And, focusing feedback on employees’ weaknesses might reduce their performance by 27%. (Clearcompany) We all need both positive and negative feedback to improve - but, if something feels catty / not conducive to improvement - cut it!


Want even more? Snag the template.

There’s a template I’ve used both myself and with my employees in the past that was a seemingly lightweight way to prepare them in advance for their performance reviews.

Feel free to steal!


Getting anxious about leading or attending your upcoming performance reviews? Feel like you aren’t clear on how you want to advocate for your team or yourself? Reach out.

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