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8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process

The reviews are in for performance reviews, and they are largely negative, as IT Business Edge’s Ann All recently wrote. Among the criticisms: Many companies do them once a year, and managers tend to base them only upon recent events rather than the entire year. They foster a competitive culture rather than a collaborative one. […]

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ITBE Staff
ITBE Staff
Jul 13, 2010

The reviews are in for performance reviews, and they are largely negative, as IT Business Edge’s Ann All recently wrote. Among the criticisms: Many companies do them once a year, and managers tend to base them only upon recent events rather than the entire year. They foster a competitive culture rather than a collaborative one. Focusing on individual performance de-emphasizes overall corporate performance.

With some effort, companies can make performance reviews more productive for employees, their managers and the overall organization. Click through for eight tips from Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business; John Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting; and Maxim Sytch and D. Scott DeRue, both assistant professors in the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 1

Click through for eight tips that can help improve your company's performance review process.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 2

Make criteria more explicit and objective.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 3

Write reviews from scratch instead of simply basing them on employees’ self-assessments.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 4

Incorporate feedback from peers, subordinates and other managers into reviews. Keep a diary so reviews reflect cumulative performance and recent events don’t receive undue emphasis.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 5

Make reviews more of an open, two-way dialogue. Open by asking employees how they think they are doing. Instead of a formal self-assessment form, encourage employees to prepare for this question by preparing a list of projects or tasks they’ve been involved with they’d like to discuss.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 6

Don’t wait for reviews to offer feedback. Offering more frequent feedback makes it easier to curtail undesirable behavior and encourage continued progress.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 7

Separate reviews from developmental sessions, to give employees a chance to consider managers’ feedback and offer their own suggestions for improvement.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 8

Keep the number of reviews managers are expected to provide to a manageable number.

8 Keys to Improving Performance Review Process - slide 9

Periodically review the review process, surveying both employees and managers to find out what works well – and what doesn’t.

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