Performance Reviews - Motivator or Demotivator?

Stijloor

Staff member
Super Moderator
#11
Great comments so far on a very important subject.

I hate performance reviews - almost all aspects of them. :mad: It's so easy to get them wrong, and doing so can cause a lot of damage.

In a turnaround group, perhaps people could instead run on short cycles based on team projects, and celebrate positive results in a more timely way than annual reviews. :2cents:
I agree!:agree1:

Many years ago, when I was still gainfully ;) employed as a supervisor, I was expected to conduct performance evaluations. I hated them with a passion! I did not like to do them, and I did not like to be subjected to it. The folks that I had to "evaluate" always expected this to part of "getting the expected yearly raise" process. The guy that had to evaluate me became by boss by accident (internal nasty politics) and used it to put me in my place.:whip: No, I do not have good memories...:nope:

Stijloor.
 
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Paul Simpson

Trusted Information Resource
#12
Performance appraisal - equivalent to quality management?

Great thread. A review of the posts so far mirrors my experience of the good and bad of performance appraisal / management / review. It's a bit like the quote from Alice in Wonderland (I think). "When they're good they're very, very good. When they're bad they're horrid!"

I had two reviews at the same company from two different managers. When I came out of the first I was motivated and had a spring in my step. When I came out of the second I was fuming. I ran a red light on my way home because I was still thinking about the meeting and, when I had calmed down, started to put together my exit plan.

The point is not that reviews can be good and bad. We are dealing with a normal distribution here. The process of clearly communicating plans, agreeing expectations and monitoring performance is valid. All we have to do is concentrate on reducing the variability of the process so that it becomes capable of satisfying the employee's tolerance band! :)

A little bit like 5.4.1 - 7.5.1 - 8.2.3, don't you think? :lol:
 

Caster

An Early Cover
Trusted Information Resource
#13
ie, if you don't have PR, what's the alternative)?
Wow, come on now, he hasn't been dead all that long!

I can't believe the ghost of Deming hasn't come up yet in this thread.

Point 12 is "Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective"

What is the alternative to performance review? A great boss/leader.
I had one once. He motivated people to achieve extraordinary results, and PR was not in his tool box, we all knew where things stood in real time.
 
J

JaneB

#14
Re: Performance appraisal - equivalent to quality management?

:topic:
No Paul, 'twasn't him.

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Originally, I believe, a nursery rhyme from Mother Goose.

I like the one attributed to Mae West though:
When I'm good, I'm very, very good. When I'm bad, I'm better.
Back on topic - yes, I agree with you!
 
J

JaneB

#15
What is the alternative to performance review? A great boss/leader.
I had one once. He motivated people to achieve extraordinary results, and PR was not in his tool box, we all knew where things stood in real time.
Wonderful - what is needed is to identify what it was that he was and did (or wasn't & didn't do) and build those into a system! Otherwise, one is presumably dependent on pure luck?
 
D

Desara01

#16
Soooo - let me see if I can summarize the thoughts of this thread so far (and I know this crowd will let me know if I get it wrong):
  1. Most of us agree that an annual review process is not very effective if that is all there is
  2. More frequent reviews are better with established objectives
  3. Some believe that performance reviews are a detrimant to morale and actually drive the wrong behavior
  4. Some believe that if managers were true leaders, there would be no need for such a process and performance would be coached on an ongoing, continuous basis.
OK - how'd I do? :bigwave:

Have to put the heating pad on my ankle - that's what I get for quitting smoking (wouldn't have started running:mad:)

Please continue to contribute as I intend to print off this entire string and share it with my COO and HR Mgr

Cheers - Pen
 

Miner

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Admin
#17
  • It doesn't matter how good a job you've done all year or what you've accomplished, it's usually the last 30 days that count.
  • They're usually personal, not based upon facts, so very subjective
  • Performance feedback should be happening on a continual basis. While it's never happened to me personally, several of my colleagues have walked into these reviews and gotten slammed for not meeting some unknown objective, or (as the author says) "your coworkers have come to me and said...." It's humiliating.
  • At Amoco your raise was tied to it. In the last couple of years I was there they started requiring managers to "force rank" their employees, they could only award a certain number of excellents etc. TO me, if all employees aren't performing, whose fault is that? The manager's! They should be coaching and guiding - and if the person is wrong for the job they should spare the employee the humiliation of sub-standard work and find the right job for them - or do them a favor and let them go...
My experience is that it depends 100% on your boss. Mistakes that I have seen include:
  • Setting SMART goals that are not Attainable except in the eyes of the boss
  • Having a pre-determined rating in mind regardless of the results actually attained and forcing the results to match the rating.
  • Forcing the results to match a forced ranking regardless of the actual performance. Only 5% can be rated high regardless of the fact that 2 out of 10 people (20%) in your department are highly effective.
  • You must have X developmental goals next year per company policy, ergo you obviously have X developmental needs (i.e., shortcomings) this year.
  • Rating everyone the same to avoid conflicts with the ones that actually need improvement.
 
J

JaneB

#18
  1. Most of us agree that an annual review process is not very effective if that is all there is
  2. More frequent reviews are better with established objectives
  3. Some believe that performance reviews are a detriment to morale and actually drive the wrong behavior
  4. Some believe that if managers were true leaders, there would be no need for such a process and performance would be coached on an ongoing, continuous basis.
Yes, I'd tend to agree, but I think you've left out the 'some believe that good PRs are helpful/worthwhile'.

One thing I think I omitted from my previous suggestions of contributing factors to it done well are: the 'review/feedback' system needs to be part of a functioning, healthy company culture. If the culture is broke, so will the review/feedback be (eg, there's not much point in espousing a 'people are our most important resource' viewpoint if all your actions as a company actually contradict this). Read Steve Simpson on UGRs - good stuff.

OK, allow me to throw in a few more references:

  • Jack Welch - very, very strong on the idea thing of getting the 'right' people; hard to argue with the results he got
  • Jim Collins' Good to Great identified 'First Who, then What' as a critical part of the foundation for building an enduring great company
  • Buckingham and Clifton have a lot of interesting things to say in Now, discover your strengths (manage by developing strengths, not focussing on weaknesses) and in First, Break all the rules discuss 'what the world's greatest managers do differently' (incl. how to define and manage for performance).

Finally, one large international company I worked with were very keen on Michael M Lombardo & Robert W Eichinger: the l Lominger system. And their people almost universally were pleased with the system. Not cheap apparently, but I remember being struck by an excellent book they had, which was very helpful in supporting the process, and providing really practical examples of how to improve. And oh yes, were they keen on objective (vs subjective) reviews!
 

Bev D

Heretical Statistician
Staff member
Super Moderator
#19
  • Jack Welch - very, very strong on the idea thing of getting the 'right' people; hard to argue with the results he got


  • well, having worked at GE and knowing a lot of ex GE people I can say that corporate results are not necessarily tied to how perfromance was jusged and rewarded. It's a very stressful organization to work in. Basically the bottom X% just get cut and the powerpoint engineers get promoted, period. Your boss is the ONLY thing keeping you from the bottom x%. I know too many people who left and say it's like escaping from a prison camp or a loony bin. My friends who remain are in constant fear of losing their jobs. There is a strong track record of GE execs and mangers going to other companies who can't cut it in the real word - remember Home depot and Nardelli? Did he get good results from motivated talented people or was he ruthlessly good (Highly diversified prtfolio of businesses and #1 or #2 in your market or your gone) in a basically strong economy? He took care of his shareholders, but what about his employees?

    You can't always beleive all of the business books that tout success. I remember reading a book on great places to work by a famous 'business prophet' and neither I nor anyone I worked with recognized the compnay he claimed to be our company...in fact after researching the issue we found that the author never set foot in the company, never talked to anyone below VP and got most of his 'data' from other articles.

    One of the things I liked about "Good to Great" was that is was written like any other peer reviewed work. It disclosed it's research method and cited it's references...
 
J

JaneB

#20
You can't always beleive all of the business books that tout success....

One of the things I liked about "Good to Great" was that is was written like any other peer reviewed work. It disclosed it's research method and cited it's references...
Yes, I agree strongly.

You make good points about Jack Welch & GE - doesn't sound like a great experience on the inside.
 
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