Lifestyle - Annual performance reviews may be on their way out, but feedback is more important than ever
It is time for a review of the performance review, business owner Kelvin Kao says. Here is his take on how to improve feedback exchanges for bosses and workers alike.
Some managers give lots of useful feedback frequently about a subordinate's work, while others take a more hands-off approach, assuming that the workers understand that "no news is good news". (Illustration: CNA/Nurjannah Suhaimi, iStock)
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t’s that wonderful time of year when managers suddenly remember they were supposed to be keeping track of your work, and employees are greeted with feedback that is either too vague to be useful or so brutally honest that it makes them question their life choices.
Now, here’s the thing: More companies are scrapping the traditional once-a-year appraisal in favour of real-time feedback.
In the United States alone, the percentage of companies using annual reviews dropped from 82 per cent in 2016 to 49 per cent in 2023, the Society for Human Resource Management reported.Â
Instead, feedback is increasingly happening on the go, through Slack messages, quick check-ins or maybe even a casual hallway chat where your boss tells you, “Hey, great job last week!”Â
In a sense, that’s a good thing. Finally, we can all move on from that tense, over-rehearsed conversation where you pretend to take notes while internally ranking your manager on a likeability scale from Michael Scott in American sitcom The Office to Miranda Priestly in the movie The Devil Wears Prada.
So, is the annual review dead? And if so, should we be celebrating or mourning its entry into the graveyard of old corporate relics, joining the likes of time clocks and overhead projectors?
THE CASE FOR ITS DEATH
The truth is, the traditional performance review was always a mixed bag.
Had a good year? Just get through this formality before the human resource personnel rubber-stamps your promotion. Had a bad year? Spend the next hour bracing yourself for the dreaded “let’s see more initiative” speech.
It’s challenging for the manager as well, having to condense a year’s worth of work into an hour-long conversation that is both fair and constructive. Straddling this line typically results in aforementioned conversation ending up as what can only be described as a feedback sandwich.
“You’re doing great … just a few – okay, maybe more than a few – things to work on … but overall, great job!”Â
Real-time feedback is better just for the fact that you can also make real-time adjustments.
If you mess up in March, you hear about it in March – not in December when your boss randomly recalls that one typo from months ago and it becomes your defining moment of shame.
