In brief
- Every company says its culture matters. Very few measure it where it counts: in the performance review.
- When reviews only look at goals, the culture gets rewarded or punished by accident.
- These five signs tell you whether that’s happening at your company.
Most companies have values on the wall and a performance review in a drawer. The two rarely meet.
That matters more than it sounds. The performance review is where a company decides who gets the raise, who gets promoted and who gets the hard conversation. Whatever it measures is what people learn to do. If it doesn’t measure how people work, your culture is being shaped by whatever happens to get rewarded.
Here are five signs your reviews aren’t measuring your culture.
1. Almost everyone is rated “meets expectations”
When ratings pile up in the middle, it usually isn’t because everyone is average. It’s because managers don’t have a clear standard to rate against, so they pick the answer that’s hardest to argue with. If your rating spread looks like a single tall bar, nobody has defined what “exceeds” looks like here.
2. The feedback could be about anyone
Read a few reviews side by side. If you see “great attitude,” “strong team player” and “needs to communicate more” over and over, the feedback isn’t describing a behavior. It’s describing a feeling. Nobody can act on a feeling. Specific feedback sounds like “tells the customer what happens next before they ask.”
3. Someone who hits every number gets top marks, and their team is miserable
This is the most expensive sign. A high performer gets an excellent review while the people around them burn out, transfer or quit. The review rewarded the result and never asked how it was reached. Everyone watching learns what really gets rewarded at your company. It’s often the same person who later becomes your worst leader.
4. Employees are surprised by their review
If people hear about a behavior problem for the first time in their annual review, the standard was never part of the regular conversation. It only existed in the manager’s head. Surprises in reviews are a sign the expectation was never said out loud.
5. Two managers would rate the same person differently
Imagine two of your managers reviewing the same employee. Would they land on the same rating? If the honest answer is “probably not,” your reviews are measuring the manager as much as the employee. That’s what happens when every manager creates their own version of what good looks like.
Where to start
If you recognized two or more of these, the review isn’t broken. It’s just missing half of what it should measure.
Start with sign 5. Pick one role, ask two managers separately what doing it well looks like beyond the goals, and compare their answers. Whatever they disagree on is the standard your culture hasn’t named yet. Naming it is where defining your culture starts.
Here’s how behaviors fit into performance reviews in a full engagement.
Read next: How to Add Behaviors to Your Performance Review (Without Replacing Your Form)
Start here
Find the standard your reviews are missing
It starts with naming your culture’s personality. The Culture Quiz gives you a first read in a few minutes.
Take the Culture Quiz
