In brief
- Most leaders think the problem with performance reviews is the form.
- The real problem is that the review only measures what someone accomplished, not how they did it.
- A new form won’t fix that. A clear standard for how work gets done here will.
Ask managers how they feel about performance reviews and you’ll hear the same few things. They take forever. Everybody ends up rated “meets expectations.” The conversation is awkward, the feedback is vague, and nothing changes afterward.
Ask employees and it’s worse. They walk in hoping to learn something and walk out with a number.
So every few years, the company tries a new form. Fewer ratings. More ratings. A five-point scale instead of three. Quarterly check-ins instead of once a year. And a year later, the reviews feel just as pointless as before.
The myth: a better form will fix your reviews
It’s a reasonable thing to try. The form is the visible part of the process, so it gets the blame.
But the form usually isn’t the problem. Here’s why.
Reason 1: the review only measures half the job
Most reviews are built around goals. Did they hit the number, finish the project, close the accounts? Goals are what someone accomplishes.
Nobody measures how they did it. Did they hit the number by helping the people around them, or by stepping over them? Did they finish the project by keeping others informed, or by surprising everyone at the deadline? Two people can both meet their goals and leave completely different things behind them.
Goals are what you accomplish. Behavior is how you accomplish it. Most reviews only ask about the first one.
Reason 2: there’s no standard to rate against
When a manager does try to talk about how someone works, they fall back on general words. Great attitude. Strong communicator. Needs to be more of a team player.
Those phrases don’t tell anyone what to do differently. They can’t, because the company has never said what good looks like at your company. Without a standard, every manager invents their own, and the rating depends on who your manager is.
That’s also why so many people end up at “meets expectations.” When nobody has defined the expectation, the middle is the safest place to land.
Reason 3: the review is the only time it comes up
If behavior isn’t defined, it doesn’t get talked about during the year. It gets saved for the review, where it shows up as a surprise. And a surprise in a review feels like an ambush, no matter how kindly it’s delivered. That’s why a review works best as a summary of ongoing performance conversations, not the first time anything gets said.
The truth
Your reviews feel pointless because they measure what happened without saying what good looks like. A new form will measure the same thing in a different layout.
What changes it is naming the behaviors your company actually runs on and putting them next to the goals. Then the review has something real to talk about, and so does every conversation before it.
Before you redesign the form again, ask your managers one question: what does doing this job well look like here, beyond hitting the goals? If they all give you different answers, that’s the problem your form can’t fix.
Here’s how behaviors fit into performance reviews in a full engagement.
Read next: 5 Signs Your Performance Reviews Aren’t Measuring Your Culture
New here? Start with How to Define Your Company Culture and Put It to Work.
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