Attitudes About Performance Reviews
Posted March 7th, 2016
Few people are neutral about the idea of performance reviews. Many companies still use them, seeing them as a useful tool for giving feedback to employees. But increasingly, performance reviews are criticized as adding little of value or insight into managing employees.
And now a recent study has revealed more problems with performance reviews, specifically what types of complaints people have about them, and what groups dislike them the most. Here are a few of the findings.
1. Number 1 complaint: They take too long.
Roughly one-third of managers and one-fourth of employees who took part in the survey said performance reviews take too much time. A number of companies have switched from annual performance reviews to ones that take place more often, and that could be one reason for the complaint.
But, as it turns out, having reviews more often does little to improve their effectiveness.
2. Another big complaint: bias
This was a complaint among roughly 10 percent of both managers and employees.
Other complaints included beliefs that the conversations are too one-sided, that criticism does not match with performance objectives, that managers focus only on the negative aspects of performance, with little time devoted to what was done right, that there is no follow-up after the performance review, and that issues are brought up too late – locking the barn door after the horse has escaped, so to speak.
Many employees stated that managers tend to give too much weight to more recent performance, rather than looking over the entire time period under review.
The survey also revealed that, as a group, Millennials dislike performance reviews more than other age groups. Almost one-fourth of Millennials said they had some trepidation about their performance reviews, compared to just under one-sixth of Boomers who said the same. Millennials were also more likely to claim that reviews were biased compared to other groups.
Women were also more likely to have negative feelings about performance reviews than men. About one-fifth of the women surveyed said they get stressed out by their performance reviews, compared to less than one-sixth of men.
This attitude may be understandable in light of the fact that most managers are male.
If your San Francisco Bay area company is looking for qualified, skilled technology workers, Bayside Solutions is the place to call. We thoroughly screen our job applicants to make sure you get only the best, and provide support every step of the way. Give Bayside a call today.
