Performance Reviews and Reasons They Fail

Performance Reviews and Reasons They Fail

Performance reviews are usually approached with a lot of anxiety by both managers and employees. Managers tend to put off preparing for performance reviews because they can be an emotional issue. They also tend to rush through them to get them over with. This isn’t fair to employees, and is also bad for morale even if the overall performance is rated positively or above average. A quick, sloppy employment review sends a negative message to that employee. I know, because I’ve experienced this first hand. The person being reviewed will usually feel as though he or she is not important to you or that you really don’t care about them.

Conducting a good performance review requires careful preparation in two different ways. You need to decide what you are going to say, and how you are going to say it. There are also many problems that can arise when giving employee performance reviews. Below are five common reasons that I’ve found on why performance reviews fail:

1) Inconsistency in reviews and multiple standards. For example, one manager could rate an employee a “7” because they don't believe anyone deserves a “10” while another manager could rate an employee higher than they deserve hoping this might boost the employee's confidence and subsequently their performance.

2) The “standard” for performance is not prioritized. An example would be that attendance and positive attitude get the same weight as the quality and quantity of work and safety. So the employee who shows up everyday on time with a smile on their face gets an equal or higher rating than the individual who is occasionally late and is more introverted but exceeds all productivity goals.

3) Performance reviews are only scheduled when an employee is not performing up to expectations or a company needs to terminate/lay-off the employee.

4) Supervisors and managers have never been trained how to properly evaluate an employee's performance.

5) Performance