However, despite the good intentions of the practice, many HR professionals believe that they don’t yield precise or even particularly useful information. Added to the doubts around their accuracy, the very mention of performance reviews can often scupper productivity. Facing the annual prospect of formally talking about flaws that need addressing can often lead to unproductive game playing and the festering of negative emotions.
Perhaps surprisingly it’s not only employees that dread this aged ritual of ranking and reviewing. Many surveys have revealed that this dislike extends to employers and managers too. Jim Heskett, Professor of Business Logistics at Harvard University compared and placed performance reviews on par with “undergoing root canal dentistry”, adding that the process is “on the list of least favorite things to do both for employees and managers”. So what is the best way to approach employee reviews? Google has led by example as an innovative and forward thinking company, and have designed their own techniques for reviewing employees.
Read on to find out:
Many big name businesses and their smaller counterparts are now abandoning traditional performance reviews and are reengineering how their employee engagement and performance management processes are carried out. It will therefore come as no surprise that Google are at the forefront of the annual review overhaul movement.
Google pride themselves on their forward thinking management policies, demonstrated by the search giant’s re: Work platform; a curated platform that shares their learnings around culture and management practices.
Google Ventures partner Rick Klau has said that dropping formal rankings and introducing on-going feedback has been a critical element of Google’s DNA and one of the driving forces that has led the company to be what it is today.