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There’s probably never been a time when employees (or managers) enjoyed mandatory performance reviews at work. Performance cycles come under criticism for being time-consuming (if you’re a manager), biased (if you’re the employee), and generally an unpleasant experience (if you’re either).
And the new post-pandemic employee experience has necessitated a change in how performance is measured. Before, managers could rely on observing their employees’ behavior in the workplace to gauge performance. But that has changed with new hybrid working models, introducing questions around what high performance actually means.
For example, imagine two different employees: Employee A and Employee B.
- Employee A has successfully completed many critical company projects to an excellent standard. They are generally good to work with and polite, although they can get a little short with other colleagues due to their high performance standards. They rarely work beyond their contracted hours and never get involved in extra-work organizational activities, eg mentoring, employee resource groups, or organizing team events.
- Employee B also executes their work well and is good to work with and polite. However, the projects they have been given were not successful, marked by roadblocks outside their control, and so their work output is limited. They regularly work beyond their contracted hours and also lead a local chapter of the company Pride group. They mentor other employees and organize local office get-togethers.
Who is the better performer depends on how performance is defined.
- If the more traditional (and understandable) definition of “work productivity” is applied, Employee A would rank above Employee B.
- If performance is defined as putting in more effort, Employee B would float to the top.
- And if performance is defined as being a good company citizen and having a broad impact on the company culture, Employee B would also float to the top.
As the examples indicate, performance assessment is complex. Now imagine that both employees are up for a promotion, and there is scope for only one promotion on the team this round.
- If Employee A gets it, Employee B might feel it is unfair that they weren’t given the same project opportunity and that they put in lots of extra-role effort that isn’t appreciated.
- If Employee B gets it, Employee A might feel it is unfair that the excellent execution and success of their work wasnt ultimately valued by the organization.
Perception of fairness is incredibly important. If you don’t feel a performance appraisal is fair, it won’t have a positive impact on your future performance. In fact, the perception of fairness of the rating is more important than the rating itself, when it comes to improving future performance.
So where does this leave us? Some may say it’s time to do away with performance feedback altogether. However, research shows that eliminating performance feedback isn’t what humans really want (even though we think we might). Setting goals, working to achieve them, and getting feedback on those goals can really motivate us, and, ultimately, we all want to be motivated at work.
Defining a fair performance measurement process is ultimately an organization’s responsibility to work through. However, it is also a two-way process. These tips may help you have the best chance of a fair rating:
- Be very disciplined about communicating your work, especially in remote work conditions. As a manager, I always appreciate when my team lets me know about the extra-curricular work they are doing, or when they are experiencing unexpected challenges at work. Some employees feel that disclosing such information may put an extra burden of work on their manager and therefore reflect poorly on their performance, but that isn’t necessarily the case. A simple “FYI on this challenge, and I am handling it” is enough and it really helps ensure that managers are taking that into account.
- Suggest objectives that explicitly align with the expectations for your role. Role expectations are your map for performance, and if you make it clear how your objectives align to those, you are giving yourself the best possible chance of a fair rating. If you don’t have clear role expectations, you are entitled to ask for them to be clarified.
- Be open to feedback. This can be difficult, but accepting that we sometimes don’t have the whole picture ourselves (even though it seems we do) and that others have valuable perspectives to offer is a big life skill as well as a work skill. It’s reasonable that your manager would take your ability to improve your development areas into your performance rating.
- Consider whether your values align with your employer’s. Ultimately, if you’re a person who wants to be more broadly involved with the company beyond just your job, but your company or your chain of command doesn’t, it’s going to be hard for that work to be recognized.
Whatever the new performance review process looks like at your company in the future, these tips are universal and likely to endure.