Work Matters

Tag: Performance Evaluations

  • Do You Have a GOOD and SIMPLE Performance Evaluation Form?

    As many of you know, I have expressed considerable skepticism about whether performance evaluations are even worth using, if they do more good than harm.  And Sam Culbert has gone the next step with his book, Get Rid of the Performance Evaluation. 

    Even though this debate will continue to go on, the fact is that lawyers, HR executives, and the force of tradition — and some rational reasons as well — mean that most organizations aren't going to be getting rid of these things anytime soon. As such, I was talking with a senior HR executive and she asked me if I knew of any examples of good and simple performance evaluation forms — the one her firm uses is way too complicated and she is looking for ideas about how to simplify it. 

    I thought that was a great question. If we must use these things, they might as well be as short and effective as possible, despite their limits.  Can anyone help?  Has anyone ever used one or used one now? 

    Please describe it in as much detail as you can and you get bonus points for sending a picture or pdf or something like that of the form.

      Thanks!

    P.S. I just did a Google search for "Performance Evaluation Forms" and there are a lot of images of them… but it is tough to tell which are good or bad from looking at them — I bet the form itself is a lot less important than the quality of conversation that happens before, during, and after people get the feedback.

  • The Dangers of a Harried Boss

    The always insightful Wally Bock made a great comment in response to my last post, where I asked about the conditions under which performance evaluations actually seemed to work.  Wally, drawing on his research on effective versus ineffective supervisors, reported (in part):

    The result
    was that when time came for the official, on-the-company-form,
    performance review, their sessions were very different from their
    less-effective peers. Top performing supervisors took more than three
    times as long for the session.

    Wally's comment got me thinking because, as I thought about the difference between good and bad bosses, it made me realize that — although good bosses are concerned about using their time well, and especially, making sure not to waste their people's time — that they tend to think and act as if it is more important to do things as well as possible than to do things as quickly as possible.  Indeed, some of the work bosses I can think of always seemed to be focused on finishing whatever they are doing at the moment so they can get on to the next thing.  The result, unfortunately, is that they spend their days rushing around, doing one thing after another badly. 

  • How Much Do You Hate Performance Reviews? Take Sam Culbert’s Test

    One of the most lively discussions we've had on this blog was around a post I wrote a couple years ago called Performance Evaluations: Do They Do More Harm Than Good.  The reason, I argued, is that that they are done  badly in most places that the best performance evaluation might be no performance evaluation at all. In too many places, they are done by badly trained people, the forms and procedure  often have little relevance to the people being evaluated or to organizational goals, they take a huge hunk of time (a bad 360 degree evaluation can waste weeks), and often leave both the evaluator and the person being evaluated feeling less rather than more motivated. As I said in my earlier post,the famous quality guru W. Edwards Deming was vehemently opposed
    to using them at all.  As Jeff Pfeffer and I wrote on page 193 of     The Knowing-Doing Gap:

    Deming emphasized that forced rankings and other merit ratings that breed
    internal competition are bad management because they undermine motivation and
    breed contempt for management among people who, at least at first, were doing
    good work. He argued that these systems require leaders to label many people as
    poor performers even though their work is well within the range of high
    quality. Deming maintained that when people get unfair negative evaluations, it
    can leave them "bitter, crushed, bruised, battered, desolate, despondent,
    dejected, feeling inferior, some even depressed, unfit for work for weeks after
    receipt of the rating, unable to comprehend why they are inferior.    "      

    To Deming's point, there is one organization I work with — a high tech firm with about 250 employees — that eliminated formal reviews except when people are being considered for a promotion or when they are having serious performance problems and need to "on plan" (i.e., shape up or be fired). They have about ten different levels in the organization, and everyone at the same level gets the same pay and same sized bonus.  And they have been emphasizing frequent and lower stakes feedback instead.  So I know of at least one place that is having some success breaking from this often hollow and destructive ritual.

    Dustcoverv2-web  If you want to read the most compelling and complete case against the traditional performance evaluation, however,I suggest that you pre-order UCLA Professor Sam Culbert's new book Get Rid of the Performance Review. He first made this argument in the Wall Street Journal, but the book digs into this argument in far more detail and offers solutions for managers and companies who want to replace the traditional review — or at least reduce the damage that they do.  To help spread the word about the book, and to find out if as many people despise the performance review as Sam (and I) believe, he has — a bit like the ARSE — designed a ten-item test called How Much Do You Hate Performance Reviews?  I just took it and scored a 36, which means I really hate them.  

    Take the test and let me know what you think, and after you complete
    it, you can read the first chapter of the book.  I predict that this
    book is going to spark a lot of controversy and, I hope, inspire
    leaders and organizations to use performance evaluations less, and to
    do a better of using them.  At least I hope so.

    Here is the first question to give you a taste:

    1- My favorite performance review was:

    a. when my boss correctly identified weaknesses that I was eager to work on.

    b.when I was reviewed, anonymously, by many insightful colleagues I interact with, including some who want my job.
        c. when my boss asked me to first review myself, allowing the boss to correct my silly self impressions.

    d. when my boss forgot to give me one