It’s that time of the year! The time for the organization’s grand annual festival. What could that be? It’s the annual Performance Review. Everyone in the organization is waiting for it eagerly, patiently, and with some rays of hope.
The end of an existing fiscal year and the beginning of a new one! Managers keep aside the templates set last year, flicking through the pages of feedback that can be given to their team members while employees turn the pages of their accomplishments and HR sends in the forms to be filled, with numerous deadline reminders, and all this happens with so much rush and chaos, yet with some bit of excitement.
Is that “Performance Review” worth the wait? On the document, or say the HR policy, annual performance appraisal meetings are meant to be for growth, promotion, creating a roadmap for a better career trajectory ahead, and giving a raise to beat inflation, but, in reality, it’s just another meeting that’s set to fulfill the ritual where both the managers and employees share just enough to avoid the discomfort.
But, what if performance reviews were brutally honest?
Let us imagine.
The Beginning of Performance Review
Last month of the existing fiscal year and the beginning of a new one: the management team starts calculating their numbers, team/project manager starts checking in who did what, when and if those works actually mattered, HR starts preparing the forms, sits down for multiple iterations and forwards it to the employees, and finally employees’ starts filling out the form with utter excitement and nervousness thinking of how the tone of the upcoming year shall be set for them.
What’s most interesting here is, “everyone,” and by everyone I mean managers and employees recall their entire year with the most famous adjectives: proactive, accountable, punctual, collaborative, result-oriented, and so on. Nobody wants to say the TRUTH! Why? Because it’s just another meeting, not a time allocated for some heart-to-heart conversation.
That’s really a sad part of employee performance review. The one major process within an organization built to have a win-win situation for both parties tends to get diluted and lost in a sea of vagueness.
What an Honest Performance Review Would Sound Like
For a second, let us imagine the review meeting free of sugar-coated sentences and diplomatic structure; how does that feel? Feels good, doesn’t it? So, here let us see what should actually be said?
Examples for Managers
a) Says: You demonstrate strong execution under pressure
Instead say: You show excellent dedication and output when project managers set a specific deadline for you, but your work results should be the same even when no one’s there to hold you accountable.
b) Says: Keep continuing to add value to the team
Instead say: The effort you put into Project A made the team look good in front of the clients; hence, you are promoted to a senior level.
c) Says: You consistently meet expectations
Instead say: Throughout the past year, you have consistently met the goals and expectations set for you, but we could not notice anything new beyond that.
Examples for Employees
a) Says: I believe I align well with the team direction.
Instead say: I kept quiet in meetings where I thought things could have been different because no matter what inputs and ideas are shared, none are taken into consideration.
b) Says: I take on the extra mile.
Instead say: Even when there was a lot on my plate, I kept on taking extra responsibilities, as saying ‘NO!’ felt like a crime that would have me face multiple backlashes.
c) Says: I am not capable enough for strategic thinking.
Instead say: I feel that strategic thinking as a competency is not something that can be rated, and that it needs to be polished every single day.
Do all these aforementioned examples feel uncomfortable to say out loud? Absolutely! Yet, just taking out the gut once a year will help everyone in the room throughout the next year.
Why Performance Review Meetings are Sugar-Coated
Diplomacy! The corporate world and the professional setting teach everyone in the room to be diplomatic. If you are honest, and that honesty is harsh, you are either tagged as ‘unprofessional’ or ‘culturally unfit’.
Another reason is that performance review meetings are tied to salary appraisals, and salary appraisals are tied to yearly financial budgets, so a brutally honest “Your performance was below average this year” will not just remain feedback. It will also be tied as another reason for a salary raise below par.
Next, it could be work deadlines or another important contract that’s on the line. Honest workplace feedback might lead to a lack of motivation, causing a massive effect on performance and productivity, leading to missed deadlines or the loss of another important contract.
And finally, HR frameworks built to be fair, stern, and straight to the point across all the employees within the organization get lost somewhere between trending corporate adjectives and buzzwords that were never in the plan, and it ends up meaning nothing at all to everyone.
Hence, by the time everyone knows that the review meeting is just a formality to be completed, no one is willing to say it out loud, and that’s when sugar-coating wins.
What Gets Lost In The Way
Amidst all the buzzwords, the organization’s road to reach the actual target gets super bumpy, employee motivation fades day by day, and managers’ lack of interest in leading and helping everyone in the team tears apart.
No one in the meeting is willing to give feedback bluntly; that’s when performance reviews become the least accurate record of any employee’s actual performance.
What’s Needed to Fix It
There’s a lot of shift in the mindset and approach needed to fix this issue. First, it could be allocating monthly or quarterly feedback sessions with the team members rather than waiting for it to be done once a year at the end. Second, keep performance review meetings and salary appraisal meetings as two different meetings, as it lets people hear the actual feedback instead of just connecting what the feedback could reflect on their numbers. And finally, give team/project managers the authority to say something that’s genuinely not working, without either party having to think of it as a threat. This helps build genuine conversation and brings in real growth.
Hence, performance review should not just be something to be ticked off the to-do list. Whether you are a manager or an employee, honesty is required, and delivering it with empathy is extremely valuable for the growth of the people and the organization. People do not grow from vague, sugar-coated feedback; rather, they grow from a fair amount of harsh but honest feedback.
Next time, if you are thinking of improving your company culture, first think about improving the performance review culture. Once workplace feedback comes into place, everything else comes together appropriately at the right time.
