I was reading a discussion in the WSJ today on how to keep “young technical employees” happy. One of the statements that boggles my mind was “the annual performance review is basically dead.” I disagree with that conclusion, but worse still was the rationale. The article said something like “this generation desires weekly feedback” so there is no use for the performance review.

When will we learn that performance reviews are not feedback?

This generation, just like previous generations, desire more frequent feedback on how they’re doing their job. Anyone who is looking to do a job well wants to know what they’re doing well and what they can be doing better. Not just young people. Everyone.

I challenge you to find anyone in the last fifty years who would say “I love getting feedback once a year on how I’m doing my job."

Let’s talk for a minute about the value of performance reviews (annual or otherwise). The value of performance reviews is entirely for the benefit of the organization. It’s a categorization and rating of how someone is doing their job on a standard scale in order to allow the organization to more easily manage the staff. What can the organization do with performance review data?

Identify top performers and bottom performers.
Hold managers accountable to coach staff.
Identify people for open roles.
Establish continuity when a manager leaves

A performance review process belongs in the category of expense reports and timesheets. The organization compels us to follow the process so it can manage large-scale complexity of lots of staff. Let’s stop pretending the performance review was ever a useful tool for an employee.

I challenge you to find any employee in the last fifty years who would ask for an annual performance review if they got weekly, meaningful feedback.

As a leader you are responsible for providing both regular feedback and performance evaluations It is helpful to recognize the audience for each and act accordingly. Regular feedback benefits the employee, performance reviews benefit the organization. Bad leaders will do only what the organization requires of them.

I recall delivering my first performance review to a staff member. I was terrible at the entire process. I hadn’t yet been told “don’t surprise someone in their performance review.” This rule is the most basic measure of “give staff frequent feedback.” I learned how badly a performance review can go by not prioritizing feedback throughout my conversations with my staff. It never happened again.

Your staff can’t force you to give them feedback. They will reward you by making you look like a hero as they deliver better results. You are only as good as the team you lead. Relying on performance reviews for feedback is not a way to build a good team.