The annual review takes an hour, follows a form and ends with a rating. The new colleague who started on Monday is still waiting for a laptop and does not yet know whom to ask.
What the research shows
Feedback can backfire
Avraham Kluger and Angelo DeNisi analysed 607 effects of feedback on performance. On average feedback helped, but in more than a third of cases performance got worse afterwards. Feedback tends to fail when it turns attention away from the task and towards the person.
Few reviews inspire
In a Gallup survey, only 14% of employees strongly agreed that the performance reviews they receive inspire them to improve.
New people need three things
Talya Bauer and colleagues brought together 70 samples of newcomers in a meta-analysis. How well new people settle in depends on three things: knowing what their role is, trusting that they can do it, and feeling accepted by colleagues. These three, in turn, were linked to performance, job satisfaction, commitment and staying in the job.
The annual review
- No surprises. Nothing important should be heard for the first time in the annual review. It sums up conversations that have already taken place during the year.
- Talk about the work, not the person. Concrete results, situations and next steps. Judgements of character make feedback fail.
- Ask what got in the way. Unclear priorities, too many meetings, missing tools. Part of the answer is for the organisation, not for the employee.
- Ask what it cost. Not only what was achieved, but at what price: evenings, weekends, postponed holidays.
- Few goals, written together. Three to five, understood in the same way by both sides.
- Keep development separate from pay where you can. When money is decided in the same conversation, people tend to defend rather than learn.
- Make it a dialogue. The employee speaks at least half the time, and also gives feedback to the manager.
The first months
Organise the start around the three things that matter: clarity, confidence and belonging.
- Before the first day. Workplace, equipment and access ready. A welcome message saying who will be there on the first day.
- Clarity in the first week. What the role is for, the first goals, whom to ask about what. The team’s rules on availability and meetings, told on day one.
- Confidence in the first month. A first piece of work that can be finished, and time to learn without being judged straight away.
- Belonging from the start. A colleague as a contact person, introductions to the people who matter for the work, lunch together in the first days.
- Three short check-ins. After one week, one month and three months: what is clear, what is not, what is missing.
- Ask for fresh eyes. After a month, ask what surprised them. New people see what everyone else has stopped noticing.
The cost conversation: also asking, “What did it cost you?” →
Sources
- Kluger, A. N., DeNisi, A. (1996). The effects of feedback interventions on performance: a historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119(2), 254–284. cris.huji.ac.il
- Wigert, B., Mann, A. (2017). Give performance reviews that actually inspire employees. Gallup. news.gallup.com
- Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B., Truxillo, D. M., Tucker, J. S. (2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: a meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 707–721. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov