Let’s face it: performance reviews get a bad rep. For many employees, there’s a sense of dread surrounding these annual or bi-annual evaluations. They take a significant amount of time, ratings can feel arbitrary or unfair, and feedback frequently lacks substance and can miss the mark. Not to mention, the review process can feel one-sided, leaving employees with little opportunity for dialogue or input.
This negativity can create anxiety, reduce motivation, and hurt engagement—making it crucial for organizations to rethink their approach.
Performance reviews shouldn’t be a source of stress. Instead, they should be an opportunity for managers and employees to come together, reflect on the review period, discuss growth, and leave feeling inspired. Here are a few tips to help your organization foster a culture of continuous feedback and open communication, so you can transform performance reviews into valuable growth opportunities rather than dreaded obligations.
1. Redesign the Performance Review Process
It’s time to toss out traditional performance reviews. Many companies rely on annual reviews as the primary way for managers to give feedback, but once-a-year feedback is often ineffective, outdated, and too late to drive meaningful change.
Instead, shift toward a culture of continuous performance improvement by incorporating more frequent, informal check-ins. Consider bi-annual reviews, quarterly development conversations, and bi-weekly or weekly one-on-ones. Together, these ongoing touchpoints give managers and employees more chances to share feedback, make adjustments, and receive real-time input on progress. That can foster both better development and performance.
An added bonus? Ongoing check-ins can alleviate some of the anxiety and pressure that build up around annual reviews.
2. Leverage Technology for a Smarter Performance Review
Annual reviews often fall victim to recency bias, or when you place greater importance on more recent events rather than considering performance across the entire evaluation period. For example, an employee might have had an incredible Q1, Q2, and Q3, but just an average Q4.
Recency bias can lead a manager to concentrate only on the employee's performance in the final months of the year, potentially resulting in a rating of three out of five. Had the manager considered the individual's contributions over the entire calendar year, they might have been more likely to assign a rating of four out of five, reflecting a more accurate assessment of the employee's overall performance.
To empower managers to deliver fairer reviews, businesses can lean on HR technology. HR management systems (HRMS) simplify and centralize people data management, offering performance management tools that can help with:
- Goal tracking: Managers and employees can set, track, and readjust goals throughout the year, making it easier to evaluate progress during reviews.
- Continuous feedback: Managers can easily review feedback collected throughout the year, allowing performance reviews to be based on ongoing dialogue rather than once-a-year evaluations.
- Meaningful conversations: Shared meeting notes, trackable action items, and curated conversation templates allow managers and employees to dive deeper into performance beyond just ratings.
- 360-degree feedback: Employees can complete self-assessments and request feedback from peers, helping managers conduct more holistic and unbiased reviews.
Not only do these features help managers conduct more accurate and well-rounded performance reviews, but they also empower employees to take a more active role in their own development. By centralizing goal tracking, feedback, and conversations, an HRMS encourages continuous growth, clearer communication, and a culture of transparency. Employees gain insights into their progress and receive actionable feedback throughout the year, making reviews feel less daunting and more constructive.
3. Focus on Coaching, Not Criticism
Many employees worry about receiving negative feedback, but reviews shouldn’t center on criticism. By shifting the focus to constructive feedback and coaching, managers can turn reviews into opportunities for growth, helping employees see them as a chance to develop rather than just a critique.
Here are a few tips to deliver effective constructive feedback that pushes your employees to grow their personal and professional skills:
- Be specific: Avoid making sweeping general statements. Rather, try to reference specific actions or behaviors you’ve witnessed first-hand to highlight improvement opportunities.
- Be timely: Provide feedback promptly while actions are still fresh, making it more relevant and impactful to your employees.
- Offer suggestions: Don’t point out faults, highlight solutions! Share actionable advice to help guide your employee toward improvement. You can always offer a few suggestions and ask them to choose the approach they prefer to improve buy-in.
- Follow up: For best results, regularly revisit the feedback and your proposed solutions with the employee. This will help you track progress, reinforce growth, and drive lasting behavior change.
By fostering a coaching mindset, your business and its managers can create a supportive work environment where employees feel empowered to perform and grow.
4. Empower Employees to Own the Process
Encourage employees to take an active role in their ongoing performance journey by engaging in the following:
- Using self-assessments: Allow employees to evaluate their own performance before formal performance reviews. These assessments encourage reflection and allow employees to be their own advocate.
- Requesting peer feedback: Encourage employees to seek peer feedback from colleagues and cross-functional teams. This approach not only leads to more comprehensive performance appraisals but also results in actionable feedback that can enhance working relationships and foster better collaboration across the organization.
- Owning one-on-one agendas: Both managers and employees should be able to add to the meeting agenda, allowing employees to determine how to utilize this time effectively. This shared ownership ensures that these meetings are productive and aligned with the employee's developmental journey.
- Requesting feedback on-demand: Give employees the opportunity to request and share feedback any time of year—not just during formal reviews. Using a tool like UKG Pro that empowers continuous feedback, your business can foster a culture of open communication and ongoing development.
- Creating individual development plans: Managers should collaborate with employees to create personalized development plans that align with their career aspirations. This encourages employees to take ownership of their career growth trajectory.
- Setting goals: Allow employees to set their own performance goals that align with organizational objectives. This gives employees a sense of ownership and autonomy over their work, which can make them more committed and motivated to achieving these targets.
Together, these steps transform performance conversations into collaborative, year-round exchanges that keep employees invested in their growth. When employees have a voice in these processes, reviews become more meaningful, creating a shared, proactive approach to both development and success.
5. Use SMARTer Goal-Setting
Goal-setting and tracking are essential to effective performance management. They allow managers and employees to define and align on what success looks like, monitor progress, adjust targets as needed, and assess outcomes at the end of each performance review period.
Simplifying goal setting and linking it to measurable outcomes can actually make reviews
clearer and more productive. Using an HRMS like UKG, employees can input their goals for the month, quarter, or year, update progress, and see how their individual goals align with organizational ones.
To help motivate employees and help managers evaluate success, goals need to be set thoughtfully and effectively. Using the SMART goal-setting framework—which requires goals to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound— businesses can ensure employee goals are clear and actionable.
For example, compare the goal “Sign up more clients” with the SMART goal “Make at least 50 cold calls to new business accounts weekly in Q1.” In the second example, it’s far easier to track and evaluate the associate’s success throughout the quarter, allowing managers to provide more precise feedback and objectively assess individual performance.
Streamline performance reviews with UKG
Performance reviews shouldn’t be painful. From embracing a continuous feedback model to giving employees more ownership of the process to using the right HR technology, your business can transform reviews into the productive, engaging conversations they’re intended to be.
Looking to make the shift towards stress-free reviews? UKG Pro™ Performance and Coaching is here to help!
Get a free demo to explore our modern, collaborative talent development solutions firsthand. With features like collaborative reviews, meaningful conversations, goal-setting, and continuous feedback, you can boost employee performance, growth, and engagement year-round.
