How to get your boss off the annual review
They’re all the rage in the world of HR and management, and for good reason: 1-on-1s. It has been proven time and time again that having more frequent meetings between managers and team members creates better relationships, increases productivity and motivation levels, and is overall the most beneficial way of giving and receiving feedback in order to see growth.
The (not so distant) Future of People Management
According to a report from the management research firm CEB, “6% of Fortune 500 companies — [like] Microsoft and Accenture — have done away with annual performance reviews entirely”. (1)
And have you ever heard of a company by the name of Adobe? Back in 2012, after having a bit of a slip up in an interview with an Indian journalist, Adobe’s senior vice president of customer and employee experience voiced her opinion to eliminate the annual review via a newspaper article interview, resulting in her sending an internal blog to all of the employees at the company explaining the change. The response she received from employees expressed high levels of enthusiasm, especially since “during annual employee engagement surveys, employees frequently cited the annual review as one of the top processes that needed improvement”.
“We’re in the early stages of a revolution,[…] A lot of companies are doing this … and I think over the next two years we’re going to see a profound shift in this area. Progressive HR leaders are realizing that they need continuous, real-time feedback and solutions.” — Jim Barnett, CEO and co-founder of Glint
In the workforce of today, there exists “a desire for more frequent feedback[…]that comes at the moment when a performance accomplishment, or a setback, takes place. Most employees don’t want to wait a year to find out how they’re doing and have their concerns addressed”.(1)
Annual performance reviews also have the tendency to set up an uncomfortable dynamic between managers and their team as one person is essentially judging another. This interaction understandably puts employees on the defensive and, you guessed it, results in lower performance results. (2) The shift to 1-on-1s seems like a no-brainer. Annual reviews cannot keep up with the pace of the modern workforce!
But there are plenty of organizations and managers that are late to the party. There are many reasons that managers give in order to avoid implementing 1-on-1s into their organizations or team. More than likely the issue is that they are unaware and overwhelmed — managers are busy people. The majority of managers care about their team, they just may not know how to execute great communication and feedback, or just feel too busy to sit down and have individual 1-on-1 meetings.
On the other hand, you could have a manager that is obsessed with status updates and projects. If these two things are the only topics your manager feels the need to discuss in the weekly company meetings it means they either feel out of the loop and think that this is the only way to catch up — or they know that these are safe topics that keep them from discussing uncomfortable but sometimes necessary issues.
Changing direction
Does this sound familiar? Is your boss still working with the dreaded (and definitely outdated) annual performance review? And do you want them to make the switch to having 1-on-1s as soon as possible? This is a completely achievable task, you just need to have the right approach and be able to back it up.
Here are some tips on how to get your boss off that dreaded annual review:
1. Propose the 1-on-1s (from their point of view)
Everyone needs to continue learning — even managers. And the majority of themwant to continue developing in their position but don’t know where to start amidst their crazy schedules. This is where you as a team member come in. Show that you recognize the workload your manager has and propose trying out a 1-on-1 arranged by you the first time around. Explain the benefits that have been found in having regular 1-on-1s on an employee level, manager level, and on a company level. Make the importance of learning and development apparent , since as “people [become] more and more conscious of the benefits, the practice [will hopefully trickle] down throughout the organization”. (3)
- Weinstein, Margery. “Annual Review under Review.” Training, vol. 53, no. 4, Jul/Aug2016, pp. 22–28.
- 2. Rose Mueller-Hanson, HR practice leader at the CEB https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/performance-reviews-are-dead.aspx
- 3. Conant, Douglas R. “CEOs Can’t Give Feedback Only to Their Direct Reports.” Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 24 Aug. 2015, pp. 2–5.
