How to Master Performance Reviews Using Technology
The end of annual reviews (as we know it)
BY SHIV SHARMA
There’s been an elephant in the room for far too long. We’ve all been guilty of ignoring it.
So, let’s just face it head on today.
It is no secret that the system to review performance in most companies is dated and inefficient.
According to Taskworld’s performance review survey which reached over 500 professionals in United States —
This includes both managers and employees, confirming that performance reviews are frustrating for both managers and employees alike.
This is further supported by the fact that big companies like Accenture and Deloitte spend thousands of dollars to create systems that measure performance in a scientific manner.
What’s Wrong With Existing Performance Reviews?
Well, the better question is probably what’s right with them? It seems the whole process is designed to cause stress and panic. If you dig deeper, you’ll uncover three root causes of the problem —
- Infrequent — Reviews usually happen twice or sometimes just once a year.
- Lack Evidence — Most reviews are not supported by facts and evidence as they are hard to document.
- Biased — Biases creep into judgement because of the first two causes. The most popular biases are —
Horn: Overall performance is appraised based on one negative quality.
Halo: Overall performance is appraised based on one positive trait.
Recency: Common behaviors are ignored in favor of recent behaviors.
Leniency: Employees are rated more favorably than actual performance to prevent conflict.
Spillover: Present performance is evaluated on the basis of past performance.
Taskworld — Tech’s Answer To Performance Reviews
Project management application Taskworld carries a legacy of disrupting traditional performance reviews. It was the first project management application to include real-time performance ratings. In the past year, based on studying user feedback and limitations of existing performance review processes, Taskworld’s team has been working on creating an easy, scientific and transparent way to measure performance, something that can be easily adopted in companies of all sizes.
This new approach has not only been adopted internally in Taskworld, but also in over 4,000 companies in 80 countries.
Meet Linda, she is the Marketing Manager of a tech startup in Singapore. Let’s see how she uses Taskworld to evaluate performance of her team.
Linda has a project called Marketing Team on Taskworld. The project consists of one Tasklist each for every member on the team. This makes it easy for Linda to see who’s working on what.
The Analytics section on top gives her a complete overview of how the team is performing at any given point.
The green bar indicates the percentage of completed tasks. Yellow are planned and red are overdue tasks.
Seems like Jason has a lot of red in his bar. This is an opportunity to improve. A proactive manager like Linda would notice this right away. She won’t wait for performance reviews to take action. This will help both Jason and the team.
Let’ s try to dig deeper and see why Jason has so many overdue tasks
A quick look at Jason’s weekly performance dashboard reveals the root cause of the problem. It’s not that Jason is not finishing work. After all he completed 43% of his tasks. It’s just that he seems to have a lot on his plate. Let’s have a look at some interesting insights for Linda from this dashboard —
0% No Due Date indicates that Jason has planned all his tasks.
Jason is overloaded with work.
Jason has already completed 43% of his weekly tasks.
These findings will allow Linda to talk with Jason and review his workload. Maybe the deadlines are too strict. Talking with Jason will give more insights into the problem. This will make Jason more comfortable and allow him to improve his performance before annual reviews.
This is a classic example of proactive management where Linda uncovered a problem before it turned sour, and took action to prevent it.
This is extremely helpful for Jason as well. He can now access his performance report every day, and doesn’t need to wait six months to see how’s he performing.
Having a real-time performance dashboard makes performance reviews evidence-based and free from bias. They also eliminate the anxiety that comes with uncertainty.
Start your free trial of Taskworld and discover the power of real-time performance feedback.
