Importance of Upward & Downward performance reviews
A summary of how employees are reviewed and why upward and downward reviews are beneficial for both- employers and employees.
Every company has its own way of evaluating employees’ performance. Some do it quarterly, some do it every 6 months etc. Point being discussed is that companies evaluate the performance of an employee and based on that evaluation, necessary decisions related to appraisal, promotion, etc can be taken.
Before going ahead with upward and downward reviews, first, let's understand what is a performance review and what parameters are considered?
Performance Review
It is a formal assessment in which companies (senior stakeholders) evaluate an employee’s performance, help them identify their strengths and weaknesses, provide feedback and also set goals for future performance.
Parameters
So one of the important parameters is obviously “work”, which is generally measured in terms of tasks done, time and result. But apart from this following things are also taken into consideration-
- Creativity- It is not directly quantifiable but it does add value to how you work and how you think differently in order to make outcome look better.
- Communication- Creativity can be achieved only if you are able to communicate it to your team. So this plays an important role.
- Behaviour- The way you interact with senior team members and with your fellow teammates is also important.
- Taking initiative- Those who take initiative show that they are very eager to learn and explore more things in the industry.
- Consistency- It is key to everything. Nobody is truly excellent always, but we all have a chance to improve each day, week, month and so on.
- Quality of work- Quality is a major factor in anything that we do. So delivering quality outcome is always important.
- Following company policies- These are some set of guidelines created to make everybody’s life easy at work. So it’s good if you follow those.
The purpose of this blog is not to tell how you should judge employees but to spread awareness about two-way reviews and if some company is not doing it, it's not good for employees.
Now let's talk about Upward and Downward Review.
What is Upward and Downward Review?
Let's consider a scenario where you work with 2 or more senior stakeholders to achieve some common goal. Your tasks to be completed are totally dependent on their inputs. Now in such a scenario (this is what happens ideally), it's not fair to only judge or evaluate the associate-level employee. Everybody involved in achieving some goal should have a fair chance to have their say. This is what Upward & Downward Review is where an associate-level employee also gets a chance to provide feedback on senior stakeholders closely working with him/her.
Why two-way reviews are important?
This creates a very transparent work culture because everybody gets a chance to keep their view. This also creates trust in everybody’s mind that their feedback or opinion matters.
Why some companies do not follow it?
There is no concrete answer to this. It all depends on who is creating the policies. Small, medium-sized companies cannot afford to invest enough time to have such a framework in place in the early stages. So they have their own way to evaluate people. And this “own way” can be anything. Some times poor management also creates chaos in this whole “reviewing the employee” process.
Some companies do not even have such things in place at all.
So to all readers, it's your basic right to know about the company before joining. Ask several questions to various people involved in the hiring process and if you are satisfied with the answers then think of taking a decision.
Never judge a company by its Glassdoor reviews. A Big No!
Stay tuned for more such blogs! Keep reading, keep exploring and keep performing 🔥
