Guest
post from Dr. Tim Baker

My research of managers suggests that in its current form there are
eight problems the traditional appraisal has. In summary these include:
- Appraisals
are a costly exercise.- Appraisals can be destructive.
- Appraisals are often a monologue rather than a dialogue.
- The formality of the appraisal stifles discussion.
- Appraisals are too infrequent.
- Appraisals are an exercise in form-filling.
- Appraisals are rarely followed up.
- Most people find appraisals stressful.
My latest book - The
End of the Performance Review: A New Approach to Appraising Employee
Performance (Palgrave Macmillan) (www.winnersatwork.com.au), details a new approach
to appraising employee performance.
Below is a summary of the Five Conversations
Framework.
The Five Conversations Framework
Date
|
Topic
|
Content
|
Key
Questions
|
Month 1
|
Climate review
|
Job satisfaction, morale, and communication
|
• How would you rate your current job satisfaction?
• How would you rate morale?
• How would you rate communication?
|
Month 2
|
Strengths and talents
|
Effectively deploying strengths and talents
|
• What are your strengths and talents?
• How can these strengths and talents be used in your
current and future roles in the organization?
|
Month 3
|
Opportunities for growth
|
Improving performance and standards
|
• Where are opportunities for improved performance?
• How can I assist you to improve your performance?
|
Month 4
|
Learning and development
|
Support and growth
|
• What skills would you like to learn?
• What learning opportunities would you like to
undertake?
|
Month 5
|
Innovation and continuous improvement
|
Ways and means to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the
business
|
• What is one way that you could improve your own
working efficiency?
• What is one way that we can improve our team’s
operations?
|
The first conversation, entitled Climate Review, is based upon issues surrounding the employee’s job satisfaction, morale, and attitudes toward the organization’s capacity to communicate to them in a timely, comprehensive, and understandable way.
Conversation number two, Strengths and Talents, is concerned with each employee’s unique strengths and capabilities and how best they can be used for the benefit of themselves and the organization. This conversation is about the here and now and the future.
The third conversation discusses Opportunities for Growth; it is essentially about areas for improvement in the employee’s current role.
Falling out of these two conversations ought to be a
fourth conversation, Learning and Development, about ways and means of building
upon the employee’s strengths and overcoming or minimizing their weaknesses. In
other words, the fourth conversation centers round opportunities to support
their growth.
Finally, the fifth conversation, Innovation and Continuous Improvement, is concerned with discussing and developing the employee’s ideas to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the business, both in their current work and in the team context.
Each conversation lasts no more than 15 minutes and is designed to replace the traditional appraisal.
Good leaders are likely to regularly give feedback to their staff, perhaps not in this structured way. But nevertheless, they are having regular conversations throughout the year on issues such as those raised in the Five Conversations Framework.
About the author:
Dr. Tim Baker
is an international consultant and author based in Brisbane, Australia (www.winnersatwork.com.au). According to
Marshall Goldsmith, The End of the
Performance Review (Palgrave Macmillan) "revolutionizes the way to
view and conduct employee appraisals. Tim's method is brilliant in its simplicity
and highly effective in its approach. ‘The End’ for the
traditional performance review but just the beginning for a groundbreaking new
model.”
5 comments:
I'm not sure that feedback is the real goal of the performance review as much as demonstrating compliance with laws, regs, 'best practices' and such, which is probably why they are not effective, everyone knows they are a 'check the box' activity and not really sincere.
Thanks David for your contribution. That is why I am interested in implementing a system that is focussed on performance conversations rather than performance reviews.
I like the framework you have for ongoing feedback and development as I believe that supervisors should be having these kinds of conversations throughout the year.
Though I don't see this as a replacement for performance evaluations but a supplemental/supporting framework.
To my mind, the root issue is not performance evaluations. The issue is how they are conducted. Oganizations need to be able to assess the performance of the individual to make a variety of decisions, not the least of which is whether or not the person is in the right role.
The annual review should be just that - a review of what has transpired throughout the year. And there continues to be value in answering the question of how well someone is performing against the expectations of their role.
I find the performance evaluation to be more detrimental than helpful in making any type of improvement. I like the idea of the conversations. I'm not sure there is benefit to the timing - monthly. The best practice to me is base any conversation, like meetings on the situation and the opportunity.
I think it's either hilarious or prophetic that I wrote my blog today based on my opinion of performance evaluations.
Excellent article. As an executive coach for the last two decades, I've advocated scrapping the performance review. See my article in Psychology Today:http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201105/why-ceos-need-scrap-employee-performance-reviews
Ray Williams
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