Barnabas File

The term “performance review” elicits many reactions.     One colleague shared with me, “The first time my supervisor came to do my annual performance review, I got sick at my stomach.”     One of my own frustrating experience came when my supervisor took the occasion of our annual review to let me know he was not happy about something that happened six months earlier!     He had never mentioned the occurrence to me before then.      For many of us, the annual performance review or evaluation has been a “come to Jesus moment” that we would rather avoid.  We need a new approach to employee performance review that involves not simply evaluation of the individual’s activities during a period of time.  We need to find a way to encourage personal development, assess the support the person is receiving, and consider his or her role in the success of the organization.  Churches should be leading this effort, but they us...

Several years ago, I worked with an organization where we did annual performance reviews; at least, we did in our department.   Usually, I would do about half of these and my associate would do the other half, so I conducted about 15 reviews a year, usually around the person’s employment anniversary date.   Our approach to doing this evolved so that we tried to spend time not only reflecting on the employee’s work, but our role as supervisors and in planning for the coming year. Even so, I am sure that these were stressful times for many, especially when we began the process.  One person shared with me several years later that he became sick to his stomach before his first performance review!  That is not a good sign. In a recent article , Stephanie Vozza reflects on the “The Five Annual Review Mistakes You’re Probably Making.”  Vozze identifies:   Evaluating traits rather than behaviors and results. B...

Doing annual performance reviews is always a challenge.   I have done more than my share in another life.   I considered them not just a chance to look back over the past year but to talk with the colleague about his or her hopes, goals, and dreams for the future.   As far as I was concerned, these were opportunities for celebration and discovery as well as evaluation. In a recent blog Lydia Dishman wrote:   “Starting this month, global professional-services firm Accenture will add its name to a growing list of organizations including GE and Deloitte that are ending their annual performance review and ranking systems.”   Dishman goes on to describe the short-comings of the performance review process.   It was interesting to note that one of the persons she interviewed saw performance appraisal as “a look in the rearview mirror.”   Evidently his view of the process was rather limited. Dishman describes an alternative characterized by “r...