Banish Standard Performance Reviews

Harvard Business Review published a fantastic piece called, Reinventing Performance Reviews, that I consider a must-read for CEOs everywhere.

It’s about Deloitte’s initiative to banish the typical performance review in favour of something ‘…squarely focused on fuelling performance in the future rather than assessing it in the past.’

Finally!

Deloitte is tossing some old standards out the window. No more annual reviews. No more 360 peer reviews.

They’re going simple and lean.

Here’s an example. They’ve developed a rapid method to get leaders to identify their most valuable employees. For each team member, immediate team leaders ask themselves:

  1. Given what I know about this person’s performance and if it were my own money, would I award this person the highest compensation and bonus?
  2. Given what I know about this person’s performance and if it were my own money, would I always want this person on my team?
  3. Is this person at risk for low performance?
  4. Is this person ready for promotion today?

I highly recommend you take the time to peruse the full article in detail. It will likely cause you to reconsider your entire approach to performance reviews.