255: Performance Assessments

<p>Performance evaluation is not popular anywhere, but especially so in Japan.  Teamwork and so team performance review is preferred to individual accountability here.  Some firms are deciding that because their managers are doing a poor job twice a year with the performance reviews that they should switch it up and have permanent reviews instead. </p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p>Seems hardly a day goes by when yet another big player announces they are no longer using annual performance assessments.  Basically, this is a combination of clever corporate PR and a recognition that their managers were not up to the job of leading their people.  Performance assessments have moved from once a year to twice a year as a formal construct, to now regular discussions between leaders and the led.  Has anything really changed except the patina of modernity and cutting edge investor relations department propaganda?</p> <p> </p> <p>The issues are the same.  How do we evaluate our teams, how do we determine who to promote or reward with pay rises, bonuses, higher commissions etc?.  How do we get some consistency across the entire organisation, so that the same performance level is evaluated and rewarded in basically the same manner?  When you have big teams this is tricky.  Whether we are doing these reviews  weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually makes little difference, if it isn’t done well.  Being annoying more frequently isn’t progress.</p> <p> </p> <p>Employee satisfaction surveys and engagement surveys consistently indicate that most performance reviews are not done well.  Usually, neither party comes out of the affair feeling more motivated, empowered, inspired and better as a result of the process.  Having more frequent poor quality dialogues doesn’t help much.  Leaders who can’t communicate properly, just keep piling on the damage, and now under the new regime, they have the chances to ruin more occasions more often. </p> <p> </p> <p>Previously, it was expected that somehow bosses would have r