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Performance Management: A Deep Question

Published: Friday, July 13, 2018

I recently received my annual performance appraisal. This is only of note because I entered the for-profit world after college in 1989, and this was my first performance appraisal…

ever.

This is true, even though every place I have ever worked after college has said in its handbook “You will receive an annual performance review.”

So, for 3 decades, I should have received a performance review each year, and yet, this was my first one.

This first one was really good — not because of my “scores,” although they were fine, but because my supervisor did a great job with it. We had a super conversation and she brought up some incredibly valid points, suggestions, and ideas.

So I left our meeting wondering two things: (1) what would my career have done if I had a great one of these each year, and (2) why didn’t I receive a performance review all those other years?

I could speculate on the first, but will speak knowledgeably to the second.

My Path

I went to work in 1989, supervised by an executive-level position. Every year after that, I received an annual increase, bonuses, promotions, and all that other stuff that says, “You’re doing great!”

I wasn’t sitting and waiting on a performance evaluation to tell me I was doing okay. I moved across industries into progressively more responsible roles, being supervised by executive-level managers the entire course of my career.

The executives I was supervised by didn’t do performance appraisals. “No time.” They sometimes, rarely, attended mandatory training. “No time.” And they were occasionally a bit “above” all that day-to-day stuff.

I don’t know if this is true of all executives, and that is not the point. The point is, all these companies had a policy, and none of them followed through.

Post-Employment

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After leaving an employer due to a reduction in force (they sold), I was asked to come back and testify as their former VP of Human Resources in an employment law dispute. The plaintiff (I’ll call him Anthony) attorney called me to the stand.

“You fired my client because he violated a policy, right?”

“Yes,” I said.

“How many performance reviews have you received in your decade at this company?” he asked me.

“None.”

“But you have a policy that says you do ‘annual’ reviews, is that right?”

“Yes.”

“And you received none in the decade you worked there, is that right?” he asked.

“Yes,” I sort of mumbled, as this was real embarrassing.

“What happened to those people who violated this policy?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I whispered.

Outcome

I’ve only been involved in a handful of mediation cases or employment law trials. Every single one — every one — the plaintiff’s attorney has asked me the same question about performance appraisals, and has then asked me why people can violate our policies, but his (or her) client cannot.

There’s a lot to be said for consistency. In this case, $1.4 million. That was the verdict for Anthony in the preceding case. He won $1.4 million, and that was a good thing. We owed him that $1.4 million, as he was fired for violating policy and others were not. We were inconsistent. We didn’t fire him because he was a person of color, but we fired him, and it wasn’t fair. The jury found that. They would have struggled more if we had been consistent.

All these years later, I know people who are still at that former employer, and I’m not sure they learned anything from what I consider an expensive lesson.

Why not? That’s a question for another day. For now, this lesson is enough: inconsistency leads not only to lower performance, but to financial liability.

 

REX CASTLE is a co-founder at friendsTED. He has over 3 decades of human resources, training, public speaking and slide design experience. He also has published 3 books:

  1. Selecting the Brass Ring: How to hire really happy, really smart people (and pay them really well)(the complete work),
  2. Why not WOW? Reaching for the spectacular presentation, and a parable of his complete work,
  3. The Brass Ring: How to hire really happy really smart people (and pay them really well).

His passion is working with organizations to increase ROI through creative and replicable models for everything from hiring to leadership to presentation. He is a strategic thinker, thought provoking facilitator and exceptional business partner.
Rex is employed in the technology industry where he is responsible for social media, online help systems, online training systems and assisting the sales professionals in their presentations and slide design. He also has years and years of experience in the manufacturing and finance industries. He is well-traveled and has lived in numerous areas across the United States, but calls Lubbock home and spends most of his spare time with his first grandchild, reading, and enjoys woodworking.

Source: http://www.friendsted.com/blog/friendsted-blog/performance-management-a-deep-question/

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