Novocaine or Jet Fuel?
The Numbing Effect this has on Performance is like Novocaine in your Organization...
I’ve seen a numbing amount of neutral feedback being administered by company managers and supervisors via the performance review process. This makes the performance review totally ineffective for use as a performance management tool. Unfortunately, corporate culture and misperception dictate a lot of these poor review practices and they create a numbing effect within a company. Instead of being used as a performance improvement tool, these reviews are being used as a performance neutralizing tool. Not good!
What am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that too often leaders provide lukewarm feedback to their employees. For example, if a performance review system provides a scaling range between 1 and 5. One being “Poor Performance”, three being “Meets Performance Expectations” and five being “Excellent Performance”, managers will rate everyone in the company between a 3.0 or 3.5. Not only does every employee get rated into this very narrow performance band, every category rating within an individual’s review also falls into this narrow range.
THIS PRACTICE IS NUMBING THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES AND NUTRALIZING YOUR COMPANY’S PERFORMANCE!
How do I know this happens? Because I myself, as a manager of 35 years, have been coached into delivery feedback to employees within this narrow range of 3.0-3.5. Frequently, when I submitted a review for preapproval, one whereas I used the full scale of the performance review system from zero to five, either the Human Resource Department or my manager would tell me that I needed to edit my given ratings and slot them all between the narrow band of 3.0 to 3.5 range. UGH!
When a company promotes this method of performance banding, they tell every employee to just keep on doing what they do. It tells employees that they have nothing to improve on and there is no way they can excel in any area of performance. They say, “You’re average and so is everyone that works here and there is simply nothing you can do about it. If you do improve, you’ll still be rated as average next year. So don’t try to grow and develop skills because you won’t be recognized for it anyway.”
For example, if you are an absolute technical superstar, maybe even the most technical employee in the entire company, then maybe, just maybe, you’ll get a 4.0 rating in the review category of “Technical Skills”. Additionally, during the same review period you are recognized throughout the company as an extremely poor team player. Your one-on-one interactions with everyone are brutal! However, regardless of this major performance shortcoming, under this method of review rating, you’ll get a 3.0 in the “Teamwork” section.
You see, companies that adopt this narrow banding practice have a 1-5 scale on paper only. But in practice, their top rating actually stops at 4.0 and not 5.0. And anyone given a 2.0 or lower should be placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. So, in practice, low ratings typically aren’t used either. By default, every manager and supervisor working under these guideline constraints are rating every employee between a range of 3.0 and a 3.5 or “Meets Expectations”. After a full year of providing excellent effort, highly skilled employees are given a performance review rating of 3.5. Meanwhile average and below average performers are rated a 3.0.
The Alternative:
Engagement Jet Fuel!
When the performance review system is used correctly it is an incredible tool for providing formal feedback and driving performance improvements not only for individual employees, but cumulatively for the company as well. When used correctly, employees look forward to their reviews and love to share it with their families too.
On occasion, I was afforded the opportunity to rate employee performance using the full rating scale. Whenever I did this, the performance effects were dramatic! When an employee had perfect attendance, I gave them a 5.0 in the Attendance category of their performance review. Do you know what happened? That employee became motivated to continue their track record of stellar attendance because they were recognized for it. I told them, “You did great and as your manager, it matters to me that your attendance is perfect. I appreciate you effort! Keep doing great!” I quickly noticed that their overall engagement improved too. They shed their zombie approach to their job and tried harder in every performance area. They realized that their performance-level was indeed noticed and hence they worked continually to improve it. Engagement Jet Fuel!
Additionally, when an employee really performed poorly in an area, I gave them a 0 or 1.0 in that review category. Then that employee would contrast that one poor rating to some other higher rated areas and they would realize that they really needed to focus and improve in that one area of performance. A zero rating was a toe-stubbing event for them. IT HURT!
For example, one employee was very high performing in the areas of productivity and quality of work, however their teamwork was extremely poor. Essentially, they were so abrasive that no one wanted to work with them. So, I gave this employee a 0.0 on their review in the category of Teamwork. After that, do you think they improved in that area? Damn right they did! This employee had two categories rated a 5.0 and one area rated a 0.0. The result was that this particular employee started to respond to my coaching and they listened to the feedback of their peers too. They changed and improved over time. Instead of being isolated and abrasive, they became a helpful and an effective technical trainer for the plant. They then maintained this improved behavior over the course of their remaining career of 15+ years. You see, it took an honest review to break their inconsistent performance pattern.
When employees are given honest feedback and honest performance ratings, it stirs up some emotions within them and these emotions will drive performance improvements. Do you want numb zombies working for you or fully engaged employees? If you want engaged employees, put the review process to work for you like the performance enhancing tool that it should be.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT! FREE RANGE PERFORMANCE RATINGS!
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