By Rachel Feintzeig
Rani Croshal used to review her direct reports once a year. Now,
the manager at software company Revinate Inc. gives dozens of
smaller-scale assessments throughout the year. That includes
quarterly discussions about goals, semiannual evaluations in which
managers, peers and direct reports give feedback, and multiple
check-ins to ensure her nine employees are hitting long-term goals.
And then there's the annual compensation review process.
"We're always talking about how we can improve ourselves," Ms.
Croshal said.
Welcome to the era of the never-ending performance review. As
companies like Adobe Systems Inc. and General Electric Co. revamp
and rethink the detested annual review, they have put in place new
evaluations designed to give employees more-frequent feedback.
Companies say they are staying current with young workers
accustomed to instant gratification in the form of Facebook likes
and Yelp ratings. Managers and employees say it's tough learning to
give -- and receive -- constant critiques and praise.
"You really have to put your ego aside," said Deloitte LLP
consultant Cashel Discepola, who transitioned last year from
twice-annual feedback to talking about performance with her manager
every other week.
Companies now have an array of tools in their
employee-assessment arsenals, include goal-setting programs and
apps that allow managers to rate workers' progress in real time. A
software tool used by ride-hailing service Lyft Inc. and others
scans staff calendars and asks them to rate colleagues after
meetings. At big banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P.
Morgan Chase & Co., new feedback programs allow workers to
request mini-reviews from bosses and colleagues after projects or
deals.
Ms. Croshal, Revinate's senior director of customer success,
says she used to compile eight-page written annual reviews for her
reports at the San Francisco-based maker of hospitality-industry
software.
"It was just too much information to digest," she said.
Her team now receives bite-sized feedback, and lots of it. Ms.
Croshal says an internal system that tracks goals -- such as
meeting client targets or taking a public-speaking course -- keeps
staff accountable.
At first, though, some workers found it hard to adjust to
getting feedback that didn't culminate with a decision about
compensation, Ms. Croshal said. "I think the employee felt like,
'Now what?'"
At Goldman too, feedback doesn't directly affect yearly bonus
and raise decisions. It "forms part of the picture of how a manager
sees an employee," said Elizabeth Reed, a Goldman vice president
who participated in the pilot of the system.
Theresa Chiaramonte, who helps Revinate orient new customers,
said she initially spent hours typing peer reviews for nine
colleagues, unsure how much to share.
"You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings," she said, adding
that receiving feedback sometimes "still stings."
Andrea Schulz, a senior manager in Deloitte's tax business,
meets with the 20 employees she oversees and coaches nearly every
other week. Simply finding time for those check-ins was challenging
at the outset, she says. So too was figuring out what to talk
about.
"We would kind of start to sit down...and not really know what
the check-ins were meant for," she said.
Ms. Schulz shortened meetings to as little as 15 minutes and
covers the employee's projects, strengths and areas for
improvement. Now that her team relies on check-ins, Ms. Schulz said
she fields fewer questions during the workday.
Performance reviews at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers
LLP had been a lengthy process in which employees negotiated their
assessments with bosses.
PwC revamped that process in favor of a tool called "snapshots"
-- short, frequent reviews that rate employees on five
characteristics, such as leadership ability and business acumen.
Employees can request a snapshot from bosses at any time. "They
take like two minutes," said Julia Lamm, a director in the
company's management-consulting group.
One consultant who worked in PwC's Chicago office until last
year said the snapshot criteria and ratings weren't helpful.
"It was sort of a check, check-plus, check-minus rating, not
actually feedback," she said. She left PwC for a smaller consulting
firm after being told she wouldn't have a long-term career with the
company.
A PwC spokeswoman said most employees have been happy with the
system.
Some engineers at Lyft have been slow to adopt the company's new
feedback tool.
"They're not as touchy-feely about things," said Ron Storn, a
Lyft human-resources executive.
The software, made by Zugata, scans workers' calendars for
meetings with other employees and asks them to review fellow
attendees.
Some employees found that unnerving and some executives opted
out because they were concerned about the tool having access to
records of confidential meetings, said Mr. Storn.
It took Lumeris Healthcare Outcomes LLC two tries to get workers
on board with a company-wide goal-tracking program by BetterWorks.
Managers now use the tool to monitor employees' workloads and
progress, though not without some grumbling, according to Laura
Lewis, a manager at the health-care solutions firm based in
Maryland Heights, Mo.
"People have to overcome that negative of, 'Why do I have to do
this four times a year? Why isn't once a year enough?'" she
said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 09, 2017 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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