Related Entries

Quick script to maintain a diary
10 annoying office phrases
Switch!
Excellent article on outsourcing
Language skills for programmers

« Perl to Python: 20 stages
» Python Bibliotheca

Annual reviews

Most companies set aside a special week or month each year for that dreaded ritual: employee performance reviews.

MSN: Turn annual reviews into continuous feedback - “ Most companies set aside a special week or month each year for that dreaded ritual: employee performance reviews.”

I hope every HR manager reads this excellent article. In most companies, this exercise is nothing but a ritual. Nobody gains anything. I think waiting for an year to get feedback is simply too long. Feedback should be immediate and recorded. Have quarterly reviews to aggregate these.

I think scope for improvement usually exist in the following areas.

Peer reviews
In some companies, peer reviews are used which can quickly degenerate into some kind of popularity contest - which is usually inappropriate for programmers. These should be changed from peer reviews to customer (internal and external) reviews. Typically, peer reviews involve questions like "was this employee helpful to you?". Too much importance on these kind of things foster a really bad feeling that employee is supposed to help others all the time and then pull extra hours to do his or her own job.
Anonymous feedback
In several companies, managers encourage forums where people can submit comments and reviews anonymously - with the assumption that people are more likely to come out with more open views. I’ve tried to figure this out quite a bit, but I don’t get it. If some one is not willing to stand behind his or her opinion, then the opinion is just an opinion. It lacks credibility and if the author wants to hide, who wants to believe it? Would you accept software written by anonymous folks?
Defining goals
Atleast in the technology sector, an year is way too long to set goals for. This has to be in a time frame no later than 3 months. Setting goals for people involved in maintenance is some what unfair, because predicting when a server or network is going to fail is nearly impossible.
Reviewing the review
Before starting the review, I strongly think all parties involved should look at previous review(s) and see how things can be improved.

In short, aim for continuous improvement, tangible and lasting results and measuring against set targets as much as possible.

Posted: August 21, 2002 08:01 AM
work

  1. Don't you just hate those anonymous opinions??

    Posted by: Anonymous on August 21, 2002 02:48 PM

  2. Yes, I do. Usually I call them spineless people, but I won't call you that - because I'm pretty much sure that you sit 3 feet from my desk!

    Posted by: Babu on August 21, 2002 04:14 PM
//-->