Here’s why:
1. They’re rarely done right! Anything done consistently wrong is making something else worse. If you wear your shoes on the wrong feet all the time, you ruin the shoes AND your instep…and maybe your back… (Don’t ask me how I know.) Ice skating on your knees is not ice skating. It’s just embarrassing! Doing it wrong is worse than not doing it at all.
2. It’s a de-motivator! Workers stress in anticipation of the thing. Even stellar performers prefer to be acknowledged for their good performances in a quadrillion ways other than an annual performance appraisal. (Okay, maybe not a quadrillion, but lots).
3. Paying for performance can be done in many other ways. Bonuses. Trips. Time off. New projects. Job enlargement. Bonuses. Tuition Reimbursement. Club Membership. Bonuses. Access to the Executive toilets. Free Breakfasts. Bonuses.
4. Goal setting, metrics, and feedback should be continuous! You wouldn’t let your children – not that your employees are children…{side-eye} – just go from year to year and only address their behavior at Christmas? No, you would set long-term and short-term goals and the tools they need to succeed; motivate, coach, counsel, train, reward, discipline, and so on, until they graduate from Florida A&M, the Air Force Academy, MIT, or where ever!
5. Collaboration versus Competition! The workplace has changed. The needs of business and industry have evolved from a model that promotes competition within the ranks to a model better suited for what they taught us on Sesame Street: COOPERATION. Also known as collaboration, synergy. When folks are less pressured to be the number one individual, they might work better in groups.
6. TIME! Annual performance appraisals consume too much time. Managers, supervisors, and we in the rank-and-file use way too much productive time talking about stuff that should’ve been discussed months, weeks, days ago.
Rue Dooley, SHRM-SCP has been an HR Knowledge Advisor for SHRM for over 20 years and has plenty of HR experience as a practitioner and consultant. Rue has daily direct contact with HR professionals around the world, helping them to create solutions, to improve systems, and to find and use resources that improve the delivery of the HR function. Rue has authored and co-authored numerous articles on a variety of subjects; conducted webcasts and podcasts; created videos, and has been quoted in various media outlets.
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