Goodbye performance reviews?

Our regular columnist Natalie Barker, Head of Transformation at Southern Cross Health Insurance, shares her insights into the role of the performance review.

When Dickens wrote, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, I think he might have been referring to the annual performance review. On the one hand, a conversation all about you, how you’re doing, what you’re finding challenging and how you might improve, rich in feedback and care, is the ultimate moment that matters as an employee. But, often as not, we come away from our performance review feeling just a little bit judged and disappointed to hear how our performance has been rated.

I’m not an HR expert, I’m not an HR professional at all, I’m just someone who, as a leader and a team member, has experienced performance management done both well and poorly.

I believe workplace policies, including those related to performance, should serve two purposes: to protect employees and to ensure they’re treated fairly and equitably. But, like many things, they’re most valuable when they go hand-in-hand with great leadership.

It’s been heartening over recent years to see organisations move away from traditional performance reviews to more flexible frameworks that focus on outcomes and behaviours and encourage frequent performance conversations between leaders and their teams.

At Southern Cross Health Insurance, I think we have a pretty great performance framework. It lays out clear expectations around capabilities, skills and knowledge, outcome goals and personal development. These are reinforced by regular performance and development check-ins with leaders throughout the year. In my team – and many others across our business – we frequently talk about performance, career development and personal wellbeing goals. We talk in our team meetings and one-to-ones about how we’re tracking and what’s in our way. We encourage each other to seek feedback and use retrospectives to identify areas to improve. We run experiments to try new approaches and share our successes and failures with each other. We’re becoming more courageous with each other, following the belief that it’s kinder to give someone feedback than to let them continue working below their potential. If someone is underperforming, the rest of the team is right there supporting them to improve.

This makes me wonder whether the days of annual performance ratings are nearing an end? Does it serve our people to be given a label at the end of the year, summing up all aspects of their performance? In my experience, people who are consistently meeting the performance expectations of their role, feel demotivated being told they’re “on target”. In reality, they’ll have had good months and bad, wins and disappointments, feedback that’s buoyed them and feedback that’s been hard to hear. In some ways, being given a rating at the end of the year undermines 12 months of valuable and fulfilling performance conversations.

As a leader, my role is to help my team perform at their best, whether that means helping lift them up from underperforming or helping them sustain an exceptional performance. It’s my role to set out clear expectations and provide support so that they can achieve their personal goals and team outcomes. I lean on the performance framework to ensure how we reward people is fair and equitable. I take into account all aspects of their performance, their craft and their contribution to the organisation. Without bringing leadership to the experience, performance management is just a policy, not an opportunity for my team to be at their best.

Natalie Barker is Head of Transformation at Southern Cross Health Insurance. She has been leading people for 15 years and believes that leveraging people’s strengths and passions is the best way to drive engagement and get stuff done.